September 3 Esight, 2010

And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son (1John 5.11).(Part 1 of 3)

I am convinced that the judgment will reveal that salvation full and free was given to every man, woman, and child. If any people are lost at last, it won’t be because they didn’t do enough to convince God to save them, but rather that they threw away the salvation God had so fully placed in their laps.

It’s a question of verb order. But it’s more than just grammar. Upon this subtle difference depends everything.

God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3.16, emphasis supplied).

God loves, and therefore He gives. His gifts always precede our belief in them. Yes, our belief is, in effect, a “receiving” of those gifts; from God’s perspective, His grace has been given to all.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men (Titus 2.11).

Yes, but although He is the Savior especially of those who believe, this does not change the fact that He is also the Savior of all men, believers or not, as well (see 1 Timothy 4:10).

What does all this mean in regards to our picture of God?

Much!

God loves, and therefore He gives. His giving isn’t dependent on our acceptance. His giving is based on His love for us. It is universal in its scope. And yes, it’s with the hope that we will believe, but God’s grace must needs precede our belief in order that grace be not cheap but free (more on the comparison of expensive, cheap and free grace next week).

But God’s grace is right now being poured out on all “as real as the air we breathe.”

I want you to write two verb orders down on a piece of paper this week.

1) Love Give Believe

2) Love Believe Give

Look at both of those orders carefully and ask yourself the following questions:

What type of person is each of these orders describing? Write down one adjective at a time. What type of person loves you and therefore just simply gives to you based on that love? And what type of person, by contrast, loves you, but requires you to do something first before they will give to you? There is a comparison to be made between reservation and extravagance; calculation and generosity; someone conservative in the expression of love, and another liberal. One efficient, the other wasteful.

We’ll pick up here with your list next week and a story about Jesus and two leapers.

I wish you God’s best this week. Happy pondering.

August 27 Esight, 2010

I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from them . . . Hosea 14.4-7Recently, I received an email thanking me for the affect the presentations online had made on the their picture of our heavenly Father. The writer went on to share information about a series of meetings he was trying to put together and asked for feedback about the advertising. (Honestly, I think I’m going to steal some of it.) I’ll share the phrase that jumped out at me.

“We are a group of Christians apologizing for how the church has misrepresented Jesus. We’re sorry.”

I wonder how much respect we would gain in the world if Christian leaders, no matter how much good their religion has brought to the world, would stand up and apologize for the times when they have misrepresented God and, honestly, messed things up.

I remember that when I was little my mother made a huge mistake one day and quickly sat me down and said she was wrong and she was sorry. I remember my level of respect for her dramatically soared that day. I remember a time my oldest daughter was very young, and I lost my cool with her and spoke to her in an exasperated tone. I quickly dropped to my knees in front of her, took her face in my hands (wiping away the little tears that were just forming) and told her I was sorry. She’s much older now but recently shared how much it had affected her that I immediately recognized my error and owned it, simply saying I was sorry.

Too many times, when it comes to religion, we live in denial, afraid to admit where we have messed up for fear that others may lose confidence in us. (I have often wondered what would happen if my own church would simply stop rewriting its history and simply admit where we have erred, apologize, and move forward.) Only God and the angels are infallible. We here are earth are not. We will make mistakes, and when we do, it’s not the mistake that will cause others to lose respect for us. Our ability to confess a mistake and apologize for our living in denial will determine how effective we continue to be in this world. I think a lot could be accomplished if Christians around the globe would simply say, “I’m sorry.”

I’ll close this week with the following verse. Pay close attention to it and see if you spot what I see here.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. Ezekiel 36.22-27

It may help our cause greatly to simply say, “We’re Sorry.”

Something to ponder.

I wish you God’s best this week.

August 17 Esight, 2010

“You who are far away, hear what I have done; And you who are near, acknowledge My might. Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with the everlasting burnings?”—Isaiah 33.13-14If any of you have listened to the presentation entitled Love’s Eternal Flame from Life Unlimited, what I am about to share this week will make perfect sense with just a little thought.

