Ken Boa Reflections Ministries

Ken Boa: Someone asked me this morning, just now, "How are you doing?" Well, let's see. I have a new past, I've been adopted into the family of God, I have a new identity, and I have a new destination. Everything that happens that would attempt to make me miserable actually is used for the purposes of God to prepare me for glory. Yeah, I guess I'm doing okay.

Depends on your perspective, doesn't it? "How are you doing?" "Okay, under the circumstances." Well, what are you doing under the circumstances? You should be above the circumstances. It's your perspective that lifts you up into the heavenly places. I'll just show you a couple of things from last time we were together. We were talking about these metaphors. John is so rich in this gospel. We were talking about these images of the new birth and how abundant they are in their implications: the wind, the serpent on the pole, and light and darkness.

At the end, we talked about the "three musts," and I kind of filled them in a little bit before here so you can see them because this is a great, great summary. It would be a very nice little sermonette, as it were. The three musts of John 3: You must be born again—that's the must of the sinner. The must of the Savior is that the Son of Man must be lifted up. The third one: "He must increase, but I must decrease." That third one has become really meaningful to me because our process is in our life journey for us to diminish, and as we die, we find His life in replacement. You only find your life by losing it and finding His life instead. So, just to kind of throw a little summary at you there.

I want to talk about John chapter 4 today. You know it's going to be impossible for me to talk through all the verses. We only have a half hour or a little bit more than that to talk at first, and then we summarize it at the end. But I'll pull out some highlights that I hope will be of value to you. Jesus goes to Galilee. When the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John—though John adds that Jesus himself wasn't doing it, His disciples were—He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. He did not want to be in a position where He would be nabbed by the Jewish leaders before His time. His hour had not yet come.

It's a very important theme. He goes this way. Normally, they would bypass Samaria and go to Perea and then go up that way, or there was the coastal way, but normally a Jew would not go through Samaria because of the disconnection between the Jews and the Samaritans. As you do know, the Samaritans came into being more or less as a result of the captivity by the Assyrians in 722 BC where the ten tribes of Israel were forced, many of them, to intermarry and then create a kind of a syncretistic religion. It distorted them, and they ended up having their own religion. The Samaritan Pentateuch, they called it. They didn't believe in the prophets and things of this nature.

They had their own view, their own temple, their own sacrifice, and that's going to be understood here. The Jews didn't want to have a relationship with them; it was like a context of outcasts. This is why when they wanted to insult Jesus, they would call him a Samaritan. "Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" That's a twofer. They demonized Him and called Him a Samaritan, too. But He left Judea and went that way. It was surprising that He went, and His disciples, I'm sure, were not pleased about that. But they came to Sychar. Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

That could be 6:00 PM Roman time, but I think it was Jewish time, which would mean it was noon. That would not be a time when a woman would be coming out to draw for water. Why would she come in that heat of the day? Because she was an outcast among her own people, you see. It was amazing that He'd even speak to her because He had to overcome three barriers. First of all, in so far as she was a Samaritan. Number two, because He was a Rabbi and a Jew would not have a dealing with a Samaritan woman. Third, she wasn't an ordinary Samaritan; she was even in ill-repute with her own people. You had three barriers even to speak to her and to convey a message to her. It's an amazing story.

In verse seven, there's a kind of a sequence in which we see a discernment and a growing knowledge of who He is. There are four stages that are going on here. First of all, that He's a Jew. Of course, that raises the question, "Why are you even having a conversation with me?" We see this question. He asks her and makes a request: "Give me a drink." She's shocked by that because His disciples had by this way gone away to get food. "How is it you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I'm a Samaritan woman?" Jesus's answer is this: in asking her for this, He's actually offering her a better gift.

He says, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked Him and He would have given you the living water." This whole idea of living water—a water that's vibrant, that's alive—is like an artesian well, as we're going to be seeing. She speaks about this well. "Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where do you get this living water?" She knows first of all that He's a Jew and that the Jews don't have dealings with the Samaritans. That's the first thing. Secondly, she's going to realize He's greater than Jacob because of this well and the fact that we have this well that was dug by Jacob. He's actually greater than Jacob himself. "Are you not greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?"

Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. Whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never thirst. The water I give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." He's using a different word for well here than she's using. He's talking about a well that's alive. It's like an artesian well. An artesian well has enough actual pressure where it comes from the bottom and you don't need to actually dip in there. It's constantly alive. He's talking about the Spirit of God being in us like an artesian well that just continues to be replacing and growing and moving in our own lives, and so we will never thirst.

This is a quality of life. As with John and everyone else, she's thinking on one level—a material level. He's thinking on a deeper level—a spiritual level. This whole gospel is about that contrast there. He speaks to her about this. "Are you greater than Jacob?" Then we see the next step is that He's not only greater than Jacob, He's a prophet. In 16 to 24, when we take a look at here, we see that the next level comes up. "Sir, give me this water that I would have to don't have to draw." "Go call your husband and come here." That's not exactly what she wanted to hear.

He wants to change the subject. "I have no husband." "You've correctly said 'I have no husband.' You've had five men." That's really what the word means. You've had five men and the one you're with now isn't your own. This you've said truly. Now she definitely wants to change the topic here, so she says, "Let's talk about religion. I perceive that you are a prophet." He's getting too close to home. How does He know everything I've ever done? That's the whole concept here. "I perceive you're a prophet. Let's talk about religion now. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain and you people, the Jews, say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."

She's trying to distract Him from that line of thought. But there's a very profound argument that comes up from here. I'm so grateful that this account is here. It's one of those gems that we wouldn't know about, and I marvel at John's Gospel. I wonder how many stories will we hear in heaven that we haven't got a clue about right now. He revealed and spoke of this. In this, we get to listen into this conversation in which He's revealing to this Samaritan woman of ill-repute. He's revealing truths that are utterly profound and astonishing, really. New insights.

He says, "An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know"—speaking of the Samaritans—"we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers." Then He says something to her that He's not said: "God is spirit." Now you think about that. What on earth does that mean? God is spirit. He's revealing this to this woman, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

He reveals these profound things that are true. She sees Him as a prophet now. You have this whole idea in John chapter 1, remember, that he was really talking about in this gospel a new sacrifice that was not seen before—the sacrifice of the Son now. A new temple that Jesus speaks about in chapter 2. Third, a new birth that Jesus describes to Nicodemus. Fourth, this new water. It's a whole new thing that He's bringing about as a prophet, bringing about these truths here, a new reality. Then He's the Messiah in 25 to 30. The fourth understanding in verse 25, then she comes to realize He is the Christ, the Christos, the idea of the anointed one. Yeshua HaMashiach would be the name. Yeshua, Jesus, and HaMashiach, the anointed one, the Messiah.

She knows: "I know that Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ. When that one comes, He will declare all things to us." And He said to her, "I who speak to you am He." The "He" is not in there. He gave them the "Ego eimi," the "I am," the powerful name of Jesus, that "I am who I am." It's at this point, then, at this point of revelation that she realizes she's talking to the very Messiah Himself, that the disciples come. They're amazed that He was speaking with her. They didn't say anything, but she leaves her water pot and leaves it behind, goes into the city of Sychar, says to the men, "Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done. This is not the Messiah, the Christ, is He?"

Apparently, she must have had quite a life because they want to go and see this man who knew everything about her. They empty the city and come out to see Him. While they're on their way, they're coming to Him. In the meantime, I want you to see that the city is now coming to Him, and you're going to see an image coming up in just a moment. Jesus tells the disciples, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." Once again, He's thinking about spiritual food. No one brought Him anything to eat, did they? "No, my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work. Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the field, they are already white for harvest."

I'm wondering if at this moment, if it's possible that the Samaritans who were heading that way from the city were there, and it would be the fields are white for harvest. They're actually coming in advance, you see, and that would be a wonderful image here. He says, "Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal, so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor."

It's quite intriguing to me when we look at this that with the disciples, we discover two things that are very fundamental. Number one, evangelism is a process, and I want to show you something about that. Secondly, the results belong to God. Let me unpack that for you a little bit. When I speak about evangelism being a process, most people view evangelism as an event, a conversion. It's a one-time deal. Everything's focused on signing the dotted line, and so there's a mistake that's involved in that. This is a liberating truth.

