SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #137 ---- 8/28/00
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
As We fight The Good Fight
(A letter of Encouragement to People in
Vocational and Lay Ministry)
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #137 ---- 8/28/00
TITLE: "Pond Water or Perrier"
My Dear Partner in Ministry:
Greetings to you, dear friend, on one of the hottest days of the year in
our part of the world. I trust you are being refreshed in the middle of
the race. Though it's not over yet, we are closer to the finish line
than ever before. Hang in there!
It certainly is a relief to know this isn't a 100 meter dash, but rather
a marathon. If it were a dash, I'd be long out of the race. While a
marathon is long, grueling, and demand every ounce of your energy,
strength, endurance and will, it at least has the opportunity for
periodic gulps of water and juice. Sometimes you can even grab a wet
sponge from a friend along the way just when you need it most.
Apparently there is a fellow runner desperately in need of a drink;
otherwise I don't think I'd write on this subject. So, whoever you are,
my friend, grab the Perrier!
THE FIRST HUMAN MISTAKE:
I find myself, for some strange reason, still carrying a heaviness in my
spirit over what I see in churches today. Even though there are
incredible moves of God in many places of the world, I still can't shake
it. The idea of feeding from the wrong tree still haunts me and causes
me inexplicable consternation.
I don't know ---- there's an old saying that whenever a preacher "goes to
seed" on a particular subject it's because of a battle in his own life
over that subject. So, if that is true, it's my prayer that God will
make it clear to me any way in which I am still dependent on the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
At any rate ---- here's the thought that's been running through my mind:
What was it that caused Adam and Eve to leave the Tree of Life in the
first place?
The reason I ask, is because I see no significant reason why they, living
in such intimate and pure fellowship and communion with God, would have
ever wanted to settle for anything less. I cannot believe that they were
simply tempted away from what they knew to be perfect fellowship. Why
would they be drawn away from the Creator by some part of His creation?
Was it because they were too gullible? Was Satan too deceptive and
tricky? Was it familiarity with God that led to presumption on their
parts?
Well, I don't know the answer, and probably never will this side of
heaven. But, to me it does seem unlikely that man, with perfect and
unfallen knowledge, able to name all the animals, walk in daily
fellowship with his Creator, and enjoy the utopia where he had been
placed, would have willfully abandoned such blessings and relationships
in a willful and rebellious way.
However, I do know that in my own life, the ease with which I am enticed
by things of the world is proportionate to the degree to which I have
walked away from spiritual things.
I believe the same thing is true of churches, denominations, and
parachurch ministries.
TWO TREES ---- TWO WATER SOURCES:
God, in His mercy, helped me understand this concept in the very earliest
years of my preaching ministry by showing me the contrast back in 1969
shortly after I accepted my very first pastorate. I had been in staff
positions for nearly thirteen years when God thrust me into the pastoral
role.
It didn't take long to see there were many in that wonderful congregation
of about 400 members who were trying to enjoy the Christian adventure by
drawing from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil rather than
reveling in the Tree of Life. I had been there less than five weeks when
God led me to Jeremiah 2 and a message entitled "The Wrong Watering
Hole".
You remember the story, I'm sure. After God calls Israel to remember the
devotion, love, and loyalty they had demonstrated in their young years,
He then begins to expose their sin and bring the threat of consequences
if they don't return.
God concludes the first part of that painful chapter in verse 13 with
these words: "For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken
Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken
cisterns that can hold no water."
The writer contrasts the "bride's" past faithfulness with her current
infidelity in verses 2 and 3, showing the loyal love of youth on a
honeymoon, filled with totally overwhelming devotion. As a bride, Israel
had followed her "groom" out of Egyptian captivity, through the
wilderness, to the Promised land ----
Where she deserted her "husband".
She was dedicated to God, therefore protected by God while every enemy
that came against her was punished.
What happened? Did God become unfaithful to Israel? Absolutely not!
Instead, after she had entered the Land of Promise, Israel somehow became
infatuated with and wrapped up in her new lover, Baal ---- so much so
that she doesn't even miss the God she abandoned.
This apostasy is so severe that God even declares that her sin is worse
than any heathen nation (verses 9-13). He declares that one could travel
from Crete in the west to Arabia in the east and still not find anything
like that type of abandonment. He goes on to say that although those
nations were guilty of idolatry, they at least remained faithful to their
gods.
