LIVING WATER

When my youngest son was two I found him on all fours, drinking out of the dog's bowl. When asked why he said he was thirsty, and he wanted to be like Jessie (the dog).

There are many people like Ethan. They are so thirsty that they'll drink anything, whatever's placed in front of them so long as it looks remotely drinkable, or if they see others drinking it.

And that's the problem: people are so used to seeing others drinking dirty water, that they are prepared to accept it as good enough. When we know that it's not - but we need to let them know about the good water - the living water.

Jesus shared this idea with the Samaritan woman and she went back and evangelised a whole village.

So just how good is this living water: Ephesians 3:16-19:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

What Paul is saying here is very powerful : Faith brings Christ into our hearts, we then understand the magnitude of his love - his incredible gift to us, and then we can experience his love - this love that surpasses knowledge.

People can know of Christ, people can believe in Christ, but so few people actually live in his love. When Christ calls us to follow him - he's not just calling us to believe in him and submit to his deity, but he is calling us to fall in to his love - he wants to marry us. He wants us to experience the width, length, height, and depth of his love. When we do this then people will truly see what it's like to drink the good stuff, and then water from the dog's bowl will never be good enough again.

My two year old drank from the dog's bowl because I failed to recognise that he was thirsty and offer him a better alternative. It is our responsibility to demonstrate the love of Jesus to others, by allowing Jesus to love us.



Precious Lord Jesus. We thank you for the incredible sacrifice you made on the cross at calvary, and we thank you for the remarkable opportunity you give us in our life now to not just love you, but to allow ourselves to be loved by you. To truly experience the fullness of the incredible love that you have for us.

We submit to your deity Lord, but also to your love lord, and we ask for the conviction Lord to share this love with others. In your precious name. Amen.