Whosoever will, let him drink freely
Water, water everywhere.
Isn’t water amazing? It has properties unlike any other liquid. God took oxygen, an explosive gas, and hydrogen, an extremely explosive gas; He brought them together and made the universal coolant, solvent, and extinguisher of fire.
Water is the home of millions of fresh water fish, not to mention the abundant salt water varieties. But, to keep them all alive in the cold, the Lord gave frozen water the ability to float on the surface of rivers and lakes and oceans, a property no other molecule has.
A miracle takes place daily at the polar caps and other cold places of our planet. Every time the air temperature reaches 32 degrees and enough heat is lost, instead of acting like every other kind of liquid when condensing—getting denser and heavier and settling at the bottom of its container—water expands for the first 4 degrees below 32, as it turns into ice. A miracle! Then once it is in its solid form, at 28 degrees, it begins to condense, like every other solid. But by then, it has created a hard shell above the rest of the unfrozen water.
The wonder of this is that it has kept the fish population alive. If water hadn’t the unique property of expansion during those first 4 degrees below freezing, ice would be formed during the winter, it would have settled to the bottom of rivers, lakes and oceans, and, slowly but surely, every channel and body of water would have become solid blocks of ice and the fish would have all perished eons ago.
Another amazing thing about water is its tastelessness. Pure water tastes like nothing. It has been called the water of life because it is the most important necessity to life and health of every living plant and animal on earth, second only to air. Yet, its taste is transparent.
Humans can live without food for 2 weeks or more. They can live without water for 4 days, air for 4 minutes. The most important essentials for life give us no sensual pleasure. Many people don’t like to drink water. They prefer drinks that are full of poison: sugar, caffeine, alcohol, fat, because those fluids offer some kind of gratification.
Not that all sensory gratification is evil. But, if the Creator, infinite in wisdom, made empty of pleasure the second most important element on this big world, He must be saying that not everything we experience has to feel good. We need it, even if it does nothing for the flesh.
Jesus likened Himself to the water of life. “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (Jn. 4:14).
“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (Jn. 7:37,38). The Savior not only spoke the truth, He was the truth. But the words He spoke were empty of anything that would gratify self. “It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” (Jn. 6:63).
The Bible is unique in that it is empty of proof. Faith must rest on evidence, alone. There is nothing in His word that pleases our desire to satisfy curiosity or demonstration, as if God must fulfill a human’s demands for divine entertainment. When it comes to the line of commuication that God has opened for us in His Bible, the flesh profits nothing. We must walk by faith alone, if we want the benefits of the deeper wisdom only God can supply. His water is life, but it is also tasteless.
Christ’s words, which did not profit the flesh, show that His heart and nature were empty of self. We cannot expect that receiving Him will lead to pleasing self. Rather, accepting Him and His self-sacrificing love will lead to washing ourselves of self-pleasing, like Jesus was. We will live as He lived.
Yet, self-denial will bring life. Self-renunciation will bring joy, and peace, and perfect freedom. We will gain a mental, spiritual, and physical health that no other method can match. No other god or religion or lifestyle can compete with Jesus and His way, as we daily drink in the pure, cleansing, unexciting truth, vacant of self-indulgence.
“Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.” (Ex. 17:6). This instance gives us an inside view of why our Creator and Redeemer gave no taste to life-giving water.
In order to provide for us, He must suffer. It is His joy to give life, yet that gift to others brings with it loss to Him. In order to heal, His own vitality must be spent. (Lk. 6:19). Giving health to others means a slow drain on His personal account. Providing joy leaves Him happier, yet weaker and quiet and rejuvenating. “He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because He hath borne it upon Him.” (Lam. 3:28). Thus, His continual reliance of His Father for renewed strength. No one reveals the Father like the Son.
Obedience to His will gives us power (Deut. 8:18). Obedience to Him gives us energy (Ex. 1:19). His laws give us strength (Is. 40:31). He gives health. (Gen. 15:26). He gives us safety. (Ps. 103:4). He gives us beauty. (Ps. 103:4).
He has paid with His life in order to provide for us. He can give us beauty due to His ashes. He gives us the oil of joy because of His mourning. He expends all to give us all. “For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours.” (1Cor. 3:21,22).
When we have accepted all that He offers, then we will be proper witnesses, armed with Christ’s righteousness, our souls empty of self.
Isn’t water amazing? It has properties unlike any other liquid. God took oxygen, an explosive gas, and hydrogen, an extremely explosive gas; He brought them together and made the universal coolant, solvent, and extinguisher of fire.
Water is the home of millions of fresh water fish, not to mention the abundant salt water varieties. But, to keep them all alive in the cold, the Lord gave frozen water the ability to float on the surface of rivers and lakes and oceans, a property no other molecule has.