Over and over in the scriptures, God likens His love for us to an eternally burning, everlasting, unquenchable fire! (Misunderstanding of these passages has led many people to believe in an eternally burning hell, an idea that I neither subscribe to nor believe that the scriptures really teach.) Three words are found throughout the scriptures: eternal, everlasting, and unquenchable. Stop for just one moment this week and ponder what it means to experience this type of love.

Solomon wrote, “… Love is as strong as death, Jealousy is as severe as Sheol; Its flashes are flashes of fire, The very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, Nor will rivers overflow it …” (Song of Solomon 8.6,7).

God’s love for us in not only unquenchable, it is everlasting:

The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness” (Jeremiah 31.3).

This is the quality of love each of us truly desires: a love that is all-knowing, yet eternal and unchanging. We yearn for a love that knows us intimately to the smallest detail, knows everything about us, and yet loves us nonetheless. This quality of love changes us. It changes our lives. It changes those around us and, ultimately, it will change the world and usher in the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of this quality of love.

Let’s finish the verse we began with, shall we?

“Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning? He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, He who rejects unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil; He will dwell on the heights, his refuge will be the impregnable rock; his bread will be given him, his water will be sure” (Isaiah 33:14-16).

Who will dwell for eternity in the presence and embrace this perfect love, while others around him or her are consumed? He who walks “righteously”, or in other words, those who allow that love to be divinely reproduced in their lives.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous … you are to be perfect [love perfectly], as your heavenly Father is perfect [loves perfectly] (Matthew 5:43-48, brackets added).

In the light of His unquenchable love for you, you too, go out and love someone this week!

I wish you God’s best.

July 25 Esight, 2010

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. John 1:6-8This week I’d like to draw your attention to a curious Greek word used in the above verse. It’s translated into the English as “witness” and “testify.” The Greek root here is marturia, the Greek word from which we get our English word martyr. Now one of the principle definitions of a martyr is somebody who makes sacrifices or suffers greatly in order to advance a cause or principle.

At first, probably like you, I found myself scratching my head a bit. But with a little bit of thought it becomes perfectly clear. The great truth that our God has ever sought to explain and demonstrate, throughout history and the scriptures, is the principle of Love. Yet love always shines the brightest when it is tried. It’s seen in its fullness when it is tested. The greatest evidence of this reality is the Cross itself. It was part of Christ’s mission to suffer as much hatred and violence from human hands as His human nature could endure. And though, yes, many in history have suffered more physically than what Jesus suffered on the cross, the physical sufferings of God were not to appease some divinely held anger toward sinners! Rather, the physical sufferings of God, administered by our human hands, were for the purpose of revealing, testifying to us that God, having loved us, would ever love us to the end. Nothing, either demonic or human, could break His will and cause Him to let us go (Romans 8:35-39). Faced with abandoning us or all hope for Himself (Psalms 88:1-8), He would choose, with complete and utter self abandonment, to hold onto us and place us back on vantage ground. And “by His stripes, we are healed”! Notice, Isaiah’s emphasis is that Calvary would change us! God was not brought nearer to us. But rather, having us already in His heart, we would be drawn nearer to Him. Calvary was that God would dwell in our hearts, as we, from all eternity, had been in His.

Never had God’s love been seen as it was revealed at the cross. Selfless Love shines brightest when it’s tested and tried. And this is the reason, I believe, that we are all called to “martyrdom.” At some degree or another, we all are called to sacrifice to become a conduit of the self sacrificing, self abandoning, selfless love of Heaven. God is calling us, just as John was also called, to be not simply a recipient of Heaven’s kind of love, but also to be a channel through which that love can flow to this world in a tangible and measurable way. Not that any of us likes the idea of suffering anything! But love, without teeth, is simply romantic nonsense. Love, when it costs something and yet still loves, is a love with dimension—a love worthy of our heart and worthy of a life dedicated to the propagation of it’s principles, even if it should cost us to do so as well. There is something, or rather Someone, out there greater to live for than ourselves, isn’t there?

