January 7: The Healing Water of Life
♫ Music:
Day 41 - Friday, January 7
Title: THE HEALING WATER OF LIFE
Scripture: Revelation 22:16-17
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
Poetry:
The Prisoners
by Robert Hayden
Steel doors––guillotine gates––
of the doorless house closed massively.
We were locked in with loss.
Guards frisked us, marked our wrists,
then let us into the drab Rec Hall––
splotched green walls, high windows barred––
where the dispossessed awaited us.
Hands intimate with knife and pistol,
hands that had cruelly grasped and throttled
clasped ours in welcome. I sensed the plea
of men denied: Believe us human
like yourselves, who but for Grace . . .
We shared reprieving Hidden Words
revealed by the Godlike imprisoned
One, whose crime was truth.
And I read poems I hoped were true.
It’s like you been there, brother, been there,
the scarred young lifer said.
FREELY RECEIVE JESUS, FREELY GIVE HIM
Feast on the potent images of Jesus that are served up by these verses. Even then, and as of now, the brilliance of Jesus’ presence and power comes to you in 2022 as “I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”
What do those images evoke for you in this season of life? Ponder them. Think about your life in reference to what these images reveal about Jesus. Freely receive Him, freely give Him.
The language of “the Root and the Offspring of David” – in one sense – signals Jesus' authority; indeed, He stands in David’s line of promised, Messianic hope, walking out an anointing to represent and bring about the authority of God’s rule and ways on earth, as it is in heaven. But in another sense Jesus is the ‘Root’, the One from whom (royal) branches spring forth. “I am the Vine, you are the branches” (John 15) is also a connotation dancing around the image of ‘the Root’. Truly, Jesus is the Alpha and Omega on lineages that matter most.
In what sense do you need to freshly recognize Jesus as ‘the Root and the Offspring of David”? Are there areas of your life that have been rootless, in search of a true and living source of life? Is there too much of your life that can be easily accounted for by your own authority rather than the power and authority of God working through your life?
Jesus invites those searching for enduring and durable roots to find their life in Him; an invitation to participate in Jesus’ offspring, a family of God among all nations, people, tribe, and tongue.
Jesus also comes as “the Bright and Morning Star.” Stars and bright lights are powerful images throughout the story of God in scripture. Tracking the pathway of the Anointed One, Matthew announces that Jesus begins His ministry in Galilee in order to complete what was foretold by the prophet Isaiah, “The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Mt. 4:14-16, NIV).
Do you sense the breaking forth that Jesus brings, like life springing forth from a fertile ground? Among those ‘living in darkness’ or those living in the land defined by the ‘shadow of death’, Jesus as the Light of lights, comes to disrupt darkness, a breaking forth of the dawn, a heralding of a new and better way. Thus, with 2 Peter 1:19, “ . . . we do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
With Jesus, God’s good governance comes even closer, more proximate in the here and now. What does it mean for you to live out your days attuned to the ‘new age’ that Jesus brings and is dawning as the brilliant Bright and Morning Star?
It is easy to become accustomed - as if our ‘second nature’ - to the dictates of “the times we live in,” whether articulated as social-cultural pressure points or the ‘order’ that our households, workplaces, or schooling form us into. Time is an instrument of formation. But who’s time are you destined to live ‘into’ and ‘unto’? By whose ‘lights’ will you see and know? How is Jesus inviting you to live out your everyday existence into and unto His order of life?
John’s apocalypse or revealing of Jesus is sent as a letter among real churches experiencing real testing and persecution of their faith throughout the Roman Empire. Indeed, John himself is exiled and imprisoned on the island of Patmos. Jesus’ revelation of who He is comes to a people living out their days amidst their own ‘Babylon,'
Artist Grace Carol Bomer, astutely presents her artwork - themed Come, You Who Are Thirsty – as part of a series that visually tells a story about ‘Babel’, evoking the story of Genesis 11 and its implications for us today. Truly, an invitation to the thirsty comes to the ‘imprisoned’; to the Robert Hayden ‘prisoners’ in his poem – “We were locked in with loss” – an invitation is here to drink from the lossless waters of life for a “life without lack,” as Dallas Willard would say (echoing Psalm 23 imagery).
