"On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, 'Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.'' (When he said 'living water,' he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)" ~ John 7:37-39
Salt water is rather interesting. Fish have adapted to live in a saline environment, to a certain point, and yet that same water that sustains life is death to a human who should consume too much. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner says, "Water, water, every where, and all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink." What provides a thriving environment for oceanic fauna, actually brings death to the human body. When a man consumes salt water it actually is counterproductive. The body is able to handle salt to an extent, but the kidneys react to salt in the body by expelling the excess through urine. When you drink salt water, the salt in the body rises and the kidneys go into work trying to rid the body of the salt by excreting water to carry it away, thus dehydrating the body. Too much salt water in the body turns into a toxic situation and ends in death.
Now consider the Dead Sea and other hypersaline lakes. They contain more than 30% saline saturation, which actually makes life impossible. No flora or fauna can exist in a hypersaline environment. The problem is that there is no outward flow of water to remove the salt build up and therefore the sea is left too salty for life to exist. What does all this have to do with Jesus' words? I'm glad you asked!
Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5, "You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless." Salt has a lot of great qualities and benefits for life. It is a cleansing and purifying agent, is used in facial scrubs for cleaning and exfoliation, helps clear sinuses through saline rinses, preserves food, and was used in mummification; however, if it loses that saline quality, it is useless. The flip side of the coin is hypersalinity, like the Dead Sea. Jesus mentioned losing one's saltiness, or usefulness, in the Spirit. We have to maintain that saltiness in our life to be useful in the world. Now consider His words in John 7.
Jesus told His followers that when the Holy Spirit came, when they drank of His living water, that it would become rivers of living water flowing from within them. By partaking of His life giving Spirit, they would become a channel for that water to flow. As Pentecostals, we focus a great deal on the fullness of the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit, but what happens when you fill a vessel? Did Jesus say, "You will become a jar filled with water, that will sit there and fill you"? No, he said that we would become a channel, a waterway for His life-giving Spirit to flow through. How does all this apply?
The reason the Dead Sea is so salty is that water flows into it but there is no outlet. The water sits in that basin and as water evaporates, the salt supersaturates the remaining water, which is what causes the hypersalinity of the Sea. If there were an outlet, a place for the water to flow elsewhere, this phenomenon wouldn't occur, as water coming in would push water on down the way. The stagnant situation of the Dead Sea is what causes the hypersalinity. Likewise in the Christian life, if we are filled but have no flow or current of the Spirit, we can become "hypersaline" or filled with too much salt. The lack of saltiness is bad, according to Christ, but the opposite is equally as bad. Hypersalinity in the Christian life, or filled with a great deal of "spiritual" knowledge with no outflow, can cause cynicism, inactivity, and legalism in life. If all we do is collect, collect, collect with not outflow of what we have received, we can become spiritually toxic. I don't believe I'm being heretical in saying this. Paul said, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." The Spirit-filled Christian life was never meant to be filled with no outflow. What good is salt that sits in a shaker but is never used? Too much salt is death.
Another problem is stagnation. If you fill a cup to the brim and then leave it, what will happen? Over time, with no activity, the water will stagnate, stink, and grow mold, bacteria, algae, etc. In our spiritual life, we were never meant to be filled and then just let it sit there. Spiritual stagnation is a problem in our life. Therefore, Jesus said that the Spirit-filled life would create "rivers of living water" flowing from within our hearts. The cup isn't meant to be filled up and sit there, but is turned into a waterway to flow water to others. The water of the Spirit is to be continually flowing in and through our lives, refreshing others and bringing life out of death. We aren't intended to be hypersaline or stagnant in our spiritual walk, but to be a moving, living body of spiritual water, continaully filled and flowing with the life-giving Spirit of God. Spirit-filled isn't an approriate term to me. We are to be Spirit-flowing, not just filled to the brim, but constantly overflowing with the Spirit of God.
May 16, 2013
May 8, 2013
Modeling Obedience
My son is quickly approaching his second birthday and has discovered that wonderful word "no". How much I despise hearing that, especially from my 24 lbs child. Really? You're standing there with your diaper sagging 3/4 of the way to the floor and you run away from me repeatedly saying "no, no, no, no" when I try to change your diaper, something that would quickly make your life so much better. The struggle for obedience begins.
I've heard the stories of the "terrible twos" and all that comes with the stage of learning independence. The fight has begun to teach our son the lesson and importance of obedience, shaping his very strong, persistent will into a strong willed, but obedient child. Every parent has to go through this time of life, we all have to face the struggles of instructing our child and disciplining our child to teach the necessity of obedience, the moral value of listening to their parents and doing as they say. I hate that my sweet baby boy is becoming independent, strong willed, and, at times, obstinate. I miss the days of sweet smiles and cuddles, now replaced with a toddler making his own choices and making it known to all what he does and, more often, does NOT want to do. Siiiggghhhh....
Obedience is an important lesson for our children to learn and one that, sadly, some parents just refuse to teach. As teaching theories show, there are different ways that we can teach and different ways that people learn, i.e. auditory, visual, and tactile, those who learn by hearing, seeing, and doing. We, as parents, most often do well at teaching our children to obey and the importance of such, but how well do we model that lesson? Even as I write this the ole saying is playing in my head, "monkey see, monkey do."