Scripture uses agricultural imagery to emphasize that it's a process, not just an event. The crops don't just happen; there's a process that brings them into it. There are four stages, and then there's the gathering into the barns. The first stage is preparing the soil. The second, sowing the seed. Third is the cultivating of the soil, and then comes the reaping of the harvest, and then they're gathered into the barn. Often what'll happen is the soil needs to be prepared. This is pre-evangelism, and it has to be cleared, it has to be plowed, you see.

The sowing of the seed, then, once it's been plowed, once it's been harrowed, then you're able to sow the seed. Then you irrigate, cultivate, fertilize, and then the reaping takes place, and bringing into the barn is the gathering. I often suppose that preparing the soil—I think God often uses adversity and setbacks to draw us and drive us to Christ. No one's going to come to Christ without a radical sense of need. He uses adversity in our lives to drive us to Him. Exposure to the Word is the sowing of the seed. There's the preparation of the soil. You could call it even pre-evangelism. Some people are involved in that stage.

Some are involved in sowing the seed; they're privileged to share the good word. Third, then there's the internalizing of the Word, and most of the time is actually spent in this process: cultivation. Cultivation is the primary thing that's going on, internalizing. Then when they submit to Jesus, they come into the relationship with Him, and then they grow in the community of faith. That's the first point that I'm saying, then. We're involved in any one of the first four phases; we're doing evangelism. That's what I want you to see. It's liberating when we realize that because you see what happens is otherwise you're going to make the mistake and suppose I did this.

We contribute nothing to the purposes of God, and so this second principle I want to share with you is not only is evangelism a process, and if you're involved in preparing the soil, or if you're involved in sowing the seed, or if you're privileged to actually cultivate after the seed's been sown, or if you get the privilege of seeing a person actually come to faith in Christ, whichever you do, you're as much involved in evangelism as the other person. That's a liberating thought. It's not a signing on the dotted line; it's a bigger thing than that. We contribute, by the way, nothing to the purposes of God. We can participate, but you don't add anything to His purposes.

He's not going to wring His hands and say, "I hope that missionary gets there in time." He's sovereign. He knows what He's doing, but He gives us the privilege of participation. He gives us the joy of having a slice of the action that's going to last forever. You want in? Because if you don't want in, He'll find another way of getting it, and then you miss out on your opportunity. But you and I get to participate. The whole process begins and ends with God, and it's the faithfulness that is the issue. First Corinthians chapter 3, verses six to nine: this is a critically important text of scripture.

Verse six says, "I planted, Apollos watered,"—what's it then going to say?—"God was causing the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one and each will receive his own reward according to his labor. We are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building." That's a radically important concept for us to see. It begins and ends with God. Faithfulness is the key issue. Don't think you failed if the person doesn't come to faith. That's a critical thing; it takes the pressure off. It's a very liberating concept. You're part of a process.

Secondly, the other thing is don't suppose that you're the one who did it if they do come to faith because often they make that mistake. Many people who were part of the process think they blew it. They didn't. But don't suppose you're the one who made it happen. You weren't. There were other people who were involved. You can be sure that others prayed for you, your family—you don't even know who'd been praying for you who have an effect on you, but there's been a process. There's a sovereign process that God uses in various lives to draw us together for Him. To me, this is a dramatically important theme: evangelism is a process, and the results belong to God, not to us.

Now I want to talk about the nobleman. Before I go to that, let's go back to John chapter 4. Having spoken to him, he says, "I who speak." The disciples came, and the disciples were told, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me to accomplish His work. Do you not say 'yet four months and yet comes the harvest'? Lift up your eyes and look. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together." The same principle we just talked about in First Corinthians: one sows and another reaps. "I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor."

From that city, the Samaritans came to Him and they believed in Him, not second-hand ultimately but first-hand because it's no longer because of what the woman told us, but now we realize that we have heard You. He stayed there for two days, which is a shocking thing again for Jesus to hang around an extra two days with these Samaritans in that way. Everything He does is surprising. You wonder what He told them, how He spoke to them, what parables, what stories He gave to them. Wouldn't you want to be a fly on that wall and hear? You will be. Someday you're going to be able to listen in. I don't know how, but you're going to find out a lot of answers.

