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Day 4: John 4/Psalm 8
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Saturday February 28, 2004
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An Overflow
of Life
In today’s chapter of John, Jesus has an encounter with a woman who has
gone to a well for water. It seems that everything separates
them--social class, religion, even their respective understandings of
what her greatest need is. She’s looking to fill her thermos and Jesus
is looking to fill her heart.
In a moment, he
tells her where she’s been in life--all the hurt and shame that she’d
prefer not even share with a close friend, let alone this stranger.
Then He tells her that He’s ready to change all that. Even though she’s
spent years trying to get a life through all these sordid
relationships, He’s ready to give her life that will not only satisfy
her, but serve as a sort of oasis, offering the same life to those she
encounters.
Jesus answered,
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever
drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give
him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal
life." John 4:13,14 (New International Version)
People would walk
great distances to get a drink of water in the desert. The woman knew
that when Jesus spoke of an internal spring of eternal life that the
gift was not hers alone. The very next thing she does is to go tell her
friends, saying “He tells me everything that I ever did.” Her friends
quickly believe for themselves, largely on the encouragement of the
living water springing up in the heart of this woman.
Many people know
what it means to receive from God. Their lives have been transformed by
a relationship with Jesus. Fewer people understand that they’re not
only to be personally changed, but they are to serve as a conduit for
that love to reach those around them. Who will you meet today that
could benefit from a cool drink of water?
Today’s
prayer:
Jesus, thank you for what you are doing in my life. Help me to see
those gathered around me who are as thirsty as I am, and help me give
away what you have so freely given to me – grace.
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Memory Verse of the Week:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (New International Version)
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For a complete
listing of all the previous devotionals in this "50 Day
Experience," click here.
To read the chapter or psalm of the day online, click on one of the
following links:
o
John
4
o
Psalm
8
Randy Bohlender, bohlender@cincyvineyard.com,
Director of Small Things at VCC
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