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Dear Friends
For this week’s newsletter, I want to share the story of Jesus healing the man by the pool of Bethesda.
This is the same passage we’ll be exploring together at our High School Bible Study on Wednesday, November 12, from 6:00–7:30 p.m. in the Attic. We’ll enjoy dinner, read John 5, and have an open discussion about what this story means for us today. If you have a high schooler, encourage them to come be part of the conversation!
Also for SNL/Y'all Saints' Erik Thurmond will be leading us in his prayer in motion class. Prayer in Motion is a spiritual exercise that helps participants become more aware of God's presence in our bodies, particularly as we move with intention. This form of prayer integrates guided meditation, visualization, and breathing exercises with stretching, shaking, and strengthening exercises. Come pray in motion with us!
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Here are a few questions to ponder on while after you read John 5:1-15. These will be some of the questions we’ll be discussing during our Bible Study:
- Why do you think Jesus asked the man, “Do you want to be healed?” when the answer seems obvious?
- What is something that's keeping you on your mat, not allowing you to walk?
- What does the man’s reply — “I have no one to help me…” — show about his mindset after so many years?
- How is your patience?
- How does Jesus’ command, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk,” invite us to respond in new ways?
- Has someone helped you “get into the pool” during a difficult time in your life?
Let this story serve as a reminder that Jesus meets us right where we are but doesn't leave us there. Jesus invites us to get to rise, walk, and live fully in God's grace.
John 5:1–15 (NIV)
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.
3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
10 The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Peace,
Luke
Email Luke - lnolfa@allsaintsatlanta.org
Youth Ministry Phone Number
470-590-3471
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