In the remaining time that we have, I'd like to share with you and expound to you the precious words that we find in John chapter 7 and verse 38. And here we read: "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." And let us look at verse 37: "On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, out of his innermost being, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.'"
This is one of the most wonderful verses in the Bible to me. Think about it carefully again. What Jesus says about and to everyone who believes in Him — He says this, that out of your innermost being, there will flow forth rivers of living water. Now this precious verse explains to us and tells us a lot of things about Jesus, about what it means to be a Christian, what is a real Christian. All these kinds of answers are to be found in this verse.
What happens to somebody who believes in Jesus? Out of his innermost being, there will come forth rivers of living water. If you say that you are a Christian, do you find these rivers of living water coming forth? Do you find that whenever there is a problem or a difficulty, that these waters, if ever they did come forth, cease? Think about it. He says this, that a true Christian is somebody out of whose innermost being there comes forth rivers — not streams, not trickles, not drops — but rivers of living water.
Now this tells us a lot about what it means to become a true Christian. If you say you believe in Jesus, then one thing you might start observing is to observe whether there are such rivers of water flowing out from you. Because Jesus says that if you believe in Him, that's what will happen. Do you find this happening? Or are you more like a parched and dried-up well? If so, if there is not this water flowing out of you, these living waters, how do you say that you believe in Jesus? Or are Jesus' words wrong?
It tells us here what it is to be a Christian. To be a Christian is not just some kind of churchgoer, not just a Bible believer, which is important, of course, but it is much more than that. Something happens to the man. What happens to the person is this: that out of his being there comes forth waters of life.
Now think about what this tells us about the wonderful work of Jesus in our lives. We who are dried, parched, desert-like beings — our hearts were like a desert. Nothing grew there that was worth growing in terms of spiritual value. Our hearts were like a rock, hard and bringing forth nothing whatsoever, a rock that was lifeless. And Jesus touches that rock, and look what happens. There gushes out of the rock rivers of living water. Just as it was in the wilderness: the multitudes were thirsting in the desert, and Moses struck the rock. And what happened? The water gushed out for the multitudes.
We too — our hearts are like rock. In Ezekiel 36 verse 26, it says, "That stony heart that you have there" — that's our heart. He's going to change it and put life into that heart. He strikes it with the cross, with that rod which is the cross, and that stony heart bursts forth in rivers of water. So that when the cross strikes our hearts, the water gushes out to quench the thirst of the multitudes.
And what does Jesus do? He takes people like us. Oh, when I think of what I was before I came to Christ, when I think of my hard-heartedness, my pride — not to say my arrogance — what Jesus has been able to do is just a wonder. He takes the stony heart, and He strikes it with the cross, and there comes forth water. The water of life comes forth. And that water of life started from the heart of Jesus, and it flows to my heart and flows out to the world.
You remember, as the Lord Jesus hung on the cross, they took a lance and they speared, they thrust that lance deep into His heart. And John said, "I saw something coming out. I saw not only blood, I saw water coming out." There was the water of life coming forth from the heart of Jesus. Some people ask, "What does it mean?" There is the spiritual significance that the water of life comes forth from the heart of God to us. From His innermost being to our innermost being and then to somebody else's innermost being.
You see, water doesn't benefit you until you take it into your innermost being. And only when it comes into your innermost being is it going to change you. And only when it has changed you, you find that the water gushes out from you as well. So we notice that Jesus changes our life, the stony rock, into the life-giving stream.
But we notice also a second thing, which we have just touched on, namely that we are not saved just to be drinking in the water of life. Salvation is not a selfish business where you are there to enjoy your salvation, that you can forget about everything else. Salvation is not just a selfish business of going to church and getting what you can get, but in turn to give forth what you can give. You are not truly saved when you just drink the water. Notice: but that the water gushes out from you — then you know that you have salvation. Notice this: this water of life comes out from you. And it says not just the apostles, but "he who believes in Me." Whoever he is, "he who believes in Me," this is true of him.
