Water of Life

It rained where I live about a week ago,.

There is a left hand turn in the road where we set out our garbage for pickup. That curve in the road is not level.

Whenever it rains, the water travels downhill until it reaches the curb by that turn where it can travel no farther.

There, the water collects and a variety of small animals take advantage of this bounty while it lasts.

This pool of water does not last very long though.

The summer heat causes the water to evaporate.

Birds and other small animals drink their portion as well.

As I took out the garbage the other morning I noticed that all that remained of the earlier rainfall was a very small puddle.

On this particular morning, the puddle was being guarded by a single bird whose instincts motivated it to drive away any other birds that wanted to drink from this rapidly dwindling supply.

As I was not in a particular hurry at the time, I decided to watch this drama as it unfolded.

A group of much smaller birds had gathered nearby intending to get a drink.

The larger bird stood next to the puddle guarding it.

Suddenly, the group of smaller birds instinctively put their plan into action.

One of their group approached the puddle which prompted the larger bird to chase it away.

Once both had taken flight, the birds that remained quickly assaulted the puddle and began to drink.

When the larger bird returned to defend its puddle, the smaller birds retreated to their safe distance.

There they were joined by their comrade who had just been driven away only a moment before.

Then, another member of this tiny raiding party made his approach knowing that he too would soon be driven away.

As soon as the larger bird drove away this new invader, the clever band of raiders moved in and began to drink again.

Time and again, I watched this process repeat itself.

The small birds each took their turn luring the larger one away leaving the water unguarded.

I concluded that the larger bird really accomplished nothing.

He merely expended energy in a futile attempt to protect what he intended to keep for himself.

In fact, he was so busy defending it, that I never actually saw him take so much as a single drink during this time.

The smaller birds seemed to have an unquenchable thirst as they continued to drink. 

I finished my chore and left because I knew that eventually there would be no water left in this spot at all.

As I reflected on what I had witnessed, I was reminded of the account of Jesus and the woman at the well.

In this account, Jesus explained to the woman the difference between ordinary water and the living water that He offered.

John 4:13-14 (NET) - Jesus replied, "Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks some of the water that I give will never be thirsty again, but the water I give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life."

What a difference there is between ordinary water and the living water Jesus offers.

The living water that He offers us is plentiful and will never decrease in volume no matter how many partake of it.

Those that have partaken of His generous gift of living water are not to guard it and keep it for themselves.

In fact, He encourages believers to invite others to come to Him to come and drink of it as well.


Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
http://otherbrotherjim.blogspot.com

In Charge of More

This week, our church hosted another successful Vacation Bible School.

I am so grateful to God for my church family.

A great deal of effort goes into this ministry. I do not use the word work here because many do not consider what they do as work.

Preparations begin months in advance but the end result is a very successful ministry and community outreach.

Although children and their walk with God is the focal point of Bible School, we also provide an adult class every evening,

I felt both happy and privileged to teach two of those adult classes.

My second class posed a particularly interesting challenge as I had to discuss the first six chapters of Nehemiah in about one hour.

The point we were stressing that particular night was that "Prayer helps us stand strong!"

Thinking back on the number of times I have read Nehemiah, I was always impressed with Nehemiah’s personal growth and the number of skills that God bestowed upon him as he rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem.

From my professional life, I often thought that Nehemiah would have had an incredible resume.

When it came time to teach this class, I set up an easel with a large pad and wrote on the top line "Resume of Nehemiah."

I told my class that as we went through the first six chapters we would look for the specific skill sets God gave Nehemiah and we would build his resume as we went along.

I began with the last verse of Nehemiah chapter one which stated that he was "wine steward for the emperor". As we are to do our jobs as if we were doing them for God, we made that our first item.

We then went back to the beginning of Nehemiah and began to read.

We read that Nehemiah mourned, fasted and prayed so we added these three items next.

I asked the class to notice how specific Nehemiah’s prayer was.

Nehemiah requested letters from the emperor granting him safe passage and building materials, so we added "administration".

Upon arrival, Nehemiah surveyed the damage to the wall so we next added "damage assessment".

Next he rallied the people for the work at hand, so we added "management and motivation".

The third chapter detailed the various groups that worked on the wall and the sections each was responsible for rebuilding. So we added "project management" and "human resources".

Enemies then threatened to attack those working on the wall, and Nehemiah responded by having the people prepared for battle even while work on the wall continued. So, we added "military general" to the list.

Many had to borrow from the few that could lend just to buy grain and pay taxes.

Nehemiah grew angry at the interest the lenders were imposing on their own people.

He told them that what they were doing was enslaving their brothers and sisters and he strongly reminded them that this was wrong. They immediately agreed to stop this practice, so we added "spiritual advisor" to the list.

Nehemiah was then made "governor" so we added that to the list and learned that he did not demand from the people that which former governors still expected out of his respect for God.

Nehemiah’s enemies continued to conspire against him and even some of his own prophets were influenced by those enemies.

Throughout this monumental task, Nehemiah remained faithful and he prayed often.

In fifty two days, the wall was completed.

I reminded my students that Nehemiah’s prayers helped him stand strong and we should always be mindful that "Prayer helps us stand strong!"

Before I dismissed the class, I read the parable of the talents.


In it a man went on a journey and entrusted his slaves to his property.

Matthew 25:15 (NET) - To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.

The first two put their master’s money to work and earned him more but the third buried his one talent in the ground .

The third was rebuked by his master and had his talent given to the first slave who had earned him the most.

The other two were each praised by their master.

Matthew 25:21 (NET) - His master answered, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You have been faithful in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’

I pointed to the resume we created and reminded my students that as Nehemiah continued to be faithful, God had indeed put him in charge of many things!

He does the same with us today.

I also cannot help but notice that parable used ‘talent’ for the currency.

God gives each of us ‘talents’ of a different nature.

He gives these to us in order that we bring glory to Him.

If we are faithful with what He gives us, He will give us even more with which to bring him even more glory!



Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
http://otherbrotherjim.blogspot.com