Jesus spoke several times in John about this idea of water and thirst. John 6:35 says, “He who believes in Me will never be thirsty.” and in John 7:38, Jesus quoted the Old Testament from Isaiah 58:11, when He said, “You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” Thirst is a very strong desire. It’s a longing to fill the dryness within us…whether with actual water, or spiritual water. For within us all is this God-shaped emptiness…but sadly, we will spend our entire lifetime trying to fill this emptiness with the wrong type of water. Arid and parched, we search for everything and anything to satisfy our thirst…but every time we think we’ve found it, the water dries up and we thirst again. It’s finally not until we find that Well of Living Water that we can drink and be fully satisfied.
Tag: christ jesus
Mark 8:1-4 ” During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to Him and said, ‘I have compassion for these people; they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.’ His disciples answered, ‘But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?’ “
His time on earth was getting short and Jesus wanted His disciples to understand their mission. Everyday He had guided, demonstrated, and shown them what to do…to think outside the box of human nature. For this wasn’t the first time Jesus had fed a crowd with only a few loaves and fish…but the disciples still didn’t get it. The disciples had witnessed and actually helped distribute the food to that crowd…but when challenged to come up with a plan for this hungry group, they quickly reverted back to their humanness. How many times have you sold yourself short by your limited vision of what God could do? We need to be asking for God’s vision in our life, not ours…and we need to be thinking outside our “human” box and seeking God’s unlimited and miraculous vision instead.
II Peter 1:16-18 ” We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received honor and glory from God the Father when the Voice came from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is My Son, whom I love.’ “
Peter, James, and John were with Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration when Elijah and Moses appeared and Jesus was for a time transfigured from an earthly form into a supernatural one. True to form though, Peter started to babble, putting a foot into his mouth…when God interrupted him saying, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5) However, this mountain top experience changed Peter, James, and John forever. They were witnesses to the power and majesty, glory and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ…and this personal knowledge and experience changed who they were and how they shared the Gospel Message from that time on.
Psalm 56:8 ” Record my lament; list my tears on Your scroll – are they not on Your record? “
The Lord hears and puts down in writing all my mourning and outcries. He keeps a record of every tear I have shed and places them in His wine-skin…or some translations say places them in a bottle. We may think that our grief and weeping goes unnoticed…but it’s never beyond the compassionate eye of God.
Job 17:11 “My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart.”
Time waits for no one. With each passing day, we are a little older and unfortunately, the hopes and dreams we have a little less likely to happen. When we’re young, we look at time and the future as something with limitless possibilities…but when we’re older, or disease overtakes our body…time suddenly becomes very precious. Each one of us has been allotted a certain amount of time here on the earth…time we can choose to use productively or rashly. So how are you managing your time today? Are you using it to forward God’s Kingdom…or are you aimlessly pilfering it away? Time is getting short…make the very most of it today.
Romans 2: 28-29 ” A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.”
Circumcision of the heart is what the Lord is calling all of us to. Deuteronomy 30:6 states, ” The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love Him with all your heart and with all your soul and live.” This circumcision of the heart is literally a removing of the flesh…our fleshly self, our carnal nature, to show loyalty and obedience towards our Lord. This inward work of the Holy Spirit is then outwardly manifested…apparent and plain to all, as the love of God shines forth in our life.
I Corinthians 15:3 ” For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…”
That life-changing encounter with Jesus was the start of your journey as a Believer. You marveled at the grace, mercy, and loving kindness that was extended to you… a sinner that only deserved death. You became a recipient of the greatest gift ever…the free gift of eternal life. But for many of us we stop there, never sharing this Good News with others. We instead hold tightly to this gift refusing to share…desiring to just keep it to ourselves. But Paul tells us in this verse that first we are a receiver, but then we become a messenger… an ambassador for Christ, telling others about Him. Paul goes on in I Corinthians 11:2, ” I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings, just as I passed them on to you.” How can we keep such wonderful, life-changing news to ourselves? The Lord wants us to pass it on to others. So today, tell someone how Jesus is working in your life.
Matthew 8:27 ” The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and waves obey Him?’ “
Jesus had just rebuked the storm and now all was peaceful and calm on the Sea of Galilee. With only a few words, the fierce winds and raging storm had ceased. But why were His disciples so dumbfounded and astonished at what Jesus had done? After all, they had been witnessing countless miracles as they traveled with him. But like us, when the storm hit their lives personally…they panicked. When we’re hit broad-side and without warning with the storms of life…we panic. We suddenly are battered by the winds of anxiety and will succumb under the waves of fear. It’s then we need to reach out our hands to Jesus for help…for it tells us in Psalm 107:29, ” He stilled the storm to a whisper, the waves of the sea were hushed.” May the Lord of the universe calm the storm in your life today.
I Corinthians 15:10 ” But by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace towards me was not in vain.”
With over 30 years under my belt as a Christian…it’s only with sincere thankfulness and gratitude I can proclaim that it’s only by the grace of God I am what I am today. For it’s only by God’s unearned and unmerited favor that I have been changed…justified freely by His grace through the redemption that comes through Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:24) And I strive daily to show Him that the grace He lavished on me was not futile or a waste of time…for this grace God showed me – I need to be passing on freely to others.
II Samuel 7:22 ” How great You are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like You, and there is no God but You, as we have heard with our own ears.”
Verbal histories from our elderly family members give us insight into just where we come from. Those precious stories are filled with important events, human struggles, and surprising accounts of things we had no prior knowledge of. Within those verbal histories, we hear bits of wisdom, sage advice, personal warnings, and lots of humor. With our own ears we listen as important information is given to us about the past. But have you ever thought about how important it is to give a “verbal history” to your children or grandchildren about God’s influence in your life? A once I was… but now I am… testimony showing the Lord’s redemptive power over sin in your life is more important than any other story you could share with them.
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