My Morning Meal

Reading Jeremiah 29 this morning tuned me into noticing promises from God. What a stirring chapter. God has the prophet write a letter to those who are in Babylon . . . those who have been taken into captivity after seeing Jerusalem razed, the temple destroyed . . . those who have lived through Judah being laid waste. And in this letter, the Lord tells the people that after 70 years ( . . . get that? . . . 70 years . . . that’s a lifetime!!!) . . . that He would visit them, fulfill His promise, and bring them back to Jerusalem. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer. 29:11). No quick fix here . . . 70 years in exile . . . in a foreign land . . . a stranger . . . swimming upstream . . . yet a lifetime during which they would learn to seek the Lord . . . a lifetime, He promised, during which He would be found (Jer. 29:12-14). And that set me up for Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4 . . . and my encounter with another promise of God.

If you know the story, you know she was in her own form of exile . . . her own captivity. Not only was she was part of a despised ethnic minority, she had also been abandoned by love and had settled for sin. Having had 5 husbands . . . and now living with a sixth man who was not her husband . . . how lonely must she have been. Hadn’t found her groove . . . wasn’t exactly living “the dream” . . . same old, same old, . . . take the abuse at home and then head out for her daily trip to draw water. But this day was to be different . . . she was to encounter the Living Word of God . . . and, she was to encounter a living promise of God!

. . . whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.    (John 4:14 ESV)

Read it again . . . and tell me why that isn’t a promise for all of us. Whoever . . . that’s what Jesus says . . . no restrictions . . . no class distinction . . . not about gender . . . not about race . . . not about socio-economic standing . . . not about how good we are . . . not about how churched we are . . . whoever . . . even me . . . a sinner-saved-by-grace who’s been trying to walk the talk for a few years now . . . Jesus is speaking to me.

And the promise is pretty simple . . . drink of the water I give and you will never thirst . . . receive the spiritual infusion I offer and a spring-fed well will gush within you . . . and you’ll know everlasting life . . . even now. Jesus offered this woman something that would take away emptiness . . . something that would satisfy the longing to be secure in a solid relationship . . . something that would take the drudgery of the day and turn it into something of eternal worth . . . something that would allow her to see her “here and now” in light of a “there and then.”

And Jesus wasn’t offering a one shot power boost . . . this wasn’t about a can of energy drink that might get you revved up for awhile only to eventually crash. Jesus offered day-in-and-day-out life infusing water. Not some momentary spiritual high, but a consistent, reliable renewing of the soul.

Living water not coming from a “great time of worship” . . . nor from a “really cool speaker” . . . nor from a “real fun” gathering . . . but found by simply going to Jesus and receiving the water He offers. And it’s when we’re drinking in what He’s serving up that the worship becomes so amazing . . . and the speaker seems to be speaking the very words of God . . . and the time with God’s people just can’t seem to be any more intimate and refreshing.

How many places do we go for the water hoping it will bring us to Jesus . . . rather than going to Jesus and receiving the water?

Jesus offers living water . . . a spiritual refreshment that will take away the thirst . . . that creates from within a flow of the Spirit which is not just life sustaining, but is life energizing. Yeah, we’re in a foreign land . . . waiting for the return of the King . . . waiting to go to that city He’s prepared for us . . . waiting to go home and get out of this stream that we seem to be constantly swimming against the flow of. But while we’re here . . . and doing life . . . let’s not stop going to the One who offers this living water.

By His grace . . . for His glory!

Unlike some, I’m not all that interested in my genealogy. Sure, I really appreciate those in my family who are . . . glad to have some insight as to my roots . . . but for the most part, I’m pretty much occupied with the here and now . . . not all that concerned with happened back there and then. But as I read John 3 this morning, I realize that I need to be careful about losing sight of my spiritual heritage . . . that there’s a danger in distancing myself from where I came from as a child of God. It’s the danger of thinking that somehow I managed to figure out what others haven’t . . . the fallacy that who I am is because of what I’ve made myself . . . the deception that because I tried to pursue the Way, that God had to receive me. Nope! If I look at my spiritual roots, if I go back to the very beginning of where I came from, I’m reminded that who I am is related directly to the reality that I was born of the Spirit . . . that my spiritual roots are found in my Spirit heritage.

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”   (John 3:3-6 ESV)

Born again . . . not really a phrase that’s in vogue . . . either in the world . . . or in the church, I fear. “I received Christ” . . . “I came to faith” . . . “I accepted the Lord, as my Savior” . . . all are probably more common ways we describe our salvation. We tend to recall what we did . . . and to be sure, we needed to believe in order to have eternal life . . . though, even the saving faith we exercised, was a gift of God (Eph. 2:8). But, if I consider my spiritual roots . . . if I go back to what started this pilgrim walk . . . it was the fact that I was born again . . . and that, was the work of the Spirit of God.