Something to ponder.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)

I wish you God’s best this week.

July 13 Esight, 2010

In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:4-6).Adoption!

Almost 20 years ago, I discovered a small discipline that has proven itself extremely valuable to me over the years when I look at a specific passage. When I begin to study a certain book of the Bible, I endeavor to sit down and read it straight through, beginning to end, at least ten times, before I start tearing into it, simply to get the overall emphasis and focus of the authors themselves. I will admit this is a lot easier with books like Ephesians, and much harder with books like Isaiah, but it has been invaluable at helping me personally see not just a tree, but the whole forest too, simultaneously.

If one was to read through the majority of Paul’s letters in one sitting, you would immediately begin to see this word—adoption. Paul does not apply this word to Jewish believers, only to gentiles. In Paul’s cultural context, adoption meant something quite different than it does for us in our culture. In Paul’s day and age, adoption was a process whereby a slave became a member of the family. This was done for many reasons. One possibility could be that a couple were getting up in years and did not have children to watch after them in their old age. Thus, they would select one of the household slaves they were fond of to adopt. Adoption was usually a win/win situation. It did not come without added responsibility, but it also usually came with the rewards and privileges of being “family,” which included, but was not limited to, an inheritance.

Sociologically, adoption was not always as altruistic as it can be today. Slaves were willing to enter into this relationship out of fondness for their owners but, more importantly, for the gift of their freedom and the inheritance that would follow. The slave owner sought to adopt to ensure some perfunctory family responsibility would be taken care of, that otherwise lacked someone to oversee it. Sometimes it was a family business that needed to be looked after, or as mentioned, care of the slave owners themselves when they became older; it may also have been simply a way of carrying on a family name.

We need to qualify for one minute, though, Paul’s use of the adoption model in Ephesians. He is very careful to state God’s motives in adopting us. God was not self-seeking. His motives were altruistic. God adopted us, simply and unequivocally, only because of His great love for us. But, Paul was quick to add, that did not excuse us, as gentiles adopted into the family of God, from the added responsibilities of carrying on the family name and carrying out the business of the family into which we have been adopted. And what is the family business, what is the family name, we are being asked to carry on?

In one word, it is simple: Love.

“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He did not love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that” (Ephesians 5:1, 2, The Message).

“Love to man is the earthward manifestation of the love of God. It was to implant this love, to make us children of one family, that the King of glory became one with us. And when His parting words are fulfilled, ‘Love one another, as I have loved you’ (John 15:12); when we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven; for we have heaven in our hearts” (White, The Desire of Ages, p. 641).

Something worth pondering, for sure.

I wish you God’s best this week.

May 31 Esight, 2010

“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this: that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).”It is no part of Christ’s mission to compel men to receive Him. It is Satan, as well as men actuated by his spirit, who seeks to compel the conscience. Under a pretense of zeal for righteousness, men who are confederate with evil angels bring suffering upon their fellow men, in order to convert them to their ideas of religion; but Christ is ever showing mercy, ever seeking to win through the revealing of His love. He can admit no rival in the soul, nor accept of partial service; but He desires only voluntary service, the willing surrender of the heart under the constraint of love.” (The Desire of Ages, p. 487, emphasis added).

He desires only voluntary service.

Stop and meditate on that for a minute and let it really sink in. I know that in the beginning of many or our journeys, God sought simply to save us from self-destructive behaviors by any means necessary. But after that—I am fully convinced—God would have us grow into something quite entirely different in nature.

Follow Hosea’s prophecy closely:

“At that time,” declares the Lord, “you will call me, ‘My husband’; you will never again call me, ‘My master’” (Hosea 2:16).

There is a stark contrast between the relationship between a slave and his master and the relationship that exists between spouses. (Or at least there should be.) But it truly gives us something here to reflect on:

We place so much emphasis on obedience that sometimes we forget that, if obedience were all God wanted, all would be easy! Flood the world, send fire down from Heaven, threaten with plagues—or, even better, with eternal destruction! The obedience of many—not all, but many—would be guaranteed! But we have misunderstood all of these signs. God wants more than our obedience. He desires our love.

