Good day dear friends.
Prayer Updates: David Gish underwent successful surgery yesterday. Karen reports the doctor was pleased with the results of shoulder reparation. Pastor Ryan is home in Austin and not driving to Chicago as was shared here originally. The "encounter" with the deer occurred between Lake Travis and Austin. Ryan's car is in the shop and Ryan is resting at home. He is in severe pain (throat) and needs our prayers. On Thursday he flies to Chicago for his vacation.
Our text for today:
John 4: 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 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."
One can only imagine the stress and strain put on Jesus' body during His ministry. Travel was not by private jet or limo. It was by foot, from place to place. The weather was hot at times, mild at others, but always dusty as the winds blew around Him in the land now called Holy. Jesus knew of the need to rest and in the passage for today, as his disciples had gone on to buy food, He rested near a well. The well was famous to the locals, but also the place to draw water. As Jesus rested a woman comes to draw water and He asks her for a drink. The woman of a different ethnicity was surprised by His request. A Jew would not ask a Samaritan for anything let alone anything that would touch their lips! Jesus' reply was of love when He said to 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."
All of us know the importance and goodness of water. We live in an age where any supermarket will have an aisle full of different water in different containers and claims, though my suspicion is that they've all come from the same bathtub of one who knew early enough to market the city water they now claim is spring water. It was when I was a child that I had an illness that to this day I can't remember what it was or what caused it. All I remember is the severe thirst that I had during the whole time I was sick and how for some reason did not get to enjoy the quenching relief of water. I remember the moment when I finally was offered a glass of water and how I felt as the cool water finally quenched my thirst.
Jesus offered to that woman in that encounter on that day, the quenching of the thirst of her soul. For too long she had sought relief from the thirst of sin with different "waters," and here she encounters He who offers to us, "living water." The water that quenches once and for all, the thirst of our soul. Never again will we thirst for we have received the longing of our very being.
Jesus offers that water to you. Will you drink?
PRAYER: Living God of the living water, quench my soul today. Let me cease from seeking relief in the waters the world offers. Let me find that which will quench my thirst now and forever. It is in the Name of He who offers us this, Jesus my Lord that I pray. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
