Sips And Nibbles

"Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14....."Most people never discover true life. Most believers never drink deeply from the well of living water, and as a result our worship, our community, and our witness are weak." Larry Crabb

How can Crabb's words be so true in light of the power and truth of Christ's words in John 4? How can such an endless supply of the water and bread of His life be so available to us and at the same time consistently rejected? Why, when He invites us to eat and drink to our fill, and beyond our fill, do we allow ourselves to be satisfied with mere sips and nibbles of it all? Why do we live like wanderers in a desert, rationing our water and bread of life for fear it will give out, instead of having Him to "set a table before us in the wilderness" as He has promised?

The above Scripture is from Jesus' interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well. She was there to draw water that would not last. He offered His Living Water that would never run dry. While this was happening, His disciples had gone into town to the local "McDonalds" to buy food. When they returned, they pressed Jesus to eat what they'd brought. He told them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." They were "addicted" to the food of the world. They couldn't grasp anything beyond their bodily needs. They lacked understanding as to their being spiritual beings before physical ones. They knew nothing of the spiritual food available in Jesus Christ. They were satisfied with junk food when a Kingdom feast was available to them. How like them are we? How ignorant do we remain of the Kingdom water and bread whose fullness we're invited to? Where in our worship, relationships, and witness does that lack continually show up?

I've walked with Him for 41 years now. I've learned to love and follow Him in ever deeper ways, but it is to my sorrow that I spent so many of those years living in the state I speak of. I depended on "junk food" more than His bread. I drank the soda pop of this world more than His Living Water. I was carrying a canteen of His water, hoping it would somehow get me through whatever wilderness I was walking in, all the while blind to the well of living water that was right before me, and in me, through Christ. I existed and subsisted on sips and nibbles instead of flourishing in His abundance. And all aspects of my life suffered as a result. Sadly, this is how the majority of those who have free access to all of His abundance choose to live. We simply can't believe that what He offers us is real, true, and available. At least, not really available to us.

We're living in the midst of a time when access to our favorite "McDonald's" and the fare they offer have been cut off from us. Are we going through some kind of withdrawal because of it? Or, have we at last discovered that right before us is the well of water, the endless supply of His bread, that is our's for the taking? Have we finally realized that the junk food and soda pop has been starving us all along? Do we throw away our carefully hoarded canteens of water and backpacks of bread, and simply partake of His life? A life that fulfills, that quenches our deepest thirst and satisfies our greatest hunger? The disciples, at Pentecost, with the outpouring of His Spirit, came to know of the food they once knew nothing about. Are we ready to enter into such knowledge as well? Or do we just go on with our sips and nibbles, backpacks and canteens?

Blessings,
Pastor O