I didn't have anywhere near enough time to go through everything I found for the lesson this week, so I'll hit some of it here.
I won't go over the visit of Nicodemus, but I do want to share something that caught my attention with the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. I've heard and read this story so many times and could only see the "Christ is the Living Water" message, which is still pretty powerful, don't get me wrong. But this time something else grabbed me and showed me another level to the story.
The woman came to the well prepared to take water home with her. Seems a bit obvious in hindsight. What's the point of coming to the well if you aren't going to get any water? Spiritually, how many times do we come to church, conference, personal/family scripture study, etc. without bringing anything to hold the "living water" (see John 4:10) which is waiting? So, to help me identify the issues easier, I came up with three problems we might face with our containers.
First, Jeremiah 2:13 ties in with this (to me, anyway):
There's our first issue. We need to examine our container to see if we have any leaks or cracks. We're trying to get "living water" from the scriptures or from meetings, but we can't hold on to it because things in our lives are interfering. We feel good at first, but it quickly fades as other concerns or interests take the place which the Spirit would otherwise occupy.
The next two come from a devotional given by Elder Bruce R. McConkie:
The second issue, as mentioned above, is that we don't bring a large enough cup. Maybe we haven't prepared ourselves sufficiently to be receptive to the message being presented, or maybe we choose, through commission or omission, to bring a small cup. How many times have you heard, "Oh, I forgot it was high council Sunday" and see people (or yourself) mentally tune out. I've done it before. We show up to church and essentially hold out a tiny cup when the speaker has come prepared to share gallons of "living water" with us.
The third one, and possibly the most damaging, is when we put our hands over our cup to keep us from getting any water at all. Why would someone come for water, but then put their hand over their cup? Well, what if the speaker was talking about a "pet sin" I wasn't ready to give up just yet? I'd either have to acknowledge the issue and deal with it, or I could just tune out and effectively put my hand over my cup.
So now I have an easy checklist to make sure I'm getting enough "living water":
- Do I have any cracks in my cup?
- Is the cup large enough?
- Did I actually take the lid off the cup before trying to fill it?
I won't go over the visit of Nicodemus, but I do want to share something that caught my attention with the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. I've heard and read this story so many times and could only see the "Christ is the Living Water" message, which is still pretty powerful, don't get me wrong. But this time something else grabbed me and showed me another level to the story.
The woman came to the well prepared to take water home with her. Seems a bit obvious in hindsight. What's the point of coming to the well if you aren't going to get any water? Spiritually, how many times do we come to church, conference, personal/family scripture study, etc. without bringing anything to hold the "living water" (see John 4:10) which is waiting? So, to help me identify the issues easier, I came up with three problems we might face with our containers.
First, Jeremiah 2:13 ties in with this (to me, anyway):
"For my people have committed two evils;" It's nice when the Lord breaks it out into points we can easily identify...
"they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters," Some of us aren't even trying to get any water, but that's not what I'm worried about right now. I just want to focus on those who actually show up...
"[and] hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." there's a hole in yer bucket, dear Lizza, dear Lizza...
There's our first issue. We need to examine our container to see if we have any leaks or cracks. We're trying to get "living water" from the scriptures or from meetings, but we can't hold on to it because things in our lives are interfering. We feel good at first, but it quickly fades as other concerns or interests take the place which the Spirit would otherwise occupy.
The next two come from a devotional given by Elder Bruce R. McConkie:
"...sometimes a speaker brings a jug of living water that has in it many gallons. And when he pours it out on the congregation, all the members have brought is a single cup and so that's all they take away. Or maybe they have their hands over the cups, and they don't get anything to speak of." (Bruce R. McConkie, "The Seven Deadly Heresies", Fireside Address, 1 June 1980)
The second issue, as mentioned above, is that we don't bring a large enough cup. Maybe we haven't prepared ourselves sufficiently to be receptive to the message being presented, or maybe we choose, through commission or omission, to bring a small cup. How many times have you heard, "Oh, I forgot it was high council Sunday" and see people (or yourself) mentally tune out. I've done it before. We show up to church and essentially hold out a tiny cup when the speaker has come prepared to share gallons of "living water" with us.
The third one, and possibly the most damaging, is when we put our hands over our cup to keep us from getting any water at all. Why would someone come for water, but then put their hand over their cup? Well, what if the speaker was talking about a "pet sin" I wasn't ready to give up just yet? I'd either have to acknowledge the issue and deal with it, or I could just tune out and effectively put my hand over my cup.
So now I have an easy checklist to make sure I'm getting enough "living water":
- Do I have any cracks in my cup?
- Is the cup large enough?
- Did I actually take the lid off the cup before trying to fill it?
1 comment:
Thank you, this is awesome!
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