Where is Truth?

All God's revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience.

You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking.

Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. 

(Oswald Chambers: My Utmost for His Highest)

 

Blessed art thou, Simon Peter, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven (Matt. 16:17).

 

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth (Jn. 16:12).

****************************************************************

 

Truth is to be found in relationship to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit -- and All of the Trinity desires mankind to know the Truth that will set us free. 

 

One of the things that most attracted me to my husband was the insights he had, the truth he spoke.  Although he did not speak readily or often, when he was asked about something, his words carried more wisdom than those of most other people I knew.  I was fascinated by his understanding of the way things work.  If the cartoons are any indication of human nature, people will often climb the highest mountain or go to the ends of the earth to receive wisdom and understanding -- yet both are offered to us by the Holy Spirit.

 

Once we set our minds and hearts to seek wisdom and understanding, it will be given to us: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened (Luke 11:9-10).

 

We have not been told to seek out the wisest person on earth or to sit at the feet of the Buddha or Hare Krishna; we have been told to love Jesus, who will manifest Himself to us (Jn. 14:21).  And if we believe Him, we know that He is The Truth that we seek.  We know that the people of Jerusalem were drawn to Jesus by His wisdom and understanding, just as I was first attracted to my husband by his wisdom and understanding.  The people of Jesus' day asked, "Where did this Man get this wisdom?  Is His mother not Mary and His father Joseph?"   To human eyes, there was simply no explanation for Jesus.  It takes revelation to know that Jesus is "more than a carpenter" from a good family.  And that revelation is given from above, to those who ask.

 

Wisdom extends itself to every aspect of our lives; it begins in the spirit and pours itself out into the mind and the emotions, even to our very bodies themselves.  Very often, I have asked for wisdom about my health, or about a problem facing me, and I have always received the most amazing answers.  Once we know that God is not a grudging giver toward us, but freely and graciously wants to give us wisdom and understanding about even the smallest aspects of our lives, we begin to rejoice in seeking and finding wisdom.  James says this:

 

If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him (1:5).

 

I often tell my 11th-grade students that if they want to question their faith, they should go ahead and do so --- as long as they question God Himself.  If we want to know the Truth, we need to go to the Source of Truth, Who does not mind us asking and Who will always show us the Way.

 

 

  

On Faith and Belief

 Faith is not the same thing as belief.  What we call "belief" is our attempt to put "faith" into words, but faith is a gift from God; it is a relationship, not a set of principles. 

Every day, we live our relationships with one another, principally with our spouses.  If someone were to ask us to describe the relationship we have with our spouse, we might attempt to find words for the relationship that makes up a marriage.  We might want to say what we "believe" about our marriage, about those things on which it is founded.  But those words would not be the relationship itself; the words we choose would not really convey the emotional content of the lived day-to-day dynamic of our daily lives.  Each day, each exchange, each meal together either strengthens or weakens the bond between us.

In my 20s and 30s, I would hear sermons about the importance of faith, and I would think to myself, "I wish someone would tell me what faith really is, or how to increase my faith."  I would think about Jesus' words, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mountain, 'Cast yourself into the sea, and it would obey you'."  And of course, I knew that I did not have this kind of faith---but then I was stuck, because I did not know where to go from there.

The practice of our religion does not necessarily mean that we have a living relationship with the Son of God, although it certainly prepares the way and opens the door to that relationship.  Looking back on my life, I now realize that God Himself has been inviting me into His inner chamber, into His heart, from the beginning.  I see all the open doors He has invited me to walk through; I see all the wonderful people He has put into my life to pray for me, to walk with me, to teach me.  And I see all the ways He has spoken to my heart along the way.  He has been cultivating a relationship with me from the start.  This is what Oswald Chambers says about our relationship with God:

The Son of God is born into me by the direct act of God;

then I as a child of God have to exercise the right of a child,

the right of being always face to face with my Father.

 

And this is what John says in the Gospel:  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. 

 

"Faith" -- or relationship-- is breathed into us by the Breath/Ruah/Spirit of God, Who places in our hearts His very own Son, just as He did with the first incarnation of His Son in the womb of the virgin.  We must first receive His Gift to us, as Mary did with her "Be it done unto me according to your word."  Then we must nurture that relationship, just as we do every other relationship in our lives, principally the one with our spouse.  If someone were to ask what we "believe" about God, we may still be somewhat inarticulate about the relationship; we might not be able to accurately describe what is going on with us.  But daily our "faith," or relationship, is growing through prayer, through living out the relationship with God we have been given. And that is what is most important.

