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Wordles and Jacob's Well

DateJun 21, 2008
Comments4 Comments

I have been having some fun with a little Java Applet called Wordle. It basically takes in large amounts of texts and then visualizes them in cool ways.  The more a word is used the larger it appears in the cloud of words.  Anyway, I dropped to things into Wordle to see what Jacob's Well was all about. 

First, a document that has our purpose, mission and values for the church - it represents well what we want to be about. Second, I dropped in our doctrinal statement...yeah, this is what we believe.  Interesting results that were encouraging to me. Click on each image to see a larger version...just reading which words end up close to each other in these clouds is an interesting thought experiment.

Now I know some people would want to see certain words bigger and more prominent...but overall I like the words that showed up BIG - they seem to me to be the main things...

Jacob's Well DNA - Purpose, Mission, Values

 


 

Jacob's Well Doctrine

 

 

 

Comments

Woah. Very cool. This could also be a creative tool for Bible Study Methods. Studying a passage (in the "observation stage") and want to know what words/ideas are most prevalent? Cut and paste into Wordle. For instance, after reading your post, I cut and pasted John 4:1-38 into Wordle (sticking with the Jacob's Well theme).

I'm not sure how to show you the outcome, but if you are curious, I'll paste the text below for you to try.

WARNING for all of the ESV-only folks reading: this text is from the NASB. If reading the below text would cause you to stumble, then proceed no further.

:)

Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, "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." She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" Jesus answered and said to her, "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." The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw." He said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "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." The woman said to Him, "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." Jesus said to her, "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." The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why do You speak with her?" So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, "Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?" They went out of the city, and were coming to Him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. "Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. "Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. "For in this case the saying is true, 'One sows and another reaps.' "I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."

Sorry that was so long.

I LOVE this thing! So cool! I'm dropping all sorts of things in there now! My facebook profile pic is even a word cloud now!

Yes, wordle is tres cool :)

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