Not too long ago, having a glass of water was a simple choice. It was simple, you filled your glass with ice and then you either got the water from the kitchen faucet or you poured the water into your glass from a pitcher taken out of the refrigerator. Now fast forward to today. The available choices of water are almost endless. We can still drink tap water, but we also have bottled water. And not just bottled water, but how about artesian, distilled, mineral, purified, sparkling, filtered, spring, or flavored. Even some restaurants now ask what “type” of water you would like to drink.         

The discussion of which type of water is best for our health is not a new debate. The Bible talks about receiving nourishment for our body and souls by drinking water. Not just any water, but water that Scripture calls “living water.” The Bible calls God the fountain of life (Psalm 36:8-9), the source of life. And Jesus tells us that He is our spring of water, the sustainer of life. (John 4:10-14; 7:37-39). The apostle Paul tells us that among other things, Jesus is the glue that holds all things together (Colossians 1:15-19). 

Let’s turn to a verse of scripture from Jeremiah 2:13, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

Water was a rare luxury in ancient days, and water from an underground spring, a never-ending source, was to be cherished. On the other hand, cisterns only hold rain water. At best, they store stagnant water; and at worst, they are cracked and the water seeps back into the ground. So the verse we just looked at tells us that the nation of Judah rejected God, they looked away from the “spring of living water” and by doing so they looked elsewhere for water (life), as this verse says, “they dug their own cisterns.” 

Isn’t that also true of us? We often look to a broken and leaky cistern to meet our daily needs, or in other words, to find sustenance, to find life. And if that one doesn’t work, we look for another broken and leaky cistern. And when that cistern runs dry, we move to the next one, on and on.

In John 7:37, Jesus invites “anyone who is thirsty to come to Me and drink.” And near the end of the Bible, in Revelation 22:17, we are invited to “drink freely from the water of life.”  

Today, when you are physically thirsty, get yourself a glass of cold water and drink from it. And when your soul is thirsty, I want to encourage you to draw from Jesus, your source of living water, and drink and drink and drink from His endless cool and refreshing spring. It is there that you will find lasting and fulfilling nourishment. Ask God to show you where you are searching for nourishment apart from Him.

We are an artificial society. Not only do we pretend in our relationships, always putting on our Sunday best to hide our flaws, we see artificial things all around us. Think about that little ceramic dish on most restaurant tables. What does it contain? Various colored packets of artificial sweeteners, all intended to replace sugar. Before pictures were on driver’s licenses, many young people had fake identification cards, so I’m told, hoping to be allowed to buy or consume alcohol before they reached the legal drinking age. The science of artificial intelligence has grown exponentially as computers are now capable of performing complex tasks that once required human (natural) intelligence to perform. And these days we seemingly have two kinds of news – real and fake.

Have you heard of meat analogue? It is just a fancy name for meat substitutes (fake meat) made from plants. To be transparent, due to my cancer, I am finding myself eating more of these plant-based products, and I do find many of them quite delicious.

So, what is artificial? It can be best defined something like this – made to imitate what is natural; actions or attitudes that are insincere and disingenuous. While artificial is not always bad, it is usually marketed as “better than the original.” Rarely though is artificial better than what is natural, genuine, or original. Easier maybe, but rarely better. More visually appealing, possibly, but better, that is debatable.

Not only do we live in an artificial society, we are sometimes artificial people. It is human nature to want to look good to those around us. While we once only saw ourselves briefly in the mirror, while brushing our teeth or washing our hands, we now stare at ourselves for hours on end while in virtual meetings, and based upon the boom in cosmetic surgeries, many people do not like who they see. Somehow, looking better is equated with feeling better. Usually however just an artificial and temporary feeling better because nothing of substance has really changed.

[Cosmetic surgery, focused solely on enhancing appearance, is vastly different from plastic surgery that focuses on repairing dysfunction or reconstructing defects caused by birth disorders, trauma, burns, or disease. Cosmetic surgery is simply for aesthetic purposes while plastic surgery is reconstructive in nature.]

We are artificial in that our outward appearance doesn’t always line up with our inner reality. Think back to when you asked someone out on a date for the first time. Did you “say and do all the right things,” even artificial things, in order to get that person to say yes? Just look on social media. By what gets posted, everyone’s life appears to always be better than yours. You can wash your clothes, hang them over the line to air dry, but if you put them back on over your dirty body, they don’t stay clean for very long.   

While we can often easily clean ourselves up on the outside, we cannot, due to our sinful nature, on our own, clean ourselves up on inside. Only God can do that. (Click here to read more.) We can play a part in cleaning ourselves up by the choices we make, but the power to change comes only from having a relationship with God. King David knew this to be true. After his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and his ordering the murder of her husband was exposed by a prophet name Nathan, here is what David cried out, found in Psalm 51:10 – “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me.”

