Blow The Damn

“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)” (Joh 7:38-39 AV)

 

I think there is a lot of damning up going on!  Jesus states if we have accepted Christ as our Savior, then Holy Spirit will reside within but work outwardly towards others.  Specifically speaking, the water that flows is living water suggesting the outward working of the Holy Spirit is to share life.  The ministry of the Holy Spirit is definitely an inward one.  The Holy Spirit convicts.  The Holy Spirit teaches.  The Holy Spirit encourages.  The Holy Spirit reminds.  The Holy Spirit comforts.  The Holy Spirit reproves.  The Holy Spirit intercedes.  And the Holy Spirit gives gifts as He will.  These ministries of the Holy Spirit are beneficial to the one who has His indwelling.  But the ministry of the Holy Spirit is not meant to be hoarded.  The Savior says that if we are saved, then the rivers of life by the Holy Spirit flow from our inner being.  If we are saved the work of the Holy Spirit also includes a deep and transformative desire to see others come to the Savior.  If our concern for our lost friends, neighbors, and fellow human beings simply does not exist nor is overflowing, then we have built a damn!  The river is stopped.  The river doesn’t flow.

Water wars of the old west are a thing of legend.  It doesn’t take many episodes of Cheyanne, Gunsmoke, or Ponderosa before the main theme running through the story involves a water dispute.  In the old west, water was and still is essential, yet hard to come by.  As cattlemen grew their pastures and herds, they attempted to control all water that ran through their estate and keep competitors from receiving any.  In other cases, the rancher would divert a river or stream onto his land and shut out all other ranchers downstream.  In one of the most famous old west disputes, the Lincoln County Wars started as a feud between rival mercantilists.  Both attempted to put the other out of business.  Selling dray goods to those who were coming to New Mexico to settle and ranch, each wanted to be the sole supplier of goods to the territory.  This war spilled over into water wars.  As each side gathered support from ranchers and others, there was a concerted effort to eradicate all competition.  Water is essential.  For the life of rancher and cattle.  If water was unfairly diverted, those suffering loss would take it rather seriously.  It was not out of the ordinary for neighbors to kill their acquaintances and feel justified in doing so.  The federal government got involved and passed laws that would treat most running water as a resource of the government with no private ownership or rights to it.

Like the rivers and streams of the flat lands, it belongs to everyone.  If we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it is His natural desire to use us to share the life of Christ with others.  If the news of the glorious gospel of Christ is not leaving our lips, this is deliberate.  There is no excuse.  The Holy Spirit wants to use us.  He wants the life-giving message of grace to spew from our mouths.  These rivers of living water are not to be diverted for our own use.  They are not to go forth as a trickle.  A river is generally consistent and always flowing.  It may rise and fall because of the weather, but by and large, it flows continually.  If it is not, we have damned it up.  In the old west, they would place dynamite at the foot of the impediment.  It would blow the damn to the sky!  That is what we need.  We need holy dynamite that will break apart our damn of silence.  It needs to be drastic.  It needs to be permanent.  Enough hoarding the ministry of the Holy Spirit to ourselves.  The river must flow!

Live Life

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (Joh 6:63 AV)

 

This statement agrees with a previous statement found in the fourth chapter.  Jesus told His disciples His meat was to do the will of the Father.  In reference to taking a meal, Jesus teaches His disciples it is far more important to reach those without Christ than it is to eat.  In the previous statement, we see the duty of ministry to the Lost compared to the physical necessities of life.  In our verse above, Jesus teaches plainly that a quality and quantity of life is tied more directly to the spiritual than it is to the physical.  In this passage, the LORD is feeding the multitudes that had gathered to hear him preach.  He performed a miracle in that He fed them with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish.  Thousands were fed with barely enough to feed one.  The chapter also is the scriptures wherein Jesus presents Himself as the bread of life that has come from heaven.  He is superior to the manna which Moses fed the children of Israel.  That bread only fed the body and the body would still perish.  The bread of Jesus springs up into life – eternal life.  The life Jesus promises is far more than eternal life.  It is spiritual life.  Spiritual life is far more superior and needful than physical life.  The flesh profits nothing.  It is the spirit that prevails.

Many years ago, I drove a school bus for special needs children.  These children ran the gamut from emotional or mental disorders to physical disabilities.  There were a few that were slower than most children their age.  There was no instability among them.  They were merely more simple-minded than most their age.  I transported many who were wheelchair-bound.  Others were autistic.  On the last day of school prior to Christmas break, I picked them up from school, and to a T, each expressed joy and happiness.  They had candy and presents from one another and their school.  They had party hats, bags of things, and blow whistles.  A few had balloons.  Most had crafts they had made for the holidays.  What was amazing is the life of the party was not dampened by their physical or mental challenges.  Their handicap did not slow them down.  They still knew how to live.  They didn’t look at the healthy children and resent them.  They had their own fun and appreciated it far more than those without challenges.  They knew how to live despite their handicaps.

