Be a life-giving stream...

I want to encourage you that in all of your getting on today as it encourages in Proverbs 4:7, get understanding.....

Isaiah 58:11, it states "The LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."

As I was reflecting this morning, I thought about the aqueduct system, one of the greatest discoveries and constructions of the Roman Empire. A system that provided hydration for distances very far away and a totally genius method which made use of gravity, as I have reviewed with my kids on numerous home history lessons, with stone arches to support the water channels.  One particular aqueduct which was built in 109 AD actually carried water to the city of Segovia for eighteen hundred years. For nearly sixty generations this aqueduct provided cool water from the mountains above. But more recently, it had collapsed.

Consequently, it is why it is equally amazing that though it took great brain-power to develop such a powerful tool, it could just as quickly have great demise as it did through a well-intentioned citizen.  It is noted that this citizen observing the ancient structure, remarked, “This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. We shall relieve it of its centuries-long labor.”  So the city decided to construct a modern water system with iron pipes to carry the water, intending to give the aqueduct a long-deserved rest.

What they failed to realize, of course, was their attempt to preserve the aqueduct by stopping the flow of water through it, assured its rapid disintegration! As the sun beat down on the drying mortar and stone, the centuries old structure quickly began to fall apart. Amazingly, nearly 2000 years of service would not accomplish the destructive work of less than 100 years of idleness!

This thought really encouraged me in the realm of how we should view Kingdom work…As we continue to allow Jesus' living water to flow through us (through serving, and actively being a vessel for His Kingdom), we are constantly renewed and preserved.  When we are not active in Him praying, giving, serving, being a witness we often can fall into a position of drying up with idleness and atrophy- a wasting away.…

With so much work to be done, I am also reminded of Luke 10:2 that states, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”.  That is why I truly believe that Jesus offered “living water” that would never run dry (in John 4:10, 14) because of the active, vital necessity that we not only have of needing Him daily, but our our lives to ACTIVELY speak of Him daily- loving, accepting, and forgiving others.  We must always remember that we are called to continually become a life-giving stream: the ever-renewing vitality of Jesus’ living water! Not a well of stagnancy. I pray God's blessing on you, and I pray God's leading over you on today.

  

In His Service.