Thirsty

Thirsty

We could not make the angels happy

(J.R. Miller)

"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 2:13

The human soul cannot be satisfied with any of earth's good things. This is not the fault of the things of earth--they are good and beautiful, in their own way and in their own place. But the soul is spiritual and immortal. Money and fame and power--can never be food for a soul made in the Divine image; nothing less than God Himself can answer its cravings.

We could not make the angels happy by giving them gold and diamonds, and building them fine marble palaces to live in, and putting crowns and fine clothes on them. No more can we satisfy our own souls with such things. Men try to do so--but their thirst is only momentarily quenched--and soon they must drink again. Gratification only intensifies desire.

"Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again--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!" John 4:13-14

(Taken from Grace Gems)

            The greatest physical need known to man, thirst. Even our blessed Lord on that cruel cross (the epi-center, history of the world) said, "I thirst" (John 19:28).

            WWII, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, crashed plane in the Pacific, describes his thirst, 24 days on a life raft. Until his death, because of his relationship with the seagulls, he fed them breadcrumbs on the beach everyday.

            On the farm, hot sun, hard work, sweating, we knew what it was like to get thirsty, knew the thrill of cool drinking water.

            This writer's greatest thirst was experienced in Southern Egypt, Nubia, visiting the great temples at Abu Simbel. Walking in the dessert, heading back to the airstrip, I had never experienced such thirst. I said to my driver, "I would give $5 for a Coke." When we arrived at the remote airstrip, just a shack, a coke machine with the attendant, the Cokes cost $5. I purchased one for me and one for my driver.

            Jesus with the woman at the well, having in common with her, a cool drink of water, said to this Samarian woman of ill-repute, five husbands, "Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 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" (John 4:13-14).

           

            Those of us who bask in God's word will never understand those who tell us that they do not read The Bible. They go to church, sing the hymns, socialize with the believers who are there, and yet wander around in a dessert of need. The Bible is written on a sixth grade level but it is only when you are thirsty that you drink in its pages-message, you can never get enough, always satisfies the needs of a soul.

            This writer's great grandfather, elder P.T Lucas, great preacher of the gospel, covering Eastern North Carolina in a horse and buggy, wrote that he had a vision from God of thirsty-rich men in Hell, begging for water.

            This writer heard Pastor E.N Paisley, Martyrs Memorial church, Belfast, Ireland, preach of loss of mankind in Hell because of disbelief (Luke 16:23).  In Hell, it is too late to drink of the water of life. "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water" (Isaiah 41:18).