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Pilgrim Jim's Treasure
Field
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Have you ever been thirsty, so thirsty that your throat hurt and your tongue didn't want to form words correctly? I have experienced a few times during my Army training when a cool drink of water seemed like it would be worth a month's pay. I remember as a child when I was picking cotton on a hot day and I sometimes carried my cotton sack up to the cotton wagon before the sack was full because I was thirsty and wanted a drink from the barrel of water that was fastened to the wagon. The thought of a big drink of water seemed to be more important to this young boy than the few cents I would earn from the cotton that I picked. The water was not cold but it sure was good. Sometimes when my Dad was working out in the farm fields of Southeast Missouri, my job was to carry a big gallon jug of cool, fresh water out to him and he surely enjoyed drinking from that jug because he was thirsty. The gallon jug was wrapped in burlap and I soaked the burlap in water before setting out on my mission. The warm air caused the excess water to evaporate from the burlap and it had a cooling effect on the jug. Dad would drink from that jug and say, "Ahhhh, that's good." The water from the jug was an element to sustain life and at that moment it was the natural water of life but it usually wasn't long until Dad was thirsty again. The Scriptures speak of a time when a woman met Jesus at Jacob's old well. The well was deep and the water was cool. The water brought satisfaction to natural thirst, for a while, but soon the thirst returned. Jesus said, ........."Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whosoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman at the well didn't understand the spiritual significance of what Jesus had just told her but she said, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." I like what I see and read in those verses. The woman didn't understand all of the meaning of the words of Jesus but she didn't reject him because she didn't understand. She asked him for the water of which he spoke. I know that there are several references to water in relation to the word of God in the scriptures, including these verses. Ephesians 5:25-27
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave
himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish. Let us seek the Lord while he may be found. He is the fountain of living waters. I have written a song that speaks of the times when I was a child and carried drinking water out into the fields, to my Dad. Fresh, cool water in a big gallon jug. The song is entitled, Water Of Life and here are links to the song. When I was a child, a sharecropper's son, I'm
drinking from the fountain of the water of life, Sometimes Dad was working away half a mile, Chorus A woman met Jesus at Jacob's old well, Chorus Lord, make my life useful as I go along, |
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