 

I am not ready to cast a mountain into the sea, nor do I anticipate doing so in my lifetime, but I am ready to sing with Isaiah:

 

O Lord, you are my God'

I will exalt you and praise your name,

for in perfect faithfulness

you have done marvelous things,

things planned long

You have been a refuge for the poor,

a refuge for the needy in his distress,

a shelter from the storm

and a shade from the heat...

 

The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain...

He will bring down your high fortified walls

and lay them low;

he will bring them down to the ground,

to the very dust (Is. 25:vv 1, 4, 10, 12).

 



What do I believe?  I believe that the Lord Himself will level mountains on my behalf because He has made with me an everlasting covenant.  Psalm 112 says this about the man who "fears the Lord:"  He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.  His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes (v.7-8).  Now, that is probably one of the best descriptions of "faith" that we have.  How do we get there? The same way the disciples did -- by walking daily with the Lord, by getting to know Him, by allowing Him to breathe His Spirit into us, not once, but always, by living with Him continuously until our hearts rest securely in His love.

 



 

 

Seek First the Kingdom....

What do we have to give God?  In any exchange between persons, something is given by both parties, and something is received by both.  When Jesus met the woman at the well, He asked her for water -- not only because He was hot, tired, and thirsty -- but also because He could look at her and know that she also was hot, tired, and thirsty on a spiritual level.  He needed water on a human level; she needed it on a spiritual level. 

If we think that that incident described in the fourth chapter of John's Gospel happened only one time to one person, we are sadly missing something.  What Jesus did 2000 years ago, He does today:  He asks us for something that He might give us something else.

In yesterday's paper, there was an article about three 13-year old boys in Mississippi who were hospitalized for problems caused by muscle breakdown after trying out last week for the basketball team at their middle school.  The condition is called rhabdomyolysis, which develops by using the muscle so much that it begins to break down.  As proteins released by the muscle cells begin to clog the kidneys, urine turns brown, like cola.  The legs begin to swell, and the kidneys drop to 30% of normal function. 

You might wonder what this condition has to do with seeking the kingdom of God.  But the truth is that what happened to these boys who wanted so badly to make the team happens to all of us spiritually, on a much slower level.  We want so badly to succeed at life that we engage physically and mentally without "drawing apart for a rest" spiritually that we begin to fall apart, first on a mental and emotional level, and then physically also.  Some of us never recognize the importance of the spiritual component to both give us energy and to hold together all the other parts of our lives. 

Jesus recognized that we "need all these things" when He told the disciples to "seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you."  He did not deny that we need food, clothing, shelter, etc.  But striving after all these things without seeking the kingdom will only develop rhabdomyolsis of the spirit.  Eventually, we slow down on a psychic level, then on the physical level, and we experience burn-out; we can hardly move, just as those boys could hardly move physically.

The one thing we have to give God is our time and attention.  He wants to fill us spiritually with living water, with the divine energy -- but He cannot do anything if we keep charging ahead with our own plans for the day, for the month, for the year without slowing down to connect with Him and with our own souls:  What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?

We were not designed to die.  Science has never discovered the "death gene" in our DNA.  We were designed to live and to repair the damage done to our bodies by disease, injury, and wear.  But our energy, our health, our life comes from above; it is the Gift of God given to us in the Holy Spirit.  The one thing we have to give God is our time and attention -- what we call prayer, or openness to what God wants to do in us, give us, show us, teach us. 

Our energy can be renewed by the Spirit; our lives can be held together by the Spirit.  Psalm 1 tells us that the man whose delight is in the instruction of the Lord "...is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in due season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers." 

The man/woman who sits daily with the Lord to receive His instruction "...will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint....He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak" (Is. 40:29-31).

The Lord will guide you always;

he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land

and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring whose waters never fail (Is. 58:11).

 

Those who seek first the kingdom of God turn to Him daily, seeking His strength, His direction, His instruction for them.  Their first priority is not the list of things to do, but rather the kingdom of God within them.  Then everything else will fall into place.