But not God's people! Israel, who knew the true way, exchanged it for
emptiness ---- for "nothingness".
Israel was guilty of two major sins out of which all others emanated.
First, they had forsaken the fountain of living waters, and second, they
had dug leaking cisterns for themselves to satisfy their thirst.
WHAT CAUSED IT ALL?
As I mentioned earlier, why in the world with Adam and Eve abandon this
incredible relationship they had with God? Why would Israel, centuries
later, do the same thing?
Why do we do still the same thing? What causes a person to leave a good
well and settle for a broken cistern that neither satisfies or sustains?
I can imagine with some degree of understanding how one could leave one
thing for another. But, that's not what the scripture says. It says
they left the fountain of living waters ---- period!
They didn't leave the fountain For the cistern; they just left.
Then, when they apparently got thirsty enough, instead of going back to
the fountain where they belonged, they dug the cisterns.
I believe the answers are the same in all three situations ---- Adam,
Israel, and you and me.
Nobody in his right mind would make choices such as we often make. And,
willfully abandoning the fountain of living waters is not something we
would naturally or logically do. Something has to precede that final
act. Though nothing is said in this passage about what caused Israel's
actions, I believe we can perhaps identify four or five possible factors.
1. Familiarity: Is it possible, friend, that you and I become so
familiar with God and His blessings, that we begin to neglect personal
responsibilities and fail to detect progressive drift away from the
fountain? I just can't believe that the contrasting taste between
fountain water and cistern water would in itself draw a person away from
the former to be enticed by the latter.
That's one reason I believe the cisterns were dug after the fact. I've
drunk cistern water ---- and spring water. It doesn't take much
intelligence to know the difference in the two.
Or to know which is the better.
As a boy I spent four years living in Sailor Springs, Illinois. In the
mid 1800's a farmer, John Sailor, discovered mineral springs on his
property ---- dozens of them. Soon the word got out, and people began
cominging from miles around by wagon or horseback to get water from John
Sailor's springs. My great grandparents were some of those people.
Before very many years a mercantile was established and a community was
born ---- Sailor Springs. When my paternal grandfather returned from the
Spanish American War in 1899, he settled on the home place little more
than one miles from the springs and its new community. My father was
born on that farm, and 24 years later, I
was born there as well.
By the turn of the Twentieth Century the word had spread so much about
"Sailor's Springs" that a spur railway track was laid from Clay City five
miles away so people from St. Louis, Chicago, Memphis, Indianapolis, and
other distant cities could vacation on the Spring Grounds with its two
dozen mineral springs, three hotels, and spring fed lake. By then three
banks had been opened to handle the inflow of revenue.
Minstrel shows, parades, and sports of all kinds abounded in that booming
metropolis. It was the place to be in the Midwest. It was a perfect
Norman Rockwell turn of the century setting ---- parasols, top hats,
spats, and tails.
Sailor Springs became a very familiar place. And popular. So much so
that the uniqueness and beauty of it began to wear off in the minds of
many.
2. Presumption: Sometimes we become so familiar with a good thing that
we begin to neglect it. The taste becomes commonplace, the sensation of
a fresh drink isn't the same as it once was. We begin to presume that it
will always have its appeal to our appetites, not realizing that
presumption causes appetites to change.
That's what happened at Sailor Springs. People began to take the place
for granted, and presume that it would always be there. Fewer tourists
came. The banks began to close. Hotels lost their clientele. The
minstrel shows were discontinued because of a lack of interest from both
entertainers and constituents. Crowds continued to dwindle.
In addition, some of the springs began to dry up or reduce to only a
trickle ---- but nobody seemed to notice. Maintenance around the springs
was neglected; weeds began to grow up, the gazebo's went unpainted,
broken tiles went unreplaced.
Local residents were so accustomed to the springs that they never
noticed. Oh, to be sure, on certain occasions they would do something
out at the Spring Grounds. Even during my boyhood in the mid 1940's we
would have something there on Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor
Day, but fewer and fewer people participated. No bands, and few games.
But, of course the church always had its Easter Sunrise service there
every year.
Otherwise, it eventually became a place where I went to play ---- trying
to locate the dried up springs, climbing around in the abandoned hotel
buildings, walking out through the weeds and trees where the lake once
was, trekking along the old rail line imagining the distant whistle of
the old steam locomotive bringing in another load of tourists from the
big cities.
