Living Water

Christmas is just a few days away, and I am pondering and reflecting upon the coming of the Messiah and what it means in my life. As I reflected upon the difference Jesus has made in my life my thoughts turned to the very first miracle of Jesus, turning water into wine, and the fact that Jesus is the Living Water. Water is vital for life ...

The statistics are staggering.

• 1 Billion very important people lack access to clean water. (Although we don't know them personally, are they really less valuable than we are?) They drink from polluted lakes and streams where animal waste, human waste, and parasites infect the water.

• Women and children walk 2 hours each way to fetch water (hauling dirty water back to their families.) They have no time or energy left for education or small business, and many of them die.

• Preventable water related diseases kill one child every 15 seconds. That's 10,000 every day (and that's just the children). Imagine if that many precious ones were dying in the U.S.

My friend, Dr. Jerry Wiles is President of Living Water International and so I went to their website www.water.cc to check out the opportunity to give water in the name of Jesus. While perusing the website I came across a video by Chris Seay and was only wishing I had seen it sooner. (http://www.water.cc/video.html). If you're looking for a gift idea that could quench both the physical and spiritual thirst of a life, then join me and give a gift to Living Water International in the name of a friend or relative.

Have a wonderful Christ filled Christmas and I hope to see you Sunday morning for worship and then Sunday evening for our Candlelight in the Park Christmas Eve service at 7 p.m.

And the Survey Says ...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas .... cold. Emily called me this morning from OBU and said there is almost a foot of snow and no classes! As I am sitting here enjoying the fire I am S.O.A.P.ing up this morning in Psalm 42, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and meet with God?" If you haven't had some time with God today, take a minute to quench the thirsting of your soul with a drink from the word of God. As I was reading through Psalm 42 I realized how important songs are to expressing the deepest longings of our hearts and relationships.

Songs reflect the cry of our hearts, the condition of our soul and even the calling of our lives. I love a good song that is birthed out of life's raw realities. Songs sung with passion and purpose are what fill the airwaves during the Christmas season. Of course there is your typical fair of secular favorites like White Christmas and Frosty the Snowman, but what really moves me deeply are the sacred songs that tell the story of the longing of a people for a savior and king; songs of the nativity and its cast of unsuspecting bystanders.

This Sunday I am beginning a new series of messages called Christmas Songs, looking at several songs that reflect the season as sung through the biblical voices of Mary, Zachariah, Shepherds and Angels. I'm taking kind of an informal survey ...

What is your favorite Christmas song? Hit reply and let me know. I will share the results of my informal survey on Sunday.