Dear Friends,
My friend Rick gave me a video for Christmas filmed in Israel at En Gedi where
fresh, clean, cool, spring-water flows into a pool from a spring north of the
area. This is the area where David fled for refuge from Saul and it is mostly
a dry barren desert with rocks and dust. (1 Samuel 23:29-24:1) David must have
come upon this oasis in his flight from Saul and been inspired to write some
of his psalms describing God as Living Water. “As the deer pants for streams
of water, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirst for God, the living
God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1-2) “O God, You
are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirst for You, my body longs for
You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1) When
Kristen and I toured Israel in 1996, we went to En Gedi and I remember sensing
the Lord speak to me about the dryness and barrenness of life without Him as
I was so hot and thirsty walking up those desert hills before we came upon En
Gedi. What a contrast this oasis was to all around it. Even the Dead Sea to
the east, though it looks refreshing from a distance, I knew was filled with
salt and “dead water” that would only make one more thirsty. The
teacher on the video pointed out that life without God, even the so-called “good
life”, wealth, worldly pleasures, success, etc., was dry and barren because
God alone, the Living Water, can quench our thirsty souls. He also reminded
us that we need an En Gedi in our life – a quiet place in our home, an
occasional retreat out into God’s creation, where we can be refreshed
through God’s Word and prayer or our spiritual life will dry up for ourselves
and others.
This message is relevant to a series I’m teaching at the Chili’s
Men’s Fellowship on eternal rewards. The ultimate reward is the spiritual
capacity to know, love, serve and glorify God for all eternity. And our capacity
is commensurate with our growth in our intimacy with Him now in this life. God
Himself is our greatest need and greatest reward in this life and in heaven.
God said to Abraham, “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
(Genesis 15:1) The psalmist, Asaph, inspired by God’s Spirit, says: “Whom
have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides
You.” (Psalm 73:25) If heaven, with all its perfections, is not heavenly
without the Presence of our God, how much more is earth a barren and dry desert
unless we know Him intimately. Jesus says: “Everyone who drinks this water
(natural water or human love) will be thirsty again, 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;
Also see John 4:1-42 for the whole story.) “The (Holy) Spirit and the
bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’
Whoever is thirsty, let him come, and whoever wishes, let him take the free
gift of the water of life.” (Revelation 22:17) God says: “I am the
Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King. Forget the former things,
do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do
you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert (your desert, your circumstances)
and streams in the wasteland. Because I provide water in the desert and streams
in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen people, the people I
formed for Myself that they may proclaim My praise.” (See Isaiah 43:15-21)
As we look to God for His Living Water and glorify Him to others, the flow of
Living Water in us keeps us revived and refreshes others with His Presence.
But what was true in Jeremiah’s day is still true today. Man has exchanged
the glory and beauty and Living Water of God for worthless idols and broken
cisterns. “Has a nation (or person) ever changed its gods? (Yet they are
not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.
‘Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror’,
declares the Lord. My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me,
the spring of Living Water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns
that cannot hold water.” (Jeremiah 2:11-13; Also see 17:5-6) Cisterns
in Israel only held warm, stagnant, infested water that collected from the rains.
Obviously, it did not compare to the fresh, cool, clean water from springs.
Jeremiah was saying that our idols are like the water in these cisterns; they
do not revive and refresh us in the life of God and as we drink from them we
remain dry and barren in ourselves and to others.
The good news is God’s spring never runs dry and we can repent from worthless
idols and broken cisterns and turn to Him and be filled and satisfied. “Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
(Mathew 5:6; Also see Jeremiah 17:7-8 and Psalm 1:1-3) God promises blessings,
rewards and satisfaction for those who seek Him (not things from Him). But it
takes faith to live this way because we must turn from seeking after the visible,
material things of this life that give instant gratification but fleeting gratification
(Scripture calls it lust –get it now! See 1 John 2:15-17) and seek God
Himself. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone
who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly
seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) What if your child, friend or spouse only sought
you to get something from you rather than wanting the joy of your company? This
is how we can treat God.
As we seek and find God’s Living Water we become a refreshment to others
in this dry and weary world. “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;
they are ever praising You. Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who
have set their hearts on pilgrimage (on seeing God face to face in heaven. Job
19:25-27) As they pass through the Valley of Baca (sorrow and tears of this
life) they make it a place of springs (spiritual refreshment for others for
God’s spring has refreshed us). The autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion.”
(Psalm 84:4-7)
John Piper says only worshiping God from our heart is true worship. (See John
4:23-24) He says that we should either be delighting in the wealth of God’s
beauty and glory (Psalm 63:5-6) or longing for that delight to be deeper and
more intense (Psalm 42:1-2) or sorrowful and repentant if feeling neither delight
or hunger. (Psalm 73:22) This is what keeps the spring of Living Water flowing
in and through our lives. May we prayerfully identify the broken cisterns in
our lives (Psalm 139:23-24) and turn from them back to the Living Water of God.
Find your En Gedi and go there regularly for God’s refreshment for yourself
and others. I found myself in a dry place over the holidays and sought the Lord
and He refreshed me and gave me a song.
I’VE COME TO EN GEDI AND MET WITH YOU LORD
I CAME DRY AND THIRSTY MY SOUL YOU’VE RESTORED
WITH FRESH LIVING WATER YOU’VE FILLED ME AGAIN
WITH FAITH HOPE AND LOVE THAT’S NOW FLOWING WITHIN
(CHORUS) OH LIFE-GIVING WATER FROM JESUS WITHIN
LIKE SPRINGS OF EN GEDI YOUR LOVE NEVER ENDS
OH GREAT WELL ETERNAL SPRING UP IN MY SOUL
REVIVING MY LIFE LET YOUR GLORY BE TOLD
NOW OUT TO OTHERS I HOPE AND I PRAY
THROUGH MY PRAYERS AND MY ACTS AND THE WORDS THAT I SAY
OH LOVE THEM AND LEAD THEM THROUGH ME OH MY KING
TO THE SPRINGS OF EN GEDI TO DRINK FROM YOUR SPRING
AND THROUGH THESE OTHERS NOW FILLED WITH YOUR LIFE
SEND THEM TO PEOPLE IN DARKNESS AND STRIFE
TO BRING THOSE TO YOU LORD THE LIFE-GIVING SPRING
THE CUP OF SALVATION AND THE HEALING YOU BRING
Blessed New Year in Him,
Len and Kristen