Terra Nova, The New World To Come

We Christians are inveterate optimists. We believe a better world is coming. I write these words in a week when once again a demented, tortured man entered the DC Navy Yard to murder 12 people. I say once again, because such murders have become too much a part of the news here in the United States, murders of school children, movie theater goers, college students, office workers, train travelers and on and on. And in far away places like the Middle East, Africa and Afghanistan the ravages of war leave thousands dead and other thousands of refugees homeless.

I hear the cry both in my own heart and from the mouths of others. "Get me out of here! I want a new world, a better place, a place of peace and prosperity, of hope and happiness, of life without death and fear. Get me out of here!"

Is there such a place? Will there ever be a world where we can start anew?

I sense that longing in the interest viewers have in movies and TV series promising a new world. For a time the sci-fi series Terra Nova — a new land, entertained us. The FOX network series centered on the Shannons, an ordinary family from 2149, who are transported back 85 million years to prehistoric Earth where they join Terra Nova, a colony of humans with a second chance to build a new civilization. The premise is that the world of 2149 was being destroyed by human neglect, greed and selfishness. Using newly discovered time-travel technology selected groups are sent back to the world of millions of years ago to make a new beginning and thus save the human race. But it didn't work, because humans, being human, brought their greed and selfishness with them. The series ended after one season.

Hebrews reflects this longing and offers a much more certain hope of a new beginning, centered firmly on Jesus, God's Son, the One sent to fulfill all of God's promises of a coming new world.

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, 

"What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet." (Psalm 8:4-6)

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying,  

"I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." (Psalm 22:22,25)

And again, "I will put my trust in him." (Psalms 18:2; 36:7-8; 91:2)

And again, "Behold, I and the children God has given me."(Gen. 48:9; Psalm 127:3) 

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. - Hebrews 2:5-15 ESV

Jesus has become one with us. He who is truly a Man and also truly very God of very God, is forever one with us. For a little while He subjected Himself to the hatred of men and the power of the devil. He even endured the suffering of death, "so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone."

Yet He is the One for whom and by whom all things exist. And now in Him we find mercy, forgiveness and hope. Because He is truly and ever shall be The Son of Man, He is not ashamed to call us who trust in Him His brothers, "the children God has given" Him.

The devil can no longer accuse us. He can no longer threaten us with death. Sure, our bodies will die. They must. They belong to this age, to this current state of affairs. We must be clothed with new bodies, filled with the Spirit and life of God and cleansed from all sin. We look forward to this new world, a real terra nova! It will not be a world brought on or brought back by human ingenuity, politics, technology or some yet-to-be discovered magical power. It will be a world given to us by God's grace, pure, undeserved and yet certain, because it is ours in Christ Jesus, our Brother.

We who have this certain hope are still tempted to doubt it. More on this next time.

Near Death Experiences

To continue this discussion about the human soul surviving after the final death of the body I'd like to quote from a blog I wrote back around Christmas time, 2010. 

I've often shared what Alice, a delightful elderly lady of our parish, told me. She said that she had died during an operation on her body. She recalled leaving her body and rising above it to look down at the doctors and nurses desperately trying to revive her. Then in a blinding flash she found herself amidst her people, her parents, husband, aunts and uncles who had all gone before her. They welcomed her with laughter and delight and she was filled with joy. But then she heard a Voice tell her she must return. In a moment, Alice said, she was back in that hospital operating room, looking down at her body. And in the next moment she was awake. After that experience, she said she looked forward to death (2 Corinthians 12:1-10). 

Alice was quite reluctant to tell her story. She assumed that many would consider her a nut case for telling such a wild tale. I assured her I did not. Perhaps you will not either, because hundreds have told similar stories. There is even a Near Death Experience Foundation, although I would caution everyone not to base their hopes of life after death and the resurrection upon human science and human accounts (1 Corinthians 15:1-19).