The Spirituality of Everyday Life

...for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

 

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe, as you hold out the word of life....(Phil. 2: 13-16).

 

When my children were very small, I often heard from the pulpit that parents were their child's first teachers, something that I kind of worried about.  I did not know exactly how to go about "teaching" my children about the faith.  Should we have family prayer time?  Family bible study?  Did I need a book to help me get started?

 

Now, with the perspective of age and more biblical knowledge, I think it is true that parents are the child's first teachers, but not in the formal sense of 'teaching.'  Now that I know the passage from Philippians above -- it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose,-- and now that I understand prayer as opening our lives to the action of God, I more understand the "spirituality of everyday life."

 

Most of us understand prayer as something we do, but actually, prayer is allowing God to enter and to "do" in our everyday lives.  Prayer is allowing ourselves to be bathed daily in the goodness and love of God, allowing it to flow over us, around us, in us, and through us.  As Paul tells the Philippians: "Do everything without complaining or arguing,....children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation...."  He does not tell us to go to Africa as missionaries or to do penance for our sins; he simply says that God will work in us to will and to act according to His purpose for us.  I do love this, for it means that as we go about our daily lives with openness to God, He will "guide our feet into the way of peace," as I wrote a few days ago.

 

In Opening to God, David Brenner says that prayer is "resting in the reality of our being-in-God. This is why Teresa of Avila says that the important thing in prayer is not to think much but to love much.  Prayer that does not begin to sink to the heart will inevitably become arid and frustrating. However, when we allow prayer to begin to seep from our minds to our depths, it gives God access to those depths.  Then, and only then, can prayer spontaneously emerge as God's action in us.  And when it does, prayer becomes the overflow of the living waters that spring up from our depths."

 

To bring this reflection back to being our child's first teacher, I now understand prayer like my daily bath or shower -- the one thing in my day as a mother that allowed me to return refreshed and renewed to feeding, caring for, attending to my children.  In a bath or shower, nothing is covered up; nothing looks better than it is -- we allow the water to flow over us, warts and all, renewing, energizing, relaxing, draining away the pressures and failures of the moment.  In all my life, a bath has never become boring or ho-hum.  No matter how many times I have bathed or showered, each time is newly refreshing and anointing.  I emerge from a bath or shower with the dirt gone, cleansed, renewed, ready for the next task -- or ready for sleep.  And prayer is like that too.  It never grows old; each day, it readies me for the next thing, or for sleep.  It allows God into the depths of my soul, where He can cleanse me, relax me, ease my sorrow and pain, and energize me for the day.

 

Yesterday, I wrote about the "fire" that Jesus came to cast upon the earth, and I promised to write about the universal characteristics of that fire whenever it emerges in history.  I have not forgotten that promise, but it seems to me that each morning, my plans are not nearly as important as what the Holy Spirit has planned for the day.  As He bathes me in His love, my plans often get shifted to the back burner.  That is what I mean by the "spirituality of everyday life."  And that is why I now believe that "formal teaching" of our children is not nearly as important as letting them experience the flow of the Spirit in and around our daily lives, letting them know that "...it is God who works in us to will and to act according to His purpose" for us.  We may not at the moment understand His purpose, but we allow Him daily to bathe us in His love and action in our lives.

Fire!!!!

I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and what would I but that it be kindled! (Luke 12:49).

 

Fire!  What is Jesus talking about here?  Have we seen the fire He came to cast on the earth?

 

Jesus followed the statement above by saying that first he had a baptism to undergo -- before the fire could be released -- and He was impatient to complete the baptism, terrible as it was to be.  Before men could catch fire, the old man, the Adam-man, had to die.  Sin lives in our DNA, at the cellular level, and it is passed from one generation to the next.  Our natural tendency is always and everywhere to pull away from the Spirit of God and to go our own way.  There is no remedy, no "patching up" of human nature.  We can put a nice façade on our evil inclinations, but we cannot cure them forever. 

 

Part of the problem 40-50 years ago with clergy who were pedophiles was that psychologists assured the bishops that these men had been "cured" after undergoing treatment.  And the bishops believed them.  Now it is said that the bishops were covering up for the sins of the priests -- and in some cases, I'm sure that was true.  For many bishops, however, they were deluded by psychology and victims themselves of modern science.  An alcoholic is never cured; he is always in recovery.  A pedophile is likewise not "cured;" he can only be removed from danger to others.  Now we know.