Today, are you desiring to stop being artificial? If so, like King David, cry out to God, asking for a clean heart, one that leads to a right spirit in you. There is nothing fake or artificial about that!   

This is the time of year when many people engage in what is commonly called “spring cleaning.” Garages are swept out, decks are power washed, and windows get cleaned. The longer hours of daylight allow for us to freshen up flower beds, removing the leaves and debris that accumulated in them over the winter, getting them ready for the planting of new flowers. We had our lawn reseeded last fall and on Saturday I raked up some of the remaining straw that did not biodegrade during the winter months. Believe it or not, I enjoy doing (most) yard work.

Dandelions are sprayed with weed killer, but tomorrow ten more appear. Did you know that technically dandelions are not weeds, they are part of the aster family of flowering plants (think zinnias, sunflowers, marigolds). And did you also know that dandelions produce seeds without pollination, thus the offspring plant is genetically identical to its parent plant; a process known as apomixis. So, how many dandelions does it take to eventually cover your entire yard? The answer: just one.

We don’t just spring clean outside; we also do the same inside our homes. Winter clothes are replaced in closets by warm weather clothes, windows are cleaned, and the boxed-up Christmas decorations that have been sitting in the spare bedroom are finally put away in the attic. You might even have a garage sale or donate items to a local charity.

And not only do we need to do spring cleaning to our homes and yards, it is a good idea to look in the mirror and spring clean those areas in our lives that have gotten neglected, cluttered, avoided, abused, unbalanced, or put in a box but never really put away. What I am saying is that life for most of us is hectic and occasionally out of control. We are in seemingly always in survival mode, frequently causing us to fail taking care of the things that are important, both our inside and outside our home as well within ourselves. This is a good time to take inventory of your life and make changes where they might be needed. Some of those changes will be easy and quick, other might take longer periods of time, maybe even being painful.

The Bible gives us a roadmap to a better tomorrow. That roadmap begins and ends with asking God to make you more like Him. Psalm 139 begins with David acknowledging that God has examined his heart, and that He knows everything about David. In fact, nothing about David or his life is hidden from God. We read in Psalm 139:1-4 – “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you Lord, know it completely.”  

The psalm ends with David’s prayer for God to examine him and point out what needs spring cleaned. In verses 23-24 we see these words – “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” 

What areas do you need “spring cleaned” or maybe totally jettisoned like the solid rocket boosters from a spaceship after liftoff? God is ready to help you spring clean your life. Ask Him today to not only examine your life, but also your soul, and then with His help get to work on spring cleaning.

We all like those places of safety. As a child, the first place you probably wanted to run to when you were afraid was into your parent’s arms. Those big arms wrapped around you offered a safe haven in the face of fear. As a young boy, my friends and I built hideouts out of plywood, dirt and tree branches, and without the secret password nobody could enter our fort. We were safe from the neighborhood girls.

Most of us today consider our house a safe place. The metal, wood, brick, concrete, stone, and asphalt offer us a measure of safety that isn’t found in hideouts made by boys. We can regulate the thermostat to a comfortable temperature while outdoors it could be 100 degrees or below freezing. We are told that the safest place during extreme weather events such as tornadoes and hurricanes is in the basement or an interior room without windows. Not only do our homes provide protection, most of us agree with Dorothy Gale, “There’s no place like home.”

But, while our homes do provide us with some measure of safety and security, we also know that they need regular upkeep and maintenance, along with the occasional major repair, in order to not become dilapidated and unsafe. Even with proper upkeep, our homes at times let us down, they fail to be safe places. Have you ever seen a tree fall on a house? Did the roof or the tree win?     

On the contrary, in Jesus we have a safe place that will never let us down. The Bible calls Jesus our dwelling place, our safe shelter. Psalm 118:8 tells us, “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in humans.” Psalm 91 is a beautiful testimony to the security we have when we trust in God. I encourage you to read this psalm in its entirety; today I offer you just four verses:

“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust’” (vv. 1-2).

[In these two verses we see four different names for God – Elyon (Most High), El Shaddai (Almighty), YHWH/Yahweh/Jehovah (LORD), and Elohim (my God, plural: Father, Son, Holy Spirit). These names reveal to us that (1) God is elevated above all else, the sovereign ruler, (2) He is the all-powerful One, our sufficiency, (3) YHWH is God’s personal name, the self-existent One, first revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3, and (4) that He is the Creator, found in Genesis 1:1.]

“If you say, ‘The LORD is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overcome you, no disaster will come near your tent” (vv.9-10).

