Canoeing, 'Step into the flow of the Spirit"
By Kim Greer 3/17/2010
A man calls a group of
friends together for a 3 day
canoe trip. Out of
the original group of ten two back out
right away with the
original phone call, they fear
anything out of life
experience. Two days before the trip
and after the money
has been put up, two more drop out
because the other two
that dropped out are not coming,
and they feel bad
that they won't be there. Six left and
two days to go before
stepping into an adventure of a
life time (with God).
Two more drop out the next day
because they lent
some other friends their camping
gear and don't want
to borrow from others or have to
sleep outside.
Now it's the day of
the trip, four people are just
overwhelmed with
excitement. Heading out one starts
to tell the others
they are afraid of tipping over and
maybe getting caught
up, too excited, and drowning in
the river. The others
assure her that she will be ok and
they will be there in
case that happens. When they
arrive at the banks
of the river the canoe company is
not there. They begin
to worry that it's all been a bad
idea because of the
troubles they have had and now all
their friends are not
coming with them. After an hour
goes by one begins to
become angry and threatens to
call the livery and
cancel the whole thing. The livery
shows up in a few
minutes and puts the canoes in the
river. The two
experienced ones throw all their gear in
the canoe and push
off shore. The other two become
agitated with
everything, where the gear fits in the
canoe the best, who
will sit in the back and steer, what
they should wear,
after taking a half hour to decide
where it all goes,
and what is what, they get ready to
push off, another
problem now comes up, the push off
person that is to sit
in front (and watch for danger)
doesn't want to get
wet right away or at all. He pushes
off with just his
feet wet, and they all start to head to
river.
After a little time
the inexperienced canoers hit a log
and flip over, them,
their gear, everything including the
canoe is going down
stream and out of control. They
panic, splash around,
scream and howler. The two
experienced ones come
in close and grab their things
but do not help the
couple. Why you ask? Because they
know the river, they
know the others are safe when they
calm down and just
stand up.
I think the story
speaks for itself, and how others get
lost along the way,
and how others, when they get
there, struggle
trying to put everything in order, then
without seeing it
come fall over head first. Then it takes
them awhile to learn
that they can stand up and be
comfortable and enjoy
the coolness and the wetness He
gives us if we just
learn to relax in Him, enjoy the walk in
the water with Him,
or float in the boat of life and let Him
take us down stream
at His pace. May God take you on
a journey today and
show you it is ok to "Step into the
Flow of the Spirit'.
Eyes of the Beholder
By Kimberly Priest
He gazed at the
distant shadow of a figure, and with that one glimpse, threw
off the distance in
haste. He would have been a match for chariots today! He
was less than a mile
from the Promised Land: one hundred thirty-four pounds
of flesh…. .a limp,
heaving mass of leanness; like a candle, deprived of its last
flame and left as
only a pile of melted wax.
The dust flew wildly
into the air behind the quickening pace of the old man.
He overcame the
heaving shadow with an abundance of fatherly joy. "Ah!
Ah!" he praised
as his heavy breathing gave him no room for greater words.
He embraced odorous
skeletal weakness with a covenantal hold and a
handful of fast and
faintly spoken Jewish prayers. Elderly fingers ran
themselves through
knotted, dark brown hair, fingering strand by strand and
counting. …"One,
two, three" in a whisper. Tears formed salty puddles upon
gaunt shoulders as
the old man buried his face into his son's sunken frame.
Bodies were shaking;
one with sobs of regret and the other with sobs of
ecstasy. They
withered into mutual embrace on bended knee.
The old man grabbed
the sullen face before him and coddled it between his
palms. He searched
the features of his son with memories. He remembered
the eyes to be as
ripe black olives kissed by reflections of the noonday sun.
He recalled the nose
to be regal and held high. The mouth and jaw were
broad and laughing.
The brow deep with heroic thoughts, the Life had been
drawn out of every
bone and pore in his son's body, and yet the eyes of the old
man danced across the
present portrait in celebration of the life that had
returned. "My
beloved, beloved son," he whispered so close that the forlorn
younger man could
feel the wind of the words touch his face and go down into
his very soul.
