JESUS OFFERS LIVING WATER

“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give Me a drink?’… The Samaritan woman said to Him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.’ … ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”  (Excerpts from John 4:17-14 NIV)

Have you ever been extremely thirsty? If you have experienced deep thirst, you know how wonderful and refreshing cool water can be. We can live for many days without food but only a short time without water. When the Samaritan woman encountered Jesus at Jacob’s well, she was searching for that which would quench her body’s thirst for life-giving and life-sustaining water. In the presence of Jesus she recognized a deeper thirst, the thirst for God. And it was to this thirst that Jesus offered living water and the promise that her thirst for God could be satisfied.

The thirst for God is universal because we have been created with a longing for the Creator. This desire to know and be known by the One who made us and loves us is often ignored, denied, and finally buried under a multitude of pursuits and interests. But then some event in life invites or forces us to pause, and the desire for God comes rushing back to our awareness. And once again we know that real life is impossible without the companionship of the One who first gave us the gift of life and who sustains us even now. We know for certain that we need living water; we need what only God in Christ can give if we are to truly live.

Today Jesus continues to offer living water, a way, and a companionship that can quench our thirst for God. Our part is to recognize the deep need for God within us and to offer hospitality to the One who seeks to fill and satisfy that need. Like the psalmist, our souls thirst for God (Psalm 42:1-2). The good news we share is that through Jesus Christ our thirst can be satisfied. 

-- Rueben P. Job in “A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God”

#6316

COVENANT-KEEPING WORSHIPERS

Read Exodus 20:1-17, the Ten Commandments.

We see how the Ten Commandments break into two groupings, with the first four dealing with our relationship with God and the final six dealing with our relationship with our neighbor.

Most fascinating is the way Jesus further boiled down the Ten Commandments (indeed the whole Law) into a singular command: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27)

There’s something we should be clear about here at the outset. The commandments are not about becoming a law-abiding citizen, as is commonly thought. They are about becoming a covenant-keeping worshiper.

In that light, it’s interesting how the most important words in the Ten Commandments, indeed in the whole of the Law, are most often excluded from the commandments when we see them inscribed in public places and even in Christian literature. They are these: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2)

The Ten Commandments do not begin with commandments. The Law does not begin with laws. It begins with relationship. “I am Yahweh,” God says. “I am the God who heard your cries and who brought you out of Egypt, out of the cruel slavery under which you suffered.” I am God. I delivered you. This is the most primitive taproot of our entire faith. This cannot be overstated. If our faith does not come down to something as simple as “I am yours. You are mine,” we are missing the core essence of the Christian faith and likely lost in some form of a counterfeit religion. 

-- Excerpted from “Wake-Up Call” with J. D. Walt 

#6294

WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation -- but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.”  (Romans 8:12 NIV)

Obligation. It’s not your favorite word, is it? But that’s because we interpret it, or rather misinterpret it, in a negative light. Don’t think of it as something we have to do; think of it as something we get to do. Our greatest obligation doubles as our greatest opportunity -- surrendering our lives to the lordship of Christ. Can you think of any greater privilege than being used for God’s eternal purposes?

The word means to be legally or morally bound, and the best picture might be marriage. When you say “I do” at the altar, you are obligating yourself for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do you part. I’ve officiated lots of weddings, and I’ve never seen anyone enter into that obligation with anything other than joyful anticipation.

When we enter into a covenant relationship with God, we tend to focus on the fact that we are legally and morally bound to God, but God is also legally and morally bound to us. The gospel demands that we give all of ourselves to God, but when we do, God gives all of Himself to us. I’ll take that trade seven days a week, and twice on Sundays! It’s a covenant of blessing, and every blessing belongs to you in Christ. Every promise is yes in Christ. 

-- Mark Batterson in “If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God’s What If Possibilities”

#6293

RECONCILIATION IS OUR MINISTRY

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  (2 Corinthians 5:17–21 NKJV)

In Christ, God has done something for the world. God has reconciled people to Himself. In other words, God has made a way for a broken relationship to be made whole, through the death of Jesus on the cross (Colossians 1:20). In this great act of reconciliation, God has made a way for anyone -- literally, anyone -- to come into union with Him.