We teach, or should be teaching our children, obedience to authority and to us as parents, but we also have the responsibility of teaching our children the necessity of obeying God and what He desires. That's more than the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, but in every area, through Scripture and through the prompting and leading of the Holy Spirit. This is a lesson that we often teach verbally but do we always model obedience to God in our own life? It's usually easy to obey the Bible, don't kill, don't steal (even on your taxes!), don't covet, etc., but how are we at modeling complete obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit? I remember multiple times during my life as a child and teenager not wanting to ask my parents for permission to do something or for their desire on a certain topic for fear of what they might say. If they said it, I'd have to obey it, so best not ask. How often do we have the same attitude with God? "Well, He's probably gonna say that I should give $X.XX or that I shouldn't buy this, so best not to ask." I know you've been there, because I have to. We fail to ask permission or God's heart on a matter for fear of what His answer might be, and we are sinning then if we don't obey. Or we don't REALLY pray about something because we don't wanna know what God has to say, because we want something specific already. I'll admit, as a former missionary and pastor, I don't like asking what God wants sometimes because I'm afraid of the answer. I don't want to HAVE to obey, so I just don't ask. I know, I've just shattered some of y'alls view of me.
For instance, I remember in college there was a cute girl that I really wanted to date. She was a sweet girl, loved Jesus, but not called into full-time ministry. I really didn't want to ask God what He wanted, because I had an inkling He would say no. Finally, one day in chapel, I prayed and asked God what He thought. He said, "No." I didn't wanna take it so started to get up. Suddenly, a football player (you know you always thought the jocks were the MOST spiritual, note the sarcasm) comes over to me, someone I really didn't know. He said, "I was praying and felt like God wanted me to tell you something. It's just one word, 'No.'" Yeah, then I had to obey.
Our children learn by watching our lives and obedience is something that they need to see in us. Radical obedience to God is a lesson we need to learn and model for our children. They need to see that we are consistently seeking His face and obeying His voice. We need to share our spiritual journey with them, allow them to see us in conversation with the Father, sharing with them what He says and then obeying His voice. Through our lives they can learn that obeying God is a blessing, they can learn the importance of asking God's will in every area of our lives and seeing that we are completely obedient and submissive to His will. Then when we teach them that the same lesson applies to our relationship with them as parents and children, the lesson easily transfers. They will learn spiritual obedience through learning to obey our instructions and by watching us model obedience for them. It's easy to get in the parent mode of teaching and instructing our children and forget to model the same lessons in our own lives.
"Because monkey see, monkey do, some little monkey may be watching you. So always do what you should do, don't monkey around!"
I've heard the stories of the "terrible twos" and all that comes with the stage of learning independence. The fight has begun to teach our son the lesson and importance of obedience, shaping his very strong, persistent will into a strong willed, but obedient child. Every parent has to go through this time of life, we all have to face the struggles of instructing our child and disciplining our child to teach the necessity of obedience, the moral value of listening to their parents and doing as they say. I hate that my sweet baby boy is becoming independent, strong willed, and, at times, obstinate. I miss the days of sweet smiles and cuddles, now replaced with a toddler making his own choices and making it known to all what he does and, more often, does NOT want to do. Siiiggghhhh....
Obedience is an important lesson for our children to learn and one that, sadly, some parents just refuse to teach. As teaching theories show, there are different ways that we can teach and different ways that people learn, i.e. auditory, visual, and tactile, those who learn by hearing, seeing, and doing. We, as parents, most often do well at teaching our children to obey and the importance of such, but how well do we model that lesson? Even as I write this the ole saying is playing in my head, "monkey see, monkey do."
We teach, or should be teaching our children, obedience to authority and to us as parents, but we also have the responsibility of teaching our children the necessity of obeying God and what He desires. That's more than the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, but in every area, through Scripture and through the prompting and leading of the Holy Spirit. This is a lesson that we often teach verbally but do we always model obedience to God in our own life? It's usually easy to obey the Bible, don't kill, don't steal (even on your taxes!), don't covet, etc., but how are we at modeling complete obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit? I remember multiple times during my life as a child and teenager not wanting to ask my parents for permission to do something or for their desire on a certain topic for fear of what they might say. If they said it, I'd have to obey it, so best not ask. How often do we have the same attitude with God? "Well, He's probably gonna say that I should give $X.XX or that I shouldn't buy this, so best not to ask." I know you've been there, because I have to. We fail to ask permission or God's heart on a matter for fear of what His answer might be, and we are sinning then if we don't obey. Or we don't REALLY pray about something because we don't wanna know what God has to say, because we want something specific already. I'll admit, as a former missionary and pastor, I don't like asking what God wants sometimes because I'm afraid of the answer. I don't want to HAVE to obey, so I just don't ask. I know, I've just shattered some of y'alls view of me.
For instance, I remember in college there was a cute girl that I really wanted to date. She was a sweet girl, loved Jesus, but not called into full-time ministry. I really didn't want to ask God what He wanted, because I had an inkling He would say no. Finally, one day in chapel, I prayed and asked God what He thought. He said, "No." I didn't wanna take it so started to get up. Suddenly, a football player (you know you always thought the jocks were the MOST spiritual, note the sarcasm) comes over to me, someone I really didn't know. He said, "I was praying and felt like God wanted me to tell you something. It's just one word, 'No.'" Yeah, then I had to obey.
Our children learn by watching our lives and obedience is something that they need to see in us. Radical obedience to God is a lesson we need to learn and model for our children. They need to see that we are consistently seeking His face and obeying His voice. We need to share our spiritual journey with them, allow them to see us in conversation with the Father, sharing with them what He says and then obeying His voice. Through our lives they can learn that obeying God is a blessing, they can learn the importance of asking God's will in every area of our lives and seeing that we are completely obedient and submissive to His will. Then when we teach them that the same lesson applies to our relationship with them as parents and children, the lesson easily transfers. They will learn spiritual obedience through learning to obey our instructions and by watching us model obedience for them. It's easy to get in the parent mode of teaching and instructing our children and forget to model the same lessons in our own lives.
"Because monkey see, monkey do, some little monkey may be watching you. So always do what you should do, don't monkey around!"
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