The Dayspring from on High

                                       Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby
                                      the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give
                                      light to them that sit in darkness  and in the shadow
                                      of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
                                                                   Luke 1: 78-9

The other day, as I began reading the gospel of Luke again, I came across the words of Zacharias after his tongue was loosened again after the birth of his son, John the Baptist. He prophesied of
Jesus, calling Him the Dayspring from on high.What a beautiful name for Jesus, a combination of
two lovely words together which inspire our hearts to look ahead to the blessings and promises He '
gave us through His sacrificial death on Calvary's cross around 2,000 years ago. Think of it, two simple words joined together, day and spring. What lovely, choice combination words for the lover of men's souls.

Jesus represents "day" and all that entails. No one I know willingly prefers the darkness of night
over daytime. Just today it was gloomy and cold after several warm days and the house seemed so dark.  A couple of days like that, and I am feeling frumpy. I need light! Not only is Jesus the Light of the World, but the very fact that He is shows that goodness comes to us via light, not darkness. Have you ever been in pitch black darkness? Richard Wurmbrand was once left in solitary confinement underneath a dark prison in Romania for a number of years. Could you imagine how bright the light was after coming from the depths of the earth? The Bible says God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all, "No, not in any way," explains the Amplified Version in I John 1:5. Here are some other verses that refer to Jesus representing Day:

II Peter 2:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.

I Thessalonians 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of the darkness.

John 9:14 I must work the works of Him while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Song of Solomon 4:6 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.

Then the second word is spring. I think of spring in two ways here. One is that Jesus is an everlasting fountain of water, a flowing stream which will never run dry. Verses that refer to the Lord being a life giving spring include:

Deuteronomy 8:7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land full of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills.

II Kings 2:21 And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.

Psalm 85:11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

Isaiah 43:19  Behold, I will do a new thing: now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 45:8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth pour open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

Isaiah 58:11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Isaiah 61:11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

And  here are two verses  from Jesus about Him being the source of life giving water.

John 4 :10 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.

John 7:37-8 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

The other thought is that Jesus is like the springtime, when the miracle of the plants and trees come alive again, just as Jesus did when God raised Him from the dead on the third day after lying dead for our sins and trespasses in the cold hard ground of earth.

This is what Easter is about. It is not about bunnies and eggs. It is every day, really, a finished work celebration. Jesus rose from the dead, and I can celebrate that 366 days this year. How about you?

Ever Drinking the Living Water

"The Lord is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made." Psalm 145:13

The above was today's verse on my perpetual calendar, a gift from a sweet daughter in law. A perfect promise for this day, and for every day. For He ever proves Himself faithful and true.

I've been asking God lately to revive my Spirit within me, for in many ways, I resemble the believers in the church at Ephesus, who Jesus said lost their first love. He told them in His first of seven addresses to the seven churches in Revelation 2:2-5:

"I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. You also possess endurance and have tolerated many things because of My name and have not grown weary. But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place — unless you repent."

So many things distract me from my first priority. There are too many good books to read, movies to watch, crafts to do. I spend time with Him in the morning but somehow lose the closeness as the issues of the day press in on me. My world crowds out Christ, just like it did when there was no room for Him in the inn. Slowly, Jesus gets put on the back burner of my life, even though I have the best of intentions, and I've lost my first love.

The other evening at a ladies Bible study we talked about Jesus' remarks to the woman of Samaria in John 4 and how the water He offered her represented the Holy Spirit. I made the comment that we probably never in this lifetime could fathom the depths of what Jesus was saying when He told her about the living water He could give to her.

Thanks to the wonderful BlueLetterBible.org website, I looked into some of the words we talked about:

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.” John 4:10

If I only knew (oida)which can mean, in its Biblical usage:

to know
to know of anything
to know, i.e. get knowledge of, understand, perceive
of any fact
the force and meaning of something which has definite meaning
to know how, to be skilled in
to have regard for one, cherish, pay attention to (1Th. 5:12)

http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G6063&t=HCSB

the gift (dorea) a free gift with emphasis on its gratuitous character (definition from Hebrew and Greek Lexicon Spiros Zodhiates, ed.)

living water: a metaphor of an inanimate thing:bubbling up, gushing forth, flowing,with the suggested idea of refreshment... is figuratively used of the spirit and truth of God as satisfying the needs and the desires of the soul

(from Thayer's Greek Lexicon) http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2198&t=HCSB

That is what Jesus was offering to the Samaritan woman: the gift of the Holy Spirit, freely available to anyone because of what He did for us on the cross. I get tired and weary, but the Holy Spirit that He gives is ever fresh and ever bubbles forth real life. It is not something we can produce ourselves, but comes from a realm totally outside of us.

Jews never spoke to Samaritans, yet there was Jesus, offering this freely flowing spiritual water to a woman who obviously had some failures in her life, just as I have failures in mine. He offered her something we all crave: a drink of refreshment that quenches eternal thirst. This thirst can't be satisfied by possessions, by prestige, by the accolades of others. It only comes from having a relationship with the God who created the universe. We become forever cleansed from our old lives and old habits by taking one sip of this Living Water. Once we have truly tasted it, nothing else in this world will satisfy us.

The Samaritan woman was not alone in her thirst, so was the Psalmist:

Psalm 42: 1-2 "As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God.I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God?" ~ Psalm 63:1 "God, You are my God; I eagerly seek You.I thirst for You; my body faints for You in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water." ~Psalm 143:6: "I spread out my hands to You; I am like parched land before You."

Though I have partaken of some of that living water, I still have so much more to drink! Every morning I need a fresh sip and every time I step out of bounds, I quickly can name the sin for my sake to God, and quickly refresh myself in the living water of the Spirit again. There is yet so much more to take in, so much more of His Spirit to drink, so many more promises to believe. In all of the ten thousand distractions, there is still only one way to be satisfied in this world:

Taste and see that the LORD is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him! Psalm 34:8

He gave me a reminder of the treasures, of the riches that are behind every single one of His statements to us. And He also reminded me that in eternity, we still will be musing on the wonder that came the moment we drank from His life giving fountain.