Ronald Keller - (Our Daily Bread)
"Some time ago I saw a travelogue on television concerning a group of explorers who were searching in Africa for a vanishing tribe. In the course of their travels they came across some natives who for centuries had made their home on the banks of this one particular river.
This in itself did not cause wonder, until they were showed the polluted stream. It was filled with dirt and every contamination imaginable. The natives had developed a method of swishing over the top of the water to get out as much debris as possible before scooping it up to drink.
One of the explorers took his canteen and poured out a large cup of crystal-clear water and handed it to one of the aged women of the tribe, whose face was as wrinkled as a prune. She took the cup, pressed it to her lips, and didn’t put it down until she had drained it. Then through an interpreter she said that she had never dreamed that there was anything in this world as sweet and wonderful as that.
I thought then: how like the world without Christ! They too drink from polluted streams—just swishing through the debris because they have never known anything better. However, when they finally taste the crystal waters of eternal life, they proclaim that they never before realized there was anything so sweet and wonderful."
John 7:37-38 (NLT)
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, "If you are thirsty, come to me! [38] If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within."
We would not think of depriving our bodies of water when they are thirsty. Why then should we deprive others of the "Living Water"? The living Word, Jesus Christ, and the written Word, the Bible, can satisfy every thirsty soul.
