The following is the condensation of an October 2001 devotional presented at "Women and the Word," an event near Baltimore, Maryland, sponsored by the Women's Resource Center at La Sierra University. We have left intact many of the elements of oral delivery.—Editors.

THIS MORNING I'VE BEEN ASKED TO talk about a woman in the Word, and I've selected one whom we still hear a lot about today. I want to share a few things about her in the hope that it will help us touch base with our own situations. I've divided my presentation into three parts: (1) a new beginning, (2) a new heart, and (3) a new start.

1. A New Beginning
Turn in your Bibles to John 4. In my lifetime I've heard many sermons on the Samaritan woman, all of them beginning with verse 5. But I want to advance the point this morning that her story actually begins before verse 5. One way to know that is from what occurs in verses 1 through 4. Verses 3 and 4 particularly tell us that Jesus left Judea and "departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria."

I take it, from verse 3, that the disciples knew why they were leaving Judea. It was to avoid the storm of controversy brewing. The Pharisees, jealous of Jesus' success in soul winning, had put out the word that He was baptizing more people than John. And Jesus decided it was time to leave to avoid controversy. I've often wondered about jealousy. There are more battles fought on the doorsteps of our churches, in our hallways and meeting rooms, because of jealousy than you or I would want to realize. I've often said to myself, "The Lord could have led us a long way down the road if nobody cared who got the credit."

In the days of Pentecost they were of such accord that nobody even cared that Peter was selected to give the keynote address. Acts 2:47 says that the people were glorifying and praising God. The spirit was good. They were managing their diversity—even celebrating it. And the Lord brought souls into the church daily. When we today get in a state of one accord, the Lord's going to bring more souls into our church by accident than we're doing now on purpose.

Another point: I don't believe the disciples knew they had to go through Samaria, especially since there was an alternate route. True, Samaria was the shorter route, but there was tension between the Jews and the Samaritans, and no devout Jew wanted to go that way. The other route, through Perea and the Jordan Valley, was circuitous (some say) and took three days longer, but they had the time. The disciples wouldn't have minded the longer route.

I notice that the text says, "He must needs go through Samaria," not "they." Did you ever wonder about that? Jesus knew that this was something He had to do. The disciples couldn't do it, on account of their own prejudice.

Prejudice is not grounded in reason, so it can't be destroyed by logic. So the best thing to do is move away, as Jesus did. Pray for the individuals, because we all had some prejudices once in our lives, and the Lord helped us. And certainly He would help the others. Jesus needed to go through Samaria. He was under obligation from His Father to proclaim the gospel there.

2. A New Heart
Now we're in Samaria. Jesus is at the well. The disciples have gone away for food. The woman is on her way to the well. Let me ask you a question: Did Jesus know the woman was coming? [Assent]

Now, who knows but that this woman was in a condition over which she had no control and had been praying night after night for deliverance? We don't know why she was married five times, why she was living with a man at the time she met Jesus—we don't know. But there's a hymn that says, "He will hear our faintest cry, and He will answer by and by." Perhaps this was her "by and by." It had come. And Jesus was about to make something out of nothing.

You see, all our lives we have not known what to do with nothing. We have thought of nothing as having no value. You see, in elementary schools we learned that you can't add nothing, for nothing plus nothing will give you nothing. You can't subtract nothing. Nothing minus nothing will give you nothing. You can't multiply nothing. Nothing times nothing will give you nothing. You can't divide nothing. Nothing divided by nothing will give you nothing. So we don't know what to do with nothing.

But we serve a God who knows what to do with nothing! We serve a God who has the key to the abyss and the void of nothingness. We serve a God who has the creative power to get something from nothing and the re-creative power to save a soul completely and to the utmost.