Any interest I have in the things of God . . . any desire I have to more deeply know my Creator . . . any sense I have of a better city to come . . . it’s all because of my heritage . . . that I was born of water and the Spirit. I was born again . . . made a new creation (2Cor. 5:17) . . . my spiritual DNA regenerated. Though I was dead in sin, I was made alive in Christ. Though I was at war with God, I was reconciled. Though I set myself as His enemy, He redeemed me to be a son. To pursue the kingdom is hard-wired in me through the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Spirit of God.

No boasting . . . no credit to be claimed. Instead, all of God’s over-flowing grace . . . all due to Christ’s all sufficient work on the cross . . . all through the Spirit’s active agency in the lives of men and women.

It’s kind of humbling . . . and, it’s kind of amazing!

And so, I sit back from the Scriptures I love . . . and thank the Spirit who wired me with a hunger and thirst for them. I pause from the pursuit . . . and I purpose to offer praise. I take a moment from the concerns of making sure I walk the worthy walk . . . and I bow my head, and lift my heart, to worship the one and only God worthy of worship. And I do it because it’s in my “bloodline” . . . I have been born of the Spirit.

Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!    (2Corinthians 9:15 ESV)

Thanks be to God for my Spirit heritage.

I think, when it comes to information, I do a better of job of storing it than retrieving it. I’m pretty sure that I have far more packed into in my brain than I seem to be able to access. I might know that I know something . . . but just can’t seem to recall what that something was. And, it’s not getting any better! The recesses of my mind seem to be getting more inaccessible with time. Maybe that’s why the repetition of a simple three word phrased jumped off the page at me this morning . . . or, maybe it was something, or Someone, else . . .

And He told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” . . . Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking about the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.   (John 2:16-17, 19-22 ESV)

There, repeated twice, is the phrase “His disciples remembered.” As I read it the first time, the thought flashed through my head, how could these unlearned men have recalled an obscure verse from an ancient song of David (Ps. 69:9) and applied it to the Master they had only recently started to follow? . . . is this the Spirit? And then I read on a few more verses and encounter the phrase again . . . and I think to myself, Self, this is the work of the Spirit! And then I think about my thinking and, I think, that it too is a realtime Spirit dynamic at work.

It’s what He does. The Holy Spirit takes the word of God and brings it to mind in the child of God. His delight is it take that which is written concerning the Son and illuminate it for those whose desire is to seek the Son. He takes the Bible readings read . . . the Sunday School stories heard . . . the memory verses memorized . . . the sermon notes written . . . all the Bible knowledge stored . . . and He retrieves it . . . bringing it to mind. And not in some divine “Trivial Pursuit” sense . . . but rather, along with the Word retrieved, He sheds light as to how it speaks of the Savior and of His great salvation. He gives understanding that we might be, more and more, children of the truth . . .

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you . . . when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about He . . . When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth . . . He will glorify me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.    (John 14:26, 15:26, 16:13-14 ESV)

How often do I “rob” the Spirit when I think it’s my intellect, or my attention to detail, which is allowing me to observe such things as a repeated phrase . . . or, to recall and apply some Scripture in particular situation . . . when, in fact, it really is a God thing? How often do I miss recognizing encounters of the divine kind because I fail to acknowledge the Spirit of truth as the one enabling me to remember?

Praise God for Spirit powered remembrance.

I’m guessing that, naturally speaking, over time my “retrieval system” is going to get a little rustier. But my God never changes . . . Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever . . . and the blessed Holy Spirit’s work of enabling the “mind of Christ” will continue without fail.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.   (1Corinthians 2:12 ESV)

Remembering . . . remember, it’s a God thing.

For most at that wedding, they never knew what happened. The honored couple had no idea . . . the guests had no idea . . . not even the “wedding planner,” though he recognized something unusual, knew what had happened. Except for a few conscripted servants, and a few called disciples, it went unnoticed. The glory of Messiah had been manifest . . . and most never knew what happened. Oh, don’t let me miss the glory!

In John 2, we read that Jesus, along with His disciples, was invited to a wedding. And, as was the ancient Jewish custom, this would have been a days long affair. The celebration extending beyond just a 45 minute ceremony, a dinner, and perhaps a few hours of celebration. This wedding which Jesus attended went on and on. And eventually supplies started running low . . . including the wine.

And Jesus, though His hour had not yet come to “go public” (2:4), determines to intervene in the most practical of ways.