Coming into union with God in Christ is reconciliation in its most essential form. Any reconciliation we may do on earth that does not find its source and strength in God’s greater, reconciling work of the heart to Himself is destined to struggle and fall short.

God knows that if He can get a heart relating to Him again, experiencing His presence, love, forgiveness, acceptance, and truth, the possibilities of reconciliation between that person and others are endless. We who have been reconciled to God begin to want others to be reconciled to God. We want others to experience the freedom that we have experienced. It is the natural flow of the story.

And that is why sharing the good news of reconciliation is our ministry. Just as one who is forgiven much loves much (Luke 7:47), so, too, we who have experienced God closing the gap between us and Him want to help close that gap for others. 

-- Dan Wilt in “Wake-Up Call”

#6190

OUR NEED FOR REPENTANCE

“Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me… The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”  (Psalm 51:11,17)

Several qualities are no doubt missing from a good deal of religious experience as it is commonly known in our day, but perhaps nothing is more serious than our failure to see our need for repentance. I think this is partly because we don’t understand the nature of sin. If, as some contemporaries say, other generations were guilt obsessed, our generation today is expert in avoiding the sense of guilt. This is because we have so limited a theology of sin. We define sin by tabloid headlines, which give most of us a degree of comfort, since our sins are only occasionally dramatic. We don’t realize that sin, even as we experience it in its most pedestrian forms, is a violation of the very nature of our universe, a universe whose original core is utterly right because it is of God. We have a further handicap in that our theology of God is inadequate. Popular theology has made God so cozy and so accessible that we can’t understand why the Eternal One should be troubled by our erratic ways.

But above all, we fail at repentance because our friendship with God has so little passion. The Scriptures say that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That’s the language of passion, the language we generally reserve for moments of compelling romance or consuming friendship. It is only when God becomes such a friend -- yes, and far more, because the element of eternity enters into our friendship -- that we are struck with terror at the thought of losing this friendship. It is in such a mood that godly repentance is born. 

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas (1923-2015) in “Longing to Pray: How the Psalms Teach Us to Talk with God”

#6182

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUST IN A RELATIONSHIP

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord Himself, is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation.”  (Isaiah 12:2 NIV)

Have you ever seen the [1975] movie “The Stepford Wives”? The wives in Stepford are systematically replaced by robots that look exactly like them. The husbands can count on precisely the behavior they want from their cyber-spouses. No uncertainty. No frustrations. No need for trust.

But, if you are a man, would you really want a woman who always dressed up for you, always fixed the food you wanted, always cleaned up after you, always agreed with whatever you said, always devoted herself to your pleasure with no will of her own? (The correct response here would be "No.")

"Stepford" is a nightmare community. Why? Because [there is no trust] and trust is the only way that loving persons relate. It can never be removed from the equation. It is the only way to honor the freedom, the dominion, and the dignity of a person. That's the way [our relationship with God] works: trust, risk, vulnerability, faithfulness, intimacy.

-- John Ortberg in “Faith & Doubt”

#6173

ABBA, FATHER

The ability of love to speak to the deepest places of our hearts never goes away. Have you ever noticed how people in love sometimes speak to each other in baby talk? It is immensely intimate and private -- and it’s off-putting to a third party. If you do it, I wouldn’t want to hear it. But we do it because it is the tenderest language we know.

Jesus’ prayer life demonstrated this intimacy, because He called God “Abba,” an Aramaic word much like “Dada” or “Momma.” (Jesus spoke in Aramaic, and some portions of the New Testament are written in Aramaic rather than Greek.)  “Abba” was a Jewish child’s first word, because it was so easy to say. Somehow when Jesus was with God, the tender love that an adult offers to a child to give strength is what He received from His Father. It rewired His nervous system.

It does not stop there, for Jesus told His followers that they could have this same experience. This is why Paul wrote that by the Spirit we too can say, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). This is what happens when we are praying in the flow.

God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who He is, and we know who we are: Father and children (Romans 8:16). 

-- John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be”

#6168

WHAT DO YOU CALL GOD?

“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, ‘Abba, Father.’”  (Romans 8:15 NLT)

What do you call God? The Big Guy in the Sky? The Man Upstairs? Dear eight-pound, six-ounce Baby Jesus? Then you don’t know Him. Those titles may be clever and funny, but they certainly aren’t intimate.

