“A faith community gathers around the communion table to come alive to love and bring healing.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – December 7, 2022
I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east… This water…enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Ezekiel 47:1, 8
The prophet Ezekiel shares his divine revelation of the waters of life that flow from the temple of God. The surging force of His healing river makes its way through the Kidron valley into a body of water void of life in need of healing refreshment…the Dead Sea. This flood of fresh water brings life to an otherwise lifeless reservoir overcome by deadly doses of salt. But God… whose presence invited a sacred experience of worship in the temple. But God…converts a believer’s body into the temple of the Holy Spirit. But God…led His son Jesus to describe His body as the temple that would be destroyed, but He would rise from the dead after three days. God gives life in His presence in His place of worship. The Spirit gives life through the life of believers fully surrendered. Jesus gives life to His followers through His fellowship and resurrection power.
My wife Rita and I have visited the Dead Sea three times. Each time we are no less startled by the lack of life. It’s a tourist destination promoting the health benefits of bodies covered in mud and washed in salty waters. Entrepreneurial success…I guess, but lacking the life of fresh flowing waters. Arid and dismal, yet with an imaginative license granted by the prophet of God, His followers can comprehend how the freshwater of faith in Jesus Christ brings to life a spiritually dead spirit. Jesus…the source of living water, flows through your life to cleanse sin that brings death while leaving behind the residue of righteousness. Worship releases floodgates of love and life, as a faith community around the communion table comes alive to love and bring healing.
“When it [fresh water] reaches the [Dead] sea, its waters are healed” (Ezekiel 47:8, NKJV).
The New King James version of the Bible paints the beautiful image of healing…its waters are healed. Spiritual, emotional, and physical healing has the potential to ensue as the result of the transforming power of the life of Christ that flows from all who abide in and worship Him. Charles Spurgeon develops this idea of a former life of sin now flourishing in the Holy Trinity’s living water: “But if you have been hungering and thirsting, you know what these streams and these fruits are, and if you have been sick unto death, you have found in God’s grace a medicine better…and it has made you whole. If the gospel can thus cause trees of life to grow, the waters shall be healed, the horrible Dead Sea of lust shall yet be purified, the sulfurous breath of vice shall yet be blown away, the death of sin shall yet give place to a holy life, and the Lord alone shall be exalted where before He has been dishonored”. Living water hydrates your holiness!
Once you are daily sustained by the streams of God you are more than qualified to fish for people on behalf of Jesus in the various bodies of water in life. As He promised… “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Your family is not unlike fishing in an aquarium…a captive audience, so stay faithful…model the way with Jesus’ bait of vulnerability and authenticity. Your work outside the home may be like a pond where your influence is not confined to your position, but pervasive, making your Jesus’ bait selfless service and excellent work “unto the Lord.” In God’s timing and based on His calling, your life could reflect a lake or even an ocean, where the most alluring Jesus’ bait is humility, integrity, and generosity. Whatever life’s body of water you fish for Jesus, use only one hook…LOVE. Be a life that brings life to dead things. God’s refreshment through you heals hearts, minds, bodies, and souls.
“The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:16).
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I pray your rivers of living water flow through my life to refresh others and bring healing and life to people dead in their sins, through Christ’s love, and in Jesus’ name, amen.
Application
Where is the Lord calling you to fish for Him for others to come to know Him?
Related Reading
Jeremiah 2:13, 17:13; Zechariah 14:8; John 4:10-11, 7:38
Worship Resource
We The Kingdom: Holy Water (Acoustic)
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