The years of separation…
The physical, mental, emotional and moral
dissipation were
drown eternally and forever washed away. After all, to all
consciousness, his
son had been dead; no one had known of his welfare. And
now, to this father's
relief, this beloved son had returned to the land of their
Living. A beloved son
was all this old man's eyes chose to behold.
Six
Days
By Kimberly Priest
“The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but
the earth he has given to the children of man,” Psalm 115:16. It was a gift to us from our Father. Just imagine.
Stir your heart to meditation.
Close your eyes… Unseen hands caressed with constancy the fortresses of
the deep, alighting them with various creatures of color, coral reefs and
caverns that kept their secrets. Laws formed under the disguise of beauty. His whispers filling every flowering plant
with desire; arousing communion between oceans and sand, forest and stream,
mountain and valley. Movement setting to
motion springs, chlorophyll, antelope and deer.
Kisses to calm the prairies and stir up the breeze. Dew to rejuvenate the earth’s tresses like
myrrh. Sweetness poured out. Your lips awaken me…. The firefly sparks a
single delight. Imagine. The deep darkness of night cannot hide You. You are discovered by a multitude of stars
answering to their names. Your Spirit
skips among the brook stones and the bubbling waters giggle underneath Your
feet. “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the
sand. I awake, and I am still with you,” Psalm 139:17-18. Many
waters, many thoughts. Unsearchable,
unquenchable. All of them for me…. Are
you there yet?
A
garden planted in Eden. The fragrant,
flowering paradise of the first of the children of men. God was there. Calling, answering, seeking and being
found. No inner turmoil in the human
breast and no controversy in the atmosphere.
No wars or rumors of them. All
was calm and all was bright. The
continuity of relationships, atmospheres and all of planet earth.
Despite
the tragedy that Eden became, I still believe that it was a perfect idea. The Divine Creator set out one day to have a
family. The way that He did this gives
us a fascinating glimpse into His beautiful heart. Genesis 1 tells us that for six days He never
stopped working. From the moment that
His Spirit hovered over the face of the watery, murky planet, His Artful hands
and Conceptive words began forming and seeding the surface. The Creator stuck His fingers into the grey
mud and moved it. Like a Potter forming
His clay. “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our
potter; we are all the work of your hand,” Isaiah 64:8. The thoughts of creation may conjure up
mental displays of magical movements, sparkling blasts and instantaneous
phenomena. Perhaps it was this way. But as an artist myself I am aware that art
does not happen accidentally or magically.
It takes time, deep thought, careful placement and strokes of
genius. What am I trying to communicate through my painting? What will the eye of the beholder immediately
see? What details should I add to flavor
it? What sort of production do I intend
audiences to glean of generations from now?
What was God saying to us
from the first moment of Earthen history? The Genesis account declares to us that God
created the fundamentals and details of our world with order and purpose. “And
God separated the light from the darkness,” Genesis 1:4. “And God said, ‘Let the waters under the
heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear’,”
Genesis 1:9. Although, to the naked
eye, creation may have unfolded with fantastic bangs and beautiful displays of
color, the entire process was well ordered and expertly designed. God made a dysfunctional planet very
functional. He created a dwelling
place. A structure that could support
Life. His Life, to be exact, contained
in an earthen vessel.
Six
days of constant transformation.
Because
God Said So
By Kimberly Priest
We
exist in a man’s world. I’m not speaking
of gender, but of humanity. The
recreation of planet Earth was an environmental gift to the human
generations. Because God said so. “ And God said, ‘Let
there be…,’ and there was…” Genesis 1:3.
It was a world of functionality, not a world of restrictions. The skies, oceans and soil were seeded with
possibilities. Divinity rent His
personality to reproduce His creative, functional Life in the Earthen atmosphere. A
designer world with both beauty and practicality. A single tree springs from the dust and
covers fifteen feet of paradise with cooling shade, sculpted branches and an
array of leafy colors. Furthermore it
provides fruit for our succulent nourishment and reliable wood for fuel and
shelter. God created a sensible, sensual
and picturesque environment for our eternal satisfaction. He did this for you and I.