 In his book, Erasing Death: The Science That Is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death,  Dr. Sam Parnia tells about his study of such near death experiences (NDE). He concludes, 

Today, the tantalizing question for science is, If the human consciousness or soul does indeed continue to exist well past the traditional marker that defines death, does it really ever die as an entity? Our new studies will continue to explore this and other significant ethical questions. For now, though, we can be certain that we humans no longer need to fear death. 

I do not know if Dr. Parnia is a Christian. His focus is upon human science.  He suggests that our soul "does indeed continue to exist well past the traditional marker that defines death." We Christians have long known that. Our faith is based upon solid evidence, often overlooked by the world. We always look to the fact of Christ's resurrection, a fact never disproved. Listen to the Apostle Paul—

• Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? - 1 Cor 15:1-12 ESV
• Paul himself, pronounced dead after being stoned to death at Lystra (Acts 14:19-20), speaks about his own near death experience: "I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses-- though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. - 2 Cor 12:1-6 ESV

The Bible writers witness to God's grace in Jesus Christ and to the glory that awaits those who put their trust in him. What about those souls who have turned their backs upon him and the cross? What happens to them after death? Is there such a thing as hell, darkness, eternal fire and suffering, as Jesus himself said?

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 'where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.' - Mar 9:47-48 ESV (cf. Matt. 18:8-9)

More about that in my next blog about the survival of the soul after death.

Jesus, Our Coveralls

How to books are very popular, e.g.

• Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook (Paperback) , 
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity 
• How to Win Friends and Influence People (Paperback)

The list goes on and on. We're dealing with a question 1000x more important than any of the above. We ask, How can the Image of God be restored within us? Jesus, the very Image of the immortal God and Father of us all, is doing this for and in us. We continue our study of that how, borrowing from our venerable father in the faith, Athanasius of Alexandria .

We've learned in previous blogs that only Jesus, the Image of the Father, can re-create the likeness of the Image in us men. He alone can give us mortals immortality. The more we study what He did and continues to do, the more that Image is restored. Paul writes, 

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. - 2 Cor 3:17-18 ESV

And again, 

"The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. - 1 Cor 15:45 ESV

The freedom we have in Christ is freedom from the fear of being punished for our sins by eternal death. In Christ we are adopted into the Father's family. The Spirit of Christ in our hearts constantly bears witness to that truth. In our joy we are empowered to cry out in our hearts, "I am a child of my heavenly Papa, my Father! (Isa. 61:1; Rom. 8:2, 15-16; Gal. 4:6). The Spirit of Christ is power within us. He gives us power to love as He loves. He enables us to bring even this sin-filled body under control. He is at work to restore the image of God within us. 

The Spirit of Christ within us is life itself. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, points this out as He says to us and to all, 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. - Jhn 10:10 ESV

Since we are alive in Christ we are unafraid of death. We despise it, because it cannot threaten or harm us any longer. It has no strength. Death is our enemy completely conquered by the rightful monarch. Death is now bound hand and foot, locked safely up in God's federal prison. TV cameras are constantly scanning everything death does. We sneer at it and mock it. "Hey Death, where is your victory now? Hello Mr. Grave, where is your sting now? Hah!" 

To illustrate, consider that some people must work in conditions where their clothing might catch on fire. To protect themselves they wear fire resistant coveralls, as pictured above. Both the outward and the inward lining of such clothing is flame resistant. With such coveralls on the worker's fear of being burned alive is largely gone. 

In the same way, clothed with Christ, we walk confidently about in this world, unafraid of what the so-called god of it may do to us. Satan cannot harm us. The power to condemn us to death is gone. For millions death remains strong and terrible. But Christ by His coming, by His death and the resurrection of His body, has destroyed it. He is our coverall. We walk about unafraid. Death and the devil cannot harm us. 

Yesterday I read a book that tries to analyze why Christianity is losing influence among so many here in America. The author's point is that we no longer proclaim the depth and power of our faith. We have settled for things like the prosperity gospel or the social gospel. This is bad religion. No wonder that unbelievers mock and despise us.

