Wednesday, October 23, 2013

JIMMETS – THIRST & CRACKED CISTERNS

Time with Jesus - 24 Oct 2013

Hi all,
Thirst is a terrible thing. If you’ve ever been really thirsty, you’ll know what I mean. I’m glad I’ve never been there. Not in the same sense many people have. David gives a description of a man dying from thirst. Actually this is seen as a prophetic account of what the Messiah would experience. 
Parched and Thirsty Land
Certainly these words were on the lips of Jesus during His agony on the cross. 15 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Psalm 22:15 TNIV and 21 They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst. Psalm 69:21 TNIV

It’s difficult to know where David was, or what he was referring to in these two psalms. He may have been referring to incidents when he was a shepherd, taking care of his father’s sheep. However, that’s unlikely. 
It’s more probable to have occurred, while he was on the run from King Saul. The places where he hid from Saul were probably in the arid regions near the Dead Sea. There are springs of water there, but not easy to get to when on the run!
Although I’ve never been thirsty in the conventional sense, I’ve experienced something of what it is like when the tongue sticks to the roof of the mouth. On occasions, in the pulpit, I’ve paused for a drink of water. If I don’t have a sip, my tongue starts to stick to my palette and speaking becomes more difficult.

People ask, what is thirst. There are two types. One is purely physical. The other is spiritual.
Physical thirst is the craving for fluids, resulting in the basic instinct of animals to drink. It is an essential mechanism involved in fluid balance. It arises from a lack of fluids or an increase in the concentration of certain osmolites, such as salt. If the water volume of the body falls below a certain threshold or the osmolite concentration becomes too high, the brain signals thirst. (Courtesy Wikipedia)

Fortunately for us, the Lord knows what it is like to be thirsty and not having water. In Isaiah He says: 17 "The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 18 I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. Isaiah 41:17-18 TNIV

Spiritual thirst is a longing for God in ways difficult to understand. When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, He clarified the difference. The entire discourse in John 4:5-42 presents the background and throws much light on physical and spiritual thirst.

Many years ago I rephrased the entire discourse in a poem called, “Jesus and the Woman at the Well”. I’ve included part of that poem from John 4:13-15 NIV. The words reveal the way they were speaking at two different levels. She was talking about physical water. He was referring to the “water” of the Holy Spirit!
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but 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.” John 4:13-14 NIV
Jesus
1) "Woman, thanks for telling me your problems and your woes.
They must have been a problem to relate.
Everything you've said to me, I'm sure Jehovah knows,
And understands the causes of your fate
3) Water out of Jacob's well, a man must drink to live;
In order that his thirst, he can contain;
But whoso drinks the water that I, alone, can give,
He, will never ever thirst again.

2) So let me assure you that the problems you have faced,
Should not be confronted on your own.
What is really needed is a little tiny taste
Of water that's obtained from me alone!
4) The water which I give is like a flowing bubbling spring
Of water welling up on the inside.
Streams of Living Water will flow from deep within,
And everlasting life will thus abide!"
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” John 4:15 NIV
Woman
1) Sir, what You've said sounded super.
I can hardly believe what I hear.
It sounds like a dream - Designed for a queen,
To take away all of her fear!
3) To live without thirst must be blissful.
In fact, it's too good to believe!
And not to come here, 
Every day, every year!
Is more than my mind can conceive!

2) Water is so fundamental;
Essential for sustaining life.
Being dehydrated 's 
Like being equated,
With cutting your throat with a knife!
4) So please give me some of Your water,
That thirst may depart from my door.
I want to apply - To drink the well dry,
From Your strange and invisible store!"
Perhaps the tragedy all of us have to face when we desire to follow Jesus, is the difference between physical and spiritual “water”. It’s only when we approach Jesus, we start to realise how thirsty we are for God. We realise our tongues are sticking to our palettes with a thirst only Jesus Christ can satisfy.
Shalom

