Devastated

One of the great theologians, Scarlett O’Hara, said in a time of great distress “tomorrow is another day.” If you don’t like receiving your theology from Scarlett how about from the Prophet Jeremiah? “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness,” Lamentations 3: 22-23. Jeremiah, unlike Scarlett, knew to hold on for the next day because he knew intimately God’s character. Jeremiah was a prophet that most did not want to hear. He did not fill large arenas. The popular false prophets told the citizens of Jerusalem what they wanted to hear. Jeremiah told them the uncomfortable truth. He brought God’s indictment against them. Their unrighteousness would bring punishment.
As he stood on a hillside overlooking the devastated war torn city, he wrote the great words “His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning.” He wrote these words after seeing things that no human eyes should have to see. He wrote these words after being treated like no one should be treated. I don’t believe he had great joy in his heart when he wrote about God’s mercies. He was as devastated as the city. His laments are sorrowful and full of pain. “He had besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.” Lamentations 3: 5-7. Walled me down with chains, besieged and surrounded! Jeremiah is paralleling his life with that of Jerusalem’s. His life has been bitter because he obeyed God, Jerusalem’s because they disobeyed. But then he remembered God! He remembered God and it brought him hope. “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,” Jeremiah 3: 21, 22. Jeremiah knew God, he trusted God, and he had experienced God. The words he wrote about God’s character were fact. God is merciful and that was enough for him to go on to the next day and the next.
We know more of God’s character than even Jeremiah. Jeremiah was looking ahead for the Messiah. We know, that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son..” We know that God gave His son to a world of chaos, devastation, bitterness and chains. Jesus experienced it all and he conquered. He loved us so much he was tortured and slain for us. Devastation is all around us, tsunamis, hurricanes, wars and terrorist have layed waste to many lives. Maybe the devastation is as simple as, being hurt by those we love, or the loss of a job. But then we remember God and there is hope.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 35-39.

Mixture

I saw the Lord seated on a throne high and exalted…. “Woe is me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah 6: 1&5. Someone told me this week that one sin is as bad as another. He spoke the truth and that is the great horror. There is a strange mix of joy, and horror in a relationship with God. The joy of being close and growing closer is very real but so is the horror of the awareness of sin and ugliness in my life. The closer my relationship to Jesus, the more I become aware, like Isaiah, of sin in myself and sin in the world.
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the alter. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. Isaiah 6: 6-7. Ouch!! Sounds painful and it is. Once sin is seen it must be repented of and cut out. I have found that sometimes God uses people who are just like me to do the cutting. He has used other Gary’s who are arrogant, prideful, selfish and hurtful to cut out the arrogance, pride, selfishness and hurtfulness in me. Sometimes sin is a one time occurrence that once revealed can be forgiven by saying I’m sorry and never doing it again. More than I would like to admit, it is deeper than that and can only be taken care of with pain. “My son do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Hebrews 11: 5-6. And there is joy! He loves us. He changes us. He helps us to become the human beings he always intended us to be. Oh what a mix! “ If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes, if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands, I will punish their sin with a rod, their iniquity with flogging; but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness…Psalm 89: 30-35.
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
Almighty;
The whole earth if full of his
glory.” Isaiah 6: 3.

Confession

I have a confession to make. I struggled with last weeks post. Jesus tells the woman at the well that when you drink the living water which He gives, you will never thirst again, never. I was thirsty last week. There have been times that I read the Bible, pray, seek Christ and it seems He is not there. So why the difference between my experience and Scripture? There could be many reasons. I think the main reason is one of not being able to see the forest because of all the trees. For the woman at the well and all who do not know Christ, there is nowhere to turn when life is full of burdens and struggles. They must rely on themselves or other flawed human beings. They may simply try to ignore the problem and use anything to forget. But the problems remain.
For the Christian there is given a Helper, a Comforter, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Councilor, the Holy Spirit. “He who believes in Me as the Scripture has said. From his inner most being shall flow springs and rivers of living water. He was speaking here of the Spirit…” John 7: 38, 39. The Christian is also given the living water of God’s word. “His delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water…” Psalm 1: 2, 3.
I still don’t think I quite understand what Jesus meant by never thirsting but this I do know, If I’m swimming in a large body of fresh water I don’t need to ever go thirsty. Jesus provides the Spirit in abundance, “welling up, flowing, bubbling, continually within.” John 4:14. I pray for you and me as the Apostle Paul prayed, that we “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ…according to the power that works within us.” Ephesians 3: 18, 19, 20. May we grow in Christ and come to the place where we will never thirst. May we comprehend, at all times, the enormity of His love.
“Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and breakers have swept over me.” Psalm 42: 7.

