Tag: New Birth

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Fence Post Devotionals “The Gospel of John Cowboy Style”

Waterfall, Idaho

Living Well of Water 

“Jesus wanted her to understand. ‘Folks who drink this water will get thirsty again and again,’ He said. “The water I give has nothin’ to do with this well. Anyone who drinks My water will never have to be thirsty again in his soul, like you are right now. Ya see, the water I give will be like an everlastin’ spring that will take you right on through this life and the next” John 4:13-14 (The Gospel of John Cowboy Style). 

Have you ever seen an artesian water well? Years ago, in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, I saw what my kin folks explained was an artesian well. What I saw was water bubbling up and flowing through the crevices of a rock. And from that life-giving flow my Arkansas relatives obtained all the water supply they needed to maintain their daily activities.  

What John described in the fourth chapter of John was not an artesian well, but rather a hand-dug well. In fact, it was historically famous, having been dug centuries earlier by the Hebrew patriarch Jacob.  And through the years Jabob’s well faithfully supplied water for the region; particularly now for Sychar, a little Samaritan village that was close by the well.  

The story’s focus in the fourth chapter of John centers around that well. Scripture says that Jesus, after a journey, had set there to rest. He was alone, having sent His disciples into town to buy lunch. It was then that a woman, the Woman of Samaria, had come to draw water.  

At this ancient well, about noon, a conversation begins; a conversation just between the two of them: the woman of Samaria, an outcast of the village and Jesus, the sinless Son of God. One cannot imagine a more profound difference between two people, but perhaps that is the very reason Jesus is here, at this place to visit with this very woman and this very particular time.  

The subject of the conversation begins with water. After all, they are at a water well, and it is the water in that well that comes immediately to her mind when Jesus asks for a drink. But Jesus has a different source in mind when He promises water that will forever and eternally satisfy her thirst: “If you knew . . . who it is who ways to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10).  

Water in the Bible is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was not talking about ordinary water, like that which could be drawn from Jacob’s Well. Rather, He was speaking about a living well of water drawn from the very heart of Almighty God.  

Ordinary water may satisfy for the moment, but the living water of God fills up our souls from the continuous flow that never ends. Like an artesian well, God’s abundant flow of abundant and abiding life will satisfy our needs now and forever throughout all eternity.  

That “Living water” satisfied the deep needs of the Samaritan Woman and eventually because of her testimony every soul in the village of Sychar as well. And it will satisfy your needs, too.  

Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). 

Are you thirsty? Come to Jesus and He will give you “Living Water” 

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Fence Post Devotionals “The Gospel of John Cowboy Style”

Mystery of the Wind

“Just like the wind blows where it wants to and you hear the sound of it, but have no understandin’ of where it comes from or where it’s goin’; same is true for the birthin’ by the Holy Spirit of God” John 3:8 (“The Gospel of John Cowboy Style”).

I grew up on the plains of West Texas, near Amarillo, so I know something about wind. It is a rare day in the Panhandle of Texas when the wind doesn’t blow. It’s kind’a like when an Easterner traveling through a West Texas town asked a resident, “Does the wind always  blow this way?” He answered, “Nah! Sometimes it blows from the other way.”

As a kid, I always wondered what made the wind blow? Oh, yeah, I now know there are physical and meteorological reasons like high and low pressures. But still, wind remains something of a mystery.

Perhaps that’s something of what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus when he was visiting with him about the mystery of salvation. Jesus used the example of wind. Wind cannot be seen, but the effects of it can. In fact, that is the only way to know the presence of wind; we only know it by its effects, by feeling it and by seeing the results of it.

Jesus explained to Nicodemus that for someone to see the Kingdom of God, he must be “born again.” He goes on to say, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” knowing that someone is “born of the flesh,” is no problem. It is evidenced by personal presence.

The same is true of the spirit. We may not know how the Spirit works, nor can we fully comprehend the mystery of the new birth, but we can see the effect of the Spirit and new birth in human lives.

We can point to a man or woman who has been re-made, re-created and re-born by the power and the effect by the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. We can say of that man or woman that “they are a changed person; there is something different about them; they don’t act like they used to.” That is the effectual change of “being born again.”

A preacher from the past used to tell of a workman, who had been a drunken scoundrel and who one day miraculously got saved. His workmates began to ridicule and make fun of him. “Surely,” they would say to him, “you don’t really believe in miracles, do you? You don’t really believe that thing about Jesus turning water into wine?”  The man answered, “I don’t know about Jesus turning water into wine, but I do know that He turned beer and whiskey into food and clothing for my family.”

The Apostle Paul says it like this . . .

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

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Lost and Found ~ Never to be Lost Again!

“No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” John 10:28-29.

Have you ever lost something valuable? Something irreplaceable? And search as you will, you cannot find it?

Well, that has happened to me; I lost my wedding ring and search as much as I can, I cannot find it.

You see, I pulled my work gloves off and pitched them aside. A few minutes later, I noticed that my wedding band was missing. Apparently it slipped off my finger when I jerked my gloves off. Of course, I immediately started looking, searching and combing through grass and gravel, places when I thought it could have dropped. I searched and looked for hours. Others joined the search, but all to no avail. Next move, bring in a metal detector.

It came to mind while searching that even as valuable as that ring is, there is something in my possession that is more valuable and that is, my eternal Continue reading “Lost and Found ~ Never to be Lost Again!”