If you know God, you are likely to be far more specific with Him, and the words you use will reflect your accurate understanding of Him. Maybe God graciously forgave you for decades of sins and you gratefully call Him “Savior.” Perhaps when you pray, you call God “Healer” because He’s healed your broken heart. Maybe you call Him “Comforter” because He has come alongside and provided company in your misery. Maybe you call Him “Fortress” or “Rock” or “Strength.” Maybe you’ve found yourself backed into a corner, with nowhere to turn, and He’s “Provider” to you. When you feel totally alone, perhaps you call Him “Friend.” Maybe, whether your earthly father has been there for you or not, you call God “Father.”

What do you call God? Your answer may be a clue to how well you know Him. Or don’t. 

-- Adapted from Craig Groeschel in “The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living as if He Doesn’t Exist” 

#6167

THE MARRIAGE TRIANGLE

“As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”  (Isaiah 62:5)

How well I remember the challenge of compiling the guest list [for our wedding], which makes the scene in the second chapter of John very personal, as a wedding is taking place. “Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited” (John 2:1-2). Evidently their names were on a guest list, and they had accepted the invitation.

What about including Jesus in your wedding plans? In your marriage? My husband and I had our wedding bands inscribed with a triangle that signifies there are three of us in this relationship: God at the apex, my husband and me at the lower corners. As we grew closer to God individually, we also drew closer to each other. That principle got us through some bumpy territory. It will do the same for you.

If you need a miracle in your marriage, invite Jesus into the relationship. He’ll be there when you need Him most. Send the invitation -- do it today! 

-- Anne Graham Lotz in “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus”    

#6158

ALMIGHTY AND COVENANTAL

“I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name the LORD I did not make Myself known to them.” (Exodus 6:2–3)

There are two names mentioned here. The first is the divine name Yahweh, usually denoted in English translations with the small caps “LORD.” This is the covenantal name the Lord gives to Moses out of the burning bush. There is a reflection of the covenantal transaction in which the covenant begins with the greater party declaring His name. The second name is El Shaddai, or God Almighty. This indicates that God is all-powerful. He is the God who can do anything He wills to do. There is no power greater than Him.

Here is the importance of these names. God is Almighty, and God is Covenantal. If God were only El Shaddai, He would be powerful but would elicit only fear. Seeing Him would be like staring into the face of a tornado that is ripping houses off their foundations.

However, if God were only relational, then we could be comforted by His presence, but we would never know if He was able to do anything about our situation. He would be with us, but He would be impotent to save us.

God is not only El Shaddai, but He is also the covenantal God Yahweh. He is almighty, and He is with us. He comes alongside us to comfort us, and He is able to rescue us. Moses came to the Lord in his darkest hour, and God answered by declaring that He is mighty to save. In the darkest hour of our sin, the Almighty God of the universe heard our plea. He has come near to us in the person of Jesus Christ. The Lord hears our need, and Christ is both with us and mighty to save. 

-- Donny Friederichsen, excerpted from an article entitled “The Names of God”

#6003

THE GREATNESS OF GOD’S SALVATION

“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”  (1 John 4:9-12 NIV)

The deepest longing in a person's heart is to have a relationship with God. When we open the Scriptures, we are surprised to discover how much God desires for His people to have a love relationship with Him. In fact, the more we study the Scriptures, the more we are overwhelmed at the greatness of God's salvation and the love relationship that He seeks to develop with us. God's salvation set in motion everything He intended to accomplish in us. If we do not understand the extent of God's accomplished work on our behalf, we will never experience abundant life, nor will we fulfill God's purpose for our lives. God is not primarily interested in making us successful; instead, His heart desires for us to experience the full measure of His great salvation.

