The Well

“We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God. You've probably heard the expression 'I believe in God, just not organized religion'. I don't think people would say that if the church truly lived like we are called to live.” ― Francis Chan

I just started reading The Well: Why are so many thirsty by Mark Hall, (Thank you Melanie Stubbs.)  I'm only on page 27, I am such a slow reader, I have yet to get through a page without crying, which also slows me down a bit. :)

It begins by talking about the Woman at the Well.

My heart has been still before the Lord over the last few days. I feel weird not writing lately but this is where my heart is resting. In the Challenge and in the story of the Woman at the Well.  I have the entire passage right here. The entire Word of GOD is like medicine to the heart! So if you would take off your wisdom gained from years in church or if this is your first time reading it, put down your to-do list's and I ask you to read it fresh with me, with no preconceived notions or in a hurry.
May GOD speak loudly to your heart through this passage!

John 4:1-42
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.  And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?"
( For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."
 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."
The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things."
Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am HE."
 
 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" They went out of the town and were coming to him.
 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?"
 
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say,
'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.
Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."
 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of HIS word. They said to the woman,
"It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and
we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world."

Every word written in John chapter 4 leaps off that page and is like fire to my soul. Oh, LORD that YOU would fill me with YOUR Well. That my life will draw thirsty souls to YOU! May Your presence in my life be so loud that YOUR Holy Spirit draws the thirsty to the Well!
Here I am LORD send, me! Not my will though Lord, but YOURS be done.

 Lord, I want that to be me! Lord, fill me with YOUR Holy Well. May others see You pouring so loudly from my life that thirsty souls will feel you through me. Lord remove me from my grasp. God may YOUR Well pour out of my life.

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The Hiding Place

Do you hide behind "Religion"?

I know I used to, and I still have to catch myself when I throw up my religious defenses. 

I grew up in church and in the bible belt so my entire life I've learned alot of truths, a bunch of theology and if you asked me most any question I could spit back a "religious argument." 

In John 4 Christ approaches the Woman at the Well. (Oh there's so much good stuff in this story and this passage has been brought to mind so much lately I am sure that we will get into it more later.) 

What I find most interesting, today, about this story is Christ came before a broken, messed up, used up woman, telling her things about herself only she could know - you know like when the Holy Spirit is deeply convicting you. 

Can you imagine?- well, for the sake of argument, put your defenses down for a second, put yourself in the place of the Woman at the Well. You're face to face with Christ. Who knows you deeper than you know yourself. What do you see?

....Take a Moment...

...If you put your guard down- Woo, scary right?!?! What does He say to you?

I see Him as a loving father lifting the chin of His child, looking at the child with a deep, deep love and being broken over where that child has been. Broken over the choices that child has made, broken over the burdens that child is carrying on their own shoulders. When Christ has clearly laid out the Best Life before you. 
He's been broken so that HE can carry that burden but the child keeps struggling to do it on their own. 
He died for you so that you can know Him and be shown how to live abundantly TODAY.  However, you can't quit trusting the voices around you. The voices telling you: "You can't live up to His standards."
(Friend, He doesn't want you to.  The Life He calls you to live is a life in Him. When you pursue Him, He sluffs off the junk.)
The Voices telling you all the things of the world that you should chase, things that are calling your attention away from Him.
Maybe that's not what you see, but it's what I've seen.

When Christ approached the "Samaritan Woman at the Well" John 4 and was feeding her with the TRUTH as soon as she said "OUCH", because His words spoke deep, she pulled up her religious defenses.

vs. 19-20
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

She pulled out her theological arguments! Have you done that? I know I have. Have you ever arrogantly thought you knew all there is to know about the Bible and God and were so busy bouncing back and forth theological debates that you completely ignored the voice of Christ working to penetrate the deepest areas of your soul? -in the words of my daughter -"That's Me!" I have! Guilty right here, for years. 

It's a quick safety net or defense. Wanna hear what Christ said in response? Cracks me up.

vs.21
 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “Believe Me", a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

Can you imagine. How funny is that. You're about to argue theology with the Creator. Haha! Jesus said, "WOMAN, BELIEVE ME."

You're trusting in your arguments made up by religious people. They mean nothing!
Follow ME! "I! The ONE you are arguing over is standing in front of you and you're going to try and argue with Me about- ME?!?!

John 10:26-28
but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Do you know your Masters voice? You can.

Deuteronomy 4:29-31(ESV)
But if from there you
seek the LORD your God, you will find Him
if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you,
then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey Him. For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you...

I challenge you today to throw down your "knowledge". Seek Christ and He will teach you all the things you need to know!

Don't Forget
Enter the Beautiful GiveAway!