 

Even in children, we see the "natural" tendency to be cruel to others, to make fun of those who are different, to try to be superior to others.  Education helps, but what we really need is a new nature, one created in the image of God, one that wants to be like God.  We will all, presumably, be perfected in heaven, after death --- but the kingdom of God on earth requires that perfection to begin now, despite our natural inclinations to do evil.  Jesus took human nature onto Himself, bringing it to the cross in order that those who are in Him would die with Him.  Then He rose again with a new nature created in the spirit and image of God, a nature no longer subject to the DNA of our fathers -- as Scripture says, "the empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers."  Now, we are free from evil inclinations and disobedience; we are free to be responsive to the Spirit of our Heavenly Father dwelling in us.

 

This is the "fire" Jesus came to cast on the earth.  Jesus did tell the Apostles to "go into the whole world, teaching them all these things....," but He also told them not to depart Jerusalem until they had received "the Gift of the Father."  He knew they would need more than human nature, human effort, to spread the Gospel.  They would need the "fire" of the Holy Spirit working with them.  When we read the Acts of the Apostles, we see the explosion of power that accompanied their preaching -- some have said the book should be called "The Acts of the Holy Spirit in the early church."

 

Across the centuries, whenever the church has grown weak and ineffective, whenever evil has become rampant, whenever people have been in bondage to Satan or oppressed by evil, when the fires of faith have been almost extinguished, the Spirit of God has seen a rekindling on the earth.

 

There are certain universal characteristics of the renewed fire cast upon the earth.  Tomorrow, I will list these characteristics.

 



He Values My Personhood

What does God want for us?  So many people I know are afraid of God, afraid to approach Him, because they are afraid that, if they do, He will send them to Africa as missionaries -- or worse still -- begin to accuse them of crimes committed in weakness and ignorance.

It was because of this fear that Jesus came, "the exact image of the invisible God, (Col. 1:15) ...in whom all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Col. 2:9).  Jesus came to rescue us from the dominion of darkness by revealing to us the immense, insane, love of God for us.  He always and everywhere reflected Who-God-Is toward us.  If we can keep our eyes focused on the way Jesus received all who came to Him, we will comprehend God's attitude toward us also.

No one ever needed to be afraid to come to Jesus, no matter how weak, how ignorant, how sinful.  He said, "He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty"(Jn.6:35), echoing in a way the passage from Isaiah:

 You have been a refuge for the poor,

a refuge for the needy in his distress,

a shelter from the storm

and a shade from the heat (25:4).

 

Who among us would not run to a God like this, if we could only believe it to be true?  Maybe we are not yet poor enough, needy enough, to want a refuge and a shelter.  Maybe we are not yet hungry or thirsty enough to want to be filled with the fullness of God's love and mercy toward us.  Jesus said, "I will never turn away anyone who comes to Me."  So why are we afraid to come to God, just as we are--not 'good' people, but needy people; not 'strong and sleek,' but weak and helpless?

 

The Lord sent Jonah to the Ninevites, an extremely cruel and insensitive tribe, because, as He said, "These people do not know their right hands from their left hands."  If YHWH could care for people who abused and tormented anyone not of their own tribe, could He not also care for us?  But the Ninevites were free to respond to the message of the Lord or to turn away.  They chose to respond and were blessed. 

 

As much as God loves us and wants fellowship with us, He will not intrude on our free will.  He appeals to us, but will not invade us.  The Holy Spirit never violates our free will; He, like all of the Trinity, has supreme respect for our personhood.  He will never take us further --ie, Africa -- than we are willing to go.  The Holy Spirit patiently waits to see how much welcome we will accord Him; how open we are to His help, so that through us, He can help others also (The Helper, p. 126).

 

When Jesus met the rich young ruler in the Gospel, He offered an invitation: "Go and sell what you have..."  Even though Jesus loved the young man, He left him free to follow or not.  We also, whenever we choose, can walk away. 