Among all of the life-draining, “might makes right” connotations of Babel – the controlling of language, the manipulation of people’s destiny, and the transactional logic that come with “making a name for ourselves” – is precisely where an invitation comes to the thirsty. It is an invitation to “take the water of life freely” – how spectacularly audacious, given the backdrop of Babel’s conditional demands. Even more radical: the invitation is for the ‘whoever desires’, echoing long-standing ‘come and eat and drink’ invitations from the Hebrew Bible to the ‘whosoever are willing’ invited by Jesus’ life, teaching, and leadership.
There is nothing tribal about this water of life invitation. It has its own economy. There are no ‘water rights’ on this water of life; nothing justifies ‘mine, never thine’ possessiveness. The waters of life are new family-forming. You come to the waters, and find yourself taking and receiving with the other ‘whoever desires’ kin; the banks of the waters are called grace. Next to you on the banks is a Samaritan woman, a Tax Collector, a Centurion, a Prostitute, a Thief.
The waters of life are not the waters of Babylon: “Alongside Babylon’s rivers we sat on the banks; we cried and cried, remembering the good old days in Zion. Alongside the quaking aspens we stacked our unplayed harps; That’s where our captors demanded songs, sarcastic and mocking: “Sing us a happy Zion song!” (Psalm 137:1, The Message). But Babylon will not have the final word. Pentecost is on the horizon.
At the waters of life, there is the simple word, ‘Come’. Will I believe that no-strings-attached invitation? Who or what will I permit to summon my life in 2022? With Bomer’s painting, will I see myself as ‘covered’ – marked out – by the words of God’s life-giving-life or by Babel’s words? Will I learn to see myself as participating in the witness and proclamation of the Spirit and the Bride saying, ‘Come’?
Prayer:
Come, Holy Spirit, come.
Rise up within me rivers of living water.
Come and breathe on me, wind of God.Come, Lord Jesus, come.
Demonstrate your power to heal and release captives.
I welcome you as the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.
Come, Father of Lights, with whom there is no shifting shadows of change
Form my heart for your family of lights throughout your world.
About the Devotion Writer:
Joseph E. Gorra
Writer and Educator
Founder/Director of Veritas Life Center
Biola Alum
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Blessings,
–CCCA
About the Artwork:
Come, You Who are Thirsty
Grace Carol Bomer
2020
Oil and wax and gold and paper on panel
20 x 24 in.
"The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." Artist Grace Carol Bomer has incorporated these words from Revelation 22:17 into the lower part of her painting. She recounts how she had just finished teaching the book of Revelation to her Bible study and realized that these words were so important that they end the entire canon of Scripture. Jesus gives the final call to the nations to drink from him, the living water, a call he had given earlier to the Jewish leaders in John 7: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Out his heart will flow rivers of living water." The tower of Babel has been Bomer’s symbol for man's words used for power and manipulated truth, and the postmodern motto that "the world is a text."
About the Artist:
Grace Carol Bomer was born in Alberta, Canada, and pursued a career in teaching before she became a professional painter. Moving to North Carolina to study art at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Carol established her Soli Deo Gloria Studio there. As an abstract expressionist characterized by sumptuous color, textures, and palpable light, Bomer seeks to explore themes that center around “the human condition surprised by the grace of God.” She is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions for her art. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and juried exhibitions, and is held in many public, private, and corporate collections including Wachovia Bank, Westinghouse, Holiday Inns, Inc., and Cessna Corp.
gracecarolbomer.com/home.html
About the Music:
“All Who Are Thirsty” from the album Adoration
Lyrics:
All who are thirsty,
All who are weak,
Come to the fountain
Dip your heart in the streams of life.
