Drinking from a Fire Hydrant

One of my professors wrote a note on the electronic blackboard this week, saying “By now you may think you are “drinking from a fire hydrant,” referring of course to the volume of reading assigned to us. The “drinking from a fire hydrant” word picture brought to mind my experience in India (so many years ago). Every day the police would uncap a fire hydrant (I never knew why) and immediately hundreds of men, women and children would come running to get a wet, cool break from the sticky 100 degree weather—both drinking and bathing. And, for the homeless, their only bath of the day.

I think our modern American churches foster this “drinking from a fire hydrant” way of thinking, herding the ‘sheep’ into auditoriums where all drink from the same stream. You may recall from an earlier post “Don’t Drink the Water”, January 28, I mentioned that sheep won’t drink from running, but only still water. I wonder if that analogy can be carried over here—that we “sheep” cannot retain much of the water we drink from the hydrant on a Sunday morning service!

I am certainly not condemning the practice of public teaching and worship, but as I sit in our Sunday morning congregational service, I can’t help but wonder how many of the sheep sitting around me on any given Sunday have spent time alone with God, sitting and sipping and taking in their fill of His Word? Or, how many ‘bathed’ from their private well before coming to church?

Don't Drink the Water

Two million children a year die for lack of clean water. After a disaster, like a flood in Bangladesh or the earthquake in Haiti, it is common for people to get sick or die from water & sanitation-related diseases like diarrhea & cholera. But finding fresh, clean water has been a problem throughout history.

That significance should not be lost on us in Psalm 23 where David pictures a shepherd leading his sheep to “still waters.” He must do so because 1) sheep will not drink from a moving stream, and 2) if not moved daily, they will continue to drink long after the water has been contaminated by mud and parasites, and their own waste. And they will die.

Jesus promises to satisfy our need for clean water, from a well of living water springing up from inside of us (John 4:14). Where do we find this well? And how do we draw from it? Through our daily quiet time—a quiet and still place with the Lord where we are refreshed by 'drinking in' his Word.

Trying to live in a state of continual fellowship with God without a dedicated time and place to fellowship with Him will not work (Amos 3:3). How quenching it is to the Lord when we ignore our time with Him but drink from the world’s watering holes. But all the time, our Shepherd is trying to lead us to the clean, cleansing water of His Word (Jer. 31:9; John 15:3; Eph. 5:26.) How sad that there are Christians (like water-deprived ‘third-worlders’) who don’t realize they’re drinking fouled waters. The result is deadly.

The Nightmare Cruise

When I lived in Afghanistan, I was not able to have a hot bath or shower for a year and a half! Although we had cold-water plumbing, the majority of Afghans did not. (And yes, I did bathe every day—we called it a ‘bucket’ bath!) Perhaps my abiding appreciation for hot & cold running water is compelling me to comment on today’s news story of the crippled Carnival Cruise ship. Due to a fire in the engines, the passengers endured two days without electricity, backed-up toilets, and worst of all, according to many of them, cold showers (and they had to eat canned food!). It will evermore be known as the ‘nightmare’ cruise.

As I read the article, I was reminded of the 3 billion people on our planet who live without access to proper sanitation, of the 2 billion people who have no electricity, of the 1.1 billion who do not have access to clean drinking water, and the 22,000 children who die each day of starvation and preventable diseases.

Something is really wrong when we think what happened on the Carnival Cruise ship is a nightmare. It was nothing more than an inconvenience (nobody was injured; no one died). As our American culture of consumerism and narcissism increases, can I ask you to join me today to remember and recommit ourselves to the attitude of Jesus (who lived his entire life without hot and cold running water, power or indoor plumbing) as expressed by the words of Paul: If we have food & clothing, let us be content (1 Tim. 6:8).

A True Friend is a Leech

Anyone who has heard me teach knows how much I love ‘word studies.’ While doing an in-depth study on blood covenant, I came across the following:

In Arabic, the word leech is derived from the Arab word friend. A leech is a parasite that lives from ingesting the blood of its host. We have a negative connotation of leeches today, but in history, a leech was considered a good thing. When someone was ill with a fever, leeches would be applied to the skin for bloodletting—removing bad blood. And doctors were commonly called leeches.

The Arabic word leech expresses the idea that a true friend freely offers his life to the other. In primitive Arabic cultures, a “blood brother” ceremony signified each was willing to give up his life, his very blood, to keep his commitment.

Of course the Jews were forbidden to drink blood, and did not enter into blood covenant with one another. But their covenant with God was of blood—but never their own, always a substitute (a bull, a bird, a lamb!).

The Jews would have been shocked to hear Jesus say “unless you drink the blood of the son of man, you have no life” (John 6:54). By saying this, Jesus foretold He was the substitute who would give His life (His blood) and become the source of eternal life. Later Jesus said: "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood" (Lk. 22:20).

The correlation between friendship and blood covenant is evidenced when Jesus explained "there is no greater love than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13-14). And so, by blood covenant, we enter the deepest experience we could ever have with another—our co-death and co-life with Jesus. Paul knew this: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ [lives] in me…” (Gal. 2:20).

Jesus chose you to be His friend (Jn. 15:14) and wants you to live by His life! Is His life flowing through your veins?