John Calvin on Christ as Eternal God

"If [outside] of God there is no salvation, no righteousness, no life, Christ, having all these in himself, is certainly God.  Let no one object that life or salvation is transfused into him by God.  For it is said not that he received, but that he himself is salvation.  And if there is none good but God, how could a mere man be pure, how could he be, I say not good and just, but goodness and justice?  Then what shall we say to the testimony of the evangelist, that from the very beginning of creation 'in him was life, and this life was the light of men'?  Trusting to such proofs, we can boldly put our hope and faith in him, though we know it is blasphemous [irreverence] to confide in any creature.  'Ye believe in God,' says he, ' believe also in me' (John 14:1).  And so Paul (Rom 10:11 and 15:12) interprets two passages of Isaiah, 'Whoso believeth in him shall not be confounded' (Isa 28:16); and, 'In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for [a banner] of the people; to it shall the gentiles seek' (Isa 11:10).  But why adduce more passages of Scripture on this head, when we so often meet with the expression, 'He that believeth in me has eternal life'?" (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.13.13).

J.C. Ryle of Joining Anything with Christ

"Is Christ all?  Then learn the enormous folly of joining anything with Christ in the matter of salvation.  There are multitudes of baptized men and women who profess to honor Christ, but in reality do Him great dishonor.  They give Christ a certain place in their system of religion, but not the place which God intended Him to fill.  Christ alone is not all in all to their souls.  No!  It is either Christ and the church, or Christ and the sacraments, or Christ and His ordained ministers, or Christ and their own repentance, or Christ and their own goodness, or Christ and their own prayers, or Christ and their own sincerity and charity, on which they practically rest their souls.

"If any reader of this message is a Christian of this kind, I warn him also plainly, that his religion is an offense to God.  You are changing God's plan of salvation into a plan of your own devising.  You are in effect deposing Christ from His throne, by giving the glory due to Him to another.

"I care not who it is that teaches such religion, and on whose word you build.  Whether they be pope or cardinal, archbishop or bishop, dean or archdeacon, presbyter or deacon, Episcopalian or Presbyterian, Baptist or Independent, Wesleyan or Plymouth brother, whoever adds anything to Christ, teaches you wrong.

"Take heed what you are doing.  Beware of giving to Christ's servants the honor due to none but Christ.  Beware of giving the Lord's ordinances the honor due unto the Lord.  Beware of resting the burden of your soul on anything but Christ, and Christ alone" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

J.C. Ryle on Mercy Without Christ

"I warn you plainly that all notions and theories about God being merciful without Christ, and excepting through Christ, are belles delusions and empty fancies.  Such theories are as purely an idol of man's invention act he idol of Juggernaut.  They are all of the earth, earthly.  They never came down from heaven.  The God of heaven has sealed and appointed Christ as the one and only Savior and way of life, and all who would be saved must be content to be saved by Him, or they will never be saved at all" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

J.C. Ryle on a Sinner's Justification Before God

"Christ is all in a sinner's justification before God.  Through Him alone we can have peace with a holy God.  By Him alone we can have admission into the presence of the Most High, and stand there without fear.  'We have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.'  In Him alone can God be just, and justify the ungodly (Eph. 3:12; Rom. 3:26).

"With which can any mortal man come before God?  What can we bring as a plea for acquittal before that glorious Being, in whose eyes the very heavens are not clean?

"Shall we say that we have done our duty to God?  Shall we say that we have done our duty to our neighbor?  Shall we bring forward our prayers, our regularity, our morality, our amendments, our churchgoing?  Shall we ask to be accepted because of any of these?

"Which of these things will stand the searching inspection of God's eye?  Which of them will actually justify us?  Which of them will carry us clear through judgment and land us safe in glory?

"None, none, none!  Take any commandment of the ten, and let us examine ourselves by it.  We have broken it repeatedly.  We cannot answer God one of thousand.  Take any of us, and look narrowly into our ways, and we are nothing but sinners.  There is but one verdict; we are all guilty, all deserve hell, all ought to die.  With which can we come before God?

"We must come in the name of Jesus, standing on no other ground, passing no other plea than this: "Christ died on the cross for the ungodly, and I trust in Him.  Christ died for me, and I believe on Him.'  The garment of our Elder Brother, the righteousness of Christ, this is the only robe which can cover us, and enable us to stand in the light of heaven without shame.