As much as I respect other religions, no other God in any other religion wants our love. They want our obedience and our service, but no other God wants love. And thus, how we go about sharing Him with this world must be dramatically different. As a church, we are part of something much different than we have realized. We have been chosen as ambassadors of reconciliation to win the hearts of humanity back for God through the revelation of our unique understanding of His love for this world.

Non-compulsory, voluntary service and love: To choose Him in an environment where we are truly free to choose anything else. Then—and only then—will there be assurance that rebellion will never break out in the universe again.

“Take from among you a contribution to the Lord; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the Lord’s contribution” (Exodus 35:5, emphasis added).

I wish you God’s best this week.

April 29 Esight, 2010

“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”—Matthew 5.48Wow, Its good to be back!!! After being sick, then traveling to Southern Louisiana for a camp meeting, (which was the first time I have ever had to preach after losing my voice, – they turned up the mic and I did all my presentations in a whisper – what a blast!) I am finally getting the chance to return to a weekly writing schedule. After my last e-Sight, which I doubt anyone has a fresh recollection of, I received quite a few e-mails in response to what I shared. Some replies took issue with me saying that God loves us just the way we are, including all of our mistakes while others were concerned with me saying that love never leaves us the way it finds us, but immediately begins transforming us into its own very image. I have no doubt that what I am about to share this week will result in my inbox receiving a few more emails. However, I believe it is necessary. Yet, rather than reopening the age-old debate of whether or not we, as human beings, can really be restored into God’s image of love, let’s spend our time this week looking at what the Bible defines this transformation to be. Follow Jesus’ words closely.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5.38-48).

Now let us read Dr. Luke’s version:

But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6.27-36).

Now let us read from Paul.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3.14-19).

Did you catch that? Filled with all the fullness of God? Really? What does that even mean? And after discerning its meaning, how is THAT ever going to happen for me?

I believe that Eugene Peterson, on this point, has some insight to share.

“Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that” Ephesians 5:1,2, The Message.

You see, being like God (Ephesians 5:1) is not something we accomplish by trying. Rather, it is quite the opposite. We can only love as God loves when we begin to see how deeply, how fully, how unequivocally, God loves us. All we can truly do is allow God to show us how much He loves us, and that love itself, once experienced, is so powerful that it will do all of the transforming that is needed. By love is love awakened.

“Love is the basis of godliness. Whatever the profession, no man has pure love to God unless he has unselfish love for his brother. But we can never come into possession of this spirit by trying to love others. What is needed is the love of Christ in the heart. When self is merged in Christ, love springs forth spontaneously. The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within–when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance” (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 384).

It is incredibly good to be back.

I wish you God’s best this week.

April 9 Esight, 2010

noneWe are sorry to announce that there will be no weekly E-sight this week, due to Herb being out of the office sick. He thanks everyone for your prayers and your emails, and he looks forward to resuming the weekly messages again next week. Have a blessed weekend!

We wish you God’s best,

The staff at Renewed Heart Ministries.

March 31 Esight, 2010

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water . . . Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here” (John 4:10–16).Last week, we made the claim that the living water Jesus was offering to the woman at the well was actually an encounter with the other-centered, non-condemning, selfless, genuine love that only comes from God Himself (see 1 John 4:7). We gave a series of evidences for this, but the strongest evidence is that when the woman finally did ask for it, in order for Jesus to actually give it to her, He had to bring up the subject of her husband. Why does the conversation abruptly take this twist? What was Jesus up to? I think it’s quite simple and obvious if one thinks about it for just a moment.

