Today is week three of the series on Encountering God afresh. Pastor Andy speaks with fresh zeal for our encounter with our Lord God. Encounters with God change lives. God never wanted us to have a religion about him, He wanted us to have a relationship with Himself - these are two completely different things!

Many lives were changed as a result of encounters with God and many are recorded in scripture, particularly in the Gospels. In Luke 19, we read about Zacchaeus, someone who had experienced religion, but wasn't satisfied. Being a short man he climbs a tree to see Jesus.  Jesus passes under the branch of a tree, looks up and says “today I'm coming to your house”.  Zacchaeus jumps up and says “I've been robbing everyone, I've been handling my finances wrongly”, and in a moment changes the way he managed those finances and the way he treated people. One Moment, one encounter with Jesus changed everything. 

Pastor Andy speaks about the story of Nicodemus, a religious man; then the story of a woman caught in adultery. He follows this by examining in detail the story of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well having a discussion with a man about giving her living water. The woman is unaware she is speaking to Jesus the Messiah until later. Afterwards she races off to tell her whole township about Jesus. Her life and that of the others referenced in the bible were changed by their encounters with Jesus. Interestingly, in the story of the woman at the well, Jesus takes no notice of the divides between Jews and Samaritans, or the fact she had many husbands. He tells her just to live a new life.

In the same way, Jesus can and will change our lives now……if we let him.