But they never came.
3. Undisciplined Slothfulness: Whereas familiarity leads to
presumption, presumption leads to neglect.
About ten years ago a cousin accompanied me back to the old Spring
Grounds. By then the hotel buildings abandoned during my childhood were
all but gone. Those magnificent Victorian structures that had once
lodged guests from big cities had subsequently been used to store hay,
lodge hogs, and eventually collapsed.
Walking through the Spring Grounds I tried to find the once popular
springs John Sailor had discovered. Although I looked extensively, there
were none to be found anywhere. The gazebo's were gone; even the springs
had all dried up or had been filled in by the owner who now raised pigs
on the property.
It was a far cry from the days as a young boy when I would ride my
bicycle over and spend the day. It wasn't the same as those occasions
when my father would astound me by immersing his handkerchief in one of
the springs, poke a tiny hole in its center, and spread it flat over the
gas bubbles coming up through the flowing water.
I would watch in amazement as the handkerchief would dome up, sometimes
as big as a basketball, and then my father would put a lighted match over
its tiny hole. I was so intrigued when I watched a bright blue flame
would erupt from the handkerchief, yet without burning it up.
The only things that would burn now would be dried weeds and rotting
timbers from the gazebo's. Familiarity had taken its toll of
presumption, and that had led to irresponsible neglect and slothfulness.
Nobody wanted to take responsibility, and nobody seemed to care.
The fountains of water were gone, save two outside the Spring Grounds,
hidden in little concrete pits away from human eyes.
4. Wanderlust: Nobody means it to happen, but when the fountain of
living water has been contaminated or plugged up, your appetite for it
diminishes. It just doesn't have its appeal; neglect has taken its toll.
When you have become so "familiar" with the Source of your sustenance
that you begin presuming on Him, you will inevitably see your life
cluttered with the debris of undisciplined slothfulness.
That spiritual "trashiness" has a way of causing you to look away for
what is there; after all, nobody wants to see that ---- and admit it
exists. As you begin looking away "from", you will begin looking "to"
other things.
Sailor Springs died ---- at least as far as its former glory is
concerned. True, it still exists, but it is a heart breaking scene to
walk across the Spring Grounds and see nothing but trash. It is even
more devastating to walk through the streets I used to run and ride
through and see abandoned houses and weed grown lots.
The house I lived in is nothing but a rotting hulk. The big fancy house
next to it is nothing but a faded skeleton, void of the fancy Victorian
trim and the huge old Oak and Maple trees that bordered its lot. The
Presbyterian Church is long gone. The Methodist Church is nothing but a
vacant lot still exposing the huge crack in the sidewalk created the day
the church bell fell from the belfry. The Baptist Church is barely
alive. The Christian Church still valiantly holds forth with a handful
of members.
The sawmill is gone, the leather factor has long been closed, and the
Post Office no longer exists.
What has happened?
Wanderlust.
People who no longer enjoy the benefits of those old fountains of mineral
water have gone wandering. It wasn't only the tourists who left ----
many locals moved as well. Though some still live in the little old
community that was once alive with merriment, joyful music, and nostalgic
seasonal celebrations which I used to enjoy, they go elsewhere to find
fulfillment.
There are no mercantiles in which to by dry goods and groceries, no
barber shop, no banks, no theaters ---- just one little garage that used
to be owned by Frank Phillips. The current owner repairs old lawn
mowers and broken down tractors and trucks for the most part.
If you want something that sustains you, you have to go elsewhere.
5. Insufficient Diet: When a person has been away long enough from that
which tasted so wonderful, he will develop an appetite for other things
----
Like cisterns.
When your craving for the real thing leads you to settle for something
else or something less, then the cycle of abandoning the fountains of
living water is complete. When you get thirsty enough, you'll settle for
just about anything wet.
How is your craving for good spring water? Not too strong?
The next step is to start digging substitute cisterns.
POND WATER AND BROKEN CISTERNS:
I remember going to the ponds on my grandfather's farm not far from
Sailor Springs. The thought of going there on a hot summer's day was
just too tempting. When I got there, however, it was a different story.
The scummy appearance was surpassed only by the stench.
Going to broken cisterns for sustenance is much like drinking pond water.
The little parsonage we lived in while in Sailor Springs had no indoor
plumbing, though we did have running water. I ran across the street a
couple of times each day to pump drinking and cooking water from a fresh
well in the neighbor's back yard. Cistern water was used for everything
else.