"The name of Jesus is the only name by which we shall obtain an entrance through the gate of eternal glory.  If we come to that gate in our own names, we are lost, we shall not be admitted, we shall knock in vain.  If we come in the name of Jesus, it is a passport and shibboleth, and we shall enter and live.

"The mark of the blood of Christ is the only mark that can save us from destruction.  When the angels are separating the children of Adam in the last day, if we are not found marked with that atoning blood, we had better never have been born.

"Oh, let us never forget that Christ must be all to that soul who would be justified!  We must be content to go to heaven as beggars, saved by free grace, simply as believers in Jesus, or we shall never be saved at all" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

J.C. Ryle on Christ as All in the Religion of All True Christians

"I wish to guard myself against being misunderstood.  I hold the absolute necessity of the election of God the Father, and the sanctification of God the Spirit, in order to effect the salvation of everyone that is saved.  I hold that there is a perfect harmony and unison in the action of the three People of the Trinity, in bringing any man to glory, and that all three cooperate and work a joint work in his deliverance from sin and hell.  Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.  The Father is merciful, the Son is merciful, the Holy Spirit is merciful.  The same Three who said at the beginning, 'Let us create,' said also, 'Let us redeem and save.'  I hold that everyone who reaches heaven will ascribe all the glory of this salvation to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three People in one God.

"But, at the same time, I see clear proof in Scripture, that it is the mind of the blessed Trinity that Christ should be prominently and distinctly exalted, in the matter of saving souls.  Christ is set forth as the Word, through whom God's love to sinners is made known.  Christ's incarnation and atoning death on the cross are the great cornerstone on which the whole plan of salvation rests.  Christ is the way and door, by which alone approaches to God are to be made.  Christ is the root into which all elect sinners must be grafted.  Christ is the only meeting-place between God and man, between heaven and earth, between the Holy Trinity and the poor sinful child of Adam.  It is Christ whom God the Father has sealed and appointed to convey life to a dead world (John 6:27).  It is Christ to whom the Father has given a people to be brought to glory.  It is Christ of whom the Spirit testifies, and to whom He always leads a soul for pardon and peace.  In short, it has 'pleased the Father that in Christ all fullness should dwell' (Col. 1:19).  What the sun is in the skies of heaven, that Christ is in true Christianity" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

J.C. Ryle on the Revelation of the Christ

"There came a time when the world seemed sunk and buried in ignorance of God  After four thousand years the nations of the earth appeared to have clean forgotten the God that made them.  Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires had done nothing but spread superstition and idolatry.  Poets, historians, philosophers had proved that, with all their intellectual powers, they had no right knowledge of God, and that man, left to himself, was utterly corrupt.  'The world, by wisdom, knew not God' (1 Cor. 1:21).  Excepting a few despised Jews in a corner of the earth, the whole world was dead in ignorance and sin.

"And what did Christ do then?

"He left the glory He had had from all eternity with the Father, and came down into the world to provide a salvation.  He took our nature upon Him and was born as a man.  As a man He did the will of God perfectly, which we all had left undone; as a man He suffered on the cross the wrath of God which we ought to have suffered.  He brought in everlasting righteousness for us.  He redeemed us from the curse of a broken law.  He opened a fountain for all sin and uncleanness.  He died for our sins.  He rose again for our justification.  He ascended to God's right hand, and there sat down, waiting until His enemies should be made His footstool.  And there He sits now, offering salvation to all who will come to Him, interceding for all who believe in Him, and managing by God's appointment all that concerns the salvation of souls" (J.C. Ryle, Holiness).

J.C. Ryle on Christ and the Fall

"There came a day when sin entered the world.  Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and fell.  They lost that holy nature in which they were first formed.  They forfeited the friendship and favor of God, and became guilty, corrupt, helpless, hopeless sinners.  Sin came as a barrier between themselves and their holy Father in heaven.  Had He dealt with them according to their deserts, there had been nothing before them but death, hell, and everlasting ruin.

"And where was Christ then?

"In that very day He was revealed to our trembling parents as the only hope of salvation.  The very day they fell, they were told that the seed of the woman should yet bruise the serpent's head, that a Savior born of a woman should overcome the devil, and win for sinful man an entrance to eternal life (Gen. 3:15).  Christ was held up as the true light of the world, in the very day of the Fall; and never has any name been made known from that day by which souls could be saved, excepting His By Him all saved souls have entered heaven, from Adam downwards; and without Him none have ever escaped hell" (J.C. Ryle, Holiness).

