The Waters are Refreshed

The Lord is watering our garden and refreshing our pools today.   While the rains pour down, I read from the book of Mark about the Lord Jesus telling those who would come after Him that He would make them fishers of men. I was directed to a verse further on.  Mark 1:38 reads, "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also; for therefore came I forth."  I had never noticed that last statement.  I compared the scripture in Isaiah 61:1,2 where Jesus, the prophesied Messiah, is described: "the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound..."  The mainline churches today only look at Jesus' physical ministry of healing, feeding the hungry, etc but often don't want to hear the ultimate purpose, the preaching of good tidings, as in the Mark passage, "that I may preach there also".  Christ's earthly message was for the purpose that man may be reconciled to God.
II Corinthians 5:18 tells us that this is how God reconciles sinners unto himself, through His perfect Son's death on the cruel cross.  There He took all of our sin upon Himself, in agony and died; shed His precious blood for each of us.  He would have done this even if I, or you, were the only person alive on this earth.

Those verses were a refreshment to my soul this morning.  As a person who has put my complete trust in that sacrificial death, as the only means of my being reconciled to God, this is the purpose of my coming daily to God's living Word.  He refreshes my dry soul and fills my pools.

We have a pool, up here on the hill, that is only refreshed by water that the Lord puts in.  It has no underground springs and therefore by the end of summer it may be completely dried up.  The once-living organisms that thrived there in the Spring all die.  It becomes stagnant as the Summer wears on.  Only the occasional passing duck and our dog, Ruger (unfortunately), still plunge down into its shallow depths from time to time; until the water is completely gone, awaiting further refreshing that can only come from above.  As a believer, however, I have the Lord Jesus living within.  He is a fresh spring and sends me these refreshing waters every day, often several times a day!   For these things, I am truly grateful.

I hope you have a wonderful day.  Be happy for the rain.  We have been blessed with a stretch of Summer weather and now it is time for the pools to be refreshed.