When we are miserable because of the physical nature of our lives, we have not learned the spiritual is our source of life.  The bread which the thousands ate would come through the draught.  Their bodies would consume what they needed and then discharge the rest.  This happens day in and day out.  No matter how healthy they ate their bodies would eventually fail.  Moses’ manna could not keep them alive.  Old age would still claim their flesh.  If we live in the temporal, we will not live at all.  We will be consumed by it.  We must live in the spiritual.  That is where true life is.  This is where we find quantity and quality of life.  The spiritual is the key to a contented and fulfilled life.  And this spiritual is centered on the person of Jesus Christ.

Our Responsibility in Deliverance

“Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.” (Zec 2:7 AV)

 

To put this in context, Zechariah is writing to the Jews who would eventually return to Jerusalem.  Israel was sent to a pagan kingdom because they rejected God and His law in favor of the pagan gods around them.  The LORD sent them away as captives for over seventy years.  Babylon was the nation that conquered Judah and Benjamin.  A few decades earlier, the ten northern tribes were taken captive by Assyria who had fallen to Babylon.  Now, the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon.  Under their king, Cyrus, they were decreed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild both the temple and walls of that city.  Ezra and Nehemiah are two historical books detailing this project.  This decree opened the door for the return of the Jews to their land.  They were not forced to go.  They were allowed to go.  The choice to be delivered had to be their own.  The same was true of Israel when they left Egypt.  They had to choose to follow Moses.  They were not forced to.  In my reading this morning, I also read of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda.  Jesus asked him an interesting question.  This man had come to the miracle waters of the pool for thirty-eight years.  Every day he sought out someone to put him in the waters so that he might be healed.  Jesus asked him, “Wilt though be made whole?”  In other words, even though you are there and you seem to indicate that you want to be healed, do you really want to be?

No one can force us to get well.  God won’t either.  If we are set by a besetting sin, our faith is weak, or we face other trials of life, the LORD is not going to force us to overcome something we do not wish to overcome.  The desire for deliverance has to be there to the point we are willing to participate in it.  This is a principle of life.  It starts at a very young age.  We learn to walk because our parents put us in situations where we learn to walk.  They do not do the walking for us.  At first, they may hold us up so that we might not fall.  They may hold us up so that we can figure out how our legs, feet, and toes are supposed to work.  Eventually, we have to make an effort in our own strength.  A parent might sit us down next to a coffee table or other prop.  We lift ourselves up and stand with the support of the prop.  With outstretched arms, they coax us to come.  Sometimes, they stand with extended arms just a few inches away.  Yet when we take those steps, they back up to maintain that same distance.  When we begin to fall, they stop and we regain our balance.  Soon, with their assistance, we learn to walk.  But they do not force us to.

God is not going to do everything for us.  Not when we have within ourselves the ability to participate.  He will not carry us everywhere we need to go.  There is a painting called Foot Prints in the Sand.  It is sweet.  It is encouraging.  Sometimes, it is true.  But not all the time.  If the truth is known, more times than not these footprints remain, side-by-side.  His hand may hold us up when we falter, but He expects us to walk under the power He has given.  If we are stuck in our situation, it is not because of God.  He has opened the door.  It is our responsibility to respond.  It is our duty to deliver ourselves.

More Necessary Than Food

“In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” (Joh 4:31-35 AV)

 

Often, we separate the meat of Jesus from the harvest being white.  However, they are one and the same.  This passage concerns the woman and the well.  A Samaritan woman comes to Christ and Jesus reveals to her the need to trust Him as the Messiah.  He tells her exactly what she is most guilty of.  This causes her to realize the only way He could know these things is if He was indeed the Christ of God.  She is so excited she goes back into town to bring as many as would to come to Christ.  While she is away, the disciples wonder why He would talk to a Samaritan and if Jesus had taken meat.  They were sent into town for food and when they returned, pled with Jesus to eat a bit.  However, there were Samaritan coming that needed to be taught the glorious news of the gospel.  There would be time to eat later.  In other words, it is far more important to see the gospel is preached when given the opportunity than to eat a meal no matter how famished we are.

Hunger is powerful.  Hunger will cause you to do things you normally wouldn’t do.  Hunger may push you to eat something you have never eaten before.  Hunger may cause you to remove mold from a loaf of bread and eat a sandwich.  Hunger may cause you to go into the woods and shoot your own food, processes it, and cook it yourself.  Hunger may cause you to eat a bug taco and a state fair.  Hunger may push you to try ethnic food you normally wouldn’t touch.  Hunger may push you to eat things in the wild that would normally be mowed over or eaten by wild animals.  Hunger may push you to combine the limited ingredients you have at home that would never go together.  Hunger may compel you to eat something another left behind.  Hunger will do strange things to an otherwise reserved individual.  Hunger is a pain that compels the sufferer to action.  He or she cannot take the uncomfortable sensation of an empty stomach.  It must be satisfied.  There must be something to fill the empty void.  One cannot live with hunger for very long.  Something must quench that deep need.