J.C. Ryle on the Effects of Evangelism

"Do you want to understand what the times require of all Christians in reference to the souls of others?  Listen, and I will tell you.  You live in times of great liberty and abounding opportunities of doing good.  Never were there so many open doors of usefulness, so many fields white to the harvest.  Mind that you use those open doors, and try to reap those fields.  Try to do a little good before you die.  Strive to be useful.  Determine that by God's help you will leave the world a better world in the day of your burial than it was in the day you were born.  Remember the souls of relatives, friends and companions; remember that God often works by weak instruments, and try with holy ingenuity to lead them to Christ.  The time is short, the sand is running out of the glass of this old world; then redeem the time, and endeavor not to go to heaven alone.  No doubt you cannot command success.  It is not certain that your efforts to do good will always do good to others but it is quite certain that they will always do good to yourself.  Exercise, exercise, is one grand secret of health, both for body and soul. 'He that waters shall be watered himself' (Prov. 11:25).  It is a deep and golden saying of our Master's, but seldom understood in its full meaning, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive' (Acts 20:35)" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

J.C. Ryle on the Narrow Way

"Do you want to understand what the times require of you in reference to your own soul?  Listen, and I will tell you.  You live in times of peculiar spiritual danger.  Never perhaps were there more traps and pitfalls in the way to heaven; never certainly were those traps so skillfully baited, and those pitfalls so ingeniously made.  Mind what you are about.  Look well to your goings.  Ponder the paths of your feet.  Take heed lest you come to eternal grief, and ruin your own soul.  Beware of practical infidelity under the specious name of free thought.  Beware of a helpless state of indecision about doctrinal truth under the plausible idea of not being party-spirited, and under the baneful influence of so-called liberality and charity.  Beware of frittering away life in wishing and meaning and hoping for the day of decision, until the door is shut, and you are given over to a dead conscience, and die without hope.  Awake to a sense of your danger.  Arise and give diligence to make your calling and election sure, whatever else you leave uncertain.  The kingdom of God is very near.  Christ the almighty Savior, Christ the sinner's Friend, Christ and eternal life, are ready for you if you will only come to Christ.  Arise and cast away excuses; this very day Christ calls you.  Wait not for company if you cannot have it; wait for nobody.  The times, I repeat, are desperately dangerous.  If only few are in the narrow way of life, resolve that by God's help you at any rate will be among the few" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

John Calvin on the Holy Spirit and the Credibility of Scripture

"With what confidence it becomes us to subscribe to a doctrine attested and confirmed by the blood of so many saints?  They, when once they had embraced it, hesitated not boldly and [courageously], and even with great [eagerness], to meet death in its defense.  Being transmitted to us with such an earnest, who of us shall not receive it with firm and unshaken conviction?  It is therefore no small proof of the authority of Scripture, that it was sealed with the blood of so many witnesses, especially when it is considered that in bearing testimony to the faith, they met death not with fanatical enthusiasm (as erring spirits are sometimes wont to do), but with a firm and constant, yet sober godly zeal.  There are other reasons, neither few nor feeble, by which the dignity and majesty of the Scriptures may be not only proved to the pious, but also completely vindicated against the [complaints] of slanderers.  These, however, cannot themselves produce a firm faith in Scripture until our heavenly Father manifest his presence in it, and thereby secure implicit reverence for it.  Then only, therefore, does Scripture suffice to give a saving knowledge of God when its certainty is founded on the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit.  Still the human testimonies which go to confirm it will not be without effect, if they are used in subordination to that chief and highest proof, as secondary helps to our weakness.  But it is foolish to attempt to prove to infidels that the Scripture is the word of God.  This it cannot be known to be, except by faith.  Justly, therefore, does Augustine remind us, that every man who would have any understanding in such high matters must previously possess piety and mental peace" (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion).

Dining on the Bread of Life

“In the 1930s the most famous living author was William Somerset Maugham.  He was an accomplished novelist, a great playwright, and a short story writer.