There are a lot of stories that we don't even know about, but I promise you each one is a gem. There are so many other things He said that are not written in this book, as John says, but these were written that you may know that Jesus is the Christ and that by believing in Him, you have life in His name. Many more believed because of His word. They were saying to the woman, "It's no longer because of what you said that we believe; we've heard for ourselves and we know that this was indeed the Savior of the world." After two days, He went forth from there into Galilee.

The Galileans received Him. Then there's the healing of the nobleman's son, and this is an important principle here. He came again to Cana of Galilee where He made the water wine. Cana's over here, Capernaum's about 20, 25 miles away. There's this little round trip that he goes because he hears about Jesus being there. So in John, he goes to Cana of Galilee. Why He came there again, we don't know. Nicodemus, we know, was from Cana, and remember they had the celebration of that first sign that He had done where He'd made the water wine.

This royal official, maybe in the Herodian, but he was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. He heard that He'd come out of Judea into Galilee, so he actually took that trip and went all the way there to implore Him to come down and heal his son, because his son was at the point of death. Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe." But the royal official said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus said to him, "Go, your son lives."

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. Something's an amazing thought: this man heard it and believed it and starts off. He's not forcing Him to go there with him. His slaves on the way meet him, saying that his son was living. Natural for him to wonder when that happened. He inquired of them the exact hour when he began to get better, and he said to them, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives."

He himself believed in his whole household. This is the second sign that Jesus performed when He'd come out of Judea into Galilee—again, not a public miracle so much as one that was known by those who were involved. I find that to be fascinating when I go here: the disciples' evangelism is the process, but with this nobleman, I see that there are four levels of this faith. First of all, it's a crisis, you see. "My son is ill, and so come and save him." What's amazing to me in this text is this verse when He says that he believes when He says, "Your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus sent to him.

So first, the crisis becomes a different kind of faith; it becomes an image of a confident faith that he actually transfers his trust. That's the work of God because that just doesn't ordinarily happen. You hear His word and you believe it and you respond to it because it's the word and the power of the word, and it's the power of the Spirit who uses the word in our lives. Remember how this works: it is in fact the Spirit of God who uses the word of God in the man of God to accomplish the purposes of God. You are involved; you have an integral part of the process. He's giving you a slice of the action and He's involving you in that process, a miraculous process.

We need to combine the word and the spirit with action and obedience. It is His faith when He says He believed him and He left and He began to go. He didn't require Him to go; He believed that it was a confident faith. But then his faith, you see in the text, is confirmed when he hears, after he inquires, it was at that exact hour that this happened. There's a parallel account—it's not the same one, I think—but there's a parallel account in which such a thing happens: healing at a distance, which is He transcends space in doing this. He's able to heal at a distance, and at that exact moment, does this with the Syrophoenician woman as well.

He has this authority and power. It's intriguing, though, He never does the same thing twice in the same way. He's always different. God never repeats himself. He's never boring. Righteousness is creative. Sin is what's dull and repetitious, you see. The boring process of sin and servitude and all of that nonsense—that's predictable. But righteousness is alive, active, and full of surprises. You have to go where the spirit calls you; you do not know where He's taking you and where He's going to bring you. A lot of our lives need to be led in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's a critical theme for our own life journey: to recognize He's going to call us to do surprising things.

Often, I've told you again the difference between your plans, which is your chronos, and God's plans, which is His kairos, and realizing that His plans are going to interrupt your plans. You must invite them, not just see them as interruptions, and be open to the surprising prompts of the Holy Spirit. The spirit goes where He wishes and you hear the sound of Him, don't know where He's come from, where He's going, so is He. Then it becomes a contagious faith, by the way, after it's confirmed. It's contagious because at the end it tells us that he himself believed and who else? His whole household.

It became a contagious faith as well. When you have a faith that is confirmed and then it becomes contagious, you want to share the good news because you want to show, "I found this." Ultimately, we are in the privilege of being ambassadors for Christ. You're both a steward on the one hand and you're an ambassador on the other. As a steward, you manage the possessions of another. You don't own a thing. Everything is God's, including not just what you give to God but what you hold back. Everything is His. You own nothing; He owns everything, and you will be held accountable.