It is high time that we returned to the only religion that is not religion at all, but the Word of God. Consider this Word, take it again into your heart and share it wherever you can. We are in Christ. He is our very clothing and when we take off the clothing that is this body we will be clothed forever with Him who is our life. Here's how the Apostle puts it. 

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened--not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. - 2Cr 5:1-7 ESV

Ponder this fact. Live in Christ who is your coverall. Do that and you will be changed—today and forever!  

Jesus Alone Restores The Image Of God

I write this on the day that Barack Obama was inaugurated into his second term of office as the 44th president of the United States. During the ceremonies the name of Jesus was sung and invoked several times. In the closing benediction The Rev. Luis León referred to the fact that we are all made in the Image of God. In my posts last week I wrote about that Image to point out that
Jesus Christ is THE Image of the eternal God, as the Apostle wrote,

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. - Col 1:15-17 ESV

We humans are made in that Image. We are not the Image Himself, but we are made to reflect the Image in all we do and say, in our thinking, acting and living. We were made to worship and commune with the Triune God, our Maker and honor Him in all we do. We alone of all God's creatures are made to rule over this earth. We are made to reflect the love and mercy of God to others and to all of God's creation. Our intellect, our morals, our relationships, our choices are all
meant to be reflections of God and the likeness of God that is ours. Sadly, tragically that is not what happens. The Image of God is darkened, muddied and covered over by our idolatry, greed and lack of true faith. It must be restored.

In order to understand in depth how that is happening I invite us to listen in detail to the ancient church father Athanasius of Alexandria (c.289-272) and to what he said in his little book On The Incarnation of the Word. I will not simply repeat everything he says. I urge you to read his words yourself. Here I lift up a few of his teachings for our consideration.

After showing us that Jesus is THE Image of God, Athanasius emphasizes that He is the only one who can renew and restore the Image within us. Only the Image of the Father can recreate the likeness of the Image in us men. How is He doing that? Athanasius points out that when an artist's portrait has been wiped out by stains on a panel, the artist asks the subject of the portrait to come and sit for it again so he may repaint the likeness on the same material. Even so Jesus, THE Image of the Father, came to dwell among us in order to renew all men in Him. 

He did this first of all by living, teaching and acting as a man who is made in the Image. Many Gospel stories illustrate this. For instance, consider how Jesus related to Zacchaeus, a Jew of Jericho, a public official who collected taxes for the Romans. His countrymen considered him a traitor to his country and a blasphemer of God. Nevertheless Jesus accepted his invitation to dinner. When Jesus did so the Jericho Jews denounced Jesus for having anything to do with such an unforgivable sinner. To them Jesus said,

"Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." - Luk 19:9-10 ESV

Here we see one major reason why Jesus took on human flesh. He came to demonstrate the love and mercy of God for all mankind by His teaching, healing and relationships. Mercy flowed from Him in everything He did. That mercy transformed Zacchaeus. God's Image began to be restored within him when he met Jesus. In humble joy he offered his penance as a sign of his renewed thinking and renewed faith in God as he confessed,

"Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." - Luke 19:8 ESV

Jesus began His work of restoring God's Image in Zacchaeus, the publican. Only Jesus can do that. Our sciences, our psychologies and our philosophies are all helpless to make it happen. We cannot put straight what is warped within us. Only Jesus, the Word of God and the Image of God, can do it. In showing mercy to Zacchaeus and to thousands of others Jesus demonstrates the mercy of God for all mankind. And so the process begins. The Shepherd has come to gather his sheep (John 10:14-18).

Beyond all that, however, a debt had to be paid. God must be God. He cannot go back on His Word. The soul that sins must surely die (Ezekiel 18:20-32). Yet God in His mercy does not find pleasure in the death of anyone. He longs in the depths of His Being for us to be one with Him for all eternity. There was but one way to reconcile that tension. That was for the Word to become flesh and dwell among us. In so doing He could stand as the Man before the judgment seat of God for us all and so die upon the cross for us all. This He did it so that the power of death might vanish. The devil can no longer accuse us. We are free from condemnation (Rom. 8:1).

