Water…
Water is one of the most unique substances in the world and I feel as though I could write a hundred different analogies on it as could you…but today (or technically about a week ago) this was impressed on my heart.
Makes up most of our bodies
Covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface
Is essential for life
Controls and stabilizes most of Earth’s weather patterns and temps
A VAST majority is salty
Out of the fresh water on this Earth, most of it is frozen…much is polluted…the rest is drinkable
Good drinking water is one of the world’s biggest issues in our lifetime. I really don’t want to know the actual statistics of how many people die daily for lack of good water but I’m sure it would astound both you and me. We have the knowledge and capability of purifying salt water into pure water. Just as sad if not more is the amount of good water is polluted because of our poor choices…
I’m currently on top of the roof of the place that I’ve been staying at in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This roof overlooks a small stream of some sort that is mostly backed up and stagnant. We are on the outskirts of town where there are pockets of city and beyond intertwined. As I look out, I see a few houses immediately in front of me followed by an overgrown swampy field that could hold about 10 football fields. This adjacent a small patch of water with an old narrow wooden bridge that connects a small cluster of vagrant people with the rest of the world. These people cross this bridge with their bikes and carts at literally all hours of the day.
This stretch of water perpendicular to me stretches out to touch another portion of the city and the garbage in it stares me in the face. I can tell you the quality of the water (or lack there of) from 100 yards away. I can see piles of trash and junk. People have built stilt houses that shadow the riverbank and yet there are no children who will be caught in that water. There will be no one who will stoop down to take a sip for refreshment. No one will take an afternoon off on a scorching day to do a little fishing in the shade. Yet this stagnant polluted water sits amidst them every day.
Jesus crossed several cultural restrictions to talk to a Samaritan woman who was known for her adultery at a well. In this dialogue he tells her that He can provide her with living water…
Living water…sounds like a strange thing to say, but if you think about it water will either bring you life and health or sickness and death. It will do one or the other.
Then James goes on and talks about guarding your tongue and how water is either salty or fresh. Likewise, the things that come out of us will either be salty or fresh. The deciding factor between salty and fresh is the source of the water. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
Earlier I said that one of the biggest problems with the world today is good drinking water. I think it’s pretty similar here on Earth in the spiritual realm as well…
I think that a vast majority of the world is covered in potentially good drinking water in the form of salt water. It is possible for God to purify it and make it new and clean and pure…drinkable. Some of the water that is “drinkable” has become frozen as Christians have let their hearts grow cold and refuse to draw near to Him to let him warm or tenderize their hearts. They not only separate themselves from Christ, they separate themselves from others.l
Unfortunately I think there is a bigger and sadder problem. There are Christians who sit amidst people who need cleaning and are thirsty for something that will quench them. However, they’ve polluted themselves with the world. Anyone who looks at them won’t argue that they are different from salt water, but they also might not say that there current condition is any better. No one really wants to drink of them and hear what they have to say. You can see the garbage in their lives from a distance and while people are getting sick of and from them daily, they just sit there stagnant.
Sound pretty harsh? Well, Jesus told of a living water…Today there are more Christians alive then any other time period in history. We claim to have a water that can draw people to Him. We claim this water can give them life. We claim that it can quench a deep thirst and longing of the soul that nothing else will. Does it?
I believe it does, but I also feel like pure water from a pure heart is one of the rarest things to find in this world. It saddens me because the vast potential is there if we only desired to let ourselves be purified and were willing to then pour ourselves out loving those in need with pure motives….That would refresh nations…
Thankfully, there is hope.
For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the3 name of the Lord and serve him with one accord….
Zephaniah 3:9
I’d encourage you to check out what all will happen before and after this, but it will happen. There is coming a day when the speech will be pure and it will come from the overflow of the heart…but until that day comes we can only work on the purity of our own heart…