The other role that you play is also critical: you're an ambassador, which means you're not even on your own business. You're on the King's business. You're here for a short season in this world, in this soul-forming world, and you're being prepared for your eternal citizenship in heaven. His desire is for you to use this few years, these few decades—don't count them with both hands, the number of decades you're going to get. Even if you become a centenarian, which is rare, it's like nothing at all. It comes and it goes, and I can promise you that as I'm about to become an octogenarian in July, I find that to be true.

I cannot believe it. How did that happen? Remember when every old man sees his face in the mirror and there's a young man pointing back and said, "What happened?" You recognize that's designed as a conspiracy to force us to transfer our hope from the temporal to the eternal. The older I get, the faster the years go by, but at the same time, it's a realization of how brief and ephemeral and transitory our exile, our sojourn, our being as a wayfarer. I'm a stranger, I'm a pilgrim, I'm a wanderer, I'm a tenant. If I recognize that, I recognize: where am I going?

You're heading somewhere, aren't you? You're not going in circles; you're heading to home. If you become more and more heavenly-minded, more and more homesick because you're not home—become homesick and world-weary. But the lovely irony is that the more heavenly-minded you are, the more earthly good you'll do, not the other way around. You'll want to do those things for the glory of God. We've got these images here that we've seen: crisis faith, confident faith, and I'd like you to look at this one just to think in your own life journey in these four stages, as it were, of faith and how that actually has relevance in your life. How does it become contagious?

Who were the people who were involved in you who spread that good infection? I got an email from a friend who was saying that I've often asked you questions and so forth, but I just wanted to share this message to tell you about the infection. "I'm an infected person, you've—the good infection." C.S. Lewis uses that metaphor in Mere Christianity—the good infection. "I've been infected by that work of the Spirit of God and God used you in that process." Sometimes when you need that encouragement, you see that, but his job now is to spread that good infection, to spread that good message, to spread that news, and you are involved in that. I want yours to be a contagious faith that's responding to and receptive to the prompts of the Holy Spirit. Let's talk about that.

What insights do we have as a result of our time together? There's a lot in this chapter, as you well know. I'm totally struck, though, by the fact that Jesus speaks to this woman, "God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth." My group was talking a little bit about what does that mean to worship in spirit and in truth? We're spiritual beings, and we receive the truth, but we can resist it or we can reject it. Even as believers, we can push back against the truth. A lot of it has to do with this process of being broken, and it goes back as well to this little thing that I gave you before, these three musts. This third one has become much more of a motif in my life: "He must increase, but I must decrease." That's a very critical theme in our life. What insights do you have that someone wants to share? Over here? Okay. I think I may want to share a little bit more on this whole idea of evangelism as a process and God's responsible, that God's the one who takes care of the results.

Guest (Male): That's exactly where I am because I was thinking about that, shared with the table. Salvation is a process. You don't just go up and say "wham, bam, you're saved, bingo." Now, I've had people that I've been able to lead to the Lord instantly.

Ken Boa: And you've been privileged to be a part of that. But with another person, you may have only planted the seed or prepared the soil, rather.

Guest (Male): 100%. We don't know what kind of impact our lives now are having on people in the future when we get to heaven. They're going to be people there that we impacted in this lifetime we have no idea who they are.

Ken Boa: You'll have no idea. I think that God deliberately does this. It's called hidden impact, and most of your impact will be hidden because if you got direct impact and feedback, you'd live for the results. So I think that most of it's going to be the risk of saying, "I don't know what the outcome is," but I can assure you, you won't be disappointed, and there'll be a multiplier effect because of the lives of people who've been affected and touched.

I can't stress how important this is—that it's the clearing and the plowing that's necessary because the seed, if it's thrown on top of this crusty surface, will not go underneath. You have to be broken, and brokenness is a severe mercy in Romans—the severity of God's mercy. He breaks us there so we are ready now in a position to receive, because then we are ready to be exposed to the Word and the sowing of the Word. But I love the fact that you may have a part of the process and you may be in one person sowing the soil, another internalizing, and sometimes seeing him come to faith in Christ. But this is a very powerful truth, and I have found that to be a liberating truth for people because it takes the pressure off.

