Rivers of Living Water

Source: kitchenappliancespackages.blogspot.com

       

exerpted from a sermon written at the following site 
Oh, to be like a deep mountain spring overflowing in rivers of living water! In this verse "rivers of living water" implies fullness and completeness to the point of overflowing; sweet coolness and refreshment.   

Everything in the Old Testament had pointed forward to a time of fulfillment. Jesus is that fulfillment. When we hear Jesus cry out at the feast of booths "If any one thirsts let him come to me and drink," we understand him to mean, if you are eagerly looking for the Kingdom of God (Luke 23:51), for deliverance from sin and oppression, then; no longer look back to the days of old and don't look forward to the future, look to me. In me all the past is summed up and in me the future hope has arrived. "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink."

(Now pay really close attention here. I LOVE this part!!)

The invitation goes out to all. Everyone has a personal invitation from Jesus to come to him and drink. There is only one condition: you have to be thirsty.(earnestly desire for what Jesus has to give.)  All men thirst. But not all thirst for God. We are the only species of God's creation afflicted and blessed with chronic longing. Dolphins are content to frolic in the sea, dogs are content to lie in the sun; frogs are content to bump their bellies from pond to pond. But man is not content. He is afflicted with chronic restlessness. Everything we set our hand to gets old. We fight without success against an epidemic of boredom. Fad after fad, fashion after fashion, challenge after challenge leave us thirsty in the end. Why? It's a hidden blessing.

We are afflicted and blessed with a chronic restlessness, an insatiable soul-thirst for this reason: that we might keep looking until we find Christ. And that having found him we might be turned back to him again and again when we taste of other springs and find them bitter. 

We were made for God!!

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I continue to share my blessings through the Joy Dare!

 3 Gifts, bent, broken, beautiful

      518. A tree in the neighborhood - it actually is bent in
   the middle of the trunk at a 45 degree angle.(vertical to
   horizontal)
   519. My heart - hearing a story on TV (60 Minutes) of 
   children who suffer from a disease that causes them to
   age prematurely.
   520. The view out the back window on a country house
   we are looking at to buy

       
3 gifts in the kitchen

521. My hubby's pot of apple tree seedlings, sprouting up green (I call my hubs my ‘Johnny Appleseed’, as he hopes to plant them in the ground eventually).

522. A place to gather family, when we have the opportunity to all be together to cook a meal!

523. My dishwasher! Oh, what a blessing!!

      
 3 gifts loud

524. My son’s band….music

525. My barking dog….sometimes frustrating, when he doesn’t stop, but still a gift to have him.

526. Singing loud in church!!

       
3 gifts carved

527. A  gift  from a friend given to me - small wooden box brought from Africa.

528. My uncles carvings…he is SO gifted!

                                                                      Source: google.com via Ann on Pinterest

529. Time carved out of the day for God, for family, for friends.

3 gifts in Christ

530. Salvation

531. Peace

532. Joy 

A gift in wind, in water, in white

533. Wind –(hard gift) Loss from tornados in southern Indiana, yet the love of mankind, reaching out to those who have lost.

534. water -  - John 7:37, 38: On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, 'If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."'  
535. white - Easter Lilies

linking over at these blog hops:

Fresh Brewed Sundays ( My Freshly Brewed Life)

Hear It on Sunday/Use It on Monday (Graceful)

 Multitude on Mondays (A Holy Experience)

Sharing His Beauty (Beauty in His Grip)  
A Pause in the Path (On Your Heart Tuesday)