BACK TO THE WELL For that One Needful Supply
Back to the Well
dipper Much has been said And hearts have been edified Often you sent me A season's good word People were hungry To raise their horizons Looking for life power And thus saith the Lord. How I would thrill As you took up the keyboard Filling the blanks In this newsboy's rough start. I the chief student Transcribing dictation Probing the depths As you offered your heart. Now I am thirsty Your Word at a distance Busy with business Little of worth Come to me Father And re-light the candle Moisten these lips To establish True North. It will take time That to some appears idle
C. Doug Blair, 2015
Time for the trimming And time for the food Desperate am I For the soul's re-creation Come to me Jesus The message renewed. ( the prayer of many a tired, pre-occupied preacher)
Wheel A Rollin'
Three blocks from our house the church sign read: "What is the Secret of Being Content?" Don't ask me why but the first thing that popped into my head was an image of a gyroscope. You remember the little child's metal spinning top? It had a symmetrical disk mounted half-way up a spinning rod which was attached by pivots to a metal ring. The ring had affixed to it a head post and foot post. Pull a wind-up string and the unit would spin and maintain a straight-up position. My Dad explained that there was a balance of centripetal and centrifugal forces causing the toy to stand. You could put it on a table, on a tight string, on a drinking glass rim. But when the speed of spinning diminished the unit would start to wobble and eventually fall over. The prophet Ezekiel described a phenomenon which came to him in a vision. Within four wheels there were strange living creatures each having four faces one on each of four sides. Each of these wheels appeared to be in another wheel, much like the gyroscope: Ezekiel 1: 19 When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. 20 Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 21 When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
The four faces of each creature were lion, ox, man and eagle. These have been accepted as symbols of the four Gospels: Jesus the King (lion); Jesus the Servant (ox); Jesus the Son of Man (man); Jesus the Son of God (eagle). Then my thoughts went to Paul's admonition repeated in the letter to the Philippians: "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice." This same Paul, imprisoned for his testimony of Christ, gave an astounding affirmation in chapter four: 11I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength. So keep on spinning in the mystery of real life, in the Gospel which is the glory of God and which will never topple. That the Creator of all marvels of the universe, absolutely holy, has made a way to have perpetual fellowship with minuscule men and women because of the valiant service and sacrifice of Jesus, His beloved Son, the king-servant, man-God. And the sound one hears in the spinning goes something like this: "God is able. God loves me. He gave His Son for me. The blood of Calvary washes away all sin. Jesus understands my journey. He undertakes for my blessing. We will be together. I will not be desolate or cast down. Hallelujah!"
Three AM and Raining
Wash me with your rains Jehovah Take the pain away All the doubts and second-guessing Weights of yesterday
How they gain an unearned stronghold Darkening the mind And their cousin, sad self-pity Him I’ll often find Robbing nights of Your refreshment Tossing to and fro’ Fearing what might come with sunrise Though You love me so. Still the rains run down our drainpipe Freshening the street Others sleep and miss the moment Father’s touch so sweet. Seems to say “I too am crying In the moment’s test. Speak to Me, now what’s been hurting You may have My best.” Settled now, return to sleeping Droplets bless the ground Thank you Lord, this special visit Turned my heart around.
Spiritual Thirst (Taken from the Treasury of David by Charles Spurgeon and commentary on Psalm 42) Verse 1: As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. As after a long drought the poor fainting hind longs for the streams, or rather as the hunted hart instinctively seeks after the river to lave its smoking flanks and to escape the dogs, even so my weary, persecuted soul pants after the Lord my God. Debarred from public worship, David was heartsick. Ease he did not seek, honour he did not covet, but the enjoyment of communion with God was an urgent need of his soul; he viewed it not merely as the sweetest of all luxuries, but as an absolute necessity, like water to a stag. Like the parched traveler in the wilderness, whose skin bottle is empty, and who finds the wells dry, he must drink or die -- he must have his God or faint. His soul, his very self, his deepest life, was insatiable for a sense of the divine presence. As the hart brays so his soul prays. Give him his God and he is as content as the poor deer which at length slakes its thirst and is perfectly happy; but deny him his Lord, and his heart heaves, his bosom palpitates, his whole frame is convulsed, like one who gasps for breath, or pants with long running. Dear reader, dost thou know what this is, by personally having felt the same? It is a sweet bitterness. The next best thing to living in the light of the Lord's love is to be
unhappy till we have it, and to pant hourly after it -- hourly, did I say? thirst is a perpetual appetite, and not to be forgotten, and even thus continual is the heart's longing after God. When it is as natural for us to long for God as for an animal to thirst, it is well with our souls, however painful our feelings. We may learn from this verse that the eagerness of our desires may be pleaded with God, and the more so, because there are special promises for the importunate and fervent.
Taste and See It’s not just a taste That I’m after Some look-see Evangel to try. For that will not hold Me to Holy, Or shield me when Harm passes by. Consider the Friend Of all sinners, And imitate Him if I can? For none ever spake Life the wiser, Or comforted more Than this Man. But knowing myself, That I waiver And daily lose sight of the goal. I wonder could God Ever love me? Unfailingly Harbour my soul? And then comes the truth Like the sun-rise. The Father has drawn me to come. Has seen me full into The sheepfold. Has made me a gift To His Son. And with these new Eyes of the Spirit This chosen child finally finds rest. And daily delivers
The service A thankful heart Renders the best. Psalm 34 8 Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see— how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him. 9 Worship God if you want the best; worship opens doors to all his goodness. 10 Young lions on the prowl get hungry, but God-seekers are full of God. (The Message)
Psalm Sixty-three
(David Flees Absalom and is Cursed by Shimei) Just such a sunrise I’d head to the Place Where priests in their joy Launched their day The crackling of fires
The bleating of lambs The worshipers keen On their way.
For me it was song That opened the heart And beckoned sweet thoughts Of your love The lute and timbrel The pounding of drum The cooing of small Birds above.
And now an exile I run from my son With treachery’s price On my head A stark camp protects A quick chill awakes And sun-up, my hope Is near dead.
But Glory I’ve seen
In your Holy Place You can’t shut me out For too long A day comes and soon To cherish your face And thrill once again In the song.
1.O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 2. To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
Talk It Ou Something is amiss Child, and you know it. You tell yourself that all of the recent activity has been necessary. Just being responsible, you say. And the clock hands go around. And you are weary.But you know the solution. It is at the well. That well is some quiet place and time. Bible in hand, you address me in intimate terms of Father. You ask to hear something, to feel something, to experience re-charge. Perhaps you are led to the Book. And I will show up, and I will supply. The smile returns. The head again held high. The song coming once more to the heart. 'Twas not I who had left.