Now, as Creator (John 1:3, Col. 1:16, Heb 1:2), Jesus had, in a sense, invented wine-making. The turning of water into wine through the agricultural and fermentation processes was of His design. But at this time and in this place the Word made flesh, God incarnate, chose to bypass the natural process. It was the “first of His signs” (2:11) . . . the first of many miracles which would attest to Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah . . . the first demonstration of His divinity . . . the first illustration of Him as the Author of Life . . . the first indication of Him as the Source of Joy . . . the first application of His grace and compassion for those He came to save. And, in turning the water into wine, John writes, Jesus “manifested His glory” (2:11).

Yet most were unaware of it.

To be fair, it was by design. Jesus purposefully worked behind the scenes. Far from making a major production of it, He had the servants fill the six twenty-gallon stone jars with water . . . and then had those same servants draw the wine out of those same jars. The master of the feast didn’t know where this fine wine had come from . . . the bridegroom was just as surprised as the master of the feast that somehow this “good wine” had surfaced towards the end of the feast. The guests could certainly care less . . . as long as there was more liquid joy to be consumed. But the servants had seen what had happened . . . as did Jesus disciples.  And they, for me, are “the hook.” Given that I am also a follower of Christ, they connect me to the story. And they saw the glory!

This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him.   (John 2:11 ESV)

The servants knew what happened that day because of their responsibility to “do whatever He tells you” (2:5). The disciples, my people, witnessed the miracle that day because of their relationship with Him who had said to them, “Follow Me.” They attended the wedding with Jesus . . . they stuck close to Him throughout the festivities . . . I’m guessing they were privy to the conversation between the Son of God and the mother of Jesus . . . they heard His instructions to the servants . . . they saw the great jars filled with water . . . they witnessed the fine wine poured from those same jars . . . they heard the testimony of the wine taster . . . they caught a glimpse of the care and compassion of their Master for a people oblivious to His provision . . . they saw the glory revealed. And, it says, they believed in Him. Their faith grew.  Though they didn’t understand all of what they had witnessed, their understanding of Him went deeper . . . their decision to follow Him was confirmed . . . their conviction that He was the Light of the Word was strengthened. Because they were with Jesus, they beheld the manifestation of His glory.

Oh, don’t let me miss the glory! I too have been called into relationship the Christ . . . just like the disciples I have been invited into close communion with the Son . . . and, from that vantage point, I too will have opportunity to see the manifest power of the Master. Mine is to abide with the Savior . . . to be in close relationship . . . to not be snoozin’ at the wheel . . . so that I too might see the glory.

Amen?

My soul is always stirred when reading these first verses of John’s gospel. “In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was with God . . . and the Word was God!” Hook up the fire hose and turn on the water! He was in the beginning . . . all things, yes all things, were made through Him . . . in Him was life . . . and that life came into the world to be the true light shining and overcoming the darkness. And, to all, yes to all, who received Him . . . to all who believed in His name . . . He gave the right to become children of God!

Linger over those words, but for a moment, and your spirit can’t help but soar . . . your soul rises up in worship . . . and body wants to go facedown in humbled thanksgiving.

But why should these words mean anything to me? Why would they stir my soul when, for so many others, they fall as stones to the ground? Why are they food and sustenance for this feeble follower of Christ when for so many in this world they are the words of myth, religion, or simply air? Answer: Grace upon grace!

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.   (John 1:14, 16-17 ESV)

Embodied in the Word . . . essential to the nature of Him who was with God . . . and became flesh . . . and dwelt among us . . . is the fullness of grace and truth. And it is out of this fullness that those who have believed, have received. Though we merit nothing, He has given everything. Though we were beyond helping ourselves, He bore the burden fully on our behalf. Though bankrupted by a sinful nature . . . He paid the price in full and imparted a new nature. Out of the fullness of Him who is the Source of Life, we have received.

And that, is grace upon grace! Abundant grace . . . overflowing grace . . . grace without measure . . . grace without end. Grace and truth coming through Jesus Christ!

No other plea this morning than having appropriated the unmerited favor of God offered freely through His blessed Son. No other ground upon which to stand . . . no other credentials by which I may enter into the Most Holy Place . . . no other hope of not crashing and burning today . . . other than casting myself upon grace upon grace . . . that grace which flows freely from the fullness of Christ.

When all is said and done . . . after the desire to be holy . . . after the determination to try and be disciplined . . . after the disappoint of not being has holy as desired or as disciplined as determined . . . there is grace upon grace for those who are in Christ Jesus. O’ marvelous grace!

Thank You, Father, for sending the Son. Thank You, Jesus, for dwelling among us and making known the Father’s glory. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for giving eyes to see and ears to hear.

It is out of this fullness that I have received . . . grace upon grace!

To Him be glory alone . . .