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. - Hbr 2:14-15 ESV

As I've said often on this Blog and at the many Christian funerals over which I presided, that is why we no longer fear death. We are no longer condemned. In God's good time we will all be freed from our mortal bodies that belong to this present age so that we may obtain a better resurrection. Like seeds planted in the spring in our gardens, we do not perish and dissolve to nothing. Like seeds, we will rise again. Mortal must put on immortality.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. - 1Cr 15:19-22 ESV

And then a bit further, the Apostle writes,

Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." - 1Cr 15:49-54 ESV

In my next post I will draw again upon our venerable father Athanasius to reflect further upon the presence and power of the living Christ who is at work renewing and restoring His Image within us.

Why Only Jesus Can Solve The Dilemma Of Death

I ended yesterday's post with these words about our troubled world: "Everything is in confusion. It was never to be this way. God did not want it this way, but what could He do about it?" We pick up our discussion, based upon a book written by Athanasius of Alexandria on the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

The law of death prevails upon the entire human race despite our best efforts. In earlier posts of this blog I outlined how some believe they will soon be able to reduce our individual human personhood to a computer program that can be stored and retrieved when repairs to one's body or mind are needed. Cf. blogs about The Singularity. At that point, they say, humans will become immortal. Death will be conquered—at least for those with access to such cloud-based computers.

We all share a desire to live. And we Christians know with certainty that you cannot reduce human life to a computer program, regardless of its complexity. But how then will death be conquered? Here is our dilemma. It is quite unthinkable that God should go back on His Word that we children of Adam and Eve must die because of disobedience, our sin. He cannot falsify Himself. On the other hand it is equally unworthy of God's goodness that we who are created in His image be brought to nothing both by our sinfulness and by the deceit of the devil and those rebel spirits that follow him.

Like so many of us, I distinctly recall thinking in my youth about this issue. What's the point of living if it all leads to death? Surely it would have been better for the Creator never to have created us than to be thrown away and die. Is God so helpless that he cannot do something about this horror? To leave us to corruption and death is unfitting and unworthy of a loving and all-powerful God.

To solve this dilemma some suggest that instead of relying upon computer programming and other forms of science, we need to repent, that is change our way of thinking and acting. By openly admitting our guilt and promising to change we should be able to reverse the situation, right? Wrong! It might sound good, but repentance doesn't change human nature. Granted, the witness of Scripture is that the Lord GOD has no pleasure in the death of anyone (Ezekiel 18:32). We may accept and rejoice in that truth, but it still changes nothing. To be honest not a single one of us even comes close to keeping God's commands to love Him and to love one another. No one is righteous, no not one (Rom. 2:10-18; Psa. 14:1-3).  And God cannot change His Word that pronounces death upon sinners. The dilemma remains.

This is why the Word of God had to do it for us. In the beginning He called forth all things out of nothing (in today's language: the Big Bang). Consequently He is the only one who can reverse the situation and maintain the heavenly Father's consistency. Jesus Christ, God's Son, is God's Word by which all was made and without whom nothing was both created and made (John 1:1-3). He was, is and ever will be above and outside creation. One must rightly describe Him as immaterial. He is not created. He is "God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds" (see Athanasian Creed:31). He is eternally one with His Father (John 10:30; 17:11, 21). As God's Word He fills all things. Everything exists by Him. In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

The Word Was Made Flesh

Since He alone can deal with our dilemma, the Word of God came down to our level to do just that. He who occupies and has created all dimensions of this creation confined Himself to the four of our existence. He became a man, borne of the Virgin Mary. He did it out of compassion for us. He was unwilling that death should remain our master. Out of sheer love He lived a life of complete and total obedience to His Father—for us. Out of sheer love He surrendered His body to death—for us. In this manner He robbed death of its power. Death disappeared as utterly as straw from fire (1 Cor 15:55-57). With His death the Lord Jesus became the Victor over death. We who have been born anew of God share in that victory (1 John 5:4).

