The Cooling Stream

Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. (Isaiah 49:15-16)

• It is an overwhelming feeling that no one cares anything about you.
   
• It is a real and excruciatingly painful feeling.
   
• But even though people may abandon us, God’s love and presence is assured.
   
• The Lord promises that He will never leave us (Deut. 31:8).
   
• He will be with us wherever we go, always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20).
   
• The Lord will never falter in His commitment to His children.
   
• Even if we have been abandoned by others, we can find confidence in God's promise that nothing will ever separate us from His love (Rom. 8:35-39).
   
• Let us thank our Heavenly Father for His never-failing presence in every aspect of our lives.
   
• We can count on His promise never to abandon us.
   
• Confidence in God’s presence is our comfort.
  
  

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:52)

• Some of us grew up in a small town.
   
• There was no famous people there, and no busy streets.
   
• But we should be thankful for our quiet and uncomplicated upbringing.
   
• The Lord Jesus also grew up in a small town: Nazareth.
   
• A man named Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
   
• The Lord Jesus proved that the answer is yes.
   
• Even though He grew up in an insignificant place, He was the most significant person in all of history.
   
• Experience and Scriptures tell us what matters is not where we grow up but how we grow up.
   
• Sometimes we feel insignificant compared to sophisticated people from prominent places.
   
• But we are significant to God, and God can make us strong in spirit and filled us with His wisdom.
   
• What we become is more important than where we are from.
  
  

I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works. (Psalm 145:5)

• Creation displays God’s wondrous works.
   
• When we stop to meditate on those works, we can’t help but be awed.
   
• Our minds and spirits are moved to reflect on the character of the God who created them.
   
• Creation tells us the creative genius of our mighty God.
   
• Sometimes, in the most unexpected moments, in the out-of-the-way places, the Lord shines His glory in this world in order to reveal Himself to us.
   
• Those serendipitous moments are great opportunities to meditate on His wondrous works.
   
• Our God is good and He always does good.
   
• May the goodness of our Creator fill our lives with love and peace.

John 5:16-23

When the Jews discovered that it was the Lord Jesus who had healed the man, they were determined to kill Him because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

The opposition to the Lord Jesus became more intense after this incident, especially when He spoke of working in partnership with God the Father, as an equal.

The Jews understood clearly that the Lord Jesus did indeed claim to be God but they refused to believe Him.

They sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

The Lord Jesus answered His enemies by explaining His equality with the Father :-

• That He has the authority to do all that He sees the Father do.
• That the Father loves Him and shows Him all that He does (this refers to the work of the Father in His plan of redemption).
• That they would see greater works (than the healing of the man at the pool), which would cause them to marvel when He raised the dead.
• That the Father has committed all judgment to the Son who is the Judge of mankind.
• That all should honor Him just as they honor the Father.
  
  God will not give His glory to anyone else.
  
  The implications of this verse are clear!

The Holy Spirit inspired the apostle John to write his gospel so that we would know who the Lord Jesus is, and that believing, we might have life in His name.

If we honour God the Father, then we must also honour His Son, because He is God!

John 4:1-14

The ministry of Jesus was having a great impact in Judea.

The reason He left for Galilee may have been to avoid further conflict with the Pharisees. This was to come later, according to God's timetable.

The Lord Jesus needed to go through Samaria.

The most direct route to Galilee from Judea was through Samaria.

But the Lord Jesus had another reason for going through Samaria. There were people in that city to bring to faith in Himself.

Most Jews despised Samaritans who were a mixed race of Jew and Gentile. Their religion was mixed too, though they acknowledged the first five books of the Bible and they also looked for the Messiah.

We tend to complain that people are very unresponsive to the gospel. They are completely indifferent to our good news. We soon become discouraged and remain silent. We excused ourselves that personal witnessing is not our ministry.

Let us never lose sight of the fact that the Lord often works in wonderful and surprising ways. Who would have imagined that this immoral Samaritan woman would respond to the gospel?

We often struggle to open up a conversation so that we can share the gospel with sinners, but Jesus was so natural. Resting from His journey, the Lord asked the woman for a drink of water. This surprised the woman, for no Jew would drink from a container used by Gentiles. Jesus then aroused her curiosity by speaking about the gift of God and of living water (which the woman took to mean fresh spring water). She wondered how He could obtain such living water from such a deep well. Could this stranger be greater than Jacob?

Jesus told the woman that the water from the well could only satisfy for a time. But whoever drinks of the water that He shall give him will never thirst.

There can be no lasting satisfaction in this restless world apart from that given by Christ. And with it, He gives everlasting life!