Now in the Bible, the water is simply a picture of salvation. You find this in many places in the Old Testament. For example, you find that it speaks of the water from the wells of salvation in Isaiah chapter 12 and verse 3: "We draw water from the wells of salvation." So what Isaiah is telling us is that salvation is like a well, and the life that comes out of it is compared to the water. So that every true Christian has this living water coming out of him, the water of life.
I can never understand Christians who feel that there is nothing to give. They have no ministry, no work in the church. There is nothing for them to do. They are only there to receive. They have nothing to give. They think that you can only give if you spend four or five years in a theological college. They think that you only have something to give if you are eloquent and can talk. If you have salvation, you can offer that same message of salvation which saved you to others. You can be a channel of God's blessing and of God's life to other people.
Notice the words of Jesus again. He doesn't say out of your innermost being will come forth theological knowledge. He doesn't say out of your innermost being will come forth biblical knowledge. He doesn't say out of your innermost being will come forth eloquence. But He says out of your innermost being there will come forth the waters of life.
In the Lord's grace, I was able to bring others to salvation by sharing with them the water of life long before I ever saw the inside of a Bible college or theological seminary. Because what I was sharing with them was the water of life. For that I don't need theological knowledge. Maybe I am able to state things a little more clearly by the time I have spent time studying the word of God and doing a bit of theology. But I found that the power of that life-giving water was not less when I was two months old a Christian and led my first friend to the Lord.
And the first person I brought to the Lord was a close friend of mine who was as arrogant as I had been myself before. His heart was like stone. He was good looking, he was intelligent, he was well educated and exceedingly proud because of all these things. But he too, within two months, the Lord had taken hold of his life and changed him. How was this accomplished — by theological learning? I didn't even know the Bible. But there was beginning to flow forth from my innermost being the water of life to this needy soul. And just as when water comes into the desert, it changes the desert into a fruitful field. So wherever this water of life goes, it changes those dry, barren spiritual hearts into fruitful fields.
I never forget how in Israel, that impression just stuck in my mind. In the middle of the wilderness, in the middle of the desert, where there is nothing to be seen but sand and sand, there in the middle of it, you see it blossoming like the rose in greenness and beauty. Why? Because there is water. That's what made the difference between the desert and this wonderful oasis, this wonderful garden in the desert. That is the power of God's life-giving water to transform every person. And where the rocks are, the cross will break into it, and there too bring forth the living water.
So from all this, we see the richness and the power of what Christ brings into our lives. So I would like to say to each one of you who say that you believe in Jesus: don't ever make excuses for yourself to say, "Well, I can't do much." You are to be a fountain of living water. Those people out there are thirsting for that water. If only you can share with them what you have got. You can't share what you haven't got. But you have enough to share with them that could change their life.
And thirdly, as we notice the mission of every Christian — immediately we see that we are not only saved to receive salvation, but to give it. But that immediately takes us to the third point, our mission: that God has made us to be fountains of water in this world. And notice how we are to fulfill this mission. It is not so much by what you do as by what you are.
You see, the error of so many Christians is to keep asking, "What can I do — this thing or do that thing?" You start by thinking, "What should I be?" And when you are what you should be, you will be doing what you should be doing. But if you are not what you should be, then there is no use thinking what you can do, because you are not going to do what you should be doing.
Take for example light that is shining. Light shines because it is being what it is. Light has it in its very nature to shine. Do you think that light is thinking to itself, "I see darkness there, I must throw one beam in that direction"? Or, "Under these circumstances, how can I throw a beam of light in that direction?" The point is that light in its very nature is to shine, and it therefore shines. And therefore wherever it is dark, there the light comes.
