When I was in 8th grade science I had a teacher that liked to take the normal things of life and relate them to the subject at hand. It seemed like every other day he was sharing some story from his childhood and then like Bill Nye, the science guy, he would give a great scienctific discovery to chew on.
One particular day he was telling about him and his friends going on a hike in the woods. He said that after a while they got thirsty and saw a stream and decided to go for it. They were going to drink out of the stream and hope it was good water. To their surprise, the water was good and quenched their thirst and gave them new energy. They decided to go on up the hill toward the mouth of the spring they had drank from to see where the source began. After about a 30 minute hike they came to the heavy brush area where the spring came from and to their dismay saw a troubling site. Apparently one of the cows from the farmer's herd had gotten sick and died trying to get a drink at the mouth of that spring. The half rotted carcus of the cow was in the middle of the stream and the water was running over it. To the person, each one of them got sick for about a week from a mysterious bacteria that only the cow apparently new about. His point was that the water and it's source was good, but it was running through a contaminated filter. The Dead Cow!!
For the past two days I have shared how important having a pure connection with the Lord is and the impact it has on the rest of our faith pilgrimage. The water we have is living water as said by Jesus in John 4:14, and that living water supply is a constant refreshment and never runs dry. What if we polluted the water source and didn't even know it? What if because we had let a few things go and started to embrace a little of the world's ways our faith had started to dwindle. Now we are kind of THIRSTY. But Jesus said, You will never thirst again. That is true, of course, and the stream is always there welling up abundantly for those who have taken a drink. Then why do I feel like I'm thirsty, and the things of God don't satisfy me?
At some point or points in our lives we have times when God seems to ask us to take a significant step forward in our faith. When we look at that commitment in the face we have to decide, "Is this for me or not?" It seems that at that point a compromise can be made to make the Spiritual Side and the Worldly Side coexist in our thinking and our actions. It comes down to the thing that Jesus asked those wanting to follow Him, where He said, "You're either for me or against me." It is at that moment that we can take a huge step toward Christ or take a step back. If we take the step back, then we start down a slippery slope that lessens the abundance of Christ in our life, and thus we start thirsting again. Oh we haven't lost our salvation, but we have lost our passionate love for Christ. The world has taken a position in our faith that is dangerous and no amount of excuses or things can replace what we know we need. Oh, we may make efforts to get this knawing out of our head and we probably will come back to the stream to drink again, but it's just not the same. It's water, but not lasting and we fall back into the same sins over and over again. Listen closely to the next few words.
Go upstream to the source and I believe you will see your past self. The part that is supposed to be dead has fallen across the stream of living water and polluted your perspective. You are sick and don't even know it and the very source of your strength seems compromised. God is never compromised and His Water is abundant and ALL WE NEED. We have to get beyond who we were before and live in who we are in Christ. We have a connection to the Living Water. The stream is polluted by our lack of taking care of that water in our life. We can change that through a growing God Centered approach to life that is found in His Word and through an open honest prayer life with Him.
By the way, my science teacher told our class that the farmer heard about the dead cow and went back up there and removed it and buried it and the spring was just like it was before.....FRESH! 2 Corinthians 6:14 - 7:1 says it all for those of you who are looking to remove the old or DEAD MAN and refresh your Spiritual Spring. In a nutshell it says,"Make a clean break with the world and drink again." I know you won't be disappointed, but you MUST DRINK!! My prayer is that you take the water offered again after moving the dead cows in your life and see that it is not sickening at all, but very necessary and refreshing.
The Pilgrimage continues....
David Warren
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