To be clear, those verses do not say that bad things will never happen (read John 16:33), but rather, they do say that Jesus is your safe haven in both good times and in bad times.

I will end with these hopeful words, found in Psalm 46:1-3 – “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”  

So, I ask you today, where are you putting your trust – in the dilapidating things of man or in the safe and secure shelter of the Most High?

We all know people who always seem to be in a rush. They run from thing to thing, as the saying goes, like a chicken with its head chopped off. Did you ever wonder where that saying originated? After a chicken is decapitated, the adrenaline in its muscle tissue briefly causes the chicken to convulse, thereby the bird flaps its wings wildly, giving it the appearance of running around. We use that statement today to describe someone who is in a frenzied state.

How about the person who never appears to be in a hurry? They are the person who is always late to the party, the person who drives ten miles per hour under the speed limit, and that person you want to light a fire under to get them to move faster.

We are a society that no longer wants to wait for anything. We have no patience for waiting.

At the 1933 World’s Fair, Westinghouse introduced a shortwave radio transmitter than cooked food between two metal plates. Thirteen years later, Raytheon unveiled something called the microwave oven. However, it wasn’t until the late 1960s that this appliance became affordable to the general public, allowing households to dramatically reduce the time it took to heat food and water. Now today, for many of us, that two minutes it takes to pop popcorn seems like an eternity. Think about how we communicate with people these days. With emerging technology and the many social media platforms, communication that used to take days if not weeks is now immediate. And be honest, most of the time we have no patience for slow replies.  

That same philosophy of “I want it now” carries over into our view of how God operates. When we ask Him for something, we want it right now. For example, if you are unemployed and you are looking for a job, most likely each morning you pray for God to help you in your job search. For many, what that really means is “God, help me get a job right now!” That is not a bad request, but at least for me, when my “I want it now” timetable isn’t immediately met by God, I get upset and frustrated. Maybe you do too. If you are honest, whatever it is that you have been praying for and the days or weeks or months have gone by, you begin to wonder where God is and why He seems to be taking His good old time.

God is never early. He is never late. God is not constrained by the time limits we tend to put on Him. In 2 Peter 3:8 we read this, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” We see things through finite eyes; God sees things through infinite eyes. God sees the whole of life; we on the other hand, have very limited vision. Two things grow us in our faith, and neither are places we enjoy residing. Those two things are pain and waiting, and often they go hand in hand. Ecclesiastes 8:6 gives us this warning, “For there is proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery.”

I am not minimizing the struggles you might be experiencing today. Many of you are facing real hardships and time seems to be running out. He keeps His promises and He always shows up. Maybe not how or when you expect, but He does always show up. What I want you to hear is that God is with you in your struggles. He is instructing you to wait for strength (Isaiah 40:31), wait for direction (Proverbs 3:5-6), and wait for provision (Psalm 62:5).

So today, “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage, for the LORD” (Psalm 27:14).

Now that the weather is turning warmer and the sun sets later in the evening, picture yourself sitting on your back porch on a nice spring evening enjoying a glass of wine while listening to the birds sing, the breeze gently whistling through the leaves, and the clapboards on the old barn down the lane creaking. It is lovely and relaxing evening. Suddenly everything goes quiet. It gets eerily calm; the birds stop singing, the leaves are no longer rustling, and the clapboards hang silently. Lightning flashes in the sky. Soon a storm does appear on the horizon, dumping buckets on rain on what was just a few minutes ago a nice peaceful evening.

The atmosphere does truly change before a storm. Storm clouds pull in warm moist air from all around as the storm builds. This air travels up through the clouds and then back down again. On the way down this air becomes warmer and drier, and as warm stable air spreads over an area it makes the rest of the air stable as well, thus the “calm before the storm.”

This calmness, this stillness, often brings us a period of tranquility, a sense of peace. There is peace in stillness. The Bible talks of us finding peace in our moments of stillness. Your body needs down time to rest and re-charge, and your soul needs times of silence and quietness, a time to quiet all other sounds, in order to hear God’s voice. God sometimes speaks in loud tones, but most often He speaks to us in gentle whispers (see 1 Kings 19:9-12).

In a world full of noise, it is really hard to hear God’s voice if you do not build times into your daily routine to dial down and simply be at rest. Psalm 46:10 tells us that we are to “be still and know that I am God.” And among other things, Isaiah 30:15 tells us that “in quietness and trust is your strength.”      

Just as that quiet falls upon nature, we too need to allow a quiet to fall upon our lives. If you want to hear God, you need to build into your life a rhythm of silence and quietness.

So, I ask you today, are you intentionally building times of silence and quietness into your schedule?