For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13
Why is it that men will forsake the fountain in favor of the cistern?
With the fountain there is an endless supply, not just of water, but of living water. A never ending source and an unmatched quality. There is no effort to be expended in order to drink your fill, except that which is necessary to come to the fountain.
Yet we humans, always desiring to attain by the works of our own hands, reject that which is freely offered in favor of that which we can produce by the sweat of our brow……even when the quality is so terribly inferior and the end result imminently unsatisfying. At the fountain we are offered water of life. All the cistern can offer is something stale and stagnant.
So how are those cisterns working out for you? What cisterns, you ask?
How about the cistern of religious activity that we choose instead of the fountain of encountering God?
How about the cistern of saying prayers that replaces the fountain of real soul travail that touches heaven?
How about the cistern of singing worship songs instead of the fountain of true worship in spirit and truth that pours itself out at the feet of Jesus?
Dig with all your might the cistern of your choice. Meanwhile all of heaven is astonished at our foolishness. Will we never learn that only at the fountain of our precious Lord Jesus will we ever find satisfaction? Or will we go on ever building cisterns….and ever thirsting?
God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” 1 Timothy 2:4-6
WHY PREACH THE GOSPEL??? Men are saved through it.
“It is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” Romans 1:16
WHY PREACH THE GOSPEL??? God takes pleasure in the salvation of souls.
“Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” Ezekiel 18:23
WHY PREACH THE GOSPEL??? God expects it.
“Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?” Proverbs 24:11-12
There is a man in my church who has been recently diagnosed and is currently undergoing treatment for leukemia. Even with treatment, the doctors give him just over a year to live. I saw him yesterday after church and stopped to inquire about his health. After he updated me on the status of various tests and procedures, I asked him this question: “With eternity looming before you as a near reality, what has become the most important thing in life?” Here is his response:
“I was saved when I was eight years old; that was 55 years ago. 20 years ago I moved to this city to go to Bible college. And then I just settled in to life. I pretty much lived the American dream. I have a nice house, a couple of nice cars and a savings account. And none of that means anything to me now. I have wasted my life. The only thing that matters is what I can do for the Lord Jesus with the time I have left.”
It makes me mindful that life is just a vapor for all of us and we will stand before the Lord Jesus and look into that glorious face. So much of what we currently think of as important will not matter at all on that day.
I pray that the Lord would help us all, His people, to wake up to what really matters……eternal things…..those things that bring the Lord Jesus glory in this earth and make Him known. The American dream is a tranquilizer that has numbed us to the fact that we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth. We are citizens of another country….a heavenly one. And unless we awake to this fact, we may all find that we have lived wasted lives.
I never thought that I would ever spend any part of the holiday season, or any other season for that matter, on Bourbon Street. For those of you who know anything about Bourbon Street (and it does have quite a reputation) I don’t need to add anything to that. Even before I was a Christian, it wasn’t a place that I ever wanted to go. It is a place of drunkenness, strip clubs and all manner of sin.
But recently I made contact with some people who are part of a ministry called Raven Street Ministry and they go to Bourbon Street every Friday and Saturday night for open air street church right in the middle of Bourbon Street. On Friday, December 23rd, I made the trip with a few other people from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. At 11:00 PM we met up in a parking lot with the rest of the people, and a total of about 15 of us began the walk to Bourbon Street. The men carried the sound equipment and a large red cross about 10 feet tall. We got to the 500 block of Bourbon Street and began to setup the cross and the equipment. Although it was almost Christmas and the activity on Bourbon Street was less than a normal night, there were still many people out that night.
Five or six people took turns preaching and the rest of us stood either in the street or along side the street, talking to and praying with people who stopped. I have been a part of street ministry before and have been active in evangelism in my hometown of Baton Rouge, but I was in no way prepared for what I saw this night. The one verse that kinda sums it all up is this – “there is no fear of God before their eyes”. I have never in my life witnessed such blatant and hateful mockery of Christ and His gospel. I have seen street preachers before who preached such a distorted and hate-filled message that the mockery might be justified, but the gospel that was preached this night was wonderfully pure and complete – sin, righteousness, judgment, the love of God and Christ as the only Saviour. And many people despised it. One intoxicated middle aged woman actually came up and physically attacked our group and when she was finally separated away from us, she stood at a distance pointing her finger at us and screaming: “You are all white trash”, “Liars”, “Jesus would be so ashamed of you”.
Never in my life have I observed such hatred for Christ as I saw that night. My heart broke for those people who were cursing the God who was giving them the very breath that they used to curse Him. It seemed that if Jesus Himself had been there, they would have been shouting “Crucify Him!” And still as Jesus was looking down upon them that night, He loved them and desired them to repent.
I felt as thought I was witnessing the battle between light and darkness. And the darkness was very dark. But still the light was shining. The gospel was preached, Jesus was lifted up, and it was beautiful.
A brother from church called me yesterday, telling me that the Lord had put on his heart to go door to door witnessing to the people in his condo complex. He wanted to get a few other people to come help him and asked if I wanted to come.
Last night’s witnessing had gone so well, and the people were attentive while we spoke to them, that I was very excited to have another chance to do it again so soon. We met together and prayed and then split up into pairs. Many people were not home. Two people shut the door in my face. And then there was the elderly man watering the grass as he puffed on his pipe. He had to be in his eighties. Two of us walked over to talk to him and when he heard the name of Jesus he became very agitated. He insisted that he had a relationship with the Lord, but when we told him the Bible said Jesus is Lord, he became angry. “He’s not my Lord. He said a lot of things, but He’s never done anything for me.” And he walked away.
