Thirst-quencher

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The psalmist cries: "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God?" (Psalm 42:1, 2).

"Where can I go and meet with God?" is the cry of every seeker who is thirsty for what only an encounter with God can satisfy. And it is often "different strokes for different folks."

The Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well, did not get her thirst satisfied through traditional means. She wasn't welcome among the "righteous" folk. Nicodemus drank from the water of life in the middle of the night during a secret meeting with Jesus. Zacchaeus got his in the tree. The ex-demoniac tasted in a cemetery. God meets us where we are when our thirst is so urgent that nothing other than His life-giving water will do.

A designated place is not critical. An attractive program is not essential. Glad-handing people are not vital.

There is a thirst. There is a thirsty person. There is a thirst-quencher who issues the invitation: "Come..."

In His conversation with a Samaritan woman, Jesus responded to her thirst with this: "...whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14).

Christ, the thirst-quencher, is the only One who can meet the need of the spiritually dry. Our task as believers is to point the way to Him, and to no one, or nothing, else. In the last  book of the Bible, John records these words, speaking of Jesus: "...I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life" (Revelation 21:6).

And just as the final chapter is written, the invitation is repeated: "The Spirit and the bride say, "'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come, and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life'" (Revelation 22:17).

There is an old song written by John Peterson that goes like this:

I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame,
And nothing satisfying there I found;
But to the blessed cross of Christ on day I came,
Where springs of living water did abound.


Drinking at the springs of living water,
Happy now am I, My soul they satisfy;
Drinking at the springs of living water,
O wonderful and bountiful supply!


How sweet the living water from the hills of God,
It makes me glad and happy all the way;
Now glory, grace and blessing
mark the path I've trod,
I'm shouting "Hallelujah" every day.


O sinner, won't you come today to Calvary?
A fountain there is flowing deep and wide;
The Saviour now invites you to the water free,
Where thirsting spirits can be satisfied.

What more remains to be said, but "Come to Jesus!"