The results belong to God. Again, this difference between contributing and participating—I hope that was clear to you. I just wanted to underscore that importance. It begins and ends with God, and so faithfulness to the process is the whole theme. That's why I say don't think you failed if the person doesn't come to Christ, and don't take the credit if the person does. But there's the other side here; there's another principle here that cultivating requires more time than reaping. Most evangelism models focus on reaping. It's the hit-and-run, it's the gospel grenade, it's the 2x4 approach that you get. Most evangelism's so confrontational and a superficial hit-and-run. You can bruise the fruit if you try to pick it too soon.

We are impatient. We want to see results. One of the things that we learn as we grow in maturity is that we have to be quickened by the Spirit and strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience. Those words have become more meaningful to me as I get on. I'm called to be steadfast and patient with the process. The results will be there in His good timing. I don't want to overdo it and pick too soon. Here's the model that has been typical; it's focused, it's not stable. This is a more stable model; the cultivating requires much more time because let's look at nature. Look at nature itself, and the actual coming to fruition is a tiny proportion of that time. These principles can set us free. Okay.

Guest (Male): I think it's interesting if you put together John 3 and 4. You have in John 3 the Gospel message, and then in John 4 you have the sharing of that message with the woman at the well. Then you have the step of faith that the woman at the well expresses. But then you also have the evidence, the proof. I think for a lot of us, myself I can speak of personally, that after I came to the faith, I'm like, "Well, how do you know it's true?" CNN wasn't there; Fox News wasn't there. And yet, God has given us many convincing reasons to know that what we believe in is true.

You see that throughout history. You can even go Old Testament and see God proves that this is the true faith that we have. I have the privilege right now of interacting with a Jehovah's Witness elder. He and I connected a few weeks ago and we've yet to actually sit down together to share our faiths. I've had a lot of exposure over the years with cults and I know kind of where they come from and how they operate and what they think. The bottom line, of course, is that it's a works-based belief that adds to the grace and a perverting of the truth. But this fellow that I'm meeting with, he's like the elder's elder from what I can tell. He's like a top guy. God has been preparing me for that meeting, and what I want to do with him, what I pray to be able to do with him, is to do that cultivation instead of coming in and slamming him.

Ken Boa: Winning your right to be heard really means when love is felt, the message is heard. So rather than a confrontational approach, you're actually seeking to help him process this out of love. You're not trying to win an argument or get a new scalp.

Guest (Male): Exactly, I've been down that road, yeah. And the thing is, too, is that I've been a Christian for 50 years, and the deeper I go, the longer I'm a Christian, the more solid you know that what we believe in is true. It's like you're looking at this diamond, this jewel, that no matter which angle you turn the facet, it shines, it's beautiful, and it's solid. You do that with any of these cults and, if you know what you're looking at, five minutes in you're like, "This one doesn't work."

Ken Boa: They're all variations of human attempts to attain salvation through works, and that's what religion's always about. But at the end of the day, it's a faith founded on facts, and that to me is very critical. Faith has its reasons, is the name of one of my books, in fact, which talks about that. So it's a faith founded in reality and truth. It's not just a leap in the dark, but it's a step in the light. The evidence for the resurrection becomes more solid, the evidence for the authority of scripture becomes more solid. Because the way I often put it is the heart cannot rejoice in what the mind rejects. God's made us this way where we want to have an integrated thought. The more I grasp the truth of this, the more my heart can rejoice, and the more my heart rejoices, the more I see the truth. There's a growing organic relationship in here. We pray for you and for your encounter collectively that that would be an effective ministry to us. I have a booklet that my friend Rob Bowman created on that topic, on Jehovah's Witnesses, that might be of some value to you for background. I have one on Mormonism and another one on Jehovah's Witnesses that Rob Bowman, who's an expert on this whole area, has put together.

I fear we are out of time. Prepare next week for John chapter 5, and we'll have another ride.