Running Water & the Living Water

One time a water line leak meant that all water to our house had to be shut off for 30 hours.   We were able to fill the tub & some containers with water before it was shut off.  We also had 6 gallons of water stored in a closet.  We had to pour water in the sink to wash up with.  My wife heated water on the stove to wash the dishes.  It reminded me of growing up in a house without running water, when my Mom heated water on the stove daily, to wash dishes.  According to my wife, my mmother was a saint.  Imagine pouring water into the toilet to flush.  We took showers at other places and used a neighbor's hose to refill containers. 

All things considered, it was an inconvenient adventure that we survived.  We learned a new appreciation for running water.  Do you remember the survivors of Hurricane Katrina?  Water was one of their biggest needs.  It’s possible that one day, you and I may lose running water due to a disaster.  Have you ever heard what the water supply is like in a third-world country?  Clean, running water is not to be taken for granted.

Our water experience made me think of the Water of Life.  In John 4, Jesus told the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again.  Anyone who drinks the water I give will never become thirsty again.  The water I give him will become a spring of water, springing up to eternal life.”

Later, in John 7, in a festival in Jerusalem, “Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.  Whoever believes in Me, the same as the Bible says, streams of LIVING WATER will flow from within him.’  By this he meant the SPIRIT, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.  Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”  (See Isaiah 12:2-3, 44:3-4,  and 58:11 for the blessings of life-giving water.)  Only the Messiah could promise the LIVING WATER of the Holy Spirit to all who believed, and Jesus showed that He was the Messiah, the Savior who came to save his people from their sin.

The baptismal water represents a means of God’s grace.  We Christians believe different things about baptism, but we all agree that the water represents the cleansing mercy of Jesus, to wash one’s sins away.

If you live without running water for a day, you’ll gain a new appreciation for water.  It’s just as hard, if not harder, to live without the life-giving water of Jesus.  Go to Jesus through prayer and the Bible.  Confess your sins, and ask for forgiveness for your sins.  Pray for the help of God’s Spirit, to live as He wants us to live.  Pray for the life-giving water of Jesus, the WATER OF LIFE.

Clean, running water is not to be taken for granted.  Neither is the Water of Life. Appreciate the Living Water of the Holy Spirit, the water that comes from Jesus.

Resurrection Renewal

Signs of spring are all around us – green grass, the sound of lawnmowers, birds singing, buds blossoming, and warmer days.  We celebrated the resurrection of God’s Son, our Savior, on Easter.  God offers us new life, hope, victory over sin and death, and joy through Christ’s resurrection.  Now, like the first disciples, we seek to understand what that means to us in our daily lives.  

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3

Does the resurrection mean that our problems dissolve?  Our health improves?  Our debts decrease while our income increases?  Or that home improvement project gets done without our effort?  Not necessarily.  But Christ’s new life can give us strength to face those issues, or hope and strength to stand up in the face of our problems, if we keep seeking the Master of Life.  In over 15 years of living with chronic back pain, I’ve found that God’s new life and power give me the hope and perseverance to keep moving forward.  God’s new life and hope can give you and me the strength to face issues we’ve been avoiding or fearing for years.   

"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."  Romans 6:8-11

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that [at] the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God, whom I will see for myself, and whom my own eyes will behold, and not another.   (Job 19:25-27)

If God could take a valley of dry, dead, human bones, and make them into living, breathing humans again (Ezekiel 37), God can certainly renew your life and mine.  The key is looking to the Creator of Life to re-create our lives and hold us up in the face of difficulties.  Let us trust the One who has power over life, death, and sin.  Let us bow our heads and hearts to the Master of Life everyday in praise and prayer.  

Thoughts on the Savior's Death

Today is the day called Good Friday, the day when Jesus died.  Jesus will be dead within hours.  It seems heartbreaking, at least for those of us who loved Him.  We can blame the Jews of Jesus' day or the Roman soldiers, but actually, it was our sins.

For those who loved Jesus, there was nothing good about the day Jesus died a slow, agonizing death like a convicted criminal.  They felt confused, lost, severe loss & grief, afraid, but nothing positive or even close to "good."  For them, & I hope for some of us who seek to follow Him, that day was and is Black Friday or Death Friday.

In the words of the Lord's Supper, also called communion, we believe Jesus was the Bread of Life, broken for you and me.  The blood of Jesus was shed for us.  We believe the cup of communion represents the water of life welling up into eternal life.

Jesus is dead.  The only "good" thing is the new life that we can receive because of His death.  But if we skip the agony, grief, and darkness of these days when Jesus' body was dead, I don't believe that we fully appreciate that new life on Easter.  In a similar way, denying the grief of losing a loved one is not healthy.

Isaiah 53: 3-7 says: He was looked down on and passed over,

    a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.

One look at him and people turned away.

    We looked down on him, thought he was scum.

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—

    our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.

We thought he brought it on himself,

    that God was punishing him for his own failures.

But it was our sins that did that to him,

    that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!

He took the punishment, and that made us whole.

    Through his bruises we get healed.

We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.

    We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,

                on him, on him.

He was beaten, he was tortured,

    but he didn’t say a word.

Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered

    and like a sheep being sheared,

    he took it all in silence.  (The Message)

May Jesus' suffering motivate us to look at our own sins, our sins that caused His death.  I feel deep regret for my own sins, and my Savior's death makes me long to turn from my sins.  Our Savior's death can lead us to change our ways, to live as the Master desires us to live.

When we truly feel some of His pain & suffering, the sunrise on Easter morning will mean new hope and new strength, and a new stage in our walk with the Master.  I look forward to the Spirit's work in my life and yours.   Peace & grace to you.