WELLS... DRINKING... AND GOLD...

“Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Jesus is teaching the Samaritan woman something about wells... and spiritual life, a lesson made harder to follow in the old KJV. Let’s deconstruct this verse to see if we can find any gold nuggets of truth:

The first “drinketh” is in the present participle expressing continuous action, and the second “drinketh” is in the aorist subjunctive expressing simple punctiliar action, speaking of the fact of the action at a point in time: “Whoever keeps on drinking of this water will thirst again, but whoever takes a drink of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.” The reason one drink of eternal life satisfies without repeated drinking is given in the context by the two Greek words translated “well.” “Well”, as in Jacob’s well, is from the Greek word phrear and means a pit dug in the earth into which water seeps, and becomes stagnant and brackish. “Well”, as in God’s well, is from the Greek word pege and means a perpetual spring, always fresh, overflowing and alive.

Continual drinking from the wells of this life in this world will never quench the soul’s thirst for heart satisfaction, but one drink of eternal life satisfies forever. Just one drink of eternal life... salvation, becomes, in and of itself, a supernatural spring, always alive, refreshing and satisfying to the person in which it flows. But there’s more: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit ...” The Holy Spirit is the well... the implanted eternal spiritual fountain of God, the water that instantly and forever satisfies the thirsting heart. And... God’s well is meant to be shared... it flows outward. And “river” here is the Greek word potamos, a swollen overflowing torrent... a flood, Saints are meant to be ready sources of Living Water... flooding everything in their path...

Better translations, such as the NKJV bring some of this out, but you won’t find the gold without diligently digging...

“FLOODS OF LIVING WATER”

 (Jn. 4:12-14, 7:37-39)

GOD’S IN OUR SANDBOX

My dear wife Frankie has been having a difficult stressful time at work, so she prayed for God to give her guidance while on her way to work Thursday. When she arrived at work a pastor in another department sent her an e-mail quoting 1 Thess. 5:18: “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” During the day she received three more e-mails from people in different departments with a paraphrase of this passage, “In all things give thanks.”  Friday Frankie was in St Louis at the Science Center. Upon entering a man... a total stranger, stopped her and said, “In all things give thanks.” For anyone out there who is struggling and thinks God has deserted their sandbox... think again! These five people all independently chose this passage to share with Frankie, and four paraphrased it the exact same way, all at the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Work is still difficult and stressful; the problem hasn’t been fixed yet. And we don’t really know how God will intervene. But somehow, knowing God is right there in our sandbox... real-time, makes everything bearable. The clearest personal promise of God in scriptures is “Fear not, for I am with you.” This point is documented with some variation in over thirty scripture passages, normally in the Imperative Indicative, a command followed by an undergirding statement of fact: “Fear not”, the command, followed by “For I am with you”, the statement of fact: “Fear not, for I am with you.” Being thankful during adversity demonstrates our trust in the God who is always right there with us, working our things... our difficulties, into good in accordance with His divine purpose. If we look closely we will see His footprints in the sand... feel His breath on our shoulder...

“IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS ...

FOR I AM WITH YOU”

KISSIN SAINTS

Ever notice how saints will choke on a gnat in emphasizing insignificant shades of doctrine than swallow a camel ignoring very clear commands of scripture. Take for instant the command, “Greet one another with a holy Kiss.” Deconstructing this verse:

* “Greet” is the Greek aspazomai, a greeting which means, contextually, “to embrace.”

* “One Another” is identified as “The Brethren”, being substituted as such in one passage. 

* “Holy”: This adjective is spoken of those who are purified and sanctified by the influences of the Holy Spirit and included in the Christian community, assumed of all who profess the Christian name. Here holy qualifies its noun kiss as a sacred Christian act, the pledge of Christian affection. 

* “Kiss” is the Greek philema which means “a kiss, a token of love and affection, by implication, on the cheek.

* Peter further clarifies this command by adding the phrase “Of Love”: “Embrace the brethren with a holy kiss of love.” This “Love” is the Greek agape, the love which is of and from God, which God lavishly pours into the willing hearts of His children. But this agape love is not to be a stagnant inward directed pool but rather an outwardly directed river of living water. When we greet our brethren with an embrace and holy kiss of love we are demonstrating our willingness to live out Christ’s second Great Commandment, to love others as we love our Self.  

