Water....you can't live without it!

Water...No water, no life...

We’ve had several experiences the past few months where we’ve experienced first hand how every change regarding water changes many things. First we lost hot water for a month in our apartment in Kiev and had to get used to cold showers during a time where it was definitely not hot outside. Then we came to a village out in the middle of nowhere (3 hours away from the big Ukrainian city, Dnipropetrovsk) where time had been standing still since 1930. We had to use a good old-fashioned bucket in a well to get our water for washing hands, and if we desired a shower we had to pull the water up from the well, have the sun warm it and then we could use it for a shower. This week, in Chisinau, Moldova, we have now lost all water in our apartment, and then life gets difficult. Have you ever thought about how important water is to every little household detail? Right now we can’t flush the toilet, we can’t wash the big pile of dishes that keeps growing, we can’t shower, we can’t wash our faces, we can’t make tea which is hard for Eastern Europeans to live without, and we can’t do any kind of cleaning. That’s life without water.

Hopefully the water will be back soon. Or we’ll have to buy many air fresheners....


Gives life and kills

Water gives life. Water is essential for all growth. No food on our tables if the fields are not watered. No life for us if we don’t get enough water. Hundreds of thousands of people die every day because they don’t get the water they need. We need water all the time. Our bodies are approximately 60-70% water the wise people tell us. We sweat, we drink, we go to the bathroom, we drink more, we have watered tongues so we can swallow and speak, and we have internal water pools for all our organs to be kept in. It’s all about water. Without water no life.

But water also kills. Water kills more people every year than any Kalashnikov-rifle or any other type of weapon. People die in the big oceans and the tiny lakes every day. People are hit by floods every month. Rivers go over their banks all the time. And then a tsunami hit and we really understood the power of water to give and take away life. And we cry. And we yell. And we despair. Water was supposed to bring life, but it can also kill.


Living water in Chisinau

Jesus talked about himself as being living water. He told a woman he met at a well (I imagine it looked a lot like my Ukrainian village-well) that if she received his living water she would never be thirsty again. She would never lack anything. I have tasted this water. I have tasted the living water Jesus talked about. It’s good. It’s filling. But it’s not all. I want more. Jesus was right. When you’ve tasted his water you don’t want anybody else’s water. When you’ve truly tasted what’s good, why would you take what Satan and the world can offer? When a Christian dies there is hope, because we have living water in us. Water that won’t dry out. And we offer that water of hope to each other. When non-Christians died in the tsunami, where was the hope? Where was the living water for them? They had tasted water, but it was the water of death and eternal life without God. That’s the reality of water. Water either kills or gives life. For eternity. You need to taste Jesus’ living water in order to have real life. Both here on Planet Earth and for all eternity. There is no other way to real life. It goes through Jesus’ living water. In all eternity we’ll live by the spring of the water of life that John saw in his revelation from God.

Last week we had a Jesus-festival here in Chisinau. Many evangelical churches had come together and invested a lot of money in renting the local brand new football stadium where the festival was held Friday and Saturday. A Zimbabwean Russian-speaking pastor from Kiev, Ukraine was speaking at these meetings and the thirst in the crowd was tangible. Moldavians were thirsty for living water. The living water that they haven’t found in the Orthodox churches here where tradition and rituals have dulled the living, ground-breaking water. They haven’t found it in the new waves of Western-style entertainment and luxuries that flourish in the city either. They knew that they needed more. And hundreds of them found it in an orange-green colored football stadium in July, 2006. They met Jesus. They got the living water that will never dry out in them. They met the giver of life. And they smiled. They smiled and cried the tears of joy that only Jesus can bring. Many experienced physical healing and gave glory to Jesus for that as well, but these meeting (as all good Christian meetings!) were about their hearts. It was about bringing the water of life to thirsty hearts. And the hearts that took the chance and opened up for this new, unknown water were washed and refreshed in a way they had never experienced before.


Plenty of water

There is plenty of water in Jesus’ well. The water of life doesn’t run out. It’s there. I want to bring it to people. People need it everywhere. People need it in Bangladesh where floods kill people every year, people need it in the Sahara desert where they cry out for rain every year, but receive very little. People need it in the West, where most of us live our lives thinking that we have all we need. We don’t need God. God’s living water is old news. But look how the West is drying out. Look how the spiritual life is disappearing in the West. Look how Westerners are financially blessed, but spiritually poor. Look how racism, homosexuality, promiscuity, fascism, Nazism, depression, abortions, murder, and other types of lawlessness is the order of the day in the West. We have water in our taps in our kitchens and bathrooms. And these weeks we even have enough water to water our thirsty backyards, but so few people in the West have living water. So few people in the West have ever tasted living water. So few people have experienced the abundant life that Jesus promised his disciples.

Bring people the living water. Dig deeper in Jesus if you need more water yourself before you have anything to bring. But bring it. It’s needed. Everywhere.