The Gift of God

"Living water" this is what we must know about. What does he mean when he calls this gift "living water"? He means that it is life-giving, it is enlivening, it is invigorating. Do you have this life in you? Or do you have to drag yourself to worship God? Do you have to force yourself to live the Christian life? Are you a bit ashamed of it when you mean your clever friends in the world? If so, there is something radically wrong. It is "living water." It is not some cold, detached, theoretical, intellectual understanding of a number of doctrines. Yes, it is an understanding, but if it does not give life to you, if it does not enliven you, if it does not move you, if it does not invigorate you, you do not have living water.
What else? Well, it is always fresh. It snot water stored in a cistern; it is not static water. It comes out of a well opened on Calvary's hill, opened in the heart of God; it is flowing, and it constantly comes with its new stream, always fresh, always living. So much Christianity seems to be stale, does it not? It is old, it is ineffective, it is dull, it is lifeless, it is insipid; you feel it needs to be purified. And the world is not interested in it because it looks at it and sees the scum on the surface and the things that should not be there. It does not see the sparkle, it does not see the light, the living quality. Oh, what a travesty all this is of the true Christian life and the true Christian message!
Finally, this water lasts. "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." Whatever may happen in the world, in the whole cosmos, nothing can stop it; it springs up into everlasting life; it goes on forever. There will never be a shortage; there will never be a drought; there will never be a lack of supply. So not merely is your thirst satisfied, but you have lasting life and power and you are ready to meet the world, the flesh, and the devil and anything that may come against you in this year and all the years that may be left to you."

Our Lord's Approach and our Prejudice

I enjoyed this chapter more than the previous one. Not sure why, but it struck me as more applicable. Things I liked:

1. In speaking about the conversation with the woman, the author asserts that the Lord was always in control. "This is our greatest comfort, our greatest consolation." A truth I am HANGING onto right now! With this, however, the author asserts that the Lord will bring us to His desired end. If I don't feel like he has taken hold of me, if I don't feel like I'm in his hands, and I do not come willingly in response to him, he will still get me to his desired end!

2. The Lord used the indirect method with this woman, showing us his gentleness. We should always be concerned with the soul, but it doesn't always have to be the first thing we lead off with in conversation with another.

3. Also, we often miss the Lord's purpose because we do not realize it. "We have an idea that our experiences of him must happen directly, in dramatic, climatic moments. They do, sometimes, but not always by any means. You never know when you are going to find the Lord. You never know what kind of question is going to bring you to him."

I forget all the time that God is working around me right now. Part of what I need to be aware of is looking for where He is and noticing him there!!

The Possibilities of the Christian Life

In John 10 we read that our Lord said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (v. 10), and we see that same emphasis here in John 4:13-14. So we are picking out that theme because that is, after all, what Christianity means, this is the Christian offer, the Christian possibility. Our whole trouble, surely, is that we fail to realize this: we are ever reducing the gospel, making something small out of it, something that we do, our practice of religion. The tragedy is that we think of our own selves and our busyness and our own activity instead of realizing that there is the wonderful possibility of receiving his fullness and more and more of it, "grace for [or upon] grace," "springing up into everlasting life." And this failure, it seems to me, is the greatest tragedy of all.

I enjoyed several points in this chapter (sermon?), even though they do not appear to be interconnected. First, I liked the point he makes that this message does not just apply to unbelievers (as we tend to see the Samaritan woman as), but rather applies to both as after we believe, we still tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. He also points out that Christ's message is for all believers, as highlighted by the contrasting listeners of the Samaritan women and Nicodemus in the previous passage. Blessings are open to all types of people!

Second, there are no "higher reaches" of the Christian life. There is no cultivation of the soul in a special manner in order to arrive at the great and glorious experiences of the Christian life. Perhaps one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen. Am I looking to see Christ at the well? Am I anticipating God doing something great? Believing that doing things, reading things, attending church, and that I've arrived at some sort of peak is just religion, not Christianity.

Thirdly, Christ dealt with the woman alone. This is a good reminder to me of the personal nature of our faith. God is looking to meet with me. Often in Scripture, we see God revealing himself in the wilderness or in the alone times. Our understanding of the fullness of God must be intensely personal. I forget sometimes that God became man to save us, but more specifically me. Even if I was the only human on the planet, I believe he would have saved me. God longs for a relationship with me. How awesome is that?

Overall, the first chapter was encouraging. It's a little rambling for me, but that might just be the style more than anything. I'm going to keep plugging away though, I guess I'll see what happens...

Introduction

My uncle and I spent a long time talking over the weekend and he suggested I read a book he has been reading by Martin Lloyd-Jones titled "Living Water: Studies in John 4." I was intrigued by what he said and even more surprised when he brought it out and handed it to me before I left saying "try reading it and see what you think. If you don't like it, then just bring it back to me when you see me in July. If you do like it, keep it as long as you want." It was overwhelmingly thoughtful of him, and I guess I feel somewhat duty-bound to at least give it a shot. It's hard to imagine spending over 700 pages taking about one book in the Bible (as this author does), but it IS a good chapter, so I guess I'm willing to try. So, here goes, for better or for worse.

Tonight is probably a bad night to start, as I'm feeling very discouraged and down tonight. However, on the flip side of that, I really could use some encouragement, so perhaps tonight IS the best night to start it...