You Can Just Blame Jesus For My Crazies

Could you imagine that a stream of living water would ever run dry? No.

Most of the time that I think about water these days, I think about my friends in Africa. And yes, now that I have been to visit these beautiful forgotten peoples more than once I can call them friends. And I do. With privilege for which I cannot even find words.

Water. You go to your kitchen sink, and there it flows. In fact, you often let it run carelessly and in waste. I do too. You need it to boil your vegetables, and there it sits in a pot on your stove. It cooks your veggies until they are nice and tender, or still firm and crisp...however you like. And then you pour its waste down the drain. When you go to your toilet, there it sits in a bowl, waiting to flush away what you do not want lingering in the same vicinity of your nose. Water is something to treasure.

Have you ever seen a waterfall? I was blessed beyond my wildest dreams to see Victoria Falls the last time I visited Zimbabwe, one of the worlds 7 natural wonders. Water seems in some ways to be everywhere, but it is not. It is not everywhere. Not everyone has water. Not everyone bathes in it. Not everyone is nourished with it. Some people are parched. Some people are wasting away. Some people have no gratitude whatsoever. Some people are dark, sick on themselves, and evil to the core. Whether you recognize it or not, or believe it or not, we live in a world of horrific darkness. The devil has a tight grip on all who do not believe in Christ.

I'm just meditating today on what the bible says about the Holy Spirit in the context of living waters. God promises throughout scripture over and over, that if we believe in Him, through the acceptance of Jesus, then we receive His Holy Spirit in our hearts, immediately. The Holy Spirit is described and taught to be of His spirit, a counselor, a resource for faith and guidance, sound teaching. The spirit helps us interpret the Bible and helps us know God and trust God and love God. But in the book of John, chapter 7, verses 37 and 38, Jesus says "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." Jesus was quoting scripture that had been prophesied in Isaiah.

If this is true, and I believe that it is....then there is a spring of living water flowing in me. God poured that spring in me with His love and it will never stop flowing. It is my portion of His very spirit. I see Victoria Falls, in my heart. It is clean. It is nourishing. It is for me and for everyone around me. This living water is not to be kept a secret in my heart, for me to greedily enjoy on my own and by myself. I'm supposed to let it pour out all over my life and the lives around me. I am to share this nourishment. I'm supposed to let it spill over onto you, believers and unbelievers. I'm supposed to beg it to cleanse me and then let you see how it did just that.

I love sharing my faith with you. I am not naieve. I know there are people watching me who believe that Jesus is a hoax and that I am a holy rolling bible thumper who is judging from my high horse. And some of you think that because you have met Christians who really give Christianity a bad name. Of course. I have too. It is so easy to discount a persons entire belief system when they behave badly. Until I met Jesus for myself, I almost did the exact same thing, discount it all and go my own way.

All I can do, or anyone can do, is share the overflow of our living water within. If you drink of it, then you will see for yourself that God is real, that the Spirit is real, and that Jesus was not just a man who did cool things while He walked this earth. He actually came to cleanse the world. Then you will stop worrying about my behaviors or others behaviors while we are trying to be made perfect in Christ. When you receive the living waters, you will only concern yourself with you and you will march with vigor toward your perfect completion in Christ Jesus.

At least once a day in this life I live, I think to myself, "I am completely crazy!". Crazy in a good way. I acknowledge my obsession with Jesus, my adoration and my utter desperation to feel heaven and enjoy it for eternity. I am so deeply grateful for these crazies. I'm just kinda guessing that His ministry spread like wild fires through the spanse of time because people have been absolutely crazy about Him, crazy about His word, crazy thankful for the blotting out of our horrific sins, and crazy wild about His promise of a life in heavenly eternity where no pain exists...but where life does go on.

Was I crazy to go to Zimbabwe by myself? Sure.
Am I crazy to exploit my financial struggles? Probably.
Am I crazy to reveal that my marriage suffers instead of keeping that private? Yea.

But if I don't share my living water with you, you might not get wet. I believe only the powerful gush of slippery living water can loosen the devils grip. I want everyone to have their own portion of God's living waters to splash in. He has called me to want that. Go ahead. Call me crazy.


Romans 8:6
"The mind of a sinful man is death but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace."

Romans 15:13
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Galatians 1:10
"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to plesae men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

Philippians 2:13-14
"for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe."

Philippians 3:10-14
"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers (and sisters) I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Colossians 1:6
"All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth."

Colossians 3:2
"Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things."