From
the Genesis of human life, what picture is God painting? What details would He have us discover? What is He communicating? The fall of mankind from the open
relationship we enjoyed with Divinity often gets a good deal more publicity
than the magnificent statement He made to our Dust. “And
God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the
face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every
bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that
has the breath of life. I have given
every plant for food.’ And it was so,”
Genesis 1:29-30. To the first Man
and the first Women in essence God said, “Here,
have it all. Enjoy it, use it, bless it,
keep it functional and prospering.” No strings attached. The heart of Divinity really wanted humanity to have a good, eternal
experience on planet Earth. “And God
blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and
subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth’,” Genesis
1:28.
Notice
something with me for a moment. Genesis
2:5-9 pulls our perspective closer. We
take a zoom lens look at the formation of the Ad’am
from dust. “When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of
the field had yet sprung up – for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the
land and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the
land and was watering the whole face of the ground – then the Lord God formed
the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden
in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to
spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” Notice something: God breathed, God planted,
and God made to spring up. God made it all happen. God caused it. God said and it was so. Now widen the view. Let your camera lens take in the entire
Universe. God said and it was so. This great gift of Life and atmosphere, of
beauty and function, of possibility and authority was given to us because God
declared that it should be that way.
What a portrait. The Divine Heart
wanted us to have all this! For the Greatest Among
Men has said, “Out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaks,” Matthew 12:34.
Now
close your eyes and look again at a man’s world before man lost his place. The Divine Heart is here fully expressed to
us. “Adam,
Eve I made you able. Here is the whole
Earth. Go at it! I’ve given you what it takes!” It’s what I hear anyway. A Divine Heart respecting the nature of His
creation. Divinity had made the Dust
able. God saw with His own pure eyes
that the creation was good. It was
functional and capable. It was beautiful
and sensual. It lacked nothing. I paint for you strokes of generosity,
freedom and respect. That’s what I see
anyway.
A
Right Judgment
by
Kimberly Priest
The small pebble pelted his
left temple. David didn’t flinch. “Dog! You filthy, vile dog!” came the ridicule
from the hillside that ran parallel to the road. David bowed his hooded head lower. Tears had not stopped flowing ever since
their ascent upon the Mount of Olives. “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you
worthless man!” David heard the
taunt so distantly as his mind imagined that young
Absalom was now entering Jerusalem, a conqueror of his father’s throne.
The streets of Bahurim were scattered with onlookers. Faces betrayed the presence of many
opinions. But a man from the household
of Saul, Shimei, shared his opinion openly, “The Lord has avenged on you all the blood
of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given
his kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom.
See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.” David’s conscience ached from the verbal
blows. This was prime opportunity for
Adversarial perspectives. He rubbed his
forehead as he attempted to quickly dismiss the questions waging war within, “Did I hunt Saul? No, Saul hunted me. Did I usurp the throne? No, God promised it to me and I was willing
to patiently wait. Did I take Saul’s
life? No, Saul took his own. In all the opportunities I had to take it, I
did not. O God I need your help! Keep my heart from unrighteous anger!”
Abishai, of David’s mighty men, whirled
about to face David, swiftly drawing his sword, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over to take off his head.” Abishai’s eyes
sparked with too much passion for the kill.
David halted abruptly, placed his left hand on Abishai’s
armed shoulder, and slowly scolded with his tone, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah?”
he paused. Abishai
lowered his sword. The king lifted his
countenance and strengthened his stance.
Even in bare feet, he was more regal of appearance than the greatest
among men. All of the mighty men moved
not a finger, waiting for the king to speak.
Lifting his arm towards Shimei, he said, “If he is cursing because the Lord has said
to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say ‘Why have you done so?’ Behold , my own son
seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjamite! Leave him alone,” David shouted, “And let him curse, for the Lord has told
him to. It may be that the Lord will
look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his
cursing today.” David lowered his
arm and inhaled a deep breath. He placed
the fallen hood back over his head and started down the Bahurim
road again. All of the mighty men said
not a word as they resumed walking, fleeing from Absalom. Shimei continued to
follow along on the hillside opposite David, cursing as he went, throwing
stones and flinging dust at David and his mighty men.
