Living Water

On our recent "stay-cation" we had lots of things on our to-do list. The week was not designed to be particularly relaxing, rather, an opportunity to get some much needed work done around our home! But, we did promise the kids that we would take one day to just have fun. So, finally on Saturday we headed for Craig's Creek thanks to our generous friends who let us use their cabin as home-base for the day! We spent the day wading, swimming, tubing and fishing in the many ripples and pools. Treasures were found -- an old milk-glass jar lid, green and blue slag from the old iron smelting days, crayfish, minnows, and lots of good skippin' rocks!

As the day came to a close and we made our way from the center of the babbling creek, where the water was clear, to the shore, we had to wade through the murky, still water near the edge. There, bright green algae grew beneath the surface, waving as in slow motion in the shallows, like long green locks of hair. The rocks were slippery and each step sent clouds of orange mud swirling around our toes. "Yuck!" the children cried! They did not like having to cross the still shallows.

I remarked to them, "Which part of the creek do you prefer to play in -- the middle where the water is rushing and moving, or the shallows where the water is still?" Naturally, they said they much preferred the moving water where the fish swam, the small rapids provided tubing and swimming adventures and the algae had no opportunity to grow on the rocks! "The Bible calls that kind of water 'living water' because it's alive and moving!" I said. "Do you remember who called Himself the 'living water?'" I asked. "Jesus!" they replied (to my relief). "Yes!" I said. "When we have Jesus in our hearts, it's like having a bubbling brook in our soul which is powerful, clear, and alive, overflowing with the love of Christ to others!" It was a small teaching moment that I was grateful for, and David said, "That's awesome! You should blog about that!" ;-)

Living water is mentioned a number of times in the Bible. In the Song of Solomon, it says,

"A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed. Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices- a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon."

We are the bride of Christ, and to Him we are to be as a beautiful garden, producing abundant good things, and like a fountain, alive and pure! But, alas, we are all too often like the prophet Jeremiah described in chapter 2:

"Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. "

In ancient times, cisterns were made, hewed out of rock or from clay, to collect rain water for use when fresh water was unavailable or the rivers dry. Naturally, the water accumulated in these holding bins was not fresh and clean, like water gathered from a running stream. It's stagnant. It's a place where disease could breed in the stillness and heat. Jeremiah says, we forsake God who is the fountain of living water for our souls, and instead we make ourselves spiritual cisterns which hold worthless, inadequate, impure things. And not only that, but our cisterns are broken! We fool ourselves into thinking that we're accumulating knowledge, wisdom, treasure, happiness, etc., but when we go to draw from our self-made cistern, we find nothing there! It's empty! Life apart from Christ is ultimately empty, stagnant, and a breeding ground for sin, despair and death!

In John chapter 4, Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman at the well and tells us that HE is THE source of living water!

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

And in John chapter 7, Jesus says:

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"

What a picture! And the inspiration for the name of our church, "Wellspring!" Why do we waste our time trying to fill our broken cisterns with the things of the world or unbiblical so-called "spirituality," when God has given us the gift of THE ONLY Living Water -- Christ who is pure, life-giving and cannot be contained! I look at the recesses of my heart which I have not brought captive to Christ, and I say like my children wading through the stagnant shallows, "Yuck!" I want to stand in the living water and be cleansed! I can not drink from my cistern -- it's empty! I can not offer a drink from my cistern to others, for even if I could the water would be undrinkable. I want the Living Water to feed me and to then flow out of me, for, like a rushing river, it cannot be held back or hemmed in. When I offer a drink to others, I want it to be from God -- the clean, clear, delicious truth of the Gospel!

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen." Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?" I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;

the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and

he will guide them to springs of living water,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

(Revelation 7:11-17)