“In 1965 Maugham was ninety-one years old and fabulously wealthy.  Royalties were continuing to pour in from all over the world despite the fact that he had not written a word in years. . . He was experiencing incredible success.  But how did Maugham respond to his success?  What had it brought to his life?”

An article written by Maugham’s nephew after he visited his uncle before his death gives some insight.

“I looked round the drawing room at the immensely valuable furniture and pictures and objects that Willie’s success had enabled him to acquire. . . Willie had 11 servants . . . He dined on silver plates . . . But it no longer meant anything to him.  The following afternoon, I found Willie reclining on a sofa, peering through his spectacles at a Bible which had very large print.  He looked horribly wizened, and his face was grim. ‘I’ve been reading the Bible you gave me . . . and I’ve come across the quotation: “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?”  I must tell you, my dear Robin, that the text used to hang opposite my bed when I was a child . . . Of course, it’s all a lot of bunk.  But the thought is quite interesting all the same.’  That evening, in the drawing room after dinner, Willie flung himself down onto the sofa.  ‘Oh, Robin, I’m so tired . . .’  He gave a gulp and buried his head in his hands.  ‘I’ve been a failure the whole way through my life,’ he said.  ‘I’ve made mistake after mistake.  I’ve made a hash of everything.’  I tried to comfort him  ‘You’re the most famous writer alive.  Surely that means something?’  ‘I wish I’d never written a single word,’ he answered.  ‘It’s brought me nothing but misery. . . .Everyone who’s got to know me well has ended up by hating me. . . . My whole life has been a failure. . . . And now it’s too late to change.  It’s too late. . . .’  Willie looked up, and his grip tightened on my hands.  He was staring towards the floor.  His face was contorted with fear, and he was trembling violently.  Willie’s face was ashen as he stared in horror ahead of him.  Suddenly, he began to shriek.  ‘Go away!’ he cried.  ‘I’m not ready. . . .  I’m not dead yet. . . . I’m not dead yet, I tell you. . . .’  His high-pitched, terror-struck voice seemed to echo from wall to wall.  I looked around, but the room was empty as before.  ‘There’s no one there, Willie.’  Willie began to gasp hysterically” (R. Kent Hughes).

Join us this week at ElmCreek Community Church as we look at what John 6:22-59 tells us about Jesus being the Bread of life and the joy of having eternal life through Him alone. 

Striving to know Christ and make Him known,

Pastor Mark

J.C. Ryle on Public and Private Religion

At the time J.C. Ryle wrote these words there had been an increase in the number of public services and those attending.  Though he was excited by the multiplication of what he called "public religion" he gave a word of caution:

"While we are thankful for the increase of public religion, we must never forget that, unless it is accompanied by private religion, it is of no real solid value, and may even produce most mischievous effects.  Incessant running after sensational preachers, incessant attendance at hot crowded meetings, [prolonged] to late hours, incessant craving after fresh excitement and highly spiced pulpit novelties - all this kind of thing is calculated to produce a very unhealthy style of Christianity and, in many cases I am afraid, the end is utter ruin of soul.  For, unhappily, those who make public religion everything are often led away by mere temporary emotions, after some grand display of ecclesiastical oratory, into professing far more than they really feel.  After this, they can only be kept up to the mark, which they imagine they have reached, by a constant succession of religious excitements.  By and by, as with opium-eaters and dram-drinkers, there comes a time when their dose loses its power, and a feeling of exhaustion and discontent begins to creep over their minds.  Too often, I fear, the conclusion of the whole matter is a relapse into utter deadness and unbelief, and a complete return to the world.  And all results from having nothing but a public religion!  Oh, that people would remember that it was not the wind, or the fire, or the earthquake, which showed Elijah the presence of God, but 'the still small voice' (1 Kings 19:12).

"Now I desire to lift up a warning voice on this subject.  I want to see no decrease of public religion, remember; but I do want to promote an increase of that religion which is private - private between each man and his God.  The root of a plant or tree makes no show above ground.  If you dig down to it and examine it, it is a poor, dirty, coarse-looking thing and not nearly so beautiful to the eye as the fruit or leaf or flower.  But that despised root, nevertheless, is the true source of all the life, health, vigor and fertility which your eyes see, and without it the plant or tree would soon die.  Now private religion is the root of all vital Christianity.  Without it we may make a brave show in the meeting or on the platform, and sing loud, and shed many tears, and have a name to live and the praise of man.  But without it we have no wedding garment, and are 'dead before God.'  I tell my readers plainly that the times require of us all more attention to our private religion" (J.C. Ryle, Holiness).