Now notice a fountain — "out of your innermost being flows" — that is, you become a fountain. What does a fountain do? Is it thinking, "How shall I push a little harder so that the water will come up?" The fountain is not that. It is simply a channel. That is to say, so long as you are willing to be a channel, God's blessing will flow out through you. So long as that fountain is not blocked by anything, the water will come gushing forth. You see, it is not that He says, "He that believes in Me will have a tremendous effort by which he will push out living water from him." No, it is that the living water will flow so long as you are going to be a fountain. So as soon as somebody starts to ask me what this or that thing should I do, I begin to get worried. I am concerned to see that he is going to be the light, the fountain in this world.
But notice finally that we function in this way, we carry out our mission in the world by His power. We can't do anything in this world. We have nothing to give of ourselves. I have nothing to give. But if I am willing just to be a humble little fountain in the rock, then God's life will be flowing out through me.
And notice how much comes out if we are willing to let that river flow. The Lord Jesus says there comes out not a little stream but rivers flowing out. Rivers. You have seen mighty rivers. You trace that river up to its source and you will be surprised what a little fountain there is at the source. As you follow the mighty Yangtze, for example, the Yangtze River, as you go back — it is so wide at the point of Nanjing that you can hardly see from this side to the other side. And down at the mouth of the river you just cannot see the other side at all. By the time it reaches Shanghai, it is so wide, you don't know that you are still in the mouth of the river. You think you are out in the sea. But if you follow the river upstream, it gets smaller and smaller and tinier and tinier, until you get up into the mountains, you will find just little streams up there in the mountain. And you wonder how that could be the beginning of this mighty river down there. So if we are willing to be just that stream, that fountain, there will come forth rivers of life to meet the needs of the great multitudes.
Then let us ask again: does it flow out from you? Do you find this happening? Is this true in your life? You see, the point is this: if the message of life, the water of life in you can meet the need of one person, it follows that it can meet the need of two people because their needs are the same spiritually. If you can lead one person to Christ, then it follows you can lead two people to Christ, because they have the same spiritual needs. The character of people may be different, but their spiritual needs are exactly the same.
Have you ever led one person to Christ? Has the water of life ever flowed through you to one other person? Start in a small way. Don't think, "One day I'm going to preach the gospel to a thousand or ten thousand people." Start with one person. The Lord Jesus did not commission me as a young Christian to preach to thousands. But He did put into my heart the desire, the constraint to minister to the few that I could minister to. And when you are faithful with the one or two, then He will entrust more to you.
I remember that first time I witnessed to that friend of mine. I hardly knew what to say to him. But I so wanted to share with him what I had. All I could tell him is what Jesus had done for me. I had no theology to give him. I didn't know the Bible. If you asked me where is Nehemiah, I wouldn't have a clue where to find Nehemiah. I wouldn't even know it was a book in the Bible. Okay, let's say Genesis — maybe Genesis I might have heard somewhere before, but Exodus I think we might have heard of.
And so here was I coming to this learned, impressive friend of mine, with nothing in the way of human knowledge that I could give. What should I have said? "Wait, wait, wait, my friend. Wait till I come back in five years when I've got my theology. I'll tell you all about Christ." I can't wait that long. He can't wait that long. He may not be here in five years' time. When I went to France once looking up my friend in Paris, what was my shock to hear that he had been killed only a month or two before! He was only 22 or 23. Don't think that at 22 or 23 you're going to live necessarily to 70. Don't think there's all the time in the world to wait. Your friend may not be there to wait that long.
And so I witnessed to him, and he asked me and he questioned me, he cross-questioned me for two hours. Think of that. What was there to cross-question me? I couldn't answer the first thing from the Bible. All I could keep saying is, "Lord, what am I going to tell him? What am I going to say to him? Give me something to put in my mouth that I can tell him." You think it's not amazing that after two hours or so of conversation, he walked me down the street and he said, "Eric, I want to tell you something. I have become a Christian." Think of that. If it was my eloquence that impressed him — it was nothing for me to be eloquent about. I had nothing to say. All I could share with him is what Jesus had done for me. I am still puzzled at how I managed to go through two hours. I wonder what I could have said — all I had to say could have been said in about thirty seconds. I am saying this simply to encourage you. Don't say, "I cannot do it." Of course you cannot do it. It is God's power that will work through you.