Evangelism is far more important than our immediate needs.  Jesus looked at the victuals and the people coming and decided his hunger was minor when compared with the spiritual hunger of the people marching toward Him.  He saw a field white already unto harvest and chose to suffer the pain of temporary hunger than allow an opportunity to share the gospel escape.  That which was required of the body because of less importance than that which was a blessing to the soul.  One wonders how different our churches would look if every saint felt the same way.  One wonders if our pews would be fuller, if our choir lofts would have more voices, or if we needed larger classrooms if only soul-winning was more important than the basic needs of life.  Jesus surely thought so.  To Him, the gospel going to the lost was more important than His basic needs.

Get Too It

“Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded. And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the LORD, that was before the porch of the LORD.” (2Ch 15:7-8 AV)

I couldn’t help but notice the encouragement voiced by the prophet.  Judah and Benjamin allowed idols to seep into their culture.  It wasn’t pervasive.  It had come to Judah by way of Israel and as a threat to their spiritual welfare, was manageable.  The prophet uses the example of Israel in that she was far more idolatrous and had been for quite some time.  Yet, when they repented, God rescued and blessed them.  So, the encouragement here is for the king to take care of a small matter before it got really big.  Even though the prophet’s words did come with a warning, the warning was balanced with encouragement.  What I took away from this is our current situation in the world is not beyond God’s ability to do something.  It may seem large to most.  Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think our world would be ok with legalized murder and sodomy.  Not only legal but celebrated.  We live in a twisted world where that which is normal is termed as radical and that which is radical is thought of as normal.  If the rapture hasn’t happened yet, that means things are not as bad as they can and will get.  There is always something God can do.

I enjoy watching some of those wilderness reality shows.  I know, much of what you see is not as it might appear.  We watch these people surviving in adverse conditions and forget there is a filming crew behind the camera that doesn’t suffer as their subjects.  Yesterday, I was watching an episode of Mountain Men.  These men live in the wilderness and live off the land.  Some are in extreme wilderness conditions; others have some modern helps like fuel, modern equipment, etc.  One of the men had a small crab boat moored offshore.  Overnight, a severe storm came through had rolled that boat onto shore.  The boat was about twenty-five feet long with twin outboard motors.  Not a light boat by any imagination.  The cabin, electronics, and navigation were all crushed by the roll.  It lay upright, but a good forty feet from the water.  And it lay horizontal to the water’s edge.  He did not have any heavy equipment to right it and put it back in the water.  He was by himself.  One would think it a hopeless cause.  But this fella did not give up.  He used a system of jacks can buoys to turn the boat ninety degrees.  It was incredible.  The episode ended without showing the audience how he eventually would get it back in the water.  I am sure that he did.  I would have looked at the situation and thought it was too far gone to reclaim that boat.  But not this fella.  He put his arm to the grinding stone and figured out a way to make it happen.  This is what Asa did!

Sometimes, we are defeated before we even start.  The prophet instructs this king of a problem and a challenge.  Yet, he encourages.  He pumps the king up to motivate him to tackle an issue before it gets too big to overcome.  He gives a promise.  If the king will make an effort to overcome what lies before him, then God will bless that work and make it come to pass.  Perhaps we see a situation as insurmountable.  Maybe we see our situation as too big that even God cannot handle it.  It is like eating an elephant.  One bite at a time.  If we would simply apply ourselves, then God promises victory.  No sense in letting something get out of hand.  Get to it when you are aware of it.  Not when it screams for attention.  I am encouraged by the words of the prophet.  I appreciate his confidence in the LORD.  My takeaway is, if God believes in me, then I should attempt to do that which God asks and it will come to pass!

God's Contentment

“The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” (Zep 3:17 AV)

 

Something we must never forget!  We understand this promise is made to Israel and applies more to the time of their restoration under the rule of the Messiah.  But in general, it applies to all the saints of God.  God has not changed.  He is always what He always was and will be.  His heart has always been the same.  His interest in, and love towards, all those who call upon His name has never wavered.  There may be times He asks us to go through trials and troubles, but His love has not changed.  There may be times He requires we undergo correction, but that correction is an extension of His love.  The result is God singing.  Can you imagine?  The voice of God signing with the love and joy He has for His people.  What a sight!  We want to meditate upon His love.  More specifically, that He rests in it.