Easter Morning

What else is there to say?  We serve a risen Savior!

J.C. Ryle on the Importance of Doctrine Within the Church

"If you want to do good in these times, you must throw aside indecision, and take up a distinct, sharply cut, doctrinal religion.  If you believe little, those to whom you try to do good will believe nothing.  The victories of Christianity, wherever they have been won, have been won by distinct doctrinal theology, by telling men roundly of Christ's vicarious death and sacrifice, by showing them Christ's substitution on the cross and His precious blood, by teaching them justification by faith and bidding them believe on a crucified Savior, by preaching ruin by sin, redemption by Christ, regeneration by the Spirit, by lifting up the bronze serpent, by telling men to look and live, to believe, repent and be converted.  This, this is the only teaching which for eighteen centuries God has honored with success, and is honoring at the present day both at home and abroad.  Let the clever advocates of a broad and undogmatic theology - the preachers of the gospel of earnestness and sincerity and cold morality - let them, I say, show us at this day any English village or parish or city or town or district, which has been evangelized without 'dogma,' by their principles.  They cannot do it, and they never will.  Christianity without distinct doctrine is a powerless thing.  It may be beautiful to some minds, but it is childless and barren.  There is no getting over facts.  The good that is done in the earth may be comparatively small.  Evil may abound and ignorant impatience may murmur, and cry out that Christianity has failed.  But, depend on it, if we want to 'do good' and shake the world, we must fight with the old apostolic weapons, and stick to 'dogma.'  No dogma, no fruits!  No positive evangelical doctrine, no evangelization!"  (J.C. Ryle, Holiness)

Resurrection and Life

This Sunday at ElmCreek Community Church we will be looking at John 5:25-29.  In this passage Jesus explains that life is found in Him alone, for He is God and Judge of everyone.  But this life is not just something that all believers can look forward to.  It is life that can be experienced now.  And once this life is experienced there is no denying its reality for the believer.

Kent Hughes tells the following story:

“Years ago the great G. Campbell Morgan was preaching in Tennessee.  During the sermon he stated, ‘By no means can every Christian remember the time when he was born again.’  At the end of the sermon someone challenged his statement.  Morgan turned to him and asked the man, ‘Are you alive?’  The man said, ‘Why of course I am!’  Morgan said, ‘Do you remember when you were born?’  The man said, ‘No, but I know I am living.’  Morgan replied, ‘Exactly.  Some Christians may not remember the moment of their new birth.  But they are spiritually alive and know it and that is what counts.’  You can know you have eternal life.  When the dead hear the voice of Christ, they enter into that relationship of life.” 

Join us this week at ElmCreek Community Church as together we give worship and praise to Jesus, the giver of life.

Striving to know Christ and make Him known,

Mark

J.C. Ryle on the Importance of What We Think of Christ

"What do you think of Christ?  Is He great or little in your eyes? Does He come first or second in your estimation? Is He before or behind His church, His ministers, His sacraments, His ordinances?  Where is He in your heart and your mind's eye?

"After all, this is the question of questions!  Pardon, peace, rest of conscience, hope in death, heaven itself - all hinge upon our answer.  To know Christ is life eternal.  To be without Christ is to be without God.  'He that has the Son has life, and he that has not the Son of God has not life' (1 John 5:12).  The friends of purely secular education, the enthusiastic advocates of reform and progress, the worshipers of reason and intellect and mind and science, may say what they please, and do all they can to mend the world.  But they will find their labor is in vain if they do not make allowance of the Fall of man, if there is no place for Christ in their schemes.  There is a sore disease at the heart of mankind, which will baffle all their efforts and defeat all their plans, and that disease is sin.  Oh, that people would only see and recognize the corruption of human nature, and the uselessness of all efforts to improve man which are not based not the remedial system of the gospel!  Yes, the plague of sin is in the world, and no waters will ever heal that plague except those which flow from the fountain for all sin - a crucified Christ" (J.C. Ryle, Holiness).

J.C. Ryle on Our View of Ourselves

"What do you think of yourself? What Paul thought of himself you have seen and heard. Now, what are your thoughts about yourself? Have you found out that grand foundational truth that you are a sinner, a guilty sinner in the sight of God?

