"Life, Water And Thirst”

Harsh drought conditions in parts of the American West are pushing wild horses to the brink and spurring extreme measures to protect them.

Volunteer groups in Arizona and Colorado are hauling thousands of gallons of water and truckloads of food to remote grazing grounds where springs have run dry and vegetation has disappeared. In May, dozens of horses were found dead on the edge of a dried-up watering hole in northeastern Arizona. Conditions are even worse at the end of July.

Parts of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico are under the most severe category of drought. The dry conditions have fed wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of buildings across the West. This month, a firefighter was killed battling a blaze near California’s Yosemite National Park. In Greece thousands of people flee to the beach to escape fires that have destroyed homes and taken the lives of more than 80 people.

Without Water the land is dry and thirsty. Without water the animals die. Without clean water people become sick and die. One of the great gifts that our Guatemala ministry team will be taking to Guatemala in August will be a water filter for the home they are building. A clean water filter is only $40.00. Water is used to fight the fires. Men and women fighting the fires need water to rehydrate their body’s and quench their thirst.

Today, some of your unchurched, non believing friends and neighbors are thirsty for security regarding their eternal address. That’s why there is an explosion of Americas seeking spiritual truth….. Leonard Sweet calls them “day trippers asking for direction…..scouting the horizon for hope, wonder and a way out of their maze of aimless living.” People want purpose. They are thirsty for truth.

We know that Life can turn on a dime.

One phone call, an unexpected text, or even a chance meeting and suddenly you find yourself traveling down a new road. Life can turn on a dime.

A man and a woman met at a well on a hot afternoon in Samaria. We don’t know the woman’s name. The man was Jesus. Their brief conversation changed her life.

It was a hot day, and the sun beat down on the man’s head. The sweat poured off his brow as he walked along the dusty road. It was probably mid- to late-July when the temperature can top out at over 100 degrees. To make matters worse, he had been traveling with his friends since sunrise. Now the sun was directly overhead. They were hurrying to make their way through this part of the country as quickly as possible. Keep on Believing John 4 Ray Pritchard

He came to a well with a rock ledge built up above the ground in the typical manner of the Middle East. As he sat down on the lip of the well, the thought came: “If only I could have a drink of water.” At precisely that moment, the woman came along. It wasn’t the normal time. It was unusual for a woman to come to a well alone. But this woman was different.

In Jesus’ day there were three regions stacked on top of one another. There was Galilee in the north. Samaria in the middle. Judea in the south. The easiest and quickest way to get to Galilee from Judea was to go due north right through Samaria. But many Jews would go east. Cross the Jordan River, then go north, re-cross the Jordan River, and they would be in Galilee. This was out of the way. But it meant they wouldn’t have to go through Samaritan territory.

Four invisible walls stand between Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria. There is a religious wall, a gender wall, a racial wall, and a moral wall. Yet our Lord found a way through all of them. He found her, and then she found him!

There is a triple surprise in this passage. First, that a Jew would speak to a Samaritan. Second, that a man would speak to a woman he didn’t know in public. Third, that a Jew would drink from a Samaritan’s cup. In the first century, it was almost unheard of for a man to speak to a woman in public. Asking for a drink of water was even more unusual since Jewish rabbis taught it was a sin to touch a utensil that a Samaritan had touched.

John writes: Jesus left Judea and departed again for Galilee. He had to pass through Samaria. What: He HAD to pass through Samaria. Were his feet too tired to cross the Jordan like most everybody else? Was there some kind of traffic accident or road construction which forced Him to go through the land populated by these religious rejects? There is only one reason Jesus HAD to go through Samaria. He had an appointment with a lady at Jacob’s well.