Romancing The Stone - Part 5
Writer Author Jerry Lee Kay Sr.
Christian Article
:
Christian Living
- Fiction No
Since the Bible has been available this scripture has been preached. I have heard some of the best expound on it , write about it, and sing about it with excellent results. Many have been born again and their eyes opened to the truth of the Gospel of the saving Grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So I know you have heard it taught or preached, but you haven't heard Poppa teach on it. I want to address not the unsaved but the Redeemed, the people of God. I am still talking about "Romancing the Stone".
And he must needs go through Samaria...Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now.. "Jacob's well".. was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her,.."Give me to drink.".. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee "living water".. The woman saith unto him,.."Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with" and the.."well is deep:".. from whence then hast thou that living
water?.. Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water.."shall thirst again:".. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that "I thirst not", neither "come hither to draw". John 4:4-15.
I married into a large Native American family of eleven children, 3 girls and 8 boys, my wife being the oldest, and prettiest of the bunch. My father in-law was a pasture rider on a large ranch in Texas and lived so far from town they didn't have electricity. His name was Orbry, everyone called him Papa Orb, My Mother in-law was Ms.Lily. They, none of them ever called me anything except "Two Boy". Papa Orb and Ms.Lily treated me as just another son in the family. They raised all their food except for staples, and were the happiest , healthiest, most energetic people you can imagine. A very spiritual family being officially members of the Four Square church, but had so much of Native American beliefs mixed in with it, it was difficult to know where one started and the other ended. That is the way they wanted it to be. One thing I do Know without a shadow of doubt, they all, including the kids loved the Lord with all their heart. I started preaching at
an early age so when all the family gathered Poppa was blessed with a built in captive audience.... Amen?
One day Papa Orb sent one of the boys to fetch me to help him clean out the water well. Sand had sifted into it to the place it was not much more than a cistern, and the major water supply was from rain water. This was a drought year in West Texas so the supply was getting very low. Ms.Lily had put her foot down and gave Papa Orb orders to get this problem taken care of ..No If's, And's, nor Buts!...She was clearly upset with tears in her eyes and the whole nine yards. You men know about that, when a sweet lady gets that upset,..sumthin betta start happenin!...Can you say Amen?..What he didn't tell me was how he intended to clean it out, so I readily agreed to come and assist in the project. I loved that old man like a father but he didn't always have the best ideas. I arrived early the next morning, Papa Orb had a fresh pot of coffee brewed with a bowl full of Ms.Lily cathead biscuits, (she was well known in that area for her cathead biscuits). For
those of
you that don't know what a cathead biscuit is, it is a homemade from scratch biscuit, as big as a cats head. Sopped in molasses or ribbon cane syrup with four double yoke fresh yard eggs fried sunny side up in bacon grease with 6-8 strips of smoked bacon or sausage, and a mug full of hot boiled coffee, it amounted to a very good and satisfying breakfast...Can you say Amen?..One thing I will mention here is, the family dining table was about 20 feet long with benches for seating, except Ms.Lily and Papa Orb had a chair at each end of the table, and when the food was passed, you best be getting what you wanted cause with those eight boys there was no second chance!...Amen!
We finished breakfast stepped out on the porch exchanged pleasantries, and waited for the sun to come up. When it got light enough to see, Orbry sent the boys to the garden and took me over to the well. He handed me a shovel and told me to get in the bucket...I started protesting, I looked down in the well and couldn't see old tires, boulders or boards, I said, "I don't see anything that's stopping it up, I think we just need to have someone dig another well."
About that time, my friend John Wolf and my uncle Roscoe drove up. Papa Orb greeted them and John asked what was going on, (I think they really came by to see if Ms.Lily had any biscuits left from breakfast). Uncle Roscoe was my Grandfathers brother, and a preacher for 70 years, He said, "son you need to get a grip on reality, quit making excuses and get in the bucket, anyone with common sense knows you must have water if you want coffee and biscuits, if the well is not flowing like it ought to be, you have to do whatever it takes to get the flow started back, no matter how inconvenient, distasteful or ugly it may seem."... "The water that's flowing under this surface is a river of living water and it has been for thousands of years. You don't need to dig another hole, you just need to open up the flow that's already available!....You sound like a lot of Christian folks I have known, they start grumbling the church is dead and dried up when they are the
very ones that killed it! They want to start a new movement or move down the street and erect another building and call it.. "The Church of the New Faith Holy Ghost Tabernacle"...or.."The Church of The New End Time Word of Faith Prophet" or maybe join a new group, and learn Hebrew and all about the Jewish way of doing things, that way we can introduce Judaism into our so called Christian faith and become bound up with the traditions of man, not free to worship in Spirit and Truth as Jesus taught. Many spend more time jumping from fad to fad than being about the Fathers business....No! you don't see boulders and boards!, What stopped the flow was tiny little particles of sand, creeping in a little bit at a time unnoticed until it was to late."Now, Get in the Bucket Two Boy, we got work to do!"....Come on now! and preach with me for a little while!..Glory to God!
