Philosophy or Relationship? : Friday Night Study of John

I have not written much lately about our Friday night group, but oh what a blessing it has become. One of the highlights of the week.

We meet in a hotel office room just off campus. We cannot hold meetings like that in our apartment. A person who arranges things like this found the meeting room for us. We average 3 or 4 participants every week, most of whom are interested in just exploring something new and/or practicing their English. They are usually students or former students of ours.

One gentleman who faithfully comes was totally shocked when he went to his very very rural hometown a few weeks ago and found believers there. He could not comprehend how any lived in such an out of the way place. How was it spread there? His statement that perhaps it was a philosophy that he should look into more, hurt my heart. I assured him that if all he wanted was a philosophy he might just as well stick to Confucianism. As a philosophical system it was pretty good and it has served well since 500 B.C.  And although our faith has also spawned good (and not so good) philosophical movements, it is definitely not the point! It is a relationship, not even a religion.  He understands thoroughly what we are saying. He has become a good friend.

We are coming to the end of the gospel of John. Last night the emphasis ended up being that although Jesus death was of penultimate importance, really it was his resurrection which cinched our belief system. He said, “Well, you have an advantage to most religions there.” I said, “Yeah, my God came back to life. How about yours?” It was a telling a point.