Let me ask you this. Have any of you had the joy of leading one person to Christ? Do you know what it feels like? Do you know what it is to feel that in the Spirit of God? Have you tried to do it? When the Lord Jesus says, "Even the angels rejoice over one sinner that repents." Do you know the joy of that? When you see a person's life changed and the beauty of Christ beginning to shine forth from him — do you know the joy of that? I tell you, after that, the things of this world grow strangely dim. I tell you, when you see more people being changed, you are amazed. You are amazed at what God does in their lives.
And so that takes me to the next point. Notice the power that is there. The power of God's life that gushes forth in these rivers. You are God's source of power in this world. That is the source of God's power going out into the world. Think of it. Is that not something exciting? Doesn't that fill our lives with meaning and purpose in life? What is this life for if it is not living in order to bring life to others?
Can you understand my feeling before God and my thanksgiving to God? For example, when my mother said to me, "Eric, I gave you physical life in this world, and you gave me spiritual life." I never forget those words. It brings me in humble gratitude on my knees before God, that God's life-giving power, God was pleased to let go forth from me, unworthy as I am. With all my faults, my failings, which are so many, I shall not boast of my strength. I will boast of my weakness because the power is of God.
But if the power is there, you will know it. You will feel it. It will be coming forth from you. So under the subject of power: have you ever felt the power constraining you, pressing you forward? That spiritual power. When I say "feel," I am not talking about emotion at all. It is that inner constraint, the power that builds up the pressure so that the water of life gushes forth from you. If you believe in Jesus, it says that water will gush forth. Can you feel the pressure of that constraint pushing forth out through your life, through your innermost being? Or is there so much sin and selfishness and greed and pride in your life that it has so completely blocked the fountain that you don't even sense the pressure?
I think it is this pressure that sometimes lifts me up even when physically I am almost at the point of collapse. Last Friday in London, when I got up, I was so dizzy that the whole room was turning around when I got up. I tried to stand up only to flop back onto the bed. I sat up and I grabbed the chair and leaned my head on it to try to stabilize my head. For a full ten minutes I tried to put my head on my arm, trying to steady my head. That night I had managed to sleep only four or five hours. This is the problem when you are, as I was sharing with Brother Don in the car on the way here — when you are preaching in an itinerant ministry, moving from place to place, it is often very hard to get used to the bed, to the place, and sometimes it is very hard to get to sleep when you are mentally very tired.
And when my head was turning around, I was thinking, "Oh Lord, the meeting this evening." And that afternoon there were a lot of young people coming to see me. I said, "How am I going to see them? How am I going to help them?" But God's grace and His power is always sufficient to meet our needs. By the evening meeting, the power was so gushing forth from my innermost being that it was just about lifting me straight up. And so many non-Christians there were struck by the word of God that they crowded around me after the meeting, all wanting to know more about salvation. And the Christians who saw my condition that morning, when I was hardly able to stand up straight, were absolutely astonished when they saw me preaching in the evening.
But that is not just for me. Jesus didn't say these words only to me. It says, "He who believes in Me" — any person, whoever he may be, every person is given the same possibility, the same power. Jesus doesn't take on favorites. He is not just partial to one person.
And so that takes us to the next and final point where we have to come to, and that is: "He who believes in Me." What is this belief? What does it mean after all?
# Rivers of Living Water (John 7:38) - Part 2
You say you believe in Jesus. Well, why don't you experience it then? You say you believe in Jesus and you've been baptized, so why don't you find it happening? Notice this. A fountain, a spring, is nothing in itself. Did you notice? It is simply in fact an emptiness. What is a fountain? It is simply a hole in the ground. What else is a fountain? It is nothing spectacular. Are you going to have people studying the beauty of a construction of a fountain? Have you ever seen anybody looking at a fountain? A man-made fountain maybe is with fancy decorations, but a natural fountain there is nothing to look at. It's just a hole in the rock. But a natural fountain — who is going to look at it? A fountain, notice too, is filled with that water of life if it's going to be a fountain.