This is probably my favorite
story in all of Scripture. I consider
David’s heroism of heart in this one circumstance to far outshine the Epics of
Biblical Tale we usually praise. I see a
man on a cross here. A man unafraid of
human judgment. A man willing to be
tested and tried in the human arena. A
man who trusted that his God would always make a right judgment of his life.
We live in a day and time when most individuals deeply
fear judgment. Even in Christian
circles, we are gun shy of the judgments imposed on us by brothers and sisters
in the faith. We often preach, from our
personal platforms, more about others not judging us than we are conscience of
how much we judge others. We’re
frightened. We’re touchy and
terrified. But what if the judgments of man did not matter? What if we did not assume that man had this
sort of power, authority or control over our temporal or eternal destiny? David was a human being just like you and
I. And after years of maturity, he had
dismissed his fear of human judgment.
David gave that sort of power, authority and control to God. God would justly judge David… .and Shimei. God was able to take care of Shimei’s personal opinion.
David would leave himself and Shimei to God.
Heroes
By Kimberly Priest
What
is your definition of a “hero”?
Courageous? Valiant? Epic? All of these are good answers. But we must ask another question: What is Courage and Valor? What is truly Epic? “So David and his men went on the road, while
Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and
cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust,” 2 Samuel 16:13. Is there anything Courageous, Valiant or Epic
written here?
I believe there is. It takes great courage to trust God with
every outcome. It is both valiant and
epic when we do what we know we ought to do without any sign that all will turn
out well. It takes faith in God’s
abilities and intentions to obey conscience when it would be easier not to. It takes the Mind of Christ to offer
salvation at personal cost.
It is heroic to leave your
destiny in the hands of God as you rally to exalt the destinies of others. It is heroic to refrain from judging one who
has chosen to judge you. It is heroic to
bless when you are cursed. It is heroic
to love your enemies. It is heroic to
stand in the arena of human judgment and believe that God will treat you
fairly. It is heroic when you do justice
towards those who have not been just to you.
It is heroic to defend the causes of those who cannot defend you.
“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 is kind to
the ungrateful and the evil. Be
merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be
condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to
you,” Luke 6:35-38. You
will be a Hero. Just as Christ was a
Hero to you.
It is heroic to leave
judgment of even your enemies to the Creator.
It is heroic to stand as one merciful, kind and forgiving when it is not
gratefully received. It is heroic to
believe, in every situation, that God will be just towards you. He will judge you fairly.
And David said, “It
may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will
repay me with good for his cursing today,” 2 Samuel 16:12. Heroic.
Trusting God. Leaving to Him all
the judgment. He or she
who does this, will be a Hero in the History Books of Heaven.
Jacob’s
Well
by
Kimberly Priest
It
was hot. It was the middle of the
day. It was the time of day that a
social outcast was expected to get water from Jacob’s Well. She was a social outcast. Even among the mostly pagan Samaritans, she
was an outcast. Her lifestyle was
questionable and avoided. Mothers
whispered about her to their children.
And old women concocted fantastic stories about why this woman had had
five husbands. Sometimes she got
sympathy. After all, maybe her former husbands were displeased with her. But the sympathy was secretive; no one dared
risk reputation. Mostly, she got
noses. They pointed upward, supporting
slits of unmoved eyes and crowning motionless strips of lip.
She
pulled her cloak over her forehead to shield her eyes from the straightforward
sun. In the morning, the ladies helped
one another juggle their jars, but she would make another attempt to balance
hers alone. As she drew near the well,
she spied a man sitting on the edge of the stone. She hesitated and glanced nervously
about. It wasn’t highly unusual for a
man to come and get a drink at any time of day, but she couldn’t afford any
additional ammunition for the gossip chains.
