They were dying of thirst.
Dare 2 Share - Jesus replied, "People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life." (John 4:13-14)
Many years ago in South America, a crew of Peruvian Sailors headed up the Amazon River came upon a strange sight. A Spanish ship was anchored off the coast, and as the Peruvians drew closer they saw that the Spaniards were in terrible physical condition. They looked the picture of death itself, their lips parched and swollen. They were dying of thirst.
"Can we help you?" shouted the Peruvians.
The Spaniards cried out, "Water! Water! We need fresh water!"
The Peruvian sailors, surprised at this request, told them to lower their buckets and help themselves.
The Spaniards, fearing they'd been misunderstood cried back, "No, no we need FRESH water!
But they received the same reply from the Peruvians to lower their buckets and help themselves. They finally did lower their buckets into the ocean waters and when they brought the buckets on deck they discovered (to their amazement) fresh water.
There at the mouth of the Amazon river, anchored for days, too far from land to see the coast, but not too far from the mouth of the river, they had fresh water in abundance.
The sailors nearly died of thirst when the cure was easily within reach. When they placed their faith in someone who had ‘been there’, it saved their lives.
Sound familiar? You and I are on this incredible journey called life. Our past is forgiven and our future is secure, but sometimes we mess up the present pretty well.
Why is that? Well for one thing, just because we have trusted Christ doesn’t mean that we don’t have the same thirst for love, meaning, and significance. I think that some Christians are surprised when they get spiritually thirsty, so they go into denial and go through life in terrible spiritual condition.
Your salvation experience was not intended to be a fix-all happy pill that would solve all your personal issues…anybody who preaches that is probably trying to sell you something.
Believer- wake up! The Living Water is all around you, but your going to have to lower your bucket and get it yourself. Believe me, I’ve been on that boat- and it’s not fun. But I can testify to you now that the Water is fine- don’t be afraid of it: drink deeply.
Am I dampening your spirit down with too many metaphors? Let me translate some of this for you so that the message will flow better.
Ship: your circumstances
Journey: your life
Saltwater: The things you used to try and make you happy, but now you know they end up making life worse
Bucket: Your relationship with Christ
Freshwater: The Bible, prayer, pure worship, and fellowship with other Christians.
As long as you are on this earth, you are going to have deep needs. If you want to truly satisfy your soul-oriented sigh-ings, you must develop a drinking problem. That is, it’s a problem if you aren’t drinking from the bucket of frequent prayer, reading the Bible (at least) daily, spending time in pure worship and hanging out with solid believers.
Cheers!
Questions:
1) Feeling ‘thirsty’ lately? Could it be because you have dropped the bucket?
2) How do you get your basic needs met?
3) Do you have a drinking problem? Why or why not?
