Living Water

On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from the heart of anyone who believes in me.’”
John 7:37-38

Today’s sermon did a wonderful job of explaining the background of this passage. To fully understand it, we have to understand what festival this verse refers to, so I’ll sum up what I know (some I knew before today, but I learned more during the sermon).

This was during the Feast of the Tabernacles (Tents), or the Festival of Booths, which was to celebrate and remember how the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt and through the desert. (Leviticus 23:33-44) Everyone came to Jerusalem for this week-long celebration, and “camped out” in tents the whole time. There was singing, dancing, many sacrifices, and many hours of worship in the tabernacle each day. Every evening the people lit torches to remember how the Lord appeared as a pillar of fire at night to the Israelites during their time in the desert. But the last day of the festival was the most sacred. One of the “big finale” ceremonies was the water-drawing ceremony to recognize that all “living” or fresh water comes from God: the priest would make the trek down to the river, where he filled a golden pitcher with fresh water (as compared to the stale, often diseased water in the man-made cisterns) and carried it back to the temple. While he was on his journey to and fro, the people (probably at least a half-million of them!) enthusiastically recited the hallel, which is Psalms 113 - 118. When they got to Psalm 118:25, they repeated it over and over. . .

“Lord save us! Lord, grant us success!”

Finally the priest would return, the shofar would blow, and the throng of people would become silent. The priest would hold the pitcher high, and speak about how the Lord had saved them, and ask the Lord to grant them success by sending his living water to them for their crops. He then poured the water out on the altar, and the people all began shouting and reciting the hallel again. (By the way, “hallel” + “Yahweh” = hallelujah! How cool is that!? But it’s more than our sometimes lame hallelujahs; theirs was truly worshipping with ALL you’ve got, both body and soul!)

Now let’s jump back to the verse at the beginning of this post. Although we don’t know this for a fact, our pastor thinks that when Jesus stands up and shouts these words, this must be at the only time the crowd of people would have been silent; it must have been when the priest stood with the pitcher of water held high. Everyone would have been shocked that Jesus “broke tradition” by speaking at this time. He spoke boldly, as only he could have done, about being this living water.

I think that we all choose the stale cistern water sometimes. Rather than choose the living water of Christ that truly quenches our “thirst”, we seek the things that we think will satisfy us. But nothing will fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts except God himself.

Who is your Timothy?

"The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."
2 Timothy 2:2

Timothy was a younger man than his mentor Paul, and had been an eager and willing student of all Paul had to teach him. He was fertile ground, because his faith had been taught to him from a very young age by his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5). Just as we all need a “Paul” (mentor) and a “Barnabas” (encourager), we also all need to have a Timothy: someone to pour ourselves into- someone to share whatever wisdom God has given us.

Once Timothy had learned from Paul, he was instructed to go teach others; he was to become a “Paul” himself, with other “Timothys” to instruct. I once heard someone compare us to sponges: a sponge can only soak up so much water. It must be wrung out and give that water to others before it can go back to soak up more water. We’re like that, too. We can soak up learning but at some point our capacity maxes out and we must go share that knowledge before we can come back to learn more. So we start out learning all we can, and then we go teach and mentor others.

For those of us who are parents, our children are Timothys for us. It is our responsibility as parents to instruct and mentor our children. In fact, I believe parenting is discipling. Just as Timothy was instructed my his mother and grandmother, we must instruct our children. “Teach [God's words] to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.” (Deuteronomy 11:19)

Even for those who are not parents, there are plenty of Timothys available. Whether you are very mature spiritually, or just a brand-spanking-new believer, you can find someone to mentor: anyone who is not as far along as you are in your walk with Christ, or perhaps someone who isn’t yet a believer at all.

Who is your Timothy? Your Paul? Your Barnabas?