Jeremiah tells us that there was a time and a place when God was upset..More so than Ms.Lily...A time when the heavens were shocked, and appalled, and utterly desolate. It sounds like it was a time and place when God was weeping,..a time and a place when God hurt. Can you believe that there could be such a time, such a place..such a God?..In this time and place God was upset because His people had strayed. God's very own people had turned away. They had gone after worthless things. Things that seemed important, but really weren't; And they put a lot of time and lots of energy going after these things. In the end, they also wasted a lot of themselves. For you see Pursuing worthless things only makes you worthless in the end...Why would people do that? Why would they stray from a worthwhile God to go after worthless things?....Didn't they know better?
Perhaps they just forgot...Perhaps they just forgot what God had done for them....You know how it is...Things happen...Life can get pretty crazy at times. Demands can be pretty intense. So maybe they just forgot that God had brought them out of the land of Egypt, that God had rescued them from years of bondage, that God had redeemed them from slavery. It probably just kinda slipped their minds that God had saved them, that God had done for them what they could never do for themselves. They just simply overlooked the ways God had led them through the wilderness, through those times of darkness and doubt and confusion and uncertainty, the ways God had pulled them out of the deep pits, the ways God had sustained them in the barren desert where nothing can live for long, the ways God had walked with them through the valley of the shadow of death..They probably just forgot,that's all...Amen?
It's hard to imagine, isn't it?...Turning away from God when God had given them so much,loved them so much, provided so much for them! Forgetting about God when God had brought them into a plentiful land, a place and a life full of potential and possibility and goodness!.. Forgetting about God when God had blessed them beyond measure...giving them abilities and talents,comforts and luxuries, peace and prosperity...things nobody deserves...things nobody can earn. Times when God Almighty had Himself supplied them "Living Waters" in a land of desolation.They had been given so much and yet they strayed so far from the one who had blessed them so...Hard to imagine, isn't it?
You would think some would have known better. You would think some would have remained faithful. The priests, perhaps? The professional holy people, the religious authorities, the clergy?...After all, wasn't it their job to remember the tradition, to hold fast to the story, to cling close to God?.. How could they wander?..How could they stray?..Religion was their life, handling the sacred texts, immersing themselves in the law. Surely they must have remained faithful...Amen?
Well, let me tell you firsthand, in the religion business, things happen. Things happen in such a way that it often seems a lot more business than religious. In fact, this job often seems as much about numbers and dollars as any other profession. Who God is and what God has done for us are topics easily lost when the conversation turns to how many people came and how much something costs. Watching budgets, managing buildings, maintaining programs squeezes out time for prayer and study and worship and service and faith.
In addition to the business side of religion, there's also the people side. Wherever two or three are gathered, let alone several hundred, there will be a hurt feeling here, a misunderstanding there, a mistake, a disagreement, a grudge. Egos get bruised and pride gets squashed and backs bristle and lines get drawn and soon being a "professional holy person" starts to feel more like being a referee, a hostage negotiator, or a traffic cop.
So, no, I'm not surprised in this time and this place of which Jeremiah speaks that the priests have wandered off, too. Things happen. Vocation gets lost in the shuffle. And, whatever your job, forgetting about God is pretty easy when it seems there's so much to do. Believe me.
But surely in this time and this place some should have remained close to God. What about the rulers?..The politicians, Shouldn't they have known better?..Shouldn't they have remained steadfast to God? Shouldn't they have been wise enough to do the right thing? Shouldn't they have been counted on to follow God's law? It's not too hard to imagine a time and a place where leaders have made questionable judgments, taken misguided steps, and acted on foolish impulses, is it? So it's not too hard to believe that it might have happened in the time and a place that Jeremiah is talking about.
