Thursday, October 2, 2008

Living Water

John 2:1-4:26

What are the two verses immediately preceding the most famous verse in the Bible?  In his explanation of what it means to be "born again", Jesus Christ recaps one of the most obvious pictures of the Sacrificial Messiah:

3:14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.  16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

What should my attitude be when I consider the significance of Christ's sacrifice?  Echoing the words of John the Baptist:

3:30 [Christ] must become greater; I must become less.

And just in case the Gospel message in John 3:14-17 is not clear enough, John the Baptist reiterates:

3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.

As a specialist in drinking water treatment, I really enjoy Christ's words to the Samaritan woman at the well:

4:10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." ... 13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for your words of truth.  Thank you that Christ is the Living Water; O Lord, may I drink deep every morning.  I ask that you would overflow me with Living Water into the lives of people around me.  I pray that I would be a conduit of Living Water to my wife.  Lord, please humble me - that Christ would be exalted, and my identity would be found in Christ alone.  Refine me today.  I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Living Water.  Amen.

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