Now that we are entering a heat wave this week which is 3 consecutive days of 90 degrees or more. It will be sweltering hot and humid in Boston- Cape region. All we want to do is think about water and a cool place with cold air conditioning and ice cold drinks.
The excessive heat gets exhausting and can wear us down to a place of weakness and lethargy. The sun is very hot and there seems like no place for refuge. The high relative humidity causes us to gasp for air that is intolerable even for the youth.
Growing up in Maplewood square we had to go a distance to find a swimming hole besides Revere Beach. There were not many home swimming pools like there is today. Even a garden hose was refreshing. Although we did sneak in for a few minutes on occasion 😉
We couldn’t swim in places like Swains or Towners pond in Melrose on the Malden line. We found spots if we wanted to walk or take our bikes to Horn Pond or Wrights pond by Medford on the Malden line.
Swains Pond a reservoir was loaded with bacteria and who knows what other diseases and rusted abandoned cars. Wrights was a pond and very clean. Maybe even the drinking water for the cities area.
I now live near the North River in Pembroke on the South Shore. The river is a thriving moving body of water. It flows for several miles 10 or more into the mouth of the Atlantic ocean by Norwell, Scituate, and Marshfield. Many people Kayak on this river, but not me, because it’s too risky. They used to build ships and send them out to sea back over 300 years ago.
The main difference between a River and a Reservoir is that one (the River) promotes life, while the other (the Reservoir) has no life it. Rivers are active bodies of water that flow. Their banks provide fertile land for crops and other natural occurring plants and foliage. … Nothing ever flows into or out of a reservoir. Or let’s say rarely does this happen.
One thing I have discovered was that my life was in a spiritual drought like a dead reservoir with God up until I was 18 years of age. I didn’t realize how much I needed Jesus Christ in my life until Jesus was all I really had!
I soon discovered that my life was no longer in a drought and that true life and freedom became a river of living water. The Spirit of God flows like a river in our lives as Jesus says in John.
“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified”.
John 7:37-39 NIV
I was no longer dying in a germ, sin filled reservoir, but discovered that God’s river of love flowed freely deep within my heart and soul. There is true unconditional love, joy, peace that flows like a river when we finally jump into the river which is found at the cross.
Jesus said, There is a river that flows from deep within” He gives a river of eternal life that is not stagnant because of his resurrection power. ” I have come that you may have life, and have it exceedingly abundantly”.
We have nothing to fear in this world when we jump into this river of life. Just like the woman at the well.
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:13-14 NIV
The excitemenof jumping into the river is just like diving off the rocks into a fresh pond that is cool and refreshing. Allow the Lord to refresh your heart and life today.
Enjoy your day and and stay cool my friend.
The Watering Hole Journey 