Why Are You Jesus-less

We conclude with redoubled hope and expectation in our Forever Faithful God. I’m inviting you to share from the hymn “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken”. This is a hymn I know well, yet, in having it brought before me in this time, the second verse held me and brought such deep conviction, I was made really penitent.

May God the Holy Spirit, move you as never before with the words of this hymn which most, if not all of you know.

Here is verse two.

See, the streams of living waters,

Springing from eternal love,

Well supply thy sons and daughters,

And all fear of want remove:

Who can faint, while such a river

Ever flows their thirst to assuage?

Grace, which like the Lord, The Giver,

Never fails from age to age.

These words were penned, sometime in the 18th century, by a servant of our Lord Jesus, about Jesus Himself. I know that the entire Hymn is awesome but these things about God in Christ to which John Newton is testifying, really stun me. This man is not just talking. This man is a recipient, a testimony to all that he has written. Is this not personal testimony? Look at what John Newton says in this verse alone.

See - Mr. Newton invites us to gaze upon, to view, to capture, to experience, to know the streams of living waters that spring from eternal love. Is not eternal love God’s Love? And note, the streams of water that spring from Love are living, not dead, dormant, sleeping, comatose, or in some hibernated slumber.

Why are you talking and acting as one having No Sustainer, in the Lord?

See - Mr. Newton invites us to understand, to realise, to be confident in the sustainability, and availability of the living waters, which supply all the Lord’s children so adequately and sufficiently. The living waters supply them so well, that all fear of ever being in want, is removed. Think of it! All fear of want is removed. You will agree that such a fear causes great worry. Do you have a want or wants that have not been removed? Listen! Your fear of want is removed.

Why are you talking and acting as one having No Supplier, in the Lord?

See - Mr. Newton invites us to behold, to stop and accept this unarguable, living fact of truth. While such a thirst-quenching, thirst-assuaging river is ever flowing in one’s reach, who, just who can faint from thirst? If I am fainting of thirst, it is because I have no water available to me.

Why then are you talking and acting as one having No Satisfier, in the Lord?

See – Mr. Newton wants us to understand, to see and know that, Grace which, like the Lord, The Giver, Never fails from age to age. This was so in his time and it is so for us in our time and age as well, because grace is timeless and it never fails. This is to be proven in us.

Why then are you talking and acting as one having No Supporter, in the Lord?

As I was held by this particular verse of the hymn, thinking that it was all my lesson entailed, I was sent to Mark 8: 16b. It is because we have no bread. Jesus had just issued His disciples with a warning of caution and after a discussion among themselves, they come up with a reason for that word of caution. They think that Jesus has said it because of their error. The truth is that they had no bread because they had forgotten to pick up bread to take with them. With this guilt of error on their minds, they make a true statement about themselves, but a most dismissing statement about Jesus.

Don’t you see all that John Newton said? It just does not add up, when you have a source of water before you, yet you speak of being without water. It just does not compute, when, in the midst of living waters, fear, worry, concerns or guilt of want, still remain. I am now seeing it a bit clearer. How can one be without bread in the company and presence of Jesus, the Living Bread of life? How can one be without water in the company and presence of Jesus, the Living Water of Life? Mr. Newton calls us to see Jesus as the river, the ever flowing water that leaves us without fear of want. Jesus calls us to see Him as the Living Bread. Why are you talking about having no bread?

• Do you still not see or understand?

• Are your hearts hardened?

• Do you have eyes but fail to see?

• Do you have ears, but fail to hear?

This just does not make sense, for how can you be without bread in the company of Jesus?

This is so very sad, yet so very true of us. The Lord is not at all satisfied, happy or pleased with any of His followers, any who claim to believe in Him, yet talk and act as people of unsatisfied want.

Lord Jesus, even now, expose my talk and my action that I may hear and see how very deceived I am. Remind me again O Lord, when I would let my forgetfulness, error, folly, or guilt, take over, that I am in the company of the One who is able to fix what needs to be fixed. Amen!