Friday, February 06, 2026
A Fascinating Encounter. (Remember too the hatred between Jews and Samaritans.)
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman.
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a]
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11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Oh Dear, Labour!
Labour utterly humiliated by a mum-of-two who cut through Starmer's insanity
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The Narnia Chronicles.
Amongst all the dreadful, anti-Christian Harry Potter stuff - which leads children away from the Gospels - we have a seven book series, written in the 50s which has precisely the opposite effect.
The Narnia Chronicles should be compulsory for every child above the age of 9 BUT do not assume that they are just kids' books - I have just finished reading the set for the umpteenth time. And yes, the books are better than the films!
And The Same To All Churches Which Adhere To The Scriptures Today.
To the churches in Galatia:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Thursday, February 05, 2026
Some Good News From Iran.
Iranian shopkeeper, 26, who was set to be executed for protesting has been released after weeks in a hellhole prison.
An Iranian shopkeeper who faced execution after being detained for taking part in an anti-regime protest has been released on bail.
Erfan Soltani, 26, became one of the faces of the resistance against the Islamic Republic's brutality when demonstrations began sweeping the country at the end of last year. DM.
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Pastor Ejected From Village.
Protestant pastor driven out of Mexican village for refusing to pray to saint.
(Photo: CSW)A Protestant pastor and his family have been exiled from a village in Mexico after he refused to pray to a saint during a Catholic ceremony.
Last November Pastor Mariano Velásquez MartÃnez was appointed to the position of “mayordomo” in the local community of Santiago Malacatepec in Oaxaca State. The position is one of stewardship and involves leading a traditional Roman Catholic festival.
Pastor Velásquez MartÃnez said that he accepted the position on the understanding that his only role in the festival would be to provide the flowers and candles.
However, when the day of the festival came on 15 January, a fellow mayordomo told Pastor Velásquez MartÃnez not only to light the candles, but to kneel and pray to an image of Saint James.
Despite Pastor Velásquez MartÃnez saying that it had been agreed that he would not be required to take such action, the other mayordomo complained to the leadership of the village.
Pastor Velásquez MartÃnez was reportedly then bound with a rope and told he was being expelled from the village, all in front of a crowd of about 180 men.
The pastor says he was forced into signing a document that expelled him from the community, adding that he was not given a copy. He, his wife and three-month-old baby are now living with relatives in Oaxaca City.
Concerningly, this is not the first time an incident such as this has occurred in the region. Pastor Velásquez MartÃnez has led the small Iglesia Camino Nuevo y Vivo (New and Living Way Church) since 2023, when the previous pastor was also forcibly displaced.
Porfirio Flores Zúñiga, a lawyer and representative of the Fellowship of Pastors, has demanded that the Attorney General's Office and the Secretary of Government of Oaxaca State use the Forced Displacement Law against those who forced Pastor Velásquez MartÃnez and his family out.
Under the law, those guilty of forcibly displacing people in Oaxaca state can be punished by up to 18 years in prison.
Anna Lee Stangl, director of advocacy at Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said, ”The arbitrary detention of Pastor Mariano Velásquez MartÃnez and the subsequent forced displacement of him and his family is unconscionable.
"His case demonstrates how both state and federal governments are failing to meet not only their international human rights obligations, but, even more fundamentally, their commitments to uphold basic rights in Mexico's own constitution and laws.
“This case is unfortunately not unique, and it is past time that the Mexican government, at every level, implements policies to uphold freedom of religion or belief for all, including in communities governed under Uses and Customs.
"We call on the government of Oaxaca to take swift action to hold those responsible for the forced displacement of this family to account under the law, and to take steps to make it clear that freedom of religion or belief must be upheld for all.”
A Few Christians Insist That Believers Must Be Teetotal - Really? Why?
5) His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6) Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.[b]
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8) Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, 9) and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10) and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
11) What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Wednesday, February 04, 2026
Jesus - God The Son - Was There At The Very Beginning. Verse 3 - He Created Everything!
John 1
New International Version.
The Word Became Flesh.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
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Hmm.
The villain whisperer.Keir Starmer's policies empowering the foes of civilisation bear the fingerprints of one man
This is an expanded version of my column in today’s Times (£) Keir Starmer has provoked much criticism and scorn over his “appeasement” trip to China. In the eyes of many, he made no real gains and left Britain looking weak and alarmingly anxious to court active threats to its own security as the price of access to Chinese markets. One notable detail was that while the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, was left at home, Starmer took with him the man whom insiders call “the real foreign secretary”, the national security adviser Jonathan Powell. Starmer is said to rely heavily on Powell. He sits two rooms from the prime minister and reports directly to him, as opposed to reporting to the Downing Street chief of staff as does every other special adviser. As a political appointee, he is largely protected from parliamentary scrutiny. Yet Powell has now been involved in one foreign policy mis-step after another — involving the Chagos islands, Syria, Gaza, Chinese espionage and Islamism in Britain — all of them characterised by a weakening of Britain and the west, and helping to empower bad people. And he has form in this. ... Continue reading this post for free in the Substack app |
John 1:14. Jesus IS The Word.
14) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15) (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”)
Peaceful Prayer Is A Right!
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