Be Barnabas

“But Barnabas accepted Saul and took him to the apostles. Barnabas explained to them that Saul had seen the Lord on the road and the Lord had spoken to Saul. Then he told them how boldly Saul had preached in the name of Jesus in Damascus.” Acts 9:27

When a man named Joseph joined the disciples, he was called Barnabas, which means “son of exhortation and or encouragement.” To understand this verse above and to understand exactly what Barnabas did here, we have to remember the background of this story. Saul had been one of the absolute worse anti-Christian terrorists the world has ever known. He hunted them and had then killed. He had a part in stoning Stephen, the first of Jesus’ disciples to be martyred for his faith. Saul’s reputation was known far and wide. So when he showed up wanting to join the disciples, their wariness was very understandable! Sure, he had a story about a bright light and a voice from the heavens, but they figured this could just be an elaborate plot to infiltrate their group and have them all arrested and executed!

I’m not sure exactly how Saul and Barnabas met, but Barnabas believed his story. He believed in Saul, and spoke on his behalf, convincing the other disciples to welcome him. Barnabas stood up for Saul when no one else would. Most likely, this was a very encouraging and very humbling experience for Saul, after all he had done to persecute the Christians. Later, Saul became known as Paul, and was one of the mostly Godly men and powerful preachers who ever lived. And that was largely due to the encouragement he received from Barnabas.

We all need a Barnabas or two: someone to encourage us and stand by us; someone committed to Christ and to us. We all need to be Barnabas to others, too! For those of us who are married, our spouse should be one of the Barnabas relationships in our lives, but I think it’s essential to have some encouraging Christian frienships (with the same gender) as well. Recently a friend told me she considers me a “life-giver” - that is one of the very best compliments I have ever received, but it’s also a lovely way to say that I encourage her. I pray that I continue to be a Barnabas for her and others, and I am thankful I have great girlfriends and a wonderful husband to be encouragers to me as well!

Be Imitators

“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 11:1

Our Bible study class has been focusing on growing in our relationship with Christ. Last week, we talked about relational discipleship: investing in the spiritual growth of others. There are three main relationships every believer needs: a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy (or a few of each). The above verse is about the Paul in our lives.

Paul was an imitator of Christ. He strived to be like Jesus, and although he was still a flawed and sinful human, I think he came closer to that goal than most of us do! In this verse, he is boldly telling his fellow Christians– including us –to follow his example, because he was following Christ’s example. I think he understood the difficulty we sometimes have with trying to be like Christ, since Christ is not a tangible, touchable man standing before us. Yes, we can learn about him through prayer and through studying the Bible, and he is indeed always with us, but it is harder to imitate someone we cannot literally see and touch. So Paul sets an example for us.

Our teacher likened our spiritual maturity to climbing a cliff (not something I plan to do in real life!). We are all tethered together, and we all depend upon each other to reach the top. You need that person who has already climbed higher to help you continue your climb as well. We all need a Paul in our lives: a mentor. We all need someone who is farther along in their walk with Christ to help us grow in our own. I am blessed with a few Pauls in my own life. Do you have someone like that in your life? If not, I encourage you to seek someone who can be a Paul to you.

(Tomorrow’s post will be about the Barnabas we all need.)

Go Make Disciples

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

I admit that I have trouble with this. When I think of evangelizing, I have visions of televangelists with big hair and fake tears. “Churchy” lingo makes me cringe. And if it makes me, a church-going Christian cringe, then how must it make the un-churched person feel? I have some un-churched friends, even a very atheist friend (but I’m still praying for her!) and I know as soon as Christianese enters conversation, they send up a big concrete wall and none of it gets through to them.

But for a long time, all I knew were the churchy words. I think it takes a lot more understanding to “get” the big concepts that the Bible teaches, and then to put them in our own words. We have to make it a natural part of conversation. The way we talk when God is the topic of conversation shouldn’t sound significantly different from the way we talk about any topic. I don’t mean to be irrevrent about it, but we shouldn’t suddenly switch gears to “sound holy” when we speak of the Bible, or our relationship with Christ. I have finally realized that it takes doing it– actually talking about Christ, and about my relationship with him– to become comfortable with it. If I feel uncomfortable talking about it, that will show in conversation, and I’ll most likely end up making the other person uncomfortable, too. And that sure won’t make them want to know Christ.