A miracle takes place daily at the polar caps and other cold places of our planet. Every time the air temperature reaches 32 degrees and enough heat is lost, instead of acting like every other kind of liquid when condensing—getting denser and heavier and settling at the bottom of its container—water expands for the first 4 degrees below 32, as it turns into ice. A miracle! Then once it is in its solid form, at 28 degrees, it begins to condense, like every other solid. But by then, it has created a hard shell above the rest of the unfrozen water.
The wonder of this is that it has kept the fish population alive. If water hadn’t the unique property of expansion during those first 4 degrees below freezing, ice would be formed during the winter, it would have settled to the bottom of rivers, lakes and oceans, and, slowly but surely, every channel and body of water would have become solid blocks of ice and the fish would have all perished eons ago.
Another amazing thing about water is its tastelessness. Pure water tastes like nothing. It has been called the water of life because it is the most important necessity to life and health of every living plant and animal on earth, second only to air. Yet, its taste is transparent.
Humans can live without food for 2 weeks or more. They can live without water for 4 days, air for 4 minutes. The most important essentials for life give us no sensual pleasure. Many people don’t like to drink water. They prefer drinks that are full of poison: sugar, caffeine, alcohol, fat, because those fluids offer some kind of gratification.
Not that all sensory gratification is evil. But, if the Creator, infinite in wisdom, made empty of pleasure the second most important element on this big world, He must be saying that not everything we experience has to feel good. We need it, even if it does nothing for the flesh.
Jesus likened Himself to the water of life. “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (Jn. 4:14).
“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (Jn. 7:37,38). The Savior not only spoke the truth, He was the truth. But the words He spoke were empty of anything that would gratify self. “It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” (Jn. 6:63).
The Bible is unique in that it is empty of proof. Faith must rest on evidence, alone. There is nothing in His word that pleases our desire to satisfy curiosity or demonstration, as if God must fulfill a human’s demands for divine entertainment. When it comes to the line of commuication that God has opened for us in His Bible, the flesh profits nothing. We must walk by faith alone, if we want the benefits of the deeper wisdom only God can supply. His water is life, but it is also tasteless.
Christ’s words, which did not profit the flesh, show that His heart and nature were empty of self. We cannot expect that receiving Him will lead to pleasing self. Rather, accepting Him and His self-sacrificing love will lead to washing ourselves of self-pleasing, like Jesus was. We will live as He lived.
Yet, self-denial will bring life. Self-renunciation will bring joy, and peace, and perfect freedom. We will gain a mental, spiritual, and physical health that no other method can match. No other god or religion or lifestyle can compete with Jesus and His way, as we daily drink in the pure, cleansing, unexciting truth, vacant of self-indulgence.
“Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.” (Ex. 17:6). This instance gives us an inside view of why our Creator and Redeemer gave no taste to life-giving water.
In order to provide for us, He must suffer. It is His joy to give life, yet that gift to others brings with it loss to Him. In order to heal, His own vitality must be spent. (Lk. 6:19). Giving health to others means a slow drain on His personal account. Providing joy leaves Him happier, yet weaker and quiet and rejuvenating. “He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because He hath borne it upon Him.” (Lam. 3:28). Thus, His continual reliance of His Father for renewed strength. No one reveals the Father like the Son.
Obedience to His will gives us power (Deut. 8:18). Obedience to Him gives us energy (Ex. 1:19). His laws give us strength (Is. 40:31). He gives health. (Gen. 15:26). He gives us safety. (Ps. 103:4). He gives us beauty. (Ps. 103:4).
He has paid with His life in order to provide for us. He can give us beauty due to His ashes. He gives us the oil of joy because of His mourning. He expends all to give us all. “For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours.” (1Cor. 3:21,22).
When we have accepted all that He offers, then we will be proper witnesses, armed with Christ’s righteousness, our souls empty of self.
posted by David | 6:14 AM
3 Comments:
By the Way David,
Have you ever noted that all things that would be the most expensive God gives them to us freely, like The water, The air breath and others.
Here in AFrica we get water from the streams, wells, lakes and rain but most of those things are dirtly we boil the water to make it safe.
But the kind of water Jesus offers is an example of clean safe water (His life) Its also free
How much could we have bought our salvation.
Nsubuga D
Thanks again Daniel.
His water of life is free indeed. Imagine trying to pay for all the water on our planet! That's how hard it is to pay for all His grace toward His children.
Regarding all the dirty water on earth, isn't it hard to wait for the rivers on the new earth, clear as crystal?
Just as I was reading your response I thought about
"Shall we gather at the river....."
Yes we will soon gather at that riever that flows from the throune of God
Daniel
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