Jim & Phyllida Strickland



Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give
Time with Jesus – 24 Oct 2013
Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give
©
These devotionals are the intellectual property of Jim Strickland and copyright protected. You are welcome to copy and distribute them to anyone provided it is for non-commercial Christian purposes
©
INTRODUCTION
DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES
JIMMETS – THIRST & CRACKED CISTERNS
Stick-ability. This quality in most people is lacking. If I said unstick-ability, the word would better reflect the built-in fickleness we find all around us. Perhaps the best example to describe this generically, is to look at pop-stars. Some are remembered. The Beatles, the BG’s, the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra are among the best known and best loved. Some are now distant memories. Al Jolson, Peter Sellers, Sidney James, Doris Day, Gertrude Lawrence and scores of others spring to mind. There’s also been a few one day wonders. Debbie Boone, Leapy Lee and Johnny Ray spring to mind. The fact I barely remember their names, suggests they were little more than one day wonders!
Ladies fashions also come and go. Who remembers the mini-skirt? For some inexplicable reason, men seem to remember them much better than the ladies. I wonder why? When we look at photographs taken more than 20 years ago, we are surprised how much fashions have changed. For the ladies, skirts went up and down; became fuller and slenderer. Swim suits went from one piece all concealing to two piece all revealing. Well, revealing as much as modesty and the law permit. Men’s shoes from long and pointed “winkle-pickers” to square toes. Trousers from turn-ups to no turn-ups. String ties to cravats.
Sadly, this has also happened with people and their relationship with God. During WW2, the Brits were a God-fearing nation. No longer. A recent survey revealed Britain as second on the list of the most Godless nations. We are now nearing the end of the third generation since WW2. People have no thirst for God because they think they have no need for God. Why should they? The state provides just about everything. Taxes are high but what can you expect from a nation where there is very little incentive to work. Why bother with a job, when you can get as much “on the dole” as you would from an employer? It is not grossly different in RSA. Except the people have replaced God with politicians!
Today, people look everywhere to find God! Ancestor worship, Politicians, Islam, Buddhism and New Age to name but a few. Jeremiah commented that the people had deserted the One true God and dug themselves cisterns. Broken cisterns than cannot hold water. They had looked for God everywhere except where He can be found.
Our nation is dying from thirst. There is no stick-ability. No thirst for the only God Who can save. Instead they search and experiment with the false gods of the nations. Nothing has changed in ±2500 years. People continue to search for their own gods. Then they die, thirsty and empty, just as has happened since the fall. Help Lord Jesus!
Jim & Phyllida
Strickland
17 "Those who are poor and needy search for water. But there isn't any. Their tongues are dry because they are thirsty. But I will help them. I am the LORD. I will not desert them. I am Israel's God.
Isaiah 41:17 NIrV

Thirst
Isaiah 41:17

Are you truly longing for a drink,
That will banish thirst for evermore?
Does it so consume you that you think,
“Isn’t there a way I can restore,
Sanity to find that which I crave?
I have scratched this itch until it bleeds!
This will surely drive me to the grave.
Anything to gratify my needs.
Something that will slake this dreadful thirst,
Nothing ever seems to satisfy!
I’ve become so desperate I will burst!
Help me Lord or I will surely die!”
“Come to Me my child and drink of Me.
Thirst will pass away eternally”
.
Jim Strickland
2012/10/24




Cracked Cisterns
Jeremiah 2:13

Why is it My people seldom learn?
Why is it they try to catch the breeze?
Why is it they always seem to turn?
Why is it they go on bended knees,
Worshipping their gods made out of gold?
Why is it they dig wells all of their own?
Cisterns that are cracked and will not hold,
Water and are just as dry as bone?
They’ve abandoned Me the only One,
Who can bring the rain upon the land.
Why is it that when the water’s gone,
They don’t even try to understand;
That while walking in apostasy,
Blessing will not flow to them from Me?

Jim Strickland
2012/10/24






















6 Many are saying, "Who can show us anything good?" Let the light of your presence shine on us, O LORD.
Psalms 4:6 GW
22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 ESV
17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
Ecclesiastes 2:17 ESV
13 "For My people have done two evil things: They have abandoned Me--the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!
Jeremiah 2:13 NLT
37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me.
John 6:37 GW
3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground. I will pour My spirit on your seed, and My blessing on your offspring;
Isaiah 44:3 MKJV
6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Matthew 5:6 ESV
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. 1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalms 63:1 ESV