The Hebrew word for ‘rest’ is a very interesting one.  Because it is, many writers either avoid it, or have a variety of meanings for this word.  I think John Gill has the best explanation.  The word means to engrave.  The word also means to be silent.  To put it another way, the word means to be permanently (engraved) content (silent) in His love for His people.  The silence is not verbal or oral silence.  Obviously, the LORD sings with joy.  So, this silence is an attitude of heart that is content in His love for His people and ceases to exercise any conflicting emotions towards them.  In context, Zephaniah is referring to the restoration of Israel.  All correction is over.  All wars against the enemies of God cease.  The millennial reign of Christ will be peace and love between God and those who have put their trust in Him.  Nothing else competes with this love. 

Secluded vacations with your spouse are the bee’s knees.  They are the best.  Recently, I was asked about my dream vacation.  We talked about a cruise.  We talked about a site seeing trips like going out west to see the Grand Canyon or Yosemite.  We talked about revisiting Ireland.  We also entertained an adventure-type vacation like camping, fishing, or hunting.  All of this sounds great.  I wouldn’t turn down any of them.  But the one vacation that is dearest to my heart is a secluded island where the amenities were so far removed from where we were staying that bumping into other people would be extremely rare.  It would be a single-use bungalow on a secluded beach with no direct line of sight to another bungalow.  This beach would be totally ours.  That is right.  I would want my love to be with me.  Just me and her.  No one or nothing else.  No TV, no phones, no computers.  Just her and I alone with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one to see.  I want to rest in my love.  That is the ultimate vacation. 

 This is what God desires of us.  To have no other distractions between He and His people.  He will rest in His love.  In a world full of hate, distrust, victimization, and selfishness, it is hard to conceive of someone who desires to be content with nothing more than to love us.  We are accustomed to thinking love comes with obligation.  We are used to demands in exchange for love.  We are not used to someone loving us and being perfectly content in that love.  We are simply one of many things or people others love.  Not the sole love of Another’s heart.  Not with God!  He rests in His love.  He is perfectly content in showering us with love and nothing competes with that love.  He rests in His love!

Give Us Heartburn

“And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Lu 24:32 KJB)

 

What an incredible experience that must have been.  The two mentioned are not known by name.  What we do know is they stayed in Jerusalem long enough to hear the testimony of the women returning from the tomb and the testimony of the Apostles as they verified the event.  Apparently, these two had departed shortly thereafter and were on their way home.  The testimony of the women and the Apostles was not enough to convince them that Jesus was alive.  They still had doubts.  As Jesus meets them on this road he asked them about the meaning of their disposition.  They explained their relationship to the Messiah and were confused, saddened, and without direction.  This is when the LORD expounded unto them beginning with Moses all the scriptures concerning his death and resurrection.  To be taught directly by the Son of God had to be something.  To learn of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Christ from the one who authored them had to be an experience second to none.  The result was a burning of the heart.  There was a deep stirring as they learned of the significance of these truths and the fact they could be believed.  Perhaps they accepted the truth before sitting at meat with Jesus.  Perhaps they had saving faith there on that road but still couldn’t recognize the resurrected and glorified Christ.  Mary couldn’t.  She supposed him to be the gardener.  It was the ministry of the word to their hearts that had the greatest impact.  One wonders if we do or could have the same.

A quick study of what it means to be stirred in the heart as a fire is quite interesting.  The word means their heart “was set on fire; kindle; consume; burning; consume with fire”.  Jeremiah gives us a bit more understanding.   “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” (Jer 20:9 KJB)  The word of God should produce some stirring of the emotions that result in some kind of action.  When the saint or sinner reads the holy scriptures, there should be some kind of reaction.  There should be something that happens.  Fire is something that happens in an obvious way.  When these two listened to the word of God expounded by the very author who inspired it and fulfilled its words, there should have been a fire lit in their hearts.  There should be been something obvious that occurred.  This is the point of our passage.

We must ask ourselves how much the Spirit has stirred our hearts by the reading of the Word.  If not, then we must ask why not.  The two who were stirred lacked faith.  It is obvious that as the word of God worked in their hearts, their faith began to grow.  It was a yielding to the possibilities of the truths expounded that increased their weak faith.  As they surrendered to whatever or wherever the truth may lead, the Spirit worked on their hearts.  As they learned how much the word of God spoke of the passion and resurrection of Christ, their hearts were open to being stirred.  The same is true for us.  If we want our hearts to burn when we read the word of God, there is a yielding that must take place.  There is a desire to know that must be there.  There must be kindling present or there can be no fire.  There must be conditions in place that make a burning possible.  Rocks don’t burn.  If our hearts are like an adamant stone, there is no hope of burning.  We can examine our hearts to see if there is a desire for a deep stirring of emotions.  We can see if there might be impediments to that flame.  We can remove all distractions as one would block out the wind when lighting a match.  We can put in place a heart ready to burn and then continue on the road to Damascus until the inferno rages.  Do we suffer from heartburn?  Oh, for a heart that burns!