Let the pain and the sorrow
Be washed away
In the waves of his mercy,
As deep cries out to deep, we sing:
Come Lord Jesus, come.
Come Lord Jesus, come.
Come Lord Jesus, come.
Come Lord Jesus, come.
All who are thirsty,
All who are weak,
Come to the fountain
Dip your heart in the streams of life.
Let the pain and the sorrow
Be washed away
In the waves of his mercy,
As deep cries out to deep, we sing:
Holy Spirit come.
Holy Spirit come.
Holy Spirit come.
Holy Spirit come.
Come and breathe on us again.
Come and breathe on us again.
Come and visit us again.
Come and visit us again.
As deep cries out to deep,
As deep cries out to deep,
As deep cries out to deep,
We sing:
Come Lord Jesus, come.
Come Lord Jesus, come.
Come Lord Jesus, come.
Come Lord Jesus, come.
Come and breathe on us again.
Come and breathe on us again.
Come and visit us again.
Come and visit us again.
The Spirit and the bride say come.
The Spirit and the bride say come.
Come Lord Jesus.
Come Lord Jesus, come.
Make way for the King of glory.
Make way for the King of glory.
Open up you gates, open up you gates.
Let the King of glory in.
Let the King of glory in.
Let the King of glory in.
About the Performer:
Brenton Brown (b. 1973) is a South African and American Christian musician and worship leader. The title track "Everlasting God" on his solo album Everlasting God was given an award at the ASCAP awards ceremony in 2008. Brown co-wrote "Soul on Fire,” released by Third Day, which was nominated for a Grammy award.. In 2019, Brown's song "You Know My Name" was co-written with Tasha Cobbs Leonard. Brown is best known for his congregational worship songs. He worked with Vineyard Music UK in the 1990s where he co-wrote and recorded "All Who are Thirsty," "Lord Reign in Me," "Humble King," "Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing)," and "Holy.” In the 2000s, recording as a Kingsway artist, Brown co-penned and recorded "Hosanna (Praise is Rising)," "Everlasting God," "Because of Your Love," and "God My Rock.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenton_Brown
https://brentonbrown.com/
Composers/Lyricists:
Brenton Brown and Glenn Robertson
Glenn Robertson is a husband, father, pastor band leader, worship leader and a lover of God who lives in Cape Town, South Africa, he joined His People Christian Church Cape Town in 1989 and became a full-time staff in 1993. After seventeen years of fruitful involvement, he left His People with blessing from the pastoral team in 2005. He is also a trustee at the African Musicians Trust, which exists to engage, equip, support, guide and educate South African musicians and offer services to them to empower their careers through providing a platform of marketing, public relations, events management, training and networking. They also promote and implement music tutoring at primary and secondary schools and also with adult musicians who were previously disadvantaged and unable to study at tertiary institutions.
About the Poet:
Robert Hayden (1913–1980) was the first African American to be appointed as consultant in poetry to the US Library of Congress. Hayden's formal, elegant poems about the Black historical experience have earned him a number of major awards. Poet Frederick Glaysher states in his introduction of Hayden's Collected Prose that "Robert Hayden is now generally accepted as the most outstanding craftsman of Afro-American poetry." The historical basis for much of Hayden's poetry stemmed from his extensive study of American and Black history. Other influences on Hayden's development as a writer were poets W. H. Auden and Stephen Vincent Benét. Hayden spent twenty-three years teaching at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was a professor of English, and he ended his career at the University of Michigan.
About the Devotion Writer:
Joseph E. Gorra
Writer and Educator
Founder/Director of Veritas Life Center
Biola Alum
Joe Gorra is founder and director of Veritas Life Center, advancing the Christian tradition as a knowledge and wisdom tradition for the flourishing of human life and society. His writings have appeared at ChristianityToday.com, Patheos.com, and various academic publications, including the Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care, the Christian Research Journal, and the Journal of Markets and Morality.