Aaron Keyes - Not Guilty Anymore

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His Clay~

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Grace in a Coffee Pot

This is a conversation that I get into often so I'm going to write it out. 

If you were asked to describe sin most people answer:

• Things you do that are wrong
• or
• When you do something that God has commanded us not to do.
• or
• I will get a list of different things people may view as sins.

Not that any of the above is incorrect but it's very broad and for 18 years of my life I viewed God as a Big God in Heaven who was sitting up there just waiting for us to screw up so that He could critically jot it down and hold it against us. You do something good, you get on His good side. You do something bad, you get on His bad side. Also, I viewed sins as if they had categories: Big Sins and little sins. 

Big Sins: adultery, Perpetual Stealing, murder, drugs, drinking, perpetual lying, a perpetual thief.

Little Sins: Lying, Cheating, Stealing, disobeying parents etc., etc.

Needless to say my view was ridiculously different from the truth. 

For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. (Romans 3:23 NIV)

Everyone is a sinner. Everyone has fallen short. We're All in need of a savior. "Big Sin" or "Little Sin" they all separate us from God.

I also used to look at it as a "To-Do List Unto Salvation".  Even though in my mind I would tell you that you couldn't earn your salvation, I still felt the need to walk a tight rope to keep from messing up and losing His favor. 

 

Here is a list of the "To-Do's or "Not To's" that were harped on when I was a Teen and I thought they made me a "better Christian" if I didn't do them. 

Not To:

Sex outside of Marriage

Drugs

Drinking

Sneaking Out

Lying to Parents

Skipping Church

Disrespecting Authority

Not that those things aren't wrong, but not doing them out of fear that you might get on God's bad side or because it gives you a sense of entitlement over other "Christians" who do mess up, is very wrong! 

If following those guidelines gives you a way to feel better about yourself or "at least I didn't do that, God. You must be pretty proud of me."  That is a completely perverse way of viewing sin.

#1: We are NEVER to compare ourselves with others. The "at least I didn't...." We are to compare ourselves ONLY to Christ!  In doing so you will Always Remain Humble.

God does not have a list of rules and regulations in order to keep us hopping and jumping through loop holes to keep from sinning, just so He can laugh and condemn whenever we screw up! He created us! He Loves us, we are screwed up vessels period. Nothing I can do in my own power can change that. Only the grace of God coming into my life and changing my heart can have any power over me.

Think about it this way...

As a wedding present someone bought me this brand new coffee maker and kitchen cleaner all in one. I mean this machine can do everything from making the best pot of coffee, to washing my dishes and scrubbing the floor. It's a brilliant machine.

But when I receive the present I take it out of the box and..."what's this?"  I can't think of a good use for it or a place to put it so I decide to use it as a paper weight on my desk, and sometimes I bang it on the table and open walnuts with it.  I never bothered to read the instruction manual.

My friend who gave it to me comes by a few years later and asks about the machine. I shamefully show her how scratched and marred it is because I didn't know what to do with it. She cleans it up and gets it back to brand new.  Then she shows me the instruction manual.  I'm blown away at all the different functions and uses.

...............................

I know that's a silly analogy but that's how the bible is. Our Creator wrote it.  In it He shows us how we are designed and how we will best function. He also says we are vessels created to worship. Created to bring Him Glory. When our lives are lived in submission to His will, that is our act of worship and that is how we function best.  He also tells us that if our vessels choose to do things which pull us away from Him, we will be miserable. 

When I came to that reality, and I understood Grace and how He took this marred, poorly used, forsaken vessel and cleaned it up; after I did all I could to destroy it, I can no longer look at another person who is in sin with a critical eye.  I now have a truly broken heart. I Desperately want them to know the joy of being made NEW!  I desperately want them to know "yeah, you're screwed up, but you have a Creator that wants to make you new!  You have a creator who desperately wants to clean you up and give you the life you were created to have!" 

John 8 NIV

¹ but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

   ² At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. ³ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴ and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” ⁶ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
   But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷ When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
   ⁹ At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰ Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
   ¹¹ “No one, sir,” she said.

   “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Oh my Jesus is full of compassion and mercy! You can't out sin His grace!  When everyone around her was ready to kill her for her offenses - Christ, God in the flesh, had compassion, mercy and forgave her!  Even if you feel no one loves you. No one cares, no one can forgive what you've done. "If they only knew where you've been."  God already knows. He was there! He's the Only One you need forgiveness from. The rest will follow by His grace!

To fellow believers who have found themselves with the same ideology as above please take heart to the following verse.

Colossians 3:12-13 (NIV)

 ¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

We will not see change around us until we are willing to change ourselves!

His Clay,

Melissa Bradley