Now, when we're opening up a new city for evangelism, we send in our heavy hitters, don't we? The D.Mins., the M.Divs., the guys with all of those long credits of soul winning behind them. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I thank God that Jesus uses the ordinary and makes something extraordinary happen. I think of Martin Luther King—an ordinary man indeed, but God used him to do extraordinary things. I think of Ellen White—an ordinary woman. But God took her and did extraordinary things with her. I think of us—ordinary people. God's doing some extraordinary things with us; and if we continue to hang in there with Him, He's going to do even more for us.

God's crowning act is that He can take nothing and make something out of it. And we see it all through the Bible. Even in His own personal life. For He came to this earth an ordinary person. He was born in an ordinary village, born of ordinary parents. He was birthed in an ordinary stable. His mother laid Him on ordinary hay and wrapped Him in ordinary clothes. His first audience—ordinary animals. When He was older, He was trained to be an ordinary carpenter. When He was older than that and started His ministry, He chose for His first disciples ordinary fishermen. They preached in ordinary boats to ordinary people. He ate with the ordinary publicans. He healed the ordinary sick and the disabled. They hunted Him down like an ordinary criminal, didn't they? And they tried Him in an ordinary court and charged Him with an ordinary crime. They crucified Him on an ordinary cross and laid Him in an ordinary grave.

But death didn't hold our Savior. He rose again, didn't He? Not as an ordinary person, but as our triumphant conqueror and deliverer. And He's coming back in triumphant glory as King of kings and Lord of lords!

And so our God uses ordinary people—people just like you and me—to do what He commands. And that woman was certainly an ordinary woman, wasn't she? She was about as ordinary as you can get. But she had two things that all of us need when we are going into soul winning and really want to do what the Lord commands. She had a mind that was open to new doctrines, to new teachings, and a heart willing to change. So when she drank of that water, she accepted the desire for something better than this world has to offer. That was all she needed to do the work she did that day. She was filled with living water, and she ran and told. Sort of like new converts—you know how it is when we first get the gospel? We just want to run and tell somebody!

So this woman, having drunk of the living water, dropped her waterpot, ran to the city, and brought back the whole town.

Now I have to embellish a little bit, so you have to just give me that license, 'cause I don't believe the woman went to town and said, "Hi, Jesus is down there. Y'all wanna come see Him?" I don't believe that's the way it happened. I believe that woman ran and told everybody. I believe she saw an archaeologist and she said, "Come! I've found the Rock of Ages!" I believe she saw an astronomer and she said, "I've found the Bright and Morning Star!" I believe she saw a contractor and said, "I've found the Stone that the builders rejected!" I believe she saw a doctor and she said, "I've found my Balm in Gilead, my Great Physician!" I think she saw a counselor and she said, "I've found the Mighty Counselor!" I think she ran by the educational institutions and said, "I've found the Master Teacher!" I think she saw a florist and she said, "I've found the Rose of Sharon and my Lily of the Valley, too!" I believe she ran to the grocery store and said, "I've found the Bread of Life!" I believe she saw a fortuneteller and said, "Come, I'll take you to somebody who really can tell you everything you ever did!" I think she might have seen a candlemaker and said, "I've found the Light of life!" She saw an undertaker and said, "I've found the Giver of life; I've found the Sustainer of life, I've found the Way to life; I've found the Way for life; I found the Way in life; and I've found the Joy of life!" She gathered up all of these people.

But I think before she went she must have thought about home. Don't women think about home? So I think she must have gone home to tell the man. And here's how I think the conversation might have gone.

She may have gone in and said, "Hey, Zach! I've cleaned up my act! I can no longer shack! So you've got to pack! Take all your clothes off the rack, for you are not coming back. And that is a fact! Don't give me any slack!" She said, "No, I'm not on crack."

And he might have said to her, "Oh, hon, what is it that I have done?"

She said, "You won't understand. I've found a real Man!"

He said, "How can this be?"

And she said, "I don't have time to tell you; you'll just have to come and see."

And I believe she took all those people. Now, it's not recorded that she took the man, but that she took the whole city. And if he lived in the town, he had to be a part of that.

The main thing I want to point out is that anybody can tell a soul about Jesus and take that soul to Jesus. See, none of us has the power to deliver. That's in Jesus' hands. But we can all take a soul to Jesus, and that's evangelism.

