February 28, 2011
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Two Fountains ~ Where are you drinking? What is flowing? Don't waste your drinking!
Jeremiah 2:11 Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit.
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the LORD,
13 for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.TWO FOUNTAINSWHERE ARE YOU DRINKING?
The fountain of death?
drink of the law
drink of the old self
drink of the flesh
drink of the world
drink of the mortal
drink of the corruptible
drink of the devil
drink of his lies
drink of foolishness
drink from below
drink of deathdrink of the fountain of death
what will flow?~streams of~
sinfulness
selfishness
discontentment
uncleanness
corruption
hatred
despair
distress
grumbling
disobedience
dissatisfaction
weariness
emptiness
darkness
fruit to death
death
everlasting deathWhere are you drinking?
What is flowing from you?
O, if you knew the gift of God!Ezekiel 16:28 You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and STILL YOU WERE NOT SATISFIED. 29 You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of Chaldea, and even with this YOU WERE NOT SATISFIED.
30 “How lovesick is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute...Where are you drinking?
The fountain of death – or the fountain of life?
What is flowing from you?
Have you forsaken the fountain of living waters?
Have you hewed out broken cisterns?
Are you playing the whore?
Are you multiplying your whoring?
Are you a brazen prostitute?
O, if you knew the gift of God!
Don't waste your drinking!WHERE ARE YOU DRINKING?
The fountain of life?
drink of grace
drink of the new self
drink of His Spirit
drink of the heavenlies
drink of the immortal
drink of the incorruptible
drink of Jesus Christ
drink of the truth
drink of wisdom
drink from above
drink of lifedrink of the fountain of life
what will flow?~streams of~
holiness
selflessness
contentment
cleanness
incorruption
love
hope
peace
rejoicing
obedience
satisfaction
refreshment
fullness
radiance
fruit to life
life
everlasting lifeWhere are you drinking?
The fountain of death – or the fountain of life?
What is flowing from you?
O, if you knew the gift of God!
Don't waste your drinking!John 6:53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, UNLESS you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have NO LIFE in you. 54 Whoever FEEDS on my flesh and DRINKS my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink."
Are you feeding on true food and drinking true drink?
Where are you drinking?
The fountain of death – or the fountain of life?
O, if you knew the gift of God!
Don't waste your drinking!John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him COME TO ME AND DRINK. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
What is flowing out of your heart?
Where are you drinking?
The fountain of death – or the fountain of life?
O, if you knew the gift of God!
Don't waste your drinking!Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
What are you sowing?
Where are you drinking?
The fountain of death – or the fountain of life?
O, if you knew the gift of God!
Don't waste your drinking!John 4:10 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.” 11 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? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 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.”
Is there in you a spring of water welling up?
What is flowing from you?
Do you know the gift of God?
Have you ever asked Jesus to give you living water?
Where are you drinking?
The fountain of death – or the fountain of life?
O, if you knew the gift of God!
Don't waste your drinking!Psalms 42:1: As a deer pants for flowing streams, so PANTS my soul for YOU, O GOD. My soul THIRSTS for GOD, for THE LIVING GOD.
Is your soul panting for the living God?
Is your soul thirsting for the living God?
Are you really living?
Has the life of God come to dwell in your soul to impart a supernatural thirst for Him?
Where are you drinking?
The fountain of death – or the fountain of life?
O, if you knew the gift of God!
Don't waste your drinking!Isaiah 8:19 ... should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of THE DEAD on behalf of THE LIVING?
Are you inquiring of your God?
Is He your God?
Should you inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?
Are you really alive in Jesus Christ?
Where are you drinking?
The fountain of death – or the fountain of life?
O, if you knew the gift of God!
Don't waste your drinking!
John 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you THINK that in THEM you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to COME TO ME that you may have life.Perhaps you have searched the Scriptures –
but have you ever come to Jesus Christ to drink and to have life?
Where are you drinking?
The fountain of death – or the fountain of life?
O, if you knew the gift of God!
Don't waste your drinking!Psalms 87:7: Singers and dancers alike say,
ALL my springs are in YOU.Are all your springs in Jesus Christ?
What is flowing from you?
Where are you drinking?
The fountain of death – or the fountain of life?
O, if you knew the gift of God!
Don't waste your drinking!
No one can drink from TWO FOUNTAINS, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot drink of Jesus Christ and death.Where are you drinking? What is flowing? Don't waste your drinking!
* * *
Jeremiah 31:9 With weeping they shall come,
and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
I will make them walk by brooks of water,
in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
for I am a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob
and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall be like a watered garden,
and they shall languish no more.
13 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy;
I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
14 I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
declares the LORD.”
O, LORD, be merciful to Your children. May we know the gift of God! Make us thirsty for You so we might stop drinking of the fountain of death and drink of You, the fountain of life, and be satisfied in You! May we not waste our drinking!
Psalm 65:4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!