"The cry for more education in this day is loud and incessant. Ignorance is universally deplored. But, you may depend, there is not ignorance so common and so mischievous as ignorance or ourselves. Yes, men may know all arts and sciences and languages, and political economy and statecraft, and yet be miserably ignorant of their own hearts and their own state before God.

"Be very sure that self-knowledge is the first step towards heaven. To know God's unspeakable perfection, and our own immense imperfection, to see our own unspeakable defectiveness and corruption, is the ABC in saving religion. The more real inward light we have, the more humble and lowly-minded we shall be, and the more we shall understand the value of that despised thing, the gospel of Christ. He that think worst of himself and his own doings is perhaps the best Christian before God. Well would it be of many if they would pray, night and day, this simple prayer: 'Lord, show me myself'" (J.C. Ryle, Holiness).

The Power of Jesus Over Sin

“Lord Kenneth Clark, internationally know for his television series Civilization, lived and died without faith in Jesus Christ. He admitted in his autobiography that while visiting a beautiful church he had what he believed to be an overwhelming religious experience. ‘My whole being,’ Clark wrote, ‘was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy far more intense than anything I had known before.’ But the ‘gloom of grace,’ as he described it, created a problem. If he allowed himself to be influenced by it, he knew he would have to change, his family might think he had lost his mind, and maybe that intense joy would prove to be an illusion. So he concluded, ‘I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course.’ (Our Daily Bread, February 15, 1994.)”

Lord Clark waited too long.  He didn’t heed the words of Christ, “Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”  In Lord Clark’s case, the “worse” was eternal separation from God’s presence.

Join us this week at ElmCreek Community Church as we read the words of John 5:1-15 and witness the power of Christ over sin.  May we prayerfully be prepared to encounter His Truth found in His Word.

Striving to know Christ and make Him known,

Pastor Mark

Seeking Jesus on His Terms

What does faith look like?  How does that faith begin?  What catalyst begins that journey of faith?  How can we know our faith is genuine?  What does Jesus say about genuine faith?  What is the object of our faith?

As I studied John 4:43-54 these are the questions that continued to run through my mind.  The question of genuine faith is not a subject new to us in the book of John.  After cleansing the temple and doing more signs and wonders in the presence of others, many came to believe in his name (John 2).  But Jesus would not entrust himself to them because he knew their hearts.  Their faith was not genuine.  So, can one believe without believing?  Can genuine, prolonged faith rest upon the miraculous?

 

Heed the words of Oswald Chambers:

“Faith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love. There are some things only learned in a fiery furnace” (Oswald Chambers in Run Today's Race).

Join us this week as we once again look at a great sign of Jesus, the healing of a boy from miles away.  May the Word of God and the Spirit of God speak to each of us, growing us in our faith, and prepare us for His call for our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Striving to know Christ and make Him known,

Pastor Mark

You Will Never Be Thirsty Again

Have you ever been thirsty?  I mean dry tongue, cottonmouth thirsty?  While in college I spent seven days hiking part of the Appalachian Trail with my mother and sister.  Water for the whole trip could not be packed in with us so we brought one small water filter that had to be pumped by hand.  The water we used came from small streams found along the trail.  One particularly rainy day we ran out of water sooner than expected and the nearest stream was still hours away.  I became so thirsty that I resorted to drinking rainwater that had collected in little holes on boulders we passed.  When we arrived at our campsite for the night we still needed to hike another mile to fill up our bottles at the nearest stream.  The agony of extreme dry mouth with water falling all around you that you are not able to drink and still having to wait for clean water that must be pumped by hand through a very small filter, was overwhelming.  But the feel and taste of clean, cold water running down your throat and quenching your thirst is unexplainable.  One has to go through such a scenario to truly understand its impact.

The Samaritan woman who meets Jesus has no idea her life will be completely changed.  She comes to the well because of her physical thirst, but little does she know Jesus will talk directly to her spiritual thirst.  She does not realize the dryness of her soul and the need for true refreshment at the feet of the Messiah.  She will never be thirsty again.

Join us this week as we study John 4:1-15 together as His people and hear the truth that Jesus gives us living water that quenches our soul’s thirst.  May we be prepared to encounter the gospel message through the words of Christ.

Striving to know Christ and make Him known,

Pastor Mark