Never Say Never

Never Say Never

John 4:14
but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

   I’ve to distrust ads that tell me something will never happen again if I use their product.  “Never chop onions again!”  “Never wait for internet access again!”  “Never scrub again, just rinse and go!”  “Never wax again, just pour on and wipe off for a long lasting shine!”
   I’ve thrown out chopping miracle tools that didn’t work, been booted off the internet and given the blank blue screen of death, I’ve sprayed and rinsed and I’m still had to scrub to get stains out, and followed the directions on the bottle and the water refuses to bead on my windshield.  I’ve heard hundreds of solemn promises to never have to do it again – but had to do it again anyway.
   The wise man says, ‘never say never,’ and lessons learned in life seem to add weight to that old saying.  Against the certainty of uncertainty, Jesus says “never again!”  Actually, what He said was, “you will never thirst again.”  But my cynical mind struggles with this promise.  I need to accept the truth that when Jesus says never, He means never!  When Jesus says forgiven, He means forgiven!  When Jesus says forever, He means forever!
   When you find Jesus, your search is over.  Drink in the living water of the Word.  Take time to worship.  Rest in the Lord.  He alone can truly keep the promise of “never.”
   He goes on to promise that the water of His Word would become a spring of living water in us.  In ancient times, they called spring water living water because it seemed "alive" as it bubbled up from the ground.  Jesus used illustrations people were familiar with when He taught.  He spoke of reaping and harvesting to a people who lived surrounded by farms.  He pulled a child aside to illustrate the point of how our faith must be like the little child’s faith.  And here He uses a spring of water to illustrate His point of how living water refreshes us and His Word is like living water to refresh our souls.
   Water that has been collected and kept in a tank stagnates and begins to taste like the storage tank after a while.  Living water has been forced through rock and hard packed soil on its way and has had the impurities filtered out.  When it bubbles out into the air it tastes alive and refreshing and satisfying.  People who hear the Word of God and keep it bottled up inside themselves become stagnant in their faith and their lives become stale.  But those who let the Word flow through them to refresh others are refreshed in their own spirits as well.
   Jesus invites us to come to Him and drink our fill from His living water and let it quench our thirst.  Then let it spring up within us and flow into the lives of others and bring them relief from their thirst.

Stephen Cram                               June 26, 2011              Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8