This verse appears five times in the New Testament, always in the aorist imperative, a command. The God of love is determined to force His children to learn to love His way, to demonstrate sibling affection, for we saints are brothers and sisters in a greater sense than any human relationships. We just don’t act like it, and don’t want to act like it... do we?  And remember what Jesus said: “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” The first Great Commandment, to love God, is imbedded in the second... we love God by loving others... Selah. God tests our hearts with simple truths like this command; the force of our resistance to obedience is a measure of the truth’s importance. We can debate and rationalize... and eventually swallow the camel, but we will, one and all, give an account as to why we chose to ignore such a clear and direct love command of God’s word. Some are probably sorry they read this...

 “AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE”

(Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Peter 5:14; Matt. 22:37-39)

LIFE’S HURDLES

When we understand the scope and breath of God’s sovereignty, we will know beyond any doubt it is impossible for saints to be a victim of their circumstances. Our Father, has placed a protective hedge... think Job, about each of His children preventing all attacks of the enemy except those, which in His great wisdom, He allows for our conformation. “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity”? The Hebrew indicates these actions, “good” and “adversity”, are a unity and cannot be disconnected. Longfellow had it right, “Into every life a little rain must fall.”

All of God’s children are predestined to be conformed into the image, the very nature, of Jesus. The biblical phrases new creation, new man, new nature, inward man, renewed mind, etc., speak to this transformation process. This lifelong molding and shaping of our heart takes, at times, great motivating pressures. In a very real sense we are clay on the potting wheel of life being molded and shaped by our Heavenly Potter’s hands, the circumstances of life the pressure of His fingers.

God, the great architect, engineers our circumstances so that we can partake of His divine nature through obedience. Our Savior learned obedience through the things He suffered. Likewise our obedience must be tempered in the fire of perseverance. Our Lord never said our life would be easy, but he did say He would never leave us alone. “Yet in all these things (i.e., adversity and affliction) we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” What the enemy means for evil God turns into His purposeful good, as He brings forth the nature of Christ in us... birthed in our adversity. Obedience, even in the smallest detail of our life, has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. Far from victims, life’s hurdles are Grace-Builders, in disguise, enabling us to shuck-off all the false loves and allure of life in this world, enabling us to become truly Christlike...

GRACE-BUILDERS

(Job 1:10-12, 2:10; Is. 64:8; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 5:8; 1 Peter 4:1, 12-13;James 1:2-4; Rom. 5:3-5; Rom. 8:37)  

LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS

“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Better interpreted: “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.” Our faithfulness to God is inexorably linked to our love for God in this conditioned statement which is neither a command, request, nor exhortation, but rather a statement of fact. Faithfulness to God is a product of our love for God. Our obedience flows from and demonstrates our love, and is directly proportional to our love. So, our struggle with sin... disobedience... missing God’s mark, is a measure of our love for God. The more we struggle the weaker our love.

“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.”  Abiding in God’s love is inexorably linked to our faithfulness to God in this conditioned blessing. Abiding in God’s love is a product of our obedience. “Abide’, the Greek meno, is a powerful word meaning to dwell in, continually remain in... literally, to take up residence in the love of God. Residing within the love of God will fertilize and grow our love for Him – “We love Him because He first loved us” – which in return will strengthen our faithfulness. “My commandments”, as spoken by the Lord, means the commandments embodied in His words, and, by extension, in all New Testament revelation birthed in our Lord’s ministry. This “IF” is a big IF, making faithfulness essential to the day-to-day experience of God’s agape love embracing our life. If we are adhering firmly and devotedly to God’s word we can expect His love to lavishly overflow our hearts... awesome...

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” Better interpreted: “For this is the love for God, that we keep His commandments.” The very law of God’s being is love... this is the essence of the gospel. Love -- the divine agape love produced in the heart of the yielded saint by the Holy Spirit -- is what impels faithfulness to our Lord. As we behold the Cross... the beacon of Christ’s love for us, the Holy Spirit lavishly pours God’s divine love into our hungry heart, and we become His love, reciprocating His love back to Him... fulfilling the first and greatest commandment... Loving God.  In His... now our out flowing love we find strength for faithfulness becoming “more than conquerors”, Agape-Dwellers abiding in His inseparable... immeasurable... unconditional love.

LOVING GOD IS NOT AN OPTION

(John 14:15; 15:10; 1John 4:19; 5:3; Rom. 8:35-39)