So now we can begin to see. To believe means that we are willing to be absolutely nothing to begin with. Spiritually to have died to self. When we are willing to say, "Lord, I am nothing. I know that I am spiritually nothing. Whatever the world may think me to be, I am nothing. O Lord, just be pleased to let the water of life fill me and go forth from me."
So we see that there are two stages of faith. The first stage of faith is becoming as a little child — a nobody in this world. I tell you why this is the reason that those people who go to theological colleges and collect their PhDs, God doesn't want to use them. Show me one PhD that God uses. Quote me one, please. Who is filled with his PhD, who is filled with pride — until the PhD is willing to be a nobody, God doesn't even want to look at him. Even if they want to say, "I am somebody," the Lord will not use them.
John Sung understood this principle so well. The principle of becoming nothing in order that God can be everything, so that the full power will be of God. It is for this reason that many people don't understand why he took all his degrees and diplomas and threw them overboard, to signify that these things meant nothing to him and that he was willing to be nothing in this world. Many people thought that it seemed to be a dramatic and rather unnecessary performance. But John Sung understood the spiritual life better than most people. Take your idols and throw them out. If you ever want to be used by God, if you ever want to know what faith is about in Jesus' meaning of faith — so long as you hang onto your idol, how can you believe in God with all your heart? Because in the meantime you will be worshipping your idol.
Faith is either total or it is nothing in the Bible. You cannot have faith that is divided. We preached on that not very long ago when we spoke about the Lord's teaching of the eye being single. We saw that that is the definition of faith: when you have faith you look entirely at God. A person who looks with one eye at God and the other eye at something else has double vision. God doesn't look at such people. He cannot hear the prayers of such people. So if you do not find the rivers of living water flowing out through you, you better look at the idols that you still have stacked away somewhere in your heart. And remember, those idols make you very proud — "My degree, my PhD, my whatever it is." You are somebody in this world. And when you are somebody in this world, you are nobody in God's eyes.
This is why we can see the ignorance of so many Christians. When they invite a conference speaker, they have to make sure that the degrees are stated. It has to be "Dr. So-and-so," or at least "Reverend." And then these are special people. If you can't put a title on him, you better not invite him. And if the poor guy hasn't managed to come so far yet with a degree, then you kindly get some unheard-of college somewhere in the United States to issue one for him. Give him a PhD from somewhere, or a DD or a D.Litt., whatever it is. And make sure that eventually he becomes suddenly Dr. So-and-so.
And so Billy Graham has to be Dr. Billy Graham, even if he has never done one minute of research or anything as far as academic degrees are concerned. But he has to be given one. And to his credit, let me be fair to him — he is not interested in the doctorate. He is absolutely unconcerned with the degree. That is why God uses him. Have you ever heard him quoting himself as "Dr." anybody? He thinks of himself as Billy. And there are some people whom God did use at one time until some Christians came along and gave him a doctorate. And then God dropped him.
I always remember that preacher that I heard in London once. And I thought, I thank God for him. I said, "Oh Lord, just wonderful. Here is a man that You can use." He preached the word of God with such tremendous power. He was quite an uneducated man. I tell you, my heart rejoices every time I see a true servant of God. I thank God for him. I say, "Oh Lord, how many more of these we need. Give us more." And you know what happened to this preacher? This dear man went to the United States, and some college, which I have never heard of anyway — probably you have never heard of — pinned a DD on him, a Doctor of Divinity on him. And he came back two years later to England and he preached again. And I tell you something: there was not the slightest bit of power left in him. He was completely gone. Finished. I tell you, that was a very saddening experience.
