Dried up Fountains

Dried up Fountains

I grew up on a gold mine in South Africa, with the yellow “mine dumps” outlined against the sky. The “dumps” were made up of the sand left after the processing of ore to extract the gold. Since cyanide was used in the gold extraction, the rain run-off into the lake below our “dump” (we called them dams) made the water decidedly undrinkable.

So, while we used the lake for canoeing and general relaxation (there was a trailer park along its shores), drinking its water was definitely not an option. No fish in those waters either.

We had two choices: either to drink the purified water provided by the town, or foolishly try to survive on the polluted lake water.

Spiritually speaking, we also have two choices:  We can either try to find satisfaction with man-made solutions to life’s mysteries, or go to the very source of life itself – God.

People in Jeremiah’s day had the same to choices, and the made the wrong choice; they turned away from the only One Who could fulfil their every longing and took refuge in their own efforts.

“For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me,
The fountain of living waters,
To hew for themselves cisterns,
Broken cisterns
That can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13 – NASB)

You and I may not have dug any leaky cisterns today, but many of us have left God out of our lives. We think we can make it on our own. We imagine if we made more money, got a better job, became more successful, or pursued a life of fam – we would be able to fill that deep emptiness within us.

So what if we gained all those things? We would still be like a broken fountain that is unable to satisfy our thirst.

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”  (John 4:13-14 – NASB)

Fountain of Living Waters

(© 9^th September 2015 – by Christopher Shennan)

Many try to fill their longings;

Their hunger for peace and true joy,

With the things that earth has fashioned,

And the arts the most men employ.

But the truth, quite plain and simple,

Is that nothing can fill the void

That sin has created in us,

But what Christ on the Cross employed.

He alone can fill your longings,

And bring the peace that will not end;

He alone has endless measures,

That your poor, broken heart, will mend.

Christ is the Fountain of Waters;

Living, and abundant, and free.

Christ fulfilled all of my longings –

He did it by dying for me.

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Picture by Joanne Shennan – Used with permission)

Hungry for the Top

Hungry for the Top

(Picture credits at end of post)

Sir Edmund Hilary, who, conquered Everest in the early 1950’s, described himself as “hungry for the summit.” It was to this “hunger” he largely ascribed his success in conquering such a daunting mountain; he could not rest until he had accomplished his goal.

Very few of us would have aspirations climb Everest to and reach the summit of the world; even fewer would have that desperate hunger to reach at goal as Edmund Hilary and a few others had.

And so, it seems, is the case with the Christian church.

There are many who are quite content to wade in the shallows of spiritual attainment, but a mere handful who cannot help but plunge into the deep things of God.

There are many in the church who are happy to claim the many benefits of being a Christian, but few who would risk all to claim the rewards of absolute surrender to Christ as Lord.

Many of us in this current church age are happy to dwell on the lower slopes of God’s mountain, but few who wish to explore the peaks of Christian experience, and even fewer with a hunger to reach the top.

And yet, that is what we have all been called to as Jesus makes clear in His Sermon on the Mount.

Blessed [are] they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6 – AKJV)

In the heart of every true disciple is a holy dissatisfaction with mediocrity. They hunger for the top – for the zenith of all that Christ has purchased for His people with His own blood. They will not sully themselves with the pat phrases Christians bandy about, such as, “We know that nobody is perfect.” They see this, and other generalizations as mere excuses not to reach for the highest. They cling to promises such as that in Hebrews:

For they [our fathers] disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He [disciplines us] for [our] good, so that we may share His holiness. (Hebrews 12:10 – NASB)

These true disciple seek to follow in the footsteps of Paul who declared:

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 3:14 – NASB)

These noble souls want to be “made perfect in love.” As depicted in the first letter of John.

The Noble Few

(© Monday 2^nd March 2015 – by Christopher Shennan)

Blessed [are] they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6 – AKJV)

Lord, please make me dissatisfied

With a life of languish and ease;

Plant in me a hunger to know

The fullness of Love, and to please.

Don’t let me dwell on lower planes

Of the mountain of Truth and Light;

Make me a part of the noble few

That are willing to join the fight.

They are willing to fight for Truth,

And hunger to reach for the top;

No half-hearted quest can be theirs –

They will give it all that they’ve got.

I want to be part of this band

Of brave souls whose hearts are afire;

They spurn the cool age they live in,

And always want to go higher.

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Photo by Kimberly Casey. Copyright. Used under the CC BY 2.0 license; please note the Disclaimer at this link. No changes were made to this photograph.

Need and Supply

Need and Supply

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves… (2 Corinthians 4:7 – NASB)

Some things are purposely made with a built-in need. For instance, we shape cups in such a way that an empty space is created. Why? So we can fill them with some substance such as tea of coffee for our refreshment. Human hearts are created with such a space, or emptiness. Why? So God can pour His fullness into our empty places.

One Great Need*

(© 1979 by Christopher Shennan)

One great need is all I am.

I’m finished with putting my trust in man;

Or in myself, this earth-bound weed;

All that I am is one great need.

 

What have I done in my earthly flight?

I’ve drawn o’er my soul a darker night;

I open my heart to that Heavenly seed:

All that I am – is one great need.

 

You pity me, friend, in my sad lament,

With my head bowed low and my garments rent?

A smoking flax and a bruised reed:

All that I am is one great need.

 

But please don’t judge me before I’m done –

Before prayer’s answered or the victory won.

It is just one part of my living creed:

All that I am is one great need.

 

All that I am is one great need,

But now to the truth that my soul has freed:

Oh with such joy do I look on high –

I’ve found that my Lord’s One Great Supply.

 

One Great supply in the trials of life;

In the inward struggles or the bitter strife.

Though in one great need I am made to die,

You must know that my Lord’s One Great Supply.

 

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 Picture by Joanne Shennan – used by permission