What I am trying to do is to become so comfortable talking about Christ that my enthusiasm about life with him will come shining through. I want to live my life in a way that glorifies him. I want to live joyfully, so that those who know me (but don’t yet know Christ) will want to know what my “secret” is. And when they ask, or when the opportunity comes for me to bring it up, I want to talk about Jesus in a way that makes them want to get to know him, too. Without “preaching” at them or thumping a Bible. (That part can come later.)

The other day, I finally watched the “Cardboard Testimony” video I’ve heard about from friends. If you haven’t seen this, you can find it on YouTube. Watching the people walking by with their cardboard testimonies was pretty powerful, but the part that spoke to me the most was at the end of the video. A man (the pastor, maybe??) asked, what if this was the greeting committee for you when you reached heaven? Because of what you had done and the lives you had touched here on earth, all these souls waited to greet you and thank you for the part you had in getting them to heaven. Wow. That is definitely something to strive towards. Will I have a welcoming committee like that? Will you?

Waiting

“The LORD is waiting to show you mercy, and is rising up to show you compassion, for the LORD is a just God. Happy are all who wait patiently for Him.” Isaiah 30:18

I remember a time when my daughter did something she knew she wasn’t suppose to do, and she got hurt. She was mad; I knew it was mostly mad at herself, but she was mad at me, too, simply because she realized I was right. If she had followed the rules I had given her, it would have prevented her from getting hurt. As soon as she stopped being mad and asked for my help, I rushed over to console her, and she apologized for breaking the rules. I took care of the boo-boo, she learned a valuable lesson, and we snuggled.

This is what God wants to do. There are times (too many!) when I have broken the rules, went against what I know God wanted me to do. And I got mad at myself for screwing up, but I think at first I was even a little mad at God for being right! As soon as I acknowledged that I had sinned, and asked for his help, he rushed right in to comfort and love on me. He was right there the whole time, just waiting for me to look up and ask for help. The Lord knows this life is hard, and he knows I’m going to mess up sometimes, especially when I step out ahead of him, and don’t wait for his instructions. When I do what I think best, without waiting to hear what God has to say on the matter, I’m most likely going to get hurt. But when I listen, and I wait, things go so much better.

(Please also read my post about perseverance on my other blog here.)

Made Complete

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Ephesians 3:18-19

It took me long time to learn this: God can’t love me any more than he already does. Think about that. He loves me (and you!) so much that it isn’t even possible to love me (and you!) more than he does right now. When I sin, I think that makes him sad, and probably angry, but it doesn’t make him love me less. This means it is not possible for me to mess up so bad that God finally says, “Enough! I loved her right up until then, but not any more.” Nope; that just won’t ever happen. He loved me even before he knit me together in my mother’s womb, and he’ll keep on loving me every day of my life and beyond.

This also means that I can’t be good enough to earn his love. If I can’t do anything to lose God’s love, then I also can’t do anything to win it. How freeing that is! God’s love is not conditional! I love this verse above. Try for a minute to fathom just how wide, long, high, deep God’s love is. As far as east is from west? His love is even wider. As long as the beginning of time until the end? His love is even longer. As high as the tallest mountains, or even up into space? His love is even higher. As deep as the depths of the ocean, or the very center of the earth? His love is even deeper. Big enough to love us when we turn away from him? Yes, that big, and bigger.

I know I’ll never fully be able to comprehend God’s vast love. Sometimes I read amazing, touching love stories, and I think, “Now THAT is a true example of great love.” But as great and inspirational as those stories are, they are a mere drop in the ocean compared to God’s love.

God loves you, and he’ll never stop loving you. When we understand and accept this joyous truth, then we “will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Now that’s truly something to celebrate.