What do we learn from all this? We learn again the principle of faith, that only when you are willing to be nothing in this world, to become as a little child. The meaning of those words is: a child in society is a nobody. He is a nobody in the eyes of the law. Among the Jews, a child was no better in status than a slave. You read that in Galatians chapter 4 verse 1 too. Brothers and sisters, love not the world. Otherwise, the love of the Father will not be in you. Those are the words of the Apostle John.
But once we have been willing to be nothing in this world — and that takes a lot of dying — the second step is: "Lord, You be everything. You are my all in all. You fill me totally and completely with nothing left." If you have taken these two steps, I tell you, and you have taken it with all your heart, with all honesty, you are going to begin to feel the waters, the living waters of God, surging up into your being, from your innermost soul. By then you are going to think, "I've got the pressure in me. The love of Christ so constrains me, I've got to witness to somebody." You are going to witness not because it's the right thing to do, not because you have to do it, not because it's the Christian duty to do it. It's nothing like that at all. It's because you can't help doing it.
You know, this is the secret of it. What you share, you multiply. The more you share the power of God, the more the power of God will multiply to you. The more you keep it to yourself, the more you're going to lose it. So this is the final point we've got to remember: the power of God there is to be shared. The life of God has got to be shared.
You may say, "I haven't got very much." You share that little bit you've got, and you're going to be surprised you've got more. Don't say to yourself, "I'll wait until I've got a lot, and then I will share it." You will never get a lot. Brothers and sisters, learn the secret of this. If you have just a few drops of water in that cup of yours, of that life-giving water, share those few drops. You may say, "Lord, I haven't got much, but I'm willing to give this little bit that I have." And by the time you've given it to that thirsty soul to drink those few drops down, you look at your cup again, and you'll find that the cup has come up half full, whereas you had only a little bit at the bottom before. And you say, "I'll take this half cup. I'm not going to keep it to myself." You give it to somebody else to drink again, and when you take back the cup, you'll find what happened — you've got a full cup. You take that full cup and give it to somebody to drink, and you'll find you've got a fountain.
I tell you, this is absolutely true. I say nothing to you but what is the truth that I know to be true in my own experience, and everybody else's experience who does it. You say, "I'll wait until I have a fountain coming." You don't even know you've got the fountain until you've given out the first few drops. That is the secret of what Jesus says here: "He that gives, to him shall be given." The more you give, the more you get. There is no end to it. You go out and try it today and prove the words of Jesus for yourself. Until you find you have become a fountain of living water.
Think about it. Through you — any one of you, any one of you who believes in Jesus in the way we have just spoken now, and that total commitment — you will find what happens. There is enough life-giving water flowing through any one of you to be a river. And how many multitudes can a river quench the thirst of? You think about that. Go out then and give the few drops that you have got. Start with that and see, that when you are faithful in little things, God will entrust to you greater things. And then you will notice how Jesus' words are true, how He transforms you. Oh, it's just so wonderful, that as you believe in Him, there comes forth rivers of water.
How rich and meaningful is your life now! Oh, life is so wonderful when Jesus is in that life. When Jesus is in your life. When you take Him into your life by faith. When you believe in Jesus, you will find that there He is the fountain. He is the fountain within the fountain. He is the source of life in us. We have nothing of ourselves.
Brothers and sisters, this world is a world full of death. Everywhere is death. We don't like to think about it, but it's there all the time. Only sometimes when a loved one close to us passes away do we wake up with a shock again, that death is reigning in this world, as Romans 5 tells us. The destiny of every man in this world is the grave. Without Christ, life would not only be sad, it would not only be a tragedy, but it would be a very sad, pathetic joke in which we all are mocked. Every time a person dies, do you not think of the waste, the absolute waste that is in the world? A person can speak so many languages, how many years they took to learn it, only to end up in the ground? All the beauty of that character, all the warmth that they brought to others, only to end up in the ground? Is that what life is about? You spent so many years of study and toil and hard work, just to end up in the ground? Is that all the destiny there is to man?
