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     John 4:24 (New King James Version)
       “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

     Introductory observations:
       • Almost every New Testament example recorded of Jesus’ teaching efforts in His earthly ministry involve Jesus being approached by or invited by his listeners…
         — public places such as temple yard, lake, or village gatherings
         — open invitations to speak in the synagogue
         — disciples & supporters who’re traveling with Him or being trained by Him
         — hosts who extended Him hospitality (meals, lodging, etc.) and their guests
         — crowds who followed Him into the wilderness
         — people seeking miracles, instruction, or other assistance
         — opponents testing Him
       • His encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well is the only recorded example of Jesus doing what we might describe as “cold call” evangelism… seeking to share God’s good news (i.e. evangelize) with potential listeners who have had little to no prior contact (or at least little to no contact in a spiritual context) with the evangelizer.
       • There are no recorded examples of Jesus ever teaching anyone without their permission to speak what’s on His mind (the permission being either expressed or else implied as exampled above).

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     I.  Step #1 (vs. 7) — “Give Me a drink.”
         Her invite to continue (vs. 9) — “How is it You… ask me for a drink…?”

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     II.  Step #2 (vs. 10) — “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 living water.”
         Her invite to continue (vs. 11) — “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?”

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     III.  Step #3 (vs. 13-14) — “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
         Her invite to continue (vs. 15) — “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”

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     IV.  Step #4 (vs. 16) — “Go, call your husband and come here.”
         Her invite to continue (vs. 17) — “I have no husband.”

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     V.  Step #5 (vs. 17-18) — “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”
         Her invite to continue (vs. 19-20) — “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.  Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

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     VI.  Step #6 (vs. 21-24) — “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.  God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
         Her invite to continue (vs. 25) — “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”

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     VII.  Step #7 (vs. 26) — “I who speak to you am He.”
       • Psalm 14:2 — “The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.”
       • Jeremiah 29:13 — “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
       • Hebrews 11:6 — “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
       • Romans 8:28 — “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

         Her invite to continue (vs. 29) — “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”
         • 2 Corinthians 5:20 — “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”


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     Exploratory thoughts on how to apply Jesus’ example in touching people’s lives

     Now & then I ponder how Jesus approaches offering people to help them with their problems… the written instructions He provides so we can learn to do better; His emphasis that we rely on the written word of God in our search for real answers; His commitment to speak only what God the Father Himself had commanded Him what to say and what to speak; the example of living human life He set for us believing we can imitate it.  Motivated by infinite love & mercy.  Obligated by infinite justice & fairness.  Dealing with His frustrations of being rejected & ignored most days by most people ever since the garden of Eden.
     And, yet, all that frustration doesn’t seem to be causing Him to doubt Himself or to consider Himself a failure.  He doesn’t despair and He still chooses to act rightly with full honest confidence.  There is no one who has higher ambition for any human being than He does (Ezek. 18:30-32; Luke 5:32, 19:10; Acts 3:19, 17:30; 2 Pet. 3:19; 1 John 2:1-2; Rev. 3:19-20).  He clings to every opportunity of hope, no matter how slight or faint, until it is no longer honest to hope.  Certainly there must be some thing I can learn from Him in that regard… some attitude I can imitate & apply and do justice to Him in the imitation (as reflected in Paul’s instructions in Gal. 6:1-10).
     It seem to me that that one something starts out by simply inviting people to invite us into real discussion & into their lives.  Beyond just with words, but so people remember seeing & feeling from us a standing invitation… an open invitation… to come seek us out whenever they’re ready.  An invitation verified by our transparent willingness and preparation to welcome being approached.  No guarantees that what we share from God’s written word does, can, or should always fit into their expectations… just the guarantee we are approachable.

     In John chapter four we see a hurting human being.  A woman accustomed to expect being looked down… maybe even shunned… by others because of her race, gender, and long track-record of poor life-choices.  She takes for granted that she has no value to contribute in conversation or service, no hope of ever pleasing God, and no reason to expect anyone believes or cares otherwise.  (Ok, arguably I’m deducing quite a bit from what her reactions tell us, but it’s still a classic setup for depression and suicidal thinking.) Anyway, we see a person thirsting for a better relationship with God and watching for the One who will tell her how to gain it.
     Jesus, through one simple request for a drink of water, invites her to invite him into honest open discussion and, in the process, turns her perceptions upside down and her world inside out.  This is a high-stakes life-and-death situation with a person’s condemned soul on the line (John 3:16-21) and she has quite a bit of confused thinking to clean up along the way first.  And yet Jesus gently continues open & frank dialogue with her so long as she is willing to keep inviting Him further into it.  And, at every step of the way He leaves her room to choose whether to stay or walk away from their exchange for whatever her reason, good or bad.

     At a fundamental level, depression involves focusing upon (a) what one doesn’t or can’t have and/or upon (b) what one doesn’t or can’t do… dwelling upon a desire for certain privileges & responsibilities all the while fully well knowing (or at least fully well expecting) that the desire can never be fulfilled.  In short… contemplating, planning, encouraging, expecting, punishing, and returning for failure.  It’s a tempting trap that can snare any one unwary to avoid it regardless of their age, status, wealth, or health.  Looking at it in that light, depression is a destructive form of empty, worldly, selfishly-motivated lust (James 1 & 4; 1 Pet. 4).
     Therefore, the solution is to look for, discover, & explore those good, godly, genuine desires that have real hope of being fulfilled… recognizing, accepting, expecting, and encouraging value again.  In short, stop the internal dwelling on selfish interests and start the outward dwelling on godly service (as reflected in Paul’s instructions in Rom. chapter 12, esp. verses.1-9).

     Often in a person’s life there are problems… health issues, financial issues, relationship issues, confidence issues, etc.… problems that can have depressing stink to them, that’s for sure.  But, there’s more to a person’s life and makeup than just stink… good things… beautiful things… the things we need to practice looking for both in ourselves and in other people.
     Granted, it might take a lot of creative searching to identify one’s useful potentials well enough to focus his or her attention upon them.  Then, again, it could be just a matter of asking this person to help provide a simple useful service that’s genuinely within his or her power at the moment to provide.

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