09/02/2023
Are we satisfied with all that God has done in us? When we look in the mirror in the morning are we pleased, and at ease, with the fact that Jesus has filled us with His teaching, and that the Holy Spirit has expanded our understanding to overflowing? All of this is beyond wonderful, but what is really asked of us isn't to simply reach a degree of self-fulfillment, or to impress others with our command of scripture, but rather that we deliver the good news of Jesus Christ to the lost souls around us. Our measure is in obediently doing God’s will by sharing the living water He has sent to us in Christ with the lost and thirsty of the world. Let’s look inward today and ask ourselves if we are a vessel from which many drink this living water.
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"”
John 7:37-38 ESV
It's hard for us to let life, and the gospel, pass through us; by our very nature we are builders and even hoarders. We gather and store grain, knowledge, and even our spiritual gifts; yet God expects us to do more than this, He wants us to redistribute them in the form of living water... not to hoard them for ourselves. His plan isn't for us to grow grapes, but to make wine. I was reading Oswald Chambers today and loved how he expressed this very similar idea...
"It is not that God makes us beautifully rounded grapes, but that He squeezes the sweetness out of us. Spiritually, we cannot measure our life by success, but only by what God pours through us, and we cannot measure that at all." - Oswald Chambers
There are certain movies that I can watch over and over, one of them is "Mr. Holland's Opus." In this movie Mr. Holland (a would be composer) believes that he will one day write a musical masterpiece, but takes a job as a high school music teacher as he struggles to write the music that will make him famous. In the process he falls in love with the students he is teaching... years upon years of them, and in his advanced age he realizes that his Opus will never be written. He has given himself to others, and his treasure isn't about what was in, and for, himself, but what flowed through him into those he inspired to love music. Mr. Holland found a truth in life that we should realize in faith... it isn't what we gather, or the glory we bring to ourselves; it is what flows out of us and the glory of that belongs to God. That music is our greatest gift to Him.
Jesus was the perfect example of a vessel and conduit for God's will, and His kingship exemplified that of a Lord who loved those who came to Him far more than He loved Himself. Paul compared Him to the rock that followed the people Moses lead through the desert... out of Him flowed water...living water.
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”
1 Corinthians 10:1-4 ESV
When women went to the well each day they brought jars which they filled with water, then they carried them home where that water was distributed and used for many purposes in sustaining their families. It would have done no good if they had capped those jars and hoarded them in a storeroom, but as the water was poured from the jars it quenched the thirst of many, and washed the hands and feet of husbands, family and strangers alike. It never remained in the jar for long, and each day the women returned to the well... and the water flowed through their efforts and from their jars. This is God's desire for us.
What are we doing with our faith and our gifts? What are we doing with the blessings that God bestows upon us?
I know a man, and he is my spiritual mentor. There is no such formal position in church, but I look upon him in that way. He is humble in spirit and would trivialize his impact on me and others, but the water of faith that flows through him quenches the thirst of many many people. He is intellectually brilliant and yet, like Mr. Holland, he has never written his Opus. Yet, what flows through him has defined him. The souls He has brought to salvation, the prayers for healing, the teaching of the gospel, the selfless service to the church and so many more cups of living water... this defines his life, and Glorifies God. My senses are thrilled to the point of being overwhelmed by the music of Bach, but I never knew him. My understanding of scripture has been increased by C.H. Spurgeon, but he never consoled me in my grief and sorrow. But this man, my mentor, has something that the great musicians and theologians don't... he has the love of many through the delivery of Christ's message of redemption and love, and not a single worldly possession has been earned by him sharing this. He is an aqueduct that carries God to those who need Him most, yet unlike the great Roman Aqueducts that stand out in the landscape he travels life nearly invisible.
Do you know someone like my mentor? How about you? Are you delivering the gifts, the blessings, the gospel you have been given, without any concern for gathering it behind lock and key in your personal storehouse? How will you be remembered? Will it be for what you once were, the buildings you constructed, and the riches you amassed, or by those blessed souls who look at their own lives of faith and see the mark you have left there? Will they be inspired to pass that selfsame living water through themselves to others?
I end my thoughts this morning... or perhaps I am beginning them in you, just as I began my day... with this thought by Oswald Chambers:
"Our Lord's teaching is always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a man; His purpose is to make a man exactly like Himself, and the characteristic of the Son of God is self-expenditure. If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain, but what He pours through us that counts." - Oswald Chambers
Prayer:
Father I thank you for all the saints that pour the gospel of Jesus Christ through themselves. I thank you for all those who give no thought to the fact that once they have expended themselves in their spiritual efforts that they might end up in chards like a worn out earthen vessel. Father, I praise you for seeing the worth in them and raising their bodies from the dust and clay to serve and praise you for all eternity in glory. Help me Holy Father to be pleasing to you without concern for myself. Help me to carry living water from the well, from the side of Jesus, to all those who thirst. Make me a working vessel that the potter made for utility and good use; don't allow me to become painted, beautiful, and placed upon a shelf with no value other than for the looking. Father, don't make me the monument that demands admiration and awe, but rather the grass that cools the feet of those who stand to admire it... to admire you. Let me be the simple cup that holds the living water which refreshes the saints, and I will praise you day and night for having touched, if but for an instant, all that has passed through me.
Rich Forbes