We may not be afraid to die. We should not be afraid to die. But we should think whether that is our destiny. Without Christ, we have no other destiny. When some of the disciples left Jesus, He turned to the other disciples and said, "Do you want to leave Me too?" Peter said to Jesus, "Where shall we go? You only have the words of eternal life." There is nobody else who has life to give to us. If you haven't got Jesus, you've got nothing. You're going to end up in the ground. What kind of hope have you got? What kind of prospect have you got beyond the next few years? What have you got to live for? And don't just think about yourself. Think of those people out there who have nothing to live for.
But when Jesus comes into our life, life takes on meaning. And not only meaning because we like to have meaning, but because we experience the power that backs up that meaning. Otherwise, meaning is just emptiness in itself unless there is the power to back up the meaning, to make the meaning real, that it is reality we are talking about. And when Jesus comes into our life, we find life is so meaningful.
You know, it's so surprising. I was sharing with Helen just even yesterday how one person can give so much meaning to life, that when you lose that person, life has no more meaning. It is for this reason that some people commit suicide when they lose somebody they love. Because life has no more meaning. There is no point to live on anymore. The one person who brought meaning to their lives is gone.
You know, I spent a lot of time in Cambridge, in England. And there was in Cambridge a beloved sister in the Lord. Both Helen and I loved her very much. She was a little older than us, but she had such a radiance and beauty of Christ in her life. She was one of these people it's so good to be with because you feel refreshed when you had fellowship with them. She knew no theology. She was no great Bible expert. But she was a wonderful witness. And how many, many people in Cambridge, whether undergraduates or postgraduates, came to Christ through her witness. And those students she felt she could not witness to so well, she would call somebody else to witness to. Many times she called me to say, "I've got somebody in the room. You've got to come and witness to him." She had such a loveliness in her life that even someone who had never seen her before was immediately drawn. She was one of these people who could talk to a person on the street without any embarrassment or strain on the part of the other person. She was truly a fountain of living water.
I tell you this: one day she left Cambridge to serve the Lord in another place. And I tell you something remarkable — that after she left Cambridge, Cambridge lost all its meaning for me. It so surprised me and surprised Helen as well. She found the same thing. Before, when this sister was in Cambridge and we went there, Cambridge was always so interesting, so good a place to be. But once she left, neither of us were interested anymore. We went there to do the work, but Cambridge was never the same again.
That was a lesson to me, that it was one person with the beauty of Christ who made Cambridge meaningful to us. You know, Switzerland up to now has been a very nice place to me, not because I was so interested in the scenery, but because my mother was there. I was saying to Helen last night, "I dread going to Switzerland now." I dread it, because I know that Switzerland will never be the same again for me. It has lost what was precious to me. It has become a beautiful box with nothing in it. No matter how beautiful is the box, it's not the box you're interested in — you're interested in what's in it.
If Jesus is not in my life, my life becomes meaningless, pointless, an empty vessel, an empty box. There may be beautiful pictures on the box. There may be gold and silver on the box. There may be the nicest decorations, but I'm not interested in the box. I'm interested in what's in it. But turn it around: the person who brings the joy and the beauty, the life of Christ — no matter how humble a place that may be, no matter how ugly the surroundings, it is the person who gives meaning to the surroundings. It is the content of the box that makes the ugliest box most valuable.
So when Jesus comes into my life — oh, life is so meaningful! My life may not be very much in itself. In fact, nothing in itself. But when Jesus comes in, I become a fountain of living water. I have not only Jesus in me, but I can share Jesus with others. Have you got the meaning in your life? Have you got the richness in your life with Jesus' presence there? Because as we said, the second point about believing is that He becomes all in all in us. Therefore, Jesus is He who is everything to me. He lives in me. He fills my life.
May God then bless you in the coming weeks with a sense of His presence and make you to be a fountain of living water, bringing that blessing and richness and joy to be shared with others, so others will bless God for the day they met you when you shared God's life with them. Let us be quiet before God in prayer.