-- Henry Blackaby and Melvin D. Blackaby in “Experiencing God Together: God's Plan to Touch Your World”

#5966

PAIN – THE GREAT TEACHER

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:28 NIV)

Luci Shaw, my dear friend, mentor, and favorite poet, was widowed in midlife. When her husband Harold was diagnosed with cancer, Luci made a thoughtful vow to God. She said, “Lord, I promise never to give up on You, never to desert the faith.” Luci said that that promise, “like a marriage vow that sometimes staples a faltering relationship,” held her during the seven years of Harold’s illness, and finally, in his death (from “God in the Dark”). I think Luci exemplifies how a woman of wisdom responds to suffering. Her pain, which she did not deny, was immense. She told me that being a widow was “radical surgery – like being cut in half.” But she also resolved to trust God and to learn from her suffering. In an article in "Christian Living” (June, 1986), Luci said, “I’m learning to welcome pain, and not to dodge it. It’s one of the most valuable lessons. Pain has a refining work to do in us, if we welcome it. It teaches us what is temporal, what is superficial, and what is abiding and deep. I’m trying to let pain do its work in me.” 

-- Dee Brestin in “A Woman of Insight”

#5923

BEING REAL WITH GOD – Part 1 of 2

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”  (Matthew 6:5-6 NIV)

Many of us have struck spiritual poses in prayer. We have a hard time being ourselves. Praying before others, we have a tendency to talk more to people in the room than to God. Even in private prayer, sincerity doesn’t come easily. We talk to God as if He requires formal language, as we would talk to some governmental authority we didn’t know well. Or we speak in a kind of fake biblical language we’ve cobbled together from the Scriptures or other embellished prayers we’ve heard. Prayer becomes a performance, and we have to work at it.

God simply wants us to talk with Him. Talk is simple communication, and it doesn’t need to be dressed up. We should talk to Him as we’d talk to a best friend -- simply being ourselves, being totally honest without worrying how it might sound.

Have you ever listened to a public prayer and really liked a turn of phrase? And you thought to yourself, That’s awesome -- I’m going to put that into my prayer repertoire! We pick up phrases like these: traveling mercies; lead, guide, and direct; the nourishment of our bodies. Perhaps we believe those are special phrases that establish some kind of spiritual superiority. But it’s not God language. He wants to hear from the real me and the real you.

Who we’re pretending to be doesn’t match who we are on the inside. Yet what God asks could not be simpler. His invitation says, “Come as you are. Please don’t dress up. Don’t decorate your language. Don’t put on a show. Just be at home with Me. Be real. My place is your place.” 

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: When Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins” 

#5907

PRAYER IS…

“Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore!”  (1 Chronicles 16:10-11 NKJV)

Prayer is co-operation with God. It is the purest exercise of the faculties God has given us -- an exercise that links these faculties with the Maker to work out the intentions He had in mind in their creation. Prayer is aligning ourselves with the purposes of God...

Prayer is commitment. We don't merely co-operate with God with certain things held back within. We, the total person, co-operate. This means that co-operation equals commitment. Prayer means that the total you is praying. Your whole being reaches out to God, and God reaches down to you...

Prayer is communion. Prayer is a means, but often it is an end in itself. There are times when your own wants and the needs of others drop away and you want just to look on God's face and tell Him how much you love Him...

Prayer is commission. Out of the quietness with God, power is generated that turns the spiritual machinery of the world.  When you pray, you begin to feel the sense of being sent, that the divine compulsion is upon you... 

-- E. Stanley Jones in “Growing Spiritually”

#5851

HANDLING OUR POSSESSIONS

“Then Jesus said, ‘Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own… Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.’”   (Luke 12:15,21 NLT)

Our world is full of “things” and “stuff” -- that is, possessions. We have an inbuilt desire to possess things. We find ourselves eager for possessions and for all that money promises and provides. But if we are not careful, we find ourselves trusting money to buy us life, and our lives are governed more and more by the pursuit of possessions. This is a trap. There are many things that money can’t buy for us, and there are some things that money will actually take from us…

If the pursuit of possessions purchased from profits is the essence of our existence, one’s life is measured by what one owns. Money becomes our god. We are owned by our money and possessed by our possessions.

So what do we do? We should accept possessions gladly, hold them lightly, use them wisely, share them unselfishly, and offer them worshipfully to God for His use. The quality of one’s life is seen in how well we handle things rather than letting things handle us. 

