Choking the flow of Living Water

Do you ever feel like things are just not flowing like they used to.  The economy can play tricks like this on us, making sure that we keep guessing, and keep searching for the next big thing so that we can fill our cups to the brim before things fall apart again. It seems that this flow has been stopped up, or dammed, never flowing to the bottom like it used to. It may be that this flow, the flow that drives the economy and the world, has been dammed up by those who can afford the building materials for the dam. It seems that we may be in for a wild ride because these folks are simply not turning on the faucet, allowing those who are searching or thirsting to be quenched.  Maybe it’s time we took a few notes from the early church as described in the Book of Acts.

“Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.” Acts 2:44-45(NKJV)

Now I know this would be a very radical thing to do, after all, things were far simpler, less complicated in the days following Christ’s resurrection and ascension into heaven.  This would mean that these folks could pull this off, selling their few possessions and dividing them.  When you have less, there is less work to this concept, and I would imagine these people had less. But when we fast forward a few thousand years, things get a bit more complicated.  Selling everything and dividing everything seems ludicrous and absurd. But maybe this is what God wants from us, after all, He sent His Son here to tell us this and other things. 

It may be that our pride, our self-centered obsession with ourselves and our ability to amass huge piles of stuff that looks good and is better than what our neighbor can amass, that gets in the way of living biblically. It may be that we simply want more in order to live “comfortably” or “leisurely.” It may be that we are determined to make more money than our neighbor so that we can live more expensively or extravagantly.  Some people even go as far as amassing wealth because they feel that the more money they have to spend, the longer they have to spend it. What is the saying, “you can’t take it with you?” 

“Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, what shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops? So he said I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.’” Luke 12:16-21(NKJV)

I can’t think of a more convincing message. I can imagine that you are asking yourselves just how I am supposed to be able to have a secure future, a guaranteed income and a flow of money that will take me until the end of my days to spend it. I have had the same questions at times, trying to determine just how much to set aside, or how much to invest. But those things change when you lose the source of this income. Things become stopped up, or “dammed up” due to the flow being cut off upstream. 

Our God is a loving, caring God. Why would He send His own Son to die on a cross so that we could be with Him forever? I have felt God’s love several times over and I’m living proof that He is a good God. But that does not get me off the hook when it comes to obeying His commands, His guiding advice that Jesus so eloquently delivered in the parables.  His love for me, and for you, needs to be reciprocated, and the way to do this is to love His children, all of His children. Whether they be downstream of your dam, or across the reservoir.

Turn on your faucets and let the “living waters” flow.

“in the world, not of the world”