Jesus is Lord. This man will one day be convinced of that. My heart has been breaking for him all day. I pray that the Holy Spirit will convince him of it before he meets Christ in eternity.
I had previously shared a bit about my experience years ago in street ministry. I’ve thought about it a lot lately, remembering the joy there was in consistently sharing this wonderful gospel. Somehow the cares of this life pulled me away from evangelism as a lifestyle. Why I have been content in this state of affairs, I cannot understand. But God, in His kindness, has rekindled within my heart the desire to make the gospel of Jesus known. For several months now I have prayed for God to send a like minded person to partner with me. And He has!
Tonight I went with my dear friend Michelle to an apartment complex close to our church. It is terribly hot and humid here in Louisiana, but there were many people outside this afternoon….just waiting to hear the gospel. So for an hour and a half Michelle and I walked around the complex and shared Christ with several individuals and several groups. It was amazing to watch as the Spirit of God began to bring conviction of sin. We felt that the Lord had led us to people who were ready to hear. As it began to get dark we made our way back to the car, filled with joy. People heard the gospel tonight.
I was a new believer (saved just over one year) and I was driving to work. There on the corner at the intersection of two busy streets I saw him standing. It was not a place where you would expect someone to be standing because there were no sidewalks and no foot traffic in that area. Thus he stood out. I wondered what he was doing there and as I drove nearer I could tell that he was saying something so I put my window down so I could hear. And what I heard was the sound of the gospel being preached. I was so moved that I cried the rest of the way to work.
Others saw him that morning and labeled him as some crazy man. My eyes had seen something different. I’ve never forgotten him. It was a very short time later that I had the opportunity to be involved in street ministry here in Baton Rouge and also in downtown New Orleans. It’s been over 10 years ago, but the memories of those times are precious. As I have been reflecting over this time in my life recently, one thing that I remember so clearly is that all of life was centered on Jesus, and in a very natural kind of way because we were daily sharing the gospel. There was no need to continually turn the heart back to Jesus, because it dwelt there.
I love Jesus, and I want my life to be lived before Him in such a way that He is glorified in it. Maybe it’s inherent in my personality type (or maybe just the fallen nature of man) but even such a spiritual desire has led me to selfishness. A spiritual selfishness that is always looking inward in self examination, many times to the exclusion of looking upward and outward. But God has begun to stir my heart concerning these things….and I am looking upward and looking outward and waiting to see what He will do.
Last year I began going into Angola State Penitentiary with my church’s prison ministry group. Looking back on that first visit, I remember the fear of not knowing what to expect. Now nine months later, I cannot imagine not being a part of this. We are allowed to go once a month for a 2 1/2 hour service. We see many of the same faces each time and they are no longer “the inmates”. They are my brothers. What a joy it is to walk into that chapel and greet them! And as I stand on the platform to share whatever word the Lord has put on my heart, I am filled with joy to see their faces shining with love for Jesus. Most of these men were violent criminals. Some of them will only leave Angola in their casket. But Angola is where they met Jesus and for them Angola was the mercy of God.
Each month I pray that I might impart some blessing to them only to find that I am the one that has been blessed. How I thank God that He has allowed me to be a part of this!
“meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains.” Colossians 4:3
There was a time when I thought it was very important that God should open a door for my “ministry”. I prayed for this and believed for this. I look back on that time in my life now and am ashamed of myself. How utterly selfish and self-seeking those prayers were. I did want Jesus to be glorified….as long as it happened through me. And of course I would certainly remain a humble servant while being celebrated as an anointed woman of God.
As ridiculous as that sounds, that really was the essence of my thoughts at one point in my life. While I might have prayed for God to open a door for the gospel, I really wanted Him to open a door for me.
The Lord rescued me from this mindset through a great disappointment that left me hurting and heart broken for a very long time. Today I can look back at it and thank Him from the depths of my heart for it.
I still pray for God to open doors, and He still does. And while I have the privilege of walking through those doors, I understand now that they are not for me. They are for the furtherance of this great gospel of Jesus Christ.
“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not be works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7
Sometime it is so difficult to grasp the concept of grace. Maybe because we live in a culture where those who work hard are rewarded and where achievement is praised. Maybe it is the stubborn willfulness of the 2 year old that remains in us throughout our lives that continues to cry “I can do it myself!” Maybe it is a deal that seems too good to be true. Infinitely too good.
Religion and works have traditionally gone hand in hand. And in our natural way of thinking, it seems right that it should be so. While I admittedly have a limited knowledge of other religions, I believe I would be correct in saying that Christianity is the only one where works are excluded as having any merit in relation to obtaining righteousness.
Don’t miss this word —– excluded. There is nothing I can ever do to make myself more accepted by God or more righteous in His sight once I have trusted Christ for my salvation. The imputation of Christ’s righteousness to me the moment I believed has been and forever will be my only basis of righteousness. How ridiculous (and even insulting) it is to the Lamb of God when we attempt to add our own puny efforts to the work of the cross.
What perfect, holy blood and what a perfect, holy life was poured out on Calvary. So wonderfully complete was this sacrifice that it suffices for all who call upon His name for the duration of time.
Whiter than snow. A new creation. This is what I am now because of Jesus.
The labor was His. The benefit is mine. So I will rest in His labors and rest from mine.
He is my Delight 