We also bragged about our little bungalow having a "path and a half"
leading out past the garden to the outhouse.
Now, cistern water is unique in several ways ---- two of which are its
source and its content.
Cistern water comes from a good source ---- the heavens.
However, in getting there at our place, the content left something to be
desired. It landed on the rusty tin roof of our old house, cleaning it
from all the bird droppings, rust build up, and sticks and leaves not yet
washed into the guttering.
>From there, it flowed into the guttering, helping clean out all the
rotting leaves, bugs, moss, and other residual trash, and then down a
long rusty trough into the bell shaped cistern just inside the smoke
house next to our home.
There was no other source of water for the cistern ---- no underground
stream or bubbling spring. There was just the run off water ---- and its
accompanying residue. That's one thing about cisterns ---- they have no
inner source; all they ever get is from the outside.
Likewise, there was no outlet other than the bucket we used with which to
draw water on laundry day. Water without a good outlet inevitably
becomes stagnant and smelly.
I remember one day in particular when my father was in the smoke house
turned workshop, turning some items on the wood lathe. My dog, Pat and I
were playing and chasing each other around the floor ---- near the
cistern.
When I made a sudden effort to grab him, Pat did a masterful side step
and landed squarely in the center of the open cistern mouth. Down he
went into the water, barking loudly while I screamed out in terror.
Dad immediately came to the rescue by fashioning a noose in the drawing
rope. Unfortunately, Pat did what all good dogs do ---- he automatically
went to the edge of the water to try to get out.
That may work in some instances, but not when your cistern is shaped like
a bell and the opening is in the center.
Eventually Pat heeded my father's coaxing and swam to the center where
the noose captured him and he was lifted to safety.
Well, to say the least, I was a happy boy, and profoundly grateful to my
father for his successful heroism. So, after Pat had showered his
affection all over me, I instinctively dropped the bucket down into the
cistern, pulled it up, and took a long hard cool drink of that cistern
water, just used as a dog bath and now filled with dog hair along with
the rotting leaves and tadpoles.
It tasted wonderful!
Why? Just because I was thirsty?
No.
It tasted good primarily because I was in a crisis, and earlier I had
forsaken the mineral springs at the Spring Grounds.
You see, my friend, we never go to cisterns unless we've abandoned the
fountains. The quality, the life, and the taste of the two are radically
different and easy to tell. No one in his right mind would drink
stagnant polluted cistern water ---- unless he was extremely thirsty and
too far away from the fountains where he could get a good thirst
quencher.
So, when ministering to people, don't ask them why they dug broken
cisterns; ask them why they left the fountain. Leaving the fountain is
why they dug the cisterns.
FINALLY:
There are lots of cisterns to which you can go ---- peers, denominational
systems, pornography, habits, entertainment, sports, self help seminars,
etc. And some of them have some pretty decent water. Many of them are
not bad ----
But they aren't fountains.
And while structure and system may develop around them, community and
life do not. So we wander around the deserted streets and abandoned
buildings looking for new cisterns, when just down the road a piece we
could find the Spring Grounds, teeming with life and vitality, and
punctuated with gazebo covered springs of refreshing living water.
You, like I did, may justify your consumption of cistern water by
insisting that as long as you keep your teeth clenched you can sift out
most of the tadpoles and rotting leaves.
But, you were created for more than that! And there's nothing like a
good fresh drink of Perrier while relaxing amongst the giant Oaks and
Maples where are gathered the brothers and sisters of Christian
community.
My dear friend! If for some reason you've abandoned the fountains, if
circumstances caused you to lose your way and you wandered from the
fountains, if the battles of ministry and the cares of life have weakened
you to the point that your appetite for good spring water is gone, . . .
.
Go back! Go back to the fountain!
Leave the Pond Water to the frogs and turtles!
In His Bond of Boundless Grace and Compassionate Mercy,
Bob Tolliver ---- (Rom 1:11-12)
Copyright August, 2000. All rights reserved.
We would love to hear from you ---- prayer requests, insights, etc. Feel
free to drop us a note at <[email protected]>.
If this letter has blessed you and you know of someone else who needs to
be encouraged, feel free to forward it in its entirety to all such people
you know.
If you would like a list of past issues which you could receive upon
request, just let us know. Write <[email protected]>.
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Hang in there! I'm with you!
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