The writer to the Hebrews puts it this way:

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. - Hebrews 2:9-10 ESV

By His suffering and death He completed the work He set out to accomplish. By the sacrifice of His own body He did two things:

• He put an end to the law of death that barred our way to the eternal presence of God

• He made a new beginning of life for us, giving us the certain hope of resurrection.

Paul puts it this way:

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. - 1 Cor 15:20-22 ESV

We still die, but no longer as men and women condemned. Death for us is now a part of the process of putting away sin and death in order to rise again in the general resurrection that will be openly displayed at the time appointed (1 Tim. 6:13-16).

This, then, is the first reason of our Savior's becoming Man. There are other things, however. We will consider them in the next blog post.

The Fear Of Death

Here in the United States we're in the midst of a presidential election as I write. Last week the candidates of the two major parties met in a nationally televised debate. Reportedly over 60 million people watched as they matched wits and offered solutions to the major issues and problems we Americans face. We the voters must decide now which candidate and which political party has the wisdom to lead us into a safe and prosperous future. One of the Biblical proverbs puts it this way:

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. ... The words of a man's mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook. - Pro 18:2, 4 ESV

Jesus claimed to have wisdom, not only the wisdom to rescue his nation, but the kind of wisdom that would bless men of all nations. On the final day of the fall-time Feast of Booths he stood in the temple and proclaimed,

"If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. - Jhn 7:37-39 ESV

In the past couple years the farmers and ranchers of west Texas learned much about being thirsty. A long drought dried up the pastures. Many had to sell their cattle just to stay in business. They had no grass to feed them and could no longer afford to buy hay. We are all like that grass. Without water we quickly dry up and die. A few years, a few fleeting moments and we are cut off. We grow old and wither like cut flowers.

Yesterday I spoke with a friend after Sunday worship. We talked tentatively about getting together for a more extended conversation over breakfast. "I'm finding it more and more difficult to get up for those early breakfasts," he said. "I'd just as soon stay in bed until after nine and maybe roll out for a ten or ten thirty meal."

"Hey, brother," I replied, "you're getting old."

"Yes," he muttered with a frown on his face, "but at least I'm still getting. I'm not done yet."

This little exchange reminds me of the longing in the hearts of us all. Getting old means that we are getting closer to death. And the very thought troubles us. Getting old implies that our bodies are falling apart. Heart and lung diseases, arthritis and who knows what other problems move in upon us. Some begin to lose their mental capacities. Short term memory slips away. We can't even remember that our son or daughter came by for a visit yesterday. Like grass, we're drying up and dying.

And even if we're young, we run from the thought of old age. There's even a fancy word for the fear of death called thanatophobia. The irrational fear of dead things is called necrophobia. We run from death. We long for life. We'll spend anything and everything we have to cling to it. Just watch all the things put up at this time of the year for the season of Halloween. Kids will soon come begging for candy dressed as skeletons, witches or vampires. Even they will try to mock death as it pursues us all from birth to old age.  

Are you in the same place in your soul? Does your heart thirst for life? Death is alien to our very being. Life is beautiful, but something deep and dreadful is wrong. It isn't supposed to be that way. And we know it, even though we struggle to put it into words. Solomon put it this way, 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. - Eccl. 3:11 NIV

Jesus spoke to that thirst. It is, in fact, a thirst for God. We long to be united with Him. He is the source of our life. In Him we live and move and have our being. Jesus came that we might again have that life within us, that life that is like a stream of water, constantly bubbling up, filling us with our Creator's presence, power and peace. Once Jesus spoke of that water to a woman of Samaria who came to draw water from her village's common well. He said,

"Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." - Jhn 4:13-14 ESV

Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit, the source of true life, life that never ends because it comes from the one source of all life. I wrote about the Holy Spirit and Baptism in a series of blogs in June of this year. But there is much more to be said about the work of the Holy Spirit, especially as we consider Jesus' promise to the believer,

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" - Jhn 7:38 ESV

More on this next time as we take another look at the abundant life of the Holy Spirit.