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.
She came alone to the well at noontime. This was potentially dangerous and somewhat unusual. Women normally came together to the well in the morning or the evening. It was something of a social event. The fact that this woman came alone means her checkered past was well known to the villagers. Perhaps she had been ostracized by the other women.
The conversation begins with a simple question from Jesus: “Will you give me a drink?”
She was thirsty and didn't know it
He was thirsty and knew it.
She was thirsty and didn’t know it.
The woman did not come to the well seeking Christ, but he came to the well seeking her. He had an appointment to keep. Keep on Believing John 4 Ray Pritchard
To keep that private appointment is why Jesus sent his disciples into town to buy food. To keep the appointment is why Jesus sat by Himself at the well and waited. He knew she would come in the middle of the day.
If the lady was shocked to see Jesus sitting there, It was obvious by his dress that he was a Jewish rabbi. When she arrived at well, Jesus asked: “”Will you give me a drink of water?” What could she say? Why did he speak to me? “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.” She said. She could not believe that this man broke tradition and actually requested a drink of water from the unclean cup of an unclean woman. Some of you may well remember the days of “drinking fountains” for “whites” only. Thank the Lord that is no longer a reality but is part of our American past. It may help you understand the situation at the Samaritan well. A Jew would not drink from the cup of a Samaritan.
After a brief exchange, Jesus told her that He was the Water of Life and if she drank from the water which He had, she would never be thirsty again. Thinking that she’d never have to come in the heat of the day again to draw water she said: “Sir…I’d like that kind of water. That way I won’t get thirsty and I won’t have to come back here.”
Now that Jesus had her full attention, He asks if He might visit with her husband. Shocked at the question. She said, “I have no husband.” Jesus knew. “You are right….you have had five husbands and the man you are with now is not your husband.”
“… the words of Jesus reveal a deep-seated loneliness, a hole in her heart no man could fill. Far from being irrelevant, these words of Jesus go to the core of her problem—and of ours. We’ve been raised to believe that if you only find the right man or the right woman, you’ll be happy. If you just have the right toys or more money….you’ll find the hole in your heart filled. So we jump from one relationship to another, or we take a quick trip to Temptation Island, hoping against hope that this time things will be different, this time we’ll make it, this time we’ll be happy. No human relationship nor things can fill the hole in our heart and quench our thirst.
We are spiritual beings made for a relationship with God. There is a “God-shaped vacuum” inside the human heart no man or woman can ever fill. We were made to know God, and until we know him through Jesus Christ, we are doomed to restlessness and despair.
St. Augustine noted that every person has a God shaped hole in his or her soul. People attempt to fill that cavity with lots of things but nothing satisfies our desire for significance and assurance of redemption….except Jesus the living water from heaven.
Along comes Jesus. In Him, dwells the fullness of the Godhead. He did not just proclaim a truth, he said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” “I am the door”… no one comes to the Father except through me.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” He who comes to me will never be thirsty.
When Jesus states: “I am the living water” He is inviting us to “absorb his
teaching, his values, his very being….he is speaking total assimilation, his passion, cross and resurrection and his commands…” What does Jesus say? “The water I give will be a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” There is nothing in any other religion that even comes close to this profound teaching.
(Ravi Zacharis Jesus Among Other Gods p. 91)
Our greatest thirst is for an intimate friendship with God. Our thirst is for worship…. Worship is not just songs and hymns and prayers… as Rick Warren writes in his book the “Purpose Driven Life” but a soul connection to Jesus.
Jesus took a piece of bread, broke and gave it to his disciples saying… “this is my body given for you”. He was telling his disciples that his body would be broken on the cross, so that our friendship with God would be restored. His blood would cover our sins and transfer to all who believe the righteousness of Jesus. How? I do not know how… that is the mystery of faith. But I do know what Paul said in the Bible.
“Once you were alienated from God, separated from him by your evil behavior, but now God has brought you back as his friends, reconciled you through the blood of Christ, shed on the cross, to present you holy in his sight with out spot or blemish, free from accusation, “if” you continue in your faith….” (Colossians 1:21-22) This is the good news for a thirsty soul.
Jesus Christ solved this human dilemma because he was both God and man. Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven to do the will of him who sent me.” As God he had the power and authority to devise a plan for our salvation. As a man, he executed the plan by taking the punishment upon himself. Jesus died in our place. He suffered the death penalty for us. In so doing he upheld the holiness of God and satisfied God’s demand for justice. (Billy Hybles Contagious Christianity p. 153)
Some will ask, “Why did Jesus die?” Why couldn’t God just forgive and forget?” Suppose you had a brand new car parked in front of your
Home and a neighbor accidentally ran into it. Though you can forgive him and release him from any responsibility, you still have a problem. Who is going to pay for the dent? Since you left the neighbor off the hook you will be left to pay for the repairs.
Similarly, we’ve done damage by sinning against God. He is willing to forgive us and restore our relationship of friendship with Himself. It’s ours for the asking. But he still had to pay for the damage. The death penalty, which He paid…by coming to earth and dying on the cross in our place. (Acts 20:28)
Jesus said, “I am the living water.” He satisfies our soul thirst. Let me ask you a serious question.
Are you sure of your eternal address? If you died to night can you be absolutely sure you will wake up in heaven? Here is a great promise… look at verse 14 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth. The water I give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” He who believes has everlasting life. I will raise him up at the last day… I am the living water.”
Why do I ask you in the beginning of the each year to read more in the bible this year than last year? Only the words of Jesus can quench your spiritual thirst.
“God packages the Water of life in the words and life of a country carpenter name Jesus and then gives us the cup so that we might drink from the fresh, cool spring of water that truly quenches the thirsty soul.” Give your thirsty friends a cup of cool water. Share Jesus.
