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Healthy Homes & Families Natural, Biblical, Healthy Living WisconsinChristianNews.com
Volume 25, Issue 2
Streams of Living Water in a Thirsty World By Chris McMahan May 2024 If you are water, do you spend any time trying to get wet? already saturated our lives...now we must go and share this life-giving water with those whose lives are still dry. God did not create us to spend our earthly
The account of the woman at the well gives us one answer to this. Many scholars be- lieve that her name was Phoetini and that through her outpouring of evangelism she brought more to Christ than the dis- ciples.
This might seem a very peculiar question to you, but obviously water was not created to seek
Phoetini was at the well trying to get her water for the day. She was dry – spiritually and literally. Jesus offers her eternal, living water and her life is changed forever. She did not spend the rest of her days seek- ing another encounter with Jesus. What did she do? She left her former vessel, not needed to carry her new “living” water, and she went into town and began to pour out her tes- timony to the people. The Bible tells us that many were saved because of it (John 4:39). She didn’t go to 8 weeks of evan- gelism training. She didn’t wait until she was an “experienced” Christian. She didn’t even preach the cross
moisture, but rather to BE moisture. John 7:38, “Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John 4:14 (English Standard Ver- sion) “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Before we received salvation, our lives were dry and dead. (Ephesians 2:1-6). After salvation, we don’t just get wet with living water...we BE- COME living water. Our very nature is changed from a dry desert to a liv- ing spring that bursts forth from within us. So now let me ask you the peculiar ques- tion again...if you are water, do you spend time trying to get wet? I look around and I see many, many Christians whose greatest desire is to live in the overflow of God. This sounds fine on the surface, and I have even found myself in this position from time to time. We go from event to event, seeking the tangible pres- ence of God. We want to feel and experience God for ourselves. We ask Him to pour out His goodness over us, to bless us and lavish us with all things spiritual and literal, to act in our circumstances and change the world around us. We seek to live in the overflow of God. We want what God has to offer. Friends, we must not solely seek to live in God’s overflow, but to BE His overflow. We are now streams of living water...we do not need to try to get wet. The Holy Spirit has
lives seeking heavenly vibes. He created us to receive all Heaven has to offer and to go and pour that out into the lives of others. Ephesians 3:20 (ESV) starts off by say- ing... “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think...” And we take that verse and we talk to God and say, “God, I know you can pour out Your grace and affect my circumstances. I know You can bless my finances. I know You can do so much more than I can even think to ask You to do for me.” And we fail to read the last half of the verse which says... “ac- cording to the power at work IN US.” We ask God to overflow into our lives, when He wants to overflow THROUGH our lives. So let’s get practical for a minute...what does this look like exactly? How do we be- come the overflow of Christ into the lives of others?
and Christ crucified, because that hadn’t happened yet. She simply told others about what Jesus had done for her. And in doing so, she became the overflow of Christ. What He had poured into her, an endless source of living water, she immediately began to pour out to others. Brothers and sisters, do you believe that Jesus wants to do for others what He has done for you? Tell them! As we seek to be the overflow of Christ’s love to a dry, dead and hurting world, we will find that it is ac- tually the secret to living in His overflow. Chris McMahan, ‘Tea-vangelist’ Tea4Jesus.com Email: Happy1970@icloud.com Please email me if you would like to receive monthly ministry updates.
This is What I’ve Learne d ...
... From A Butcher’s Steel!
By Layton Howerton May 2024 Old King Solomon said, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.”
the correct angle is critical to sharpening anybody’s blade, or any kind of blade. So the next time you feel the need to “sharpen somebody up,” remember this, 1st Peter 3, says, “Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be hum- ble. That goes for all of you, no ex- ceptions. No retaliation. No sharp tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless — that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a bless- ing.” (The Message). And that’s how this old parson would encouragingly say, “A friend sharpens a friend”…along the way!
Forty some years ago back in college, I worked in a butcher shop cutting meat, to pay my bills as a young married man. And in that butcher shop we used a tool called a “steel,” to sharpen the blades of the knives that we would cut meat with...to a razor sharp edge. So, I know as Solomon said, “we use iron to sharpen iron.”
But as a pastor, I’ve heard this verse used in a lot of different ways over the years, coming out of the mouths of folks who really weren’t interested in sharpening anything, but actually just dulling things up. Because they didn’t understand that
you have to have the right angle — not only on a knife when sharpening it on a butcher’s steel, but also with our brothers and sisters in Christ, whenever we’re feeling called, to sharpen them up as well. Because
* “Highlights with Layton Howerton” is a national Christian radio feature, that airs weekly on Christian Radio networks across the country, from coast to coast!
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