Oh well, she thought, what difference does it make
now! She approached the well casually
and unloaded her jar. She did her best
to appear relaxed and indifferent to his presence. But he didn’t facilitate her indifference,
“May I have a drink?” he asked. She
jumped. The request startled her. And then her eyes fell upon the features of
his face. “The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a
drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For
Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is
saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked
him, and he would have given you living water.’
The woman said to him, ‘Sir you have nothing to draw water with, and the
well is deep. Where do you get that
living water? Are you greater than our
father Jacob? He gave us the well and
drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of
this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will
give him will never be thirsty forever.
The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling
up to eternal life.’ The woman said,
‘Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to
draw water.’” John 4:9-15.
Now
He had her full attention. A man, a Jew,
who spoke with her freely and had water that quenched thirst forever. No more embarrassing trips to the well at
noonday. “Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call
your husband and come here.’ The woman
answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus
said to her, ‘You are right in saying, ‘ I have no
husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your
husband. What you have said is
true.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I
perceive that you are a prophet. Our
fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place
where people ought to worship.’” John 4:16-20.
Disappointment. He was just another Jewish prophet come to
tell her why she had no hope of knowing God.
She had come to feel that the religious system was nothing more than a
political debate over who should be in charge.
But this Man was taking the conversation a different direction… “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the
hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship
the Father. You worship what you do not
know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when
the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father
is seeking such people to worship him, God is spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in sprit and truth.” John 4:21-24.
The
Samaritan women looked off into the distance.
She didn’t understand the meaning of His words. They sounded interesting, but what she longed
to see someday was the Man who was supposed to save everybody. …the
Messiah. She wanted to know what this
wonderful Man would do to bring freedom and miracles and quality to life. She looked back at this foolish Jewish man
spouting prophecies. Probably she would
never see the Messiah. Probably she
would never have a chance to understand all of these things. “The
woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called
Christ). When he comes, he will tell us
all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who
speak to you am he,’” John 4:25-26. Seriously? It took a moment to sink in. Then her jaw dropped, her knees went weak,
and she felt a little sick. …overwhelmed.
The Jewish Messiah had just spent the past hour talking with her
casually! He had asked her for water and
prophesied her past. And never once did
she feel belittled or her sins unnecessarily exposed. He just said He knew about it and than offered her some forever water! He respected her feminine Samaritan person
and offered to give her something! This was not normal or usual in any sense.
Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a
woman, but no one said, ‘What do you seek?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’”
John 4:27. They
weren’t going to say it, but this wasn’t normal or usual in any sense. “ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town
and said to the people, ‘Come see, a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’ They went out of town and were coming to
him,” John 4:4-30.
The
Whole Story
by Kimberly Priest
The ears of the audience
were destined for a magnificent quality of sound tonight. They watched intently as the soloist arrived
at center stage. They gloried for a full
twenty minutes of deep resonance and perfect pitch. During that time, the audience could not see
the hours of driven practical steps required to achieve this performance. They could not hear the sour notes, the
attentive correction of vocal instructors and the rigorous voice strengthening
exercises rehearsed day after day after day, hour after hour after hour. The audience saw and heard only this present
twenty minute performance.
Life doesn’t happen in
moments. It happens in layers of hours
and days and years. There is a story
unfolding. Our lives happen in one long
story. As spectators, we see and hear
only glimpses of our neighbors story. We see their lives in a series of
performances. We form opinions and carry
along ideas based on our limited views and collection of sounds. Not one of us perceives the whole story of
our neighbors life.
Ecclesiastes 3 says that
there is, “a time to be born, and a time
to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to
kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time
to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to
cast away stones,and a time to gather stones
together; a time to embrace, and a time
to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep,
and time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep
silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for
war, and a time for peace.” Each of
our lives are in the midst of these “times”. We experience the ebbing and flowing of their
seasons in our personal stories. We,
alone, walk through the effects of their sights and sounds while spectators
glean their glimpses.
Glimpses are not enough to
form opinions. They are not sufficient
to make full and profound judgments. And
yet, we do it anyway. When was the last
time you sat yourself down across from your neighbor and listened for an hour
or two or three? Have you ever
considered committing yourself to listen to another’s story for a week, a
month, or even years? When was the last
time you committed your heart to the careful consideration of someone’s
story? Making yourself
a conscious friend? Opening your ears
and eyes to the fullness of perspective?