 

How much of the Holy Spirit are we willing to receive?  What limitations are we placing upon Him?  Here is Catherine Marshall's prayer to the Holy Spirit, in part:

 

Lord, thank you for always knocking on the door and never crashing it down.  Lord, Helper, it is my will to open the door wide to You.  Enter, Lord, and be my honored Guest.  What joy to welcome and receive You!  Amen.

Spirit of Practical Wisdom

In 1978, Catherine Marshall published her classic book on the Holy Spirit called The Helper.  To this day, I have not seen a book more simple or more clear about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Her title says it all:  the Holy Spirit is given to us as a "Helper," the very same word in Hebrew as is given to Eve in Genesis -- she was given to Adam as a 'helper,' one called to be at Adam's side, to be one with him in all of life's endeavors.

In the Book of Exodus, YHWH tells Moses that He has filled Betzalel "with the Spirit of God in practical-wisdom, discernment and knowledge in all kinds of workmanship" in order that the "Holy Place," the "Tent of Meeting" might be built (31:2-3).  In the New Testament, the Spirit of Jesus has now been given to the believer that our lives and our hearts may be the new "Tents of Meeting" with the Holy God.  While we tend to think of the Holy Spirit as teaching and guiding us in spiritual matters, the truth is that He is also ---very much so -- the Spirit of Practical Wisdom.

Recently, someone said to me, "Every time I sit down to pray or meditate, I start thinking of all the things I need to get done that day.  Isn't that terrible that I get so distracted?"  I told her that I keep a notepad beside me during prayer time for that very reason -- but rather than seeing all those thoughts as distractions, I understand them to be the Voice of God's Spirit putting my day in order and reminding me of all the things I need to take care of.  What a peaceful, joyful approach to my day, to understand that The Helper is beside me, shepherding and showing me the direction in which I must go!

And He is most practical!  This morning, because my day was so full, I asked to be shown what I must do today.  And the very first thing that came to mind was, "Clean out the litter box!"  Does God have a sense of humor or what?  In the section of Catherine Marshall's book called "How the Helper Meets My Everyday Needs," she has a chapter on each of the following topics: 

• He Saves Me Time
• He Guides My Actions
• He Protects Me
• He is with Me in Everyday Situations
• He is My Remembrancer
• He Gives Me New Desires
• He Changes My Undesirable Habit Patterns

I first read Marshall's book in the 70's.  Today, I could write my own chapter on each of her titles.  I have come to experience personally every one of the aspects of The Helper that Marshall herself wrote about.  In the next few days, I will write about some of the ways I experience The Helper's action in my daily life. 

When YHWH says in the Book of Genesis,"It is not good for man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him," He was talking about Eve, who in joining Adam became "one flesh" (literally, "a new creation") with him.  From that time on, Adam was no longer one, but two-in-one-flesh.  The Holy Spirit is given to us for the same reason; we are no longer alone, but now two-in-one-flesh.  The Spirit of the Almighty has become the Senior Partner in the enterprise of our life--and He will never abandon or forsake us.  Let us greet Him each day as we greet our spouses, knowing that we are in this life together, each one helping the other.

Guide My Feet....

In the western world, we tend to want to be guided by our minds.  Our inheritance from Greek culture is rationalism; we tend to override the inner core, the heart, in favor of whatever is going on in our heads. Of course, we do not want to send our minds on vacation and live as unenlightened fools, but I am struck by how many times Scripture refers to our "feet" instead of our minds.

Mary Magadelen began her journey as a disciple of Jesus by washing His feet.  She did not ask for detailed explanations of His faith; she did not need rational proofs of the existence of God -- she wept over His great love for her, the sinner she knew herself to be, and she kissed and washed His feet.  Although we like to think of ourselves as rational creatures, we "have all gone astray, like sheep," and wandered from the path of truth.  We get ourselves into trouble -- even thinking our way into danger -- and find that we are stuck.  No amount of "thinking" will deliver us from the evil we find ourselves in; we need a shepherd to rescue us from the paths we have taken in life:

My eyes are ever on the Lord,

for only He will release my feet from the snare (Ps. 25:15).

 

I think our journey toward light and truth begins with a single step toward Jesus.  It does not begin in the mind, although often a single ray of light turns our feet in a different direction, and we begin to walk out of the darkness into the light.  What sustains our journey, however, is step-by-step guidance along the way -- as with the journey of Abraham -- not necessarily understanding where we are going or how we will get there.

