Nameless, Faceless Love


Venturing out from behind our Four Walls to a place at first unfamiliar to us, we found our Saviour waiting among the lost, inviting us to join Him in the Journey.
We offer no names and no faces.
Only His.
Nameless, Faceless Love.



Nameless, Faceless Love's authors live on every populated continent of the world, remaining nameless and faceless so that God might receive any and all of the glory.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Journey To The Circle Of Faith

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When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
Now he had to go through Samaria.
So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar.....

John 4:3-5(a)

From Lone Celebration To The Circle of Faith
Jesus left “Judea.” Judea means “celebrated.”

[Strong’s Greek #2449- #2453- #2448- Heb. #3063- celebrated]

Most of us begin our discipleship of Christ Jesus as wide-eyed, praise-filled newborns in the faith, full of celebration. We must never lose those qualities but, as we mature in Christ Jesus, we must move on to a more perfect faith in which we also grow to possess an unwavering oneness with Christ and other believers developed through experiencing difficult circumstances.

(Click on the "Read More!" link below)

This place of oneness in John 4:3 is noted in the word “Galilee.” The word “Galilee” means a “circle” or “circuit.”

[Strong’s Greek #1056- Heb. #1551- circle, circuit]

Here is the scriptural symbol of oneness with Christ and brethren that never begins or ends, but just is. Note that, of the 12 original disciples, only one was not from Galilee. Only one was not part of the circle of oneness with Jesus and their other brethren. His name was Judas.

We Need Journey Through Samaria, Through Sychar
To get from the Judea place in our faith to the Galilee place in our faith requires a journey, then. We find in reading this passage that getting from Judea to Galilee requires that we go through Samaria, and specifically through a city called Sychar.

The roots of the word “Samaria” show us the meaning “to hedge (as with thorns), to guard, to protect, attend to.”

[Strong’s Greek #4540- Heb. #8111- 8104- to hedge (as with thorns), to guard, to protect, attend to].

Hedging with thorns denotes something that is accompanied by pain. Immediately, most will read this definition and remember the thorns that were placed round Jesus’ head just before He died for our sins. But through that experience, Jesus also guarded, protected, and attended to - in the ultimate way - all of us, everyone that God had created, the things of God and the things of His brethren and brethren-to-be. Jesus was made to be the doorway to this Galilee kind of faith that, through faith in Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life, we might receive the forgiveness of our sins and eternal redemption.

Becoming mature in our faith brings with it the understanding that the oneness that we have been given with God and our brethren is not something to be either taken lightly or quickly tossed away. This oneness must be guarded and protected and attended to.

Our journey to oneness with Christ and our brethren will also bring with it visits to a place called “Sychar.”

“Gut Check” at Sychar
The word “Sychar” generally refers to that which will make you drunk or drunkenness itself.

[Strong’s Greek #4965- Heb. #7941- an intoxicant, i.e. intensely alcoholic liquor- translated as drunkard].

We will both meet people at points in our journey and be people at points in our journey who seem to be “spiritually drunk,” and I don’t mean “drunk with the Holy Spirit.” Many believers who have purposed to arrive in Galilee find in Sychar a spiritual Truth that is hard to handle. They find in Sychar that the price of being a disciple is high, higher than they first imagined, and they are either wondering if or have decided that they cannot go on as they were before.

But we must all go through this at some point or another. To get to the oneness with Christ and our brethren that God intended, we must go through some painful experiences. We must be confronted time and again with an escalating sense of the true price of discipleship, and time and time again we must confirm our commitment to Christ and move on once again.

Too many of us get derailed in Sychar. Hopefully it is not for too long, and hopefully it is not on a permanent basis. But we should note that, when we start getting drunk in Sychar, we don’t like to drink alone. People who are getting drunk will ask you and anybody else to join them.

Jesus Himself experienced the “Sychar” drunkenness Himself, among some of His most trusted disciples.

“You Do Not Want To Leave, Too, Do You?”
“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
I am the bread of life.
Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.
But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."

John 6:47-58

The Jews weren’t the only ones who had trouble with what Jesus was preaching here. They weren't the only ones who heard here a spiritual Truth that was hard to handle. In verses sixty six through sixty nine, we see that many of the disciples did, too.

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."


When we are confronted by a new revelation of the price of discipleship, we must consider the price, cling to Christ, and move forward with our brethren with whom we share the journey. Where else can we turn? To whom shall we go? Jesus has the words of eternal life. He is the Holy One of God. Onward with Him in faithfulness.

So, scary as it may be sometimes, we must pass through this place of painful experiences and potential drunkenness to arrive at the circle of faith, a place where we experience a oneness with Christ and each other like we have never experienced before.

Perhaps we will make multiple trips through Samaria and Sychar. Chances are we each will. That’s okay, though, because the result will be an ever-growing commitment to Christ over ourselves, the Spirit over the flesh, and the needs of our brethren over our own.

The destination will be worth it - an unbroken circle of oneness with Christ and our brethren.

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus,
so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Romans 15:5-7





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