And one more time, in the vernacular... Lecrae's "Breathin to Death."Verse 1...It's like I'm tired of life/ Lord i'm wrong why I cant get right/ And when it's dark why I cant get light/ eh why it cant be light it's so heavy why my sin won't let me see the end/ come get me/ please come get me/ my thoughts my mind/ my ways all evil/ I'm sposed to be your people I'm sposed to see your sequel/ I said I'll never leave you/ But I'm so left i aint right Lord I'm sleeping with death/man, I am cheating with death/ am I deaf Its like I don't hear you/ I say that I'm a Christian but it's like I don't fear you/ I'm on a selfish island and i am nowhere near you/ God i really need you even tho I don't appear to/ I'm drinking out a broken cistern that could never hold water and I'm gonna get burned/ tho I try i never satisfy or quench this yearn/ I hear you calling but it's like a fight for me to just turn/ Lord I deserve to burn...Chorus:
Help me Lord before there's no time left
I ain't living I'm just breathing to death (echo)
Your ways are perfect and they lead me to rest
Mine are evil and they lead me to death
Related:Are you a radiant Christian or a drunken old woman?
As a deer pants ... Is your soul panting for God? (Psalms 42 & 43)
"Garbage In" (Are you truly His disciple?)
Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
Considering Jesus: (2) Why do we do quiet time anyhow?
my ministry & your attitude toward the Word of God
the Holy Spirit and Life
John 3:36a Whoever believes in the Son HAS eternal life (letter 64 on assurance & joy)
If you knew the gift of God... (John 4:1-15)
Jesus' yoke --> fullness of joy (Letter 31 on assurance & fighting for joy)
Are You not a fountain? (let a drop fall here for me)
"when man reaches the lowest depths of unbelief" (William Williams' "The Experience Meeting")
"give me also springs of water" - Will you be an Achsah? (letter 66 on assurance & fighting for joy)
Where do you go when the world is unlovely? (Psalm 84 & the theology of Biblical counseling
Christian, don't waste your life whining
You whine and complain (Letter 70 on assurance & fighting for joy)
Doubting one, do you know Me as a rewarder? | letter 78 on assurance & fighting for joy
Letter 25 on assurance and fighting for joy (a strong craving ≠ His joy)
the examination & the supper | letter 108 on assurance & fighting for joy
Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit
"Going up?" | Discernment: "God's Breath ~ world's breaths" | my calling
escape the vial of deception
the two yokes
tangledScripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, emphasis mine. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Lyrics are subject to US Copyright Laws and are the property of their respective authors, artists and labels. Commercial use prohibited. HT: JTruth316 for the video/lyrics.
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Comments (11)
nice job
I like that - Don't waste your drinking!
Very powerful passage from Ezekiel.
"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit," Ephesians 5:18
Thanks Karen. That was very inspirational. I always like the section when Jesus talked about the living water. I think He used that language with the woman at the well and in John 7 I think about springs of water gushing out of us after the Holy Spirit came. Self effort sure does not cut it when wanting this kind of life.
blessings,
frank
@dmcx2010 - Thanks.
@cerwindoris - As I was considering the fountains and the flowing and the drinking, that phrase came to me - a little extension of John Piper's "Don't Waste Your Life," a book that was really instrumental in my own life.
@llamalima - Much of that first part of Ezekiel is really powerful and convicting.
Amen - Be filled with the Spirit! May we not grieve or quench or limit Him!
@ANVRSADDAY - Thanks, Frank. These pictures of drinking and flowing are wonderful. They are part of God's condescension to us so we might have some way to describe His heavenly life coming into us and flowing out of us. And yes, self effort doesn't cut it! I was very much reminded of that in the past day. How ridiculous of us to turn to our flesh when we have access to the Spirit of the living God!
This poster could go all over the map on this. All he needs to do is turn on the news on whatever media he chooses and see the sad level of discontent going on approximately 60 miles west of his location, That's just 1 indication of what can happen when a group (or groups) of people insist on drinking from the wrong place and then making the statement the way they choose to.
It's so easy to forget that this world is not our permanent place. We brought nothing in, we can take nothing out-and we aren't owed a thing. (How spoiled we have become--and I'm guilty of being caught up in drinking from the wrong place myself!)
@WLCALUM - I hear you on that. And all over the world map as well. How Jesus gave up all for us – and how preposterous it is for us to even begin to think we are entitled to anything.
We definitely need to remember this is not our final home, that we are strangers and pilgrims here. That makes all the difference and always sets us straight.
I keep thinking of M'Cheyne: "All my unhappiness is from being a sinner." When all our springs aren't in Christ, we are going to be unhappy and perpetually unsatisfied. This is such a simple concept, but there is an ongoing battle for us as Christians to keep fighting to get to that fountain to drink of Christ. The devil wants to keep us from the Living Water and the True Bread and the abundant life. He deceives us into settling for the world's dainties ~ Psalm 141:4.
To REALLY know the GIFT of LIFE is life itself. I can say "Amen!" to the M'Cheyne quote. All the miseries of life are centered in and proceed from sin. To know God is happiness (joy) and peace. When all is well with my soul, all is well! Recent sadness, sickness, and discontent came to me when I neglected to take yet another drink of that wonderful living water..
@quest4god@revelife - I hear you re: neglecting to drink of the Living Water. It's so obvious that we should be going there, yet how often to we forget and then hew those broken cisterns! No wonder why God keeps warning us in His Word to remember, not to forget and to take heed!
Not that I have that great a breadth of sermon knowledge, but as far as I'm concerned M'Cheyne's sermons are probably the most theologically-solid-jam-packed, meaty, to-the-point sermons I've ever read, hitting both the head and the heart.