 

When the two disciples of John heard him say, "Behold, the Lamb of God," they began to follow Jesus.  Now, that was not much of a rational explanation on which to base the direction of their feet that day.  In fact, it was no explanation at all -- all they knew was that John, whom they loved and respected, had eyes only for Jesus.  So they began to walk after Jesus; when Jesus turned and saw them, He asked them what they wanted.  Again, they did not ask for theological explanations or rational arguments; they simply wanted to know where He was staying.  "Come and see," was Jesus' answer to them.  Come and See.  The journey toward discipleship begins with a single step -- Walk toward Me; I will do the rest.

 

I love Psalm 18, and I return again and again to ponder its words:

 

It is God who arms me with strength

and makes my way perfect.

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;

he enables me to stand upon the heights.....

 

You give me your shield of victory

and your right hand sustains me;

you stoop down to make me great.

You broaden the path beneath me,

so that my ankles do not turn.

 

And Psalm 37:  "The Lord delights in the way of the man whose steps he has made firm;

though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand" (vv.23-24).

 

And finally, Ps. 40:

I waited patiently for the Lord;

he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock

and gave me a firm place to stand (vv. 1-2).







 



The most wonderful part of being a "sheep" in the sheepfold of Jesus Christ is that we do not have to  "understand" what He is doing; we may not know where we are going; we may not know how to get there, but we do know and trust our Guide, that He knows the Way and will infallibly guide us to the Path of Righteousness.  God can neither deceive nor be deceived, and He has promised us to lead us in the way of Truth.  All we have to do is to keep walking after the Shepherd Who goes before us.

 



Next Post on Aug. 13

Like Water in the Desert

Draw close to God, and He will draw close to you.

 

If we want to know God, the only way to know Him is to draw close to Him.  Theologians and philosophers can tell us what God is like, but they cannot get us close to Him.  Jesus came for one reason -- to establish the kingdom of His Father by making Him known to mankind.  Reading the Gospel of John 7 times makes it clear to us that Jesus wants us to know the Father for ourselves.  He wants to give us water in the desert of our lives; He wants "living water" to spring up to eternal life deep within us -- and, as I quoted yesterday from Jn. 17:  this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

 

Always, again and again, I watch people draw close to God in times of trouble and distress, but then when the pressure eases, they pull away from Him again.  I suppose this is human nature, to be independent whenever we can, and to be dependent on God when our own resources fail.  But here's the thing -- even though we can go without water for a few days, even our bodies tell us how dependent we are on water.  Without it, all our organs shrivel up and eventually shut down.

 

It is the same with our souls.  We may think we can operate for a time without the living water that Jesus said He would give us, but we don't realize how parched and lifeless we become without the renewing of our spirits:

 

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God? (Ps. 42).

 

In Psalm 22, which begins, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" the speaker cries out, "My strength is dried up like a potshard, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth..."  Jesus took upon Himself our human condition of withdrawing from God and experiencing the slow death of spiritual dehydration -- a condition that eventually also will affect the body.

 

In stark contrast to the 'drying up" of our souls is Psalm 23:

 

The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside still waters,

he restores my soul.

 

Who would not want this kind of Shepherd?  Who does not desire to lie down in green pastures and beside the still waters of peace and kindness?  In the Book of Revelations, the One Who has overcome the world and who now sits on the Great Throne in heaven says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.  To him who is thirsty, I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life (21:6). 

 

All that Jesus asks of us is that we be thirsty for Life and for God Himself.  He will do everything else necessary for us -- because He is the beginning and the End of our spiritual growth and development.  It begins with the Father sending His Light into our hearts, and it ends with Jesus presenting us as gifts to His Father, "spotless and without blemish."  It is not hard to be thirsty for God, and once we begin to taste of the living water He gives us, nothing else can ever satisfy our souls. 

 

Once we begin to drink from the spring of water welling up to eternal life, as Jesus promised the woman at the well, something else begins to take place in us.  In Chapter 7 of John, Jesus cried out in a loud voice:  If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.  Not only do we drink from the Rock to quench our own thirst, but as we become filled with the Holy Spirit, the living water flows out from us to those around us, like water in a desert.

 

Come, Holy Spirit, fill us with the fire of your love and the living water like streams in the desert!