At the end of the dialogue with this woman, she runs back to her village and states, “Come meet a man who told me everything bad I’ve ever done.” What Jesus actually told her was that she had been married five times and, to put it bluntly, the man she was living with currently was just what my folks would have called “shacking up.” I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to talk to complete strangers about their marital past before, but I would imagine the last response to be expected would be for them to get excited about it (if it was much like this woman’s) and for them to go run off to all their friends so they could come and meet you, too! It’s a very odd story, to say the least. What on earth is going on here, and what does it have to do with Jesus’ gift of living water?

John tells us that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth were realized through Jesus (John 1:17). Grace and truth. Both. Put yourself in this woman’s shoes for just a moment and imagine how you’d feel as Jesus recounts all the mistakes you’ve made in your past. But something is different. As he lists all your mistakes, His expression never changes, the look in His eyes does not drift into disappointment, He doesn’t pull away, there is no censor, only acceptance, forgiveness, compassion and pure, non-condemning love. You begin to realize that He really does know everything there is to know about you, and, yet, He still passionately loves you with all of it. This kind of love is “living water!” When I grew up, people used to tell me, “Love is blind.” And although I understand what they meant, I don’t need a love that’s blind! I need a love that knows everything there is to know about me and yet loves me nonetheless for it. A love that knows the truth about me, but the worse that reality is, the more His grace abounds. I need a love that is not just full of truth, but grace and truth. What this woman saw was the same reality Paul later encountered, too, that where “Sin abounds, Grace does much more abound” (Romans 5:20). What this woman encountered was the deeply intimate embrace of an all-enveloping love for her very soul, just the way she was. And do you know what the beauty of this kind of love is? Though it loves you just the way you are, it never leaves you quite the same as when it found you. It immediately begins to transform its object into the same exact image of itself. It becomes a fountain inside us, flowing out toward others as well. We immediately begin to want to be able to love like that! And when that takes place, then we begin to realize what “Salvation” really is. We, at that point, pass from death unto life, and enter a world of extravagant love, amazing grace, and an intimate relationship with the most beautiful Being in all the universe, a Being others before us have defined as — Love.

March 25 Esight, 2010

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life.” – John 4:13, 14Recently I asked an audience a central question about this passage; what was the “living water” that Jesus mentioned? I received a myriad of answers, all of which left me wanting more. None of them fit. Maybe that’s because truth is often so simple that we miss it. We have a tendency to make things more difficult than they need to be. The most adamant of the answers I received was “eternal life!” However, I want you to notice carefully that the living water becomes a fountain inside us, a fountain that springs up and overflows from within us, leading to eternal life. The water and “eternal life” are not the same thing.

So, then, what is this living water?

Well, it has certain qualities:

1) It can only be received from God Himself.

2) Once received, it satisfies so deeply that our insatiable “thirsting,” our deep sense of need and void, is met and filled permanently.

3) It then becomes something inside of us that flows from us to others.

4) And lastly, it grows and develops into Eternity itself.

Hmmmmm. Do you know it yet? Have you guessed it?

David too found that his “soul” was “thirsty” and that nothing in this world could satisfy it (see Psalms 63:1). Later, however, he found that every desire and longing he had ever felt was fully satisfied by this same “living water” (see Psalms 145:16).

Do you know now? Compare the following verses to the qualities listed above.

1) Love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God . . . for God is love. (1 John 4:7, 8)

2) . . . And to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)

3) We love, because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

4) We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. (1 John 3:14)

The living water is love! Genuine, other-centered, selfless, self-sacrificing, self-abandoning love. It hopes all things, believes all things, and bears all things. It only stems from God Himself, who embodies and exemplifies this kind of Love. Once we taste it, it satisfies so deeply that we truly feel we were created to drink it. Next, it immediately springs up and flows outward, toward others, changing us into its very image. It is at that point, when we have been converted from self-centeredness to other-centeredness (see 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15), that we have passed from death unto life.

There is one more unmistakable proof that Jesus referenced God’s love when he spoke of the living water. This proof is evidenced in what Jesus said next to the dear woman at the well. However, we will save that discussion for next week. See if you can figure it out before then. Happy pondering!

I wish you God’s best this week.