3. A New Start
Here, we move from frustration to celebration, making evangelism happen in our own lives. I'll do this by telling you the story of Stephanie. It's a true story. Stephanie was a young girl when this happened. She was in the ninth grade. She'd been selected to be a member of the touch football team—it was an intramural thing, she and three other girls. So they were the first to be chosen for the boys' football team. Stephanie came home one day, and she was crying to her mother, Farah. And her mother said, "What's wrong, Stephanie?"

And Stephanie said, "Well, the boys won't throw the ball to the girls. They won't pass it to us. We just stand out there yelling. Sometimes we're at strategic points, and we could make a touchdown, but they won't pass it to us!"

Mother said, "Did you talk to the boys about it?"

She said, "Well, yes, we did."

"Well, what did they do?"

"They continued not to throw us the ball."

And she said, "Well, did you talk to the coach about it?"

"Well, yes, I talked to the coach," she said, "but the coach talked to the boys, and the boys still didn't throw the ball to the girls. So, Mama, we did something today, and I want to tell you what we did. We all, the four girls, just stood in the middle of the football field, and we just held hands like this, and we started chanting, ‘We are women! Hear us roar! We are women! Hear us roar! We are women! Hear us roar! We are women! Hear us roar!'"

And Mother said, "Did that help?"

She said, "No, it didn't help. But at least it gave us something to do." [Laughter]

Ladies and gentlemen, in this third millennium and twenty-first century, and on this football field called life—with all of its institutions—there are many times when we find things to roar about. Not whine, not whimper, not complain, and certainly not get out of the game, but just roar. Roar! Grrr!

Now, a roar is the sound that lions make. For the purposes of this presentation there are two kinds of roars—a roar of frustration and a roar of celebration. Now, even though from time to time there are things to roar about, I believe with all my heart that the period of frustration is over, and we are in a period of celebration. If we believe that we're living in the end-times—and I know we believe it—then this is the time of Joel's prophecy, when God is preparing women to do a great work.

But I also believe that in terms of soul winning this is the time that Amos was talking about in chapter 9 and verse 13: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper." Jesus was talking about that somewhat to the disciples in the Samaritan story when He said, "I want you to look at the fields. They're already white."

There are people today who have their minds turned toward Jesus. They are ripe for the picking. We don't have to wait for the harvest—we can go and reap now. The disciples ran and brought Jesus the food, and they said, "Master, eat." He said, "I have food that you know nothing of, and that's to do the will of my Father." Could He also have meant, "I have food; I have ways to do this work that you don't know anything about"? Could He have meant that?

The Samaritan woman used this means. She didn't know anything else to do but run and tell people what the Lord had done for her. Now, I've often thought those same people ridiculed her, talked about her. She couldn't even go to the well at the same time as the proper ladies. But she didn't forget them! She ran and told everybody! I don't know that I can do that. I hope I can. But there are ways for us to spread this gospel.

You know what a "Jesus moment" is? It is a moment for us to look at our own lives and thank Jesus for all the things that He has done for us, for stopping by our well one day. For certainly He did stop, for we are in here today. And I don't know what He delivered us from, but He delivered us. And He wants us to go and deliver others, as well.

Women love Jesus, don't we? As I think about credentialing and commissioning and ordaining and all of that, those things don't mean much to me, because Jesus has already given me my credentials at the well. (Now, of course, they're nice to have—I'm not going to say I'm not going to want it [laughter] if it ever comes. But the thing that I need, everything that I need, He has already given.)

And as women, we just love Jesus. No wonder women were first at the cradle and last at the cross. We've never known a Man like Jesus—a Man who never mapped out our sphere for us, a Man who had no ax to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend. A Man who takes us as He finds us and who is completely unself-conscious. Oh, He stopped by and got us, didn't He? And I just want to thank Him!

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Rosa Taylor Banks is the associate secretary for the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, with headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.