Thirst

I look danger in the face and laugh. I click the next blog button on Blogspot. I never knew there were so many knitters. Seriously I now know more than ever that the world needs Christ. They need him badly. I share him when I can and post comments, praying that they will follow the comment back to my blog. One of the most common types of blog is what I call the Blog of Angst. They write to find themselves, to work out their disappointments and frustrations. There are thousands of them, and they are thirsty for meaning, purpose and joy in their lives.
Jesus has a gift for all the bloggers of angst. A gift of living water. If you ask Jesus, he will give it. Jesus says to all who ask “But whoever takes a drink of the water that I will give him shall never, no never be thirsty anymore. But the water that I will give him shall become a spring of water welling up (flowing, bubbling) (continually) within him, unto eternal life.” John 4: 4 AMP. Jesus spoke these words originally to a woman at a well. A woman of angst. She was frustrated. She felt no doubt bitter disappointment over failure in five marriages. It doesn’t matter whose fault it was, his or hers. The result was the same. Five failed marriages and probably not much hope for the relationship she was in. She was thirsty.
Bloggers of angst, are you thirsty? The Psalmist writes that “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for Thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God the living God.” Psalm 42: 1-2. And who is this true living God? Jesus told the woman at the well and he tells you, “I Who now speak with you am He.” John 4: 26. Ask Jesus into you life. Believe, adhere to, trust in and rely on Him, and you will never, never thirst again.

Why do you spend money for what is not bread? And wages for what does not satisfy? Everyone who thirst, come to the waters. Isaiah 55: 2&1.

Disclosure

Prayer is like watching for the
Kingfisher. All you can do is
Be where he is likely to appear, and
Wait.
Often nothing much happens;
There is space, silence and
Expectancy.
No visible sign, only the
Knowledge that he's been there
And may come again.
Seeing or not seeing cease to matter,
You have been prepared.
But sometimes, when you've almost
Stopped expecting it,
A flash of brightness
Gives encouragement.

(Ann Lewin)

From, Watching for the Kingfisher,
published by the Methodist Publishing House,
ISBN 1-85852-256-0.

Pursuit

“A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink” John 4:7. So begins the conversation between the woman at the well and Jesus. This conversation is so much different than the conversation Jesus had with another non- Jewish woman in Matthew 15. (See last weeks post, Slain.) The difference is one of faith. The Canaanite woman of Matthew had strong faith in Jesus, even after being treated rudely by him and his disciples. The Samaritan woman doesn’t know who Jesus is. She has no faith in him. Jesus speaks to her first. Jesus pursues her. He wants her to know him. He wants her, as he does all of us, to put her faith and trust in him. Jesus will meet us where we are. The Canaanite woman’s large faith was exercised and shown to us by being greatly tested. She was ignored and ridiculed. The Samaritan woman who had no faith was pursued. Jesus knows how to treat each individual. One size does not fit all. He knows each of our needs and acts accordingly.
The one thing that the Samaritan woman believed about the Messiah was that he would know all things. “I know the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” John 4: 25. Jesus through his love and mercy for her provided this. Jesus brings her to faith by telling her about herself. “You have well said I have no husband, for you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband.” John 4: 18. Jesus told her this before she told him that she expected the Messiah to know all things. She tries to change the conversation to one about differences in theology. Jesus patiently answers her question but returns the conversation back to knowing God. At the end of this conversation Jesus plainly and directly tells her “I who speak to you am He.” John 4: 26.
Sometimes I can say God is Love without really thinking about what that really means. The Sovereign Creator loves us so much that he will pursue us. He comes after us. He speaks first. He tells us about ourselves. He‘s patient with us. He wants our love as much as we need Him. And that’s truly an amazing thought.

There will be more about the woman at the well and her conversation with Jesus in upcoming post.