June 7

Jeremiah 2
Living in the USA, we know very little of the tragedy of the lack of clean water. Most of walk to our kitchen or bathroom and with the turning of a knob we have all the clean water we desire at a temperature of our choosing. We know little of having to store water or boil it in order to drink it. Cisterns in some places in the world are common needs. While in Kenya in 1975, I helped rebuild a house so that some nurses could move in and start a dispensary. It was at Mucaa, a remote village in the mountains in the south. Kilimanjaro was sometimes visible way off in the distance. Because of its remote location, there was no water system. The house used gutters to feed the rain runoff into a giant cistern. We received our water from the cistern. But even with the cistern, we still had to filter and boil our water before using it. In contrast, in south central Oklahoma, in the Chickasaw National Recreation area, there are a number of springs that boil up out of the ground on their own. They produce thousands of gallons per minute of clean clear cold water. The water is extremely refreshing. If had the choice of drinking from a mud puddle, a cistern, or spring of clean clear cold water, guess which one I would choose.
Here in Jeremiah our Lord describes Himself as a fountain of living water. In the Gospels Jesus beckons us to come and drink freely from Him and to allow His well of water to spring up through us into eternal life. This is eternal life: that we might know the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. In Jeremiah the Lord describes His people as having rejected His living fountain and having gone to build their own cisterns. Not only had the built their own cisterns, but they were cisterns that could not hold water. They were reduced to mud puddles. When they were reduced to mud puddles, they then pursued other sources such as Egypt or Babylon. Why do we forget the great fountain of living waters and pursue other things that never could and never will satisfy? What an insult that is to our Lord! Only He can satisfy our thirsty souls! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john