Listen to the Teaching
Watch the Video
We know where the river goes, life grows.
Here’s another truth; where the Scripture goes life grows.
I am a Southern girl through and through.
One of the bonuses is living near lots of streams and rivers for great fishing and swimming. Tall trees, especially the majesty water oaks bedazzled with moss, tall lush grasses and green stuff are everywhere you look. I’ve never stopped enjoying the beauty around me. I deliberately drink in the beauty that surrounds me. That’s a bad thing and a good thing.
It’s not so good when we travel through the desert.
It makes my eyes tired. Without realizing it, my search for some kind of signs of life as we travel makes my eyes so tired. From the road, everything looks barren and lifeless. I know there is life in the desert, plants and animals that can survive and thrive in the harsh environment, but you can’t see them from the roadway. Even though I know that, my eyes still search for life as we bump up and down the hills and zigzag around the mountains and through the valleys.
But suddenly,
as we drive through the desert, I see something way off in the distance. And yes, sometimes I squint, trying to see it clearer. As we drive closer, I can see trees, tall and majestic. Approaching them, I begin to recognize the cottonwoods, chubby sycamore, and scraggly shrubs. The green foliage is radiant against the clear, blue sky.
Why the sudden change in the landscape?
And I know, absolutely know, even though I’m not close enough to see it yet…I know a river is snaking through the valley ahead.
I know it’s there because I see signs of life.
As I approach, I catch a quick glimpse of the river through the cattails, swaying under the weight of a black cowbird. When I get to the bridge that crosses the river or stream, I see life-giving water coursing through the desert.
It’s a fact; where the water goes life grows.
- Water is a change agent.
- It is like a slow bulldozer cutting through the landscape.
- It unlocks the potential in a seed.
- Water nourishes life in plants and animals that thrive around its banks.
John 4 takes us to a well, not a river, in Samaria.
It was a very special well; many, many years prior the Patriarch Jacob dug this well. Jesus is resting beside the well waiting for His disciples to get lunch when a woman…a Samaritan woman… approaches the well.
She is on a mission and so is Jesus. Her mission is to get water…His mission is to give water.
Jesus’ request was simple, “Please give me a drink.”
Her response was complicated by the racial prejudices of that day, “Why are you asking me for a drink?”
If you only knew.
John 4:10 NLT
Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
But you don’t have a bucket…or a rope…do you know how deep this well is? How are you going to get any water??
Besides this is Jacob’s well. Do you think you are better than our ancestor Jacob?
If you drink this water, you’re going to just get thirsty again. But anyone who drinks my water, will never be thirsty again. This water becomes a fresh, bubbling spring (artesian well) inside them, giving them eternal life.
Never be thirsty again.
Everywhere the Living Word of God, Scripture goes life grows. The radical change in her life is living proof of that reality.
A bubbling spring, an artesian well that bubbles around and over the rocks, and up, up to the surface. Cool, clean water. Nothing like a bubbling spring…so Jesus uses it to explain the new birth.
Jeremiah 2:13KJV
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Let me tell you about a cistern.
A cistern holds stagnant water; the perfect nursery for nasty fly maggots and sickness when consumed by humans.
Don’t just drink something…drink some living water.
If you are born again through faith in Jesus, the artesian well is in you. Yet, the life is not in having the well, it is in drinking from the well. So drink some living water.
How?
Worship from your heart.
Apply Scripture to your situation, because everywhere Scripture goes life grows.
Read the Bible. Meditate on Scripture.
Come to God with your ears wide open and you will find life. (Isaiah 55:3)
Jesus, the Living Word, gives life when we believe on HIm.
This is really important my dear friend!
Really important.
John 14:6 King James Bible “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Jesus is the only way.
He is the truth. Jesus is life. No one, absolutely no one can access God except through Jesus. He is the only way. If you’ve never received God’s gift of salvation you can right now.
ABC Steps to be born into God’s family.
Ask Jesus to forgive you for all your sins.
Believe on Jesus from your heart. Choose to believe that you need a Savior.
Confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Tell someone what happened to you.
Jesus didn’t tell the lady that she would never drink again, just that she would never be thirsty again.
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/jRRmJvluCZQ
There’s nothing boring about the Bible!
God’s Word is as refreshing as an artesian well. Let me explain why I say that.