Brown's Daily Word 5-16-13

This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. It is going to be one of the ten best days of this Month. I was visiting a young family recently, who live in a very spacious home in the country. They love the Lord. One thing special about this family is they have 12 children. All of them are their biological children. The parents are raising their children in the Lord. The children were very friendly and welcoming. I was reminded of Samuel and Susanna Wesley the parents of John and Charles Wesley who were blessed by 19 children, and who raised them in the Lord in the church.

I am officiating in two weddings this month. One of the young couples has chosen a beautiful park in our area as the site for the wedding. I was visiting the park the other day with the young couple. The park is located at the point where two big rivers in our region converge. I was standing by the the very point where the two rivers merge, creating a magnificent sight. The water flows 24/7. I saw some Canadian geese that were teaching their goslings (2013 Spring Edition) how to swim. It was a beautiful scene as the goslings, carefree and unafraid, were guided and guarded by their parents.

The Bible talks about rivers and streams of living waters. Our Lord Jesus ushered in His ministry by being baptized in the river. The last two chapters of the Bible depict and describe an amazing river. There we have one of the most remarkable and challenging statements in the whole of the New Testament. Jesus said,"If anyone thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). These words were spo­ken by Jesus to people who were spiritually dry, empty, and defeated. They, like many people of our day, kept going through motions of living but finding no real meaning, life, and victory.

David expressed the idea of being soul-thirsty for God when he penned, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God, my soul thirsts for God—for the Living God" (Psalm 42:1-2). 

 

Jesus said to the crowd, "If anyone thirsts…" Thirst is a consciousness of an unsatisfied need. Thirst expresses desperation. Thirst will kill faster than hunger. In fact, one can go weeks without food, but only days without water. Jesus was reminding us that their is a cure for this deep longing. "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water…" Jesus did not promise a trickle or a stream or a flow…He promised a river. Can we attempt to fathom this? The Lord Himself is like a mighty rushing river…a life-giving river; He is like the mighty river found in Ezekiel 47 that produces life wherever it flows.

Jesus did not promise a trickle or a stream or a flow… He promised a river when He said, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (v. 38).

In Christ,

Brown

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