Jesus said to her, ?Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.? The woman said to Him, ?Sir, give me this water so that I will not get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.?
Jesus told her, ?Go, call your husband and come back.? ?I have no husband,? the woman replied. Jesus said to her, ?You are correct to say that you have no husband.? In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. You have spoken truthfully.? – Jesus Christ
A few weeks ago, my dentist told me I needed to replace two of my crowns. I had been going to this dental group for years and they always seemed to do good work. After all, it was a large and respected practice in Arvada. Up to this point, I always took their advice and had them do whatever they recommended. But the price they quoted for the crowns seemed? high. So I did something I had never done before: I got a second opinion on my proposed dental work.
The second opinion shocked me. The dentist told me there was no need to have my crowns replaced. There was no pathology and no insurance company would cover them for purely cosmetic reasons – and the price they were charging was about 50% above the norm to boot. In response, I almost fell off the dentist chair. Not only was my trusted dental group ripping me off, it was also ripping off my dental insurance company. I wondered how much dental work I’ve had them do in the past that I really didn’t need.
We live in a dry and thirsty land. Truth, honesty and integrity are in short supply these days. It seems you can’t trust anyone.
And that applies to men especially. If you’re a woman, you know you have to be careful around men. I wonder, if we took a poll, how many women would say they have been hurt and abused by a man. I’m thinking, judging from the headlines lately, it would be a huge percentage.
The woman Jesus met at the well had certainly been hurt by men. She had been married five times. Finally she just gave up on marriage and simply shacked up with a guy. She was thirsty, hungry for a genuine, loving relationships. She just didn’t know how to get them.
The promise Jesus gave her was that he would make her so that she would never thirst for genuine love again. In fact, not only would she not thirst again for authentic relationships, but she – and everyone who would believe in him – would become a source of such relationships for others; a spring of water to which others would come to have their thirst quenched.
That is the vision of New Commandment Men’s Ministries: introducing men to Jesus’s love so that they become a living “spring of water” – a source of honesty, integrity, and – especially – of flowing love for others who are dying of thirst in this relational desert we call America.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
_______________________________________________________________
Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
_______________________________________________________________