For someone’s lifetime perhaps?
After all, their life has unfolded in a story. It is longer and deeper than you are aware of
right now. You should know their
story. And someone should know yours.
God perceives our lives
within their respective stories. His
eyes and ears and heart have been committed to the conscious cause of knowing
your times and seasons. The judgments
that He forms are based on careful considerations of your comings and goings, your loses and wins, your knowledge and ignorance and so on
and so forth. He knows ALL of you. In Isaiah, it was prophesied of the Christ,
that He would leave all judgment of our individual lives to the One who knew
the whole story. “He will not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his
ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge…” Isaiah 11:3. He would judge our lives from a right
condition, a perfect perspective, a proper division of the whole story. Our actions would be tied to their respective
motives which would be known within the context of their probable
provocations. In other words, He would
know exactly why, from our heart and past experiences, we do what we do and say
what we say. Jesus Christ would lend His
ears and eyes to the Father because the Father knew the whole story of every
life that Christ came into contact with.
He judges us within our stories, not apart from them.
This is both good news AND
good advice to us. We ought also to
follow Christ in this. We ought also to
lend our eyes and ears to the One who knows the whole story. And we ought also to lend our heart to our
neighbor, committing to know their story.
Reserve judgment. Embrace your
neighbor. Know their story.
Explanations
of the Heart
by Kimberly Priest
The
creation did not need fixing or figured out.
It needed understanding. An
understanding that could fearfully and wonderfully remake the individual. The weak human vessel needed total
recreating. “The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling
up to eternal life,” John 4:13. The
human vessel needed the nurture of Eternity.
The
quality of our restoration is Eternal.
And that’s why it requires a continual drink. It is a flowing supplement that sustains our
hearts. “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man
according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds,” Jeremiah 17:10. The eyes of the Lord search the emotions,
desires and motivations that often run too deep for words. If we attempt in any way to fix our demanding
hearts, we will come very short of the ability.
“The heart is deceitful above all
things and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9. The Woman at the Well looked for a Messiah to
enlighten her to the inner things. Why
so many husbands? Why the curse of
noonday? And why worship a God so far
away? The Messiah knew her heart. We often attempt to come at the human heart
from all directions, looking for a way to rearrange and make it better. But God said, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all
your uncleannessses. …and I will give you a new
heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a
heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit
within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my
rules,” Ezekiel 36:25-27. God will
cause it. A drink of cool Spiritual
water will wash away an old consciousness.
And a new heart, a new consciousness will remain of Eternal Living
things.
Each
and every one of us have many “reasons” running through our hearts and minds,
our emotions and thoughts, our bloodlines and experiences that provoke us to
lead our lives the way we do. Things are
not always what they seem. We may be
totally rebellious in our desires and actions or pressured and deceived. Only the Creator knows for certain. Rather than quickly and justly destroy us in
our various unrighteous ways, He chooses to come close and speak to our lostness. He chooses
to offer an opportunity for rescue. He
chooses to mercifully hold out a drink of Eternity - He offers a drink of Eternal searching. He
offers to inhabit our lives with a new perspective, a new consciousness, a New
Life. He offers to abide as a New Heart
and a New Mind within us. ….and search. He will search us forever if we will meet,
move and search with Him. If we will
dive into our reasons and let Him make ALL THINGS NEW!
Here
we stand. Very thirsty, very hungry,
very dirty and gaunt. We are barely
surviving. The sun is beating down. And we know we haven’t got a prayer. We need water to quench our reasons. But we
don’t deserve it. We haven’t exactly
been this merciful towards others. We
have five husbands to testify to that. But
He knows our hearts. He knows what we
are in need of. He knows the just
explanations that we need to get and give.
Look for the Messiah. The
explanations of the heart are from Him.
And He has come to help, not hinder, our cause by connecting us with His
explanations. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own
understanding,” Proverbs 3:5.