-- Adapted from Stuart Briscoe in “Daily Study Bible for Men” 

#5799

LONGING FOR GOD

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”  (Matthew 5:6 NIV)

We do not come to be with Jesus because we are righteous or strong. The people gathered around Jesus because they were needy. In His [Sermon on the Mount] Jesus begins to explain the profound difference between the religious leaders’ teaching about attaining righteousness through their interpretation of the Law and traditions and the greater righteousness that moves beyond the Law to a relationship with God in Christ.

Our sinful, restricted self is uncomfortable and fights being revealed. But deeper within us is the longing for God, placed within our true self by God. We come to God as we are: caught by sin and longing for God; and we are always met by God’s grace and mercy. 

-- Wendy Miller in “Learning to Listen”

#5798

GOD REVEALED IN JESUS CHRIST

“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known.”  (John 1:18 NIV)

Paul Tournier, the great Christian doctor, declares that life, in order to be life, must necessarily be dialogue. No one can find life in any real sense of the term in isolation. He must find it in contact, in dialogue, with others. The supreme dialogue of life is the dialogue with God. Paul Tournier writes, “Jesus Christ is the dialogue re-established. He is God coming to us because we cannot go to Him.” Jesus came with the good news that God is not a God who hides Himself, that God is not a God whom only the philosophers may know, that God is the God who at all costs desires to be known, and who in the most costly way has revealed Himself to all. 

-- William Barclay in “The Mind of Jesus”

#5787

OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD

“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”  (Psalm 84:2 NIV)

There is a restlessness deep within each of us that compels us to search for the person, the place, the job, the "god" that will fill the void and give us peace.  This restlessness drives us to find someone who will love us for who we are, understand our fears and anxieties, affirm our worth, and call our lives into account.  To admit our need for and dependence upon God requires humility and vulnerability, which paves the way not only for knowing God, but also for becoming intimate with Him.  "Mutual love and confidence are the keys to intimacy," writes J. Oswald Sanders; "deepening intimacy with God is the outcome of deep desire." 

-- Cynthia Heald in “Intimacy with God”

#5779

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with Me.”  (Revelation 3:20 NIV))

Loving God is different from loving doctrine. Doctrine (true ideas about God and His ways) is important. It is crucial that our minds are as soundly converted as our hearts. But in the end, ideas are just ideas; whereas God is alive -- a flame of love, a presence, a power, a reality, a person. Ideas can be embraced, but God can be loved. Once ideas are accepted and one’s life is conformed to them, the matter is over. But when God becomes the center of life, the story has just begun. How will it unfold, where you will be led, who will play a part in your life, what task you will be asked to undertake, where you will go -- all of that will emerge in the context of your relationship with God…

The Christian life is no static holding action; it is an amazing, serendipitous journey. To live it out is our calling in life. As we do so, we become what we are meant to be: whole people, holy people, conformed to the image of Christ. This is our great and wonderful task in life. 

-- Richard Peace in “Learning to Love God”

#5731

LIFE IS FRAGILE

“Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."  (Matthew 28:20b)

The thread of life is fragile.   A few cells within a healthy body grow erratically and we receive the diagnosis of cancer; a second's misjudgment at an intersection, and a life is lost; a heart that keeps its cadence for decades skips a few beats and we find ourselves in intensive care; a friend loses her baby during pregnancy; an aging parent shows signs of Alzheimer's; violence strikes someone we know.  None of us is immune to such devastating experiences for ourselves, our families, or among our friends.  Inexpressible suffering barges in at unexpected moments.  And everyone balances the more common (yet anguishing) anxieties, setbacks, and losses that challenge our ability to cope – conflict at home, financial loss, trouble with teenagers, struggles with alcohol, feelings of loneliness.  No one lives without facing a threatening darkness.

We overestimate our capacity to handle these things all by ourselves, and we underestimate the power of community to help.  Belonging to a caring community, we discover a sustenance that does not answer all our questions or end all our challenges, but which keeps us connected, rooted, grounded.  When the worst happens, God doesn't promise us an answer; God provides us a relationship.  Through sustaining relationships, we discover that God is not aloof from life and disinterested in us.  Instead, God gets in the trenches and suffers with us.  We are not alone.  God is with us.  God's presence reaches us through the people who love us.  The thread of life is fragile, but the fabric of life is eternal. 

-- Robert Schnase in “Five Practices of Fruitful Living”

#5708