Bottled water for your thirst...

Recently, my family switched to Dasani water for our bottled water consumption for its fresh taste (and support of our home town bottling company ;) ).  A by-product of this move is our sensitivity to low quality water.  One day, I pulled a bottle from our fridge, and as soon as I tasted the water, I knew something was not right.  My first reaction was that the water was bad coming out of the factory but then I noticed that the caps were not sealed, and I investigated until I ran into a certain young lady who proudly admitted that she was the cause. In an effort to be helpful when we ran out of water, my 11 year old daughter filled some used Dasani bottles with tap water and inserted them back into the fridge.

I imagine that if we drank the water long enough we would get used to the taste and even perhaps begin to like it, but would it be the same?  Would trading the pure high quality filtered water be the same as the unfiltered tap from the sink?  This reminds me of Jesus' life and his promise of "living water" and I offer the following in reflection:

#1. Never ending water.  Jesus' water never empties like a bottle of Dasani that also leaves us thirsty not long after drinking. Jesus states in John 4, "¹³ ... Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”   

#2. Fresh pure water. I would encourage you to know your source of water -- is it tap from the sink filled by an innocent well meaning person or pure and fresh water from the Bottler? Jesus states in John 7, "³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.'"

#3. Sealed for redemption. Finally, we need to ensure that we are "sealed" with pure high quality water. John 7:39 states, "By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive."  Giving your life to Christ ensures that you are sealed with the living water of the Holy Spirit.  Pure water that never dries up.

It is my hope that in reading this article you would become sensitive to the water that Jesus has to offer, and when tap water is introduced into your life that you would thirst for something pure.  If you have Jesus, and yet have filled your life with the tap water that comes from the world, it would be my prayer that you would consider Jesus' promise that His water flows from the Spirit and is never ending and can fill you again.  If you have a life without Jesus, please understand your life if filled with tap water which is unfiltered and dirty.  It may seem the same; after all it is water, but is it the same?  If you have yet to experience the pure water of the Holy Spirit, it would be my prayer that you would humbly seek Jesus invitation found in Revelation 22:17b, "Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life."

Remember, tap water is used to clean dishes, wash dogs and clean floors, and it is thrown out when its use is done.  Bolted water quenches when you are thirsty, fills when dehydrated and satisfies when consumed. Pure water gives life!
  
May the Lord Jesus, the Eternal Water, bless the reading of this message,

~Jason Furtak~