What about the prophets? Those preachers of zeal and dedication who so often appear to be the only ones with the truth, the prophets who so often are the only ones who will take a stand for what is right, those men and women who boldly proclaimed God's word whatever the cost - wouldn't they remain true, even when so many have wandered, You know, the prophets, the preachers?
Well, again let me give you an insider's view here: preaching can easily be hijacked by the preacher's personal preferences, pet peeves, attachments to social issues, or individual needs and concerns. A word that seems profoundly prophetic to the preacher can sound simply self-serving to everyone else. You've heard it. I've heard it. In fact, It's not hard for prophets and preachers to get lost in the swirl of words and emotions and end up going after false gods. So it's not hard to imagine that it happened in the time and place that Jeremiah is telling us about.
Back in the 70's a group of promoters approached me, they said, " Poppa, we can put you on t.v. and increase your finances and fame if you will do it the way we tell you to do it. We can increase your audience 100 fold and you can preach to millions instead of hundreds. I said, I will pray about it and let you know. I sought the face of God in agonizing prayer for several weeks, the Holy Spirit began to reveal to me the things I would have to give up. Time and space won't allow me to tell you all of it, but the #1 thing is, I would have to preach what they told me to preach, only the politically correct things...#2, I would lose my one on one, face to face contact with the thirsting, hungering, soul that is crying out for deliverance. Hear me today dear friends! I could have done it, but it was not the will of God for my Life! Can you say Amen?
So the people have gone and the priests have gone and the rulers have gone and the prophets have gone. Many have gone, gone after things that have no worth, so that they themselves have become worthless.
God watches and weeps and disbelievingly asks,..."Has a nation changed its gods even though they are no gods?....But MY PEOPLE HAVE CHANGED THEIR GLORY FOR SOMETHING THAT DOES NOT PROFIT"....I am going to back my ears, stand flat footed and say it again..."This nation has changed its God for something that is no god, His people have changed their glory for something that does not profit"....What a sadness for God to watch this happen. What a tragedy to watch people who had so much, squander it so completely....As children of God, they had everything. As those who have forsaken God, they now have nothing. And they don't even know it...The sands of folly have crept in and stopped the flow of the Living Waters of God Almighty!....Can you say Amen?...Could there really be such a time, such a place, such a people?
No wonder the heavens were appalled and shocked and utterly desolate. For it is unbelievable that God's people would get so caught up in what they were doing, what they thought was important, what they thought was needed, that they forgot all about who they were and whose they were. It is amazing that people loved by God, called by God, blessed by God would go after their own desires and whims and interests instead of the way that God had marked for them. It is astounding that those made in God's image, would wrap themselves in images of their own making. It is incomprehensible that those created to glorify and enjoy God would instead glorify and gratify themselves. It is inconceivable that people given infinite and ultimate worth by God would themselves venture far and wide after things that are worthless, giving themselves, body and soul, to things that have no value, no profit.
Could there really be such a time, such a place, such a people?
No wonder God was upset. No wonder God calls what they have done evil. For they have forsaken God. They have turned away. They have turned away from the fountain of living water.
The first evil is what they have done to God....The second evil is what they have done to themselves....Turning from the living water of God, the sure, reliable, abundant source of life, they have instead tried to build cisterns for themselves. God calls this the second evil because these cisterns cannot sustain the people....Poppa still talking about "Romancing the Stone" Come on and say Amen!...
The barrels they have built for collecting water will not work. They cannot sustain life. It is an evil they have committed against themselves. The works of their own hands are inadequate. The people cannot survive on their own. They cannot survive apart from God. The cisterns they built cannot last. They are cracked. They cannot hold water. They cannot hold life..
Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2)
The third chapter of Jeremiah said, "Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain".....O' dear friend if you haven't already guessed it, Poppa be preaching revival here!...And I am still talking about "Romancing the Stone"... Glory to God!
What do you suppose will happen to those people?...What do you suppose will happen to us?..What's it gonna take to leave the cisterns some have created, and get living water? If you won't hang up on me, I will give you the answer. As we walk together, side by side to the Fountain Head, to the Spout where the Glory comes out...Come on and say Amen!.......continued
God Bless You
Poppa
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jerryleekay@suddenlink.net
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