The Deafening Sound Of The Waterfall

"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life." - Psalm 42:5-8 ESV

The Hebrew word translated as waterfalls here is tsinnuwr (Strong's H6794). In the KJV it reads waterspouts. It could describe a tornado touching down on the water and drawing the water from the ocean into the sky or water roaring as it falls and mingles into the water below.

If you have ever stood next to a sizable waterfall you know how loud it is. A tornado sounds like a freight train is roaring right past you when you are close to one. It is almost deafening. This speaks of a sound that overwhelms our senses or waves that buffet us so that we can't keep our footed and we must hold our breadth as they come in to survive.

At times God's grace voice must overwhelm our inner voice. We construct these complex rational structures but God wants the water to flow so He floods us with grace so deefening that we stop listening to ourselves.

This has happened to me in worship. I go away. I enter in the music and participate with all rest of creation and celebrate my creator. Work problems don't exist. How I look in the mirror is far away. I have no past. There is only worship.

It has happened to me when I have heard a message preached by a man of understanding who was anointed by God to deliver that message. The water of God's word was so forceful that I was overwhelmed and brought into the thinking environment that was being presented to me. Jesus didn't die 2,000 years ago on a cross. It was happening right in the moment as it was being described and the waters of it pounded me and life poured into me as life drained out of Him for my sake.

"The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out." - Proverbs 20:5 ESV

Are you cast down? God wants to draw the poison out of your soul and pour His life into you. Your inner recriminations must be silenced and replaced by grace thoughts. Speak grace to yourself. Be around people who speak grace.

Sometimes silence is the worst thing for us because we need to hear words from God. There needs to be an exchange of life. Two friends who don't speak can grow distant from one another because one, or both, of them are speaking the wrong things to themselves.

Sometimes we all need peace and quiet but we also need the place that deafens our inner voice and replaces it with God's noise and God's mind. A balance of both is a healthy thing.

God loves you without conditions because all the strict conditions were already met by His Son. I pray that God overwhelms you with this concept this weekend or one day very soon.

It is wonderfully refreshing when the fresh water from the waterfalls fills our pool and displaces what was there. Life can happen in that noisy flow.

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Now Is The Hour

Jesus was and Is courageous.

"And Jesus answered them, 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.' " - John 12:23-26 ESV

Jesus was not timid and careful. Passages like these challenge me to step out and not play it safe.

Different people have different 'safety margins'. For an introvert losing their life may mean one thing in practical application. Dying to self might resemble what an extrovert does... and vice versa.

Jesus knew that the moments to come would reveal the glory of God. Glorified here in this passage is the Greek word doxazo (Strong's G1392) and it means to magnify, celebrate and reveal.

Jesus didn't die to self to please the Father. The Father was already pleased with Him (see Matthew 3:17). He died to reveal the Father.

I don't know what this means to you personally. All of us struggle with different decisions at different times.

At one point going to Bible college was losing my life. Dorm life definitely was at times. {smile}

I lost my life when I handed a person a Gospel tract on the street. The only 'evangelists' I ever remember seeing growing up were a group of people in African dress in Times Square who had a big picture of Jesus drawn as a black man and wanted to argue with me that Jesus was black that white people had stolen their Bible from them. They were angry and violent men shouting through a megaphone who looked like they would happily hurt people if they could justify getting away with it. I didn't want to be associated with anything like that.

Can we walk into situations and say, 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.' even if it means risking that people might misunderstand us?

I want to have this attitude for every hospital visit and each conversation with someone new. Jesus was going to the cross thinking this and I want to think this way as I go to His cross.

"If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." - 1 Corinthians 13:3 ESV

This is the religious sacrifice. They do it to please someone who can't be pleased that way. They labor and hurt themselves and others in their labor because God's love isn't in it. God isn't motivating it. God isn't ultimate revealed in it.

Jesus can be revealed today. We don't have to say 'brother' a hundred times and end every sentence with 'Amen' to do it. We must however travel to the edge of our comfort zone and be willing to step into action by faith so that redemption can be manifested in the world.

Rest might be the thing at the edge of our comfort zone.

Can we rest saying, 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.'... Yes... Resting in the storm glories God. Acting in faith obedience outside our personality glorifies God. Praise in the midst of chaos. Objectivity in the midst of the mob.

Thank You Jesus. Thank You for going to the cross. Thank You for coming to Earth and showing us what courage really is. You are our hero. Inspire us today. Send Your spirit to quicken our human spirit. We want to reveal the Father today. We want the invisible to become visible. Please make that happen and give us the backbone to go forward and not fall backwards. Thank You God.

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The River

"Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side. Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. And he said to me, 'Son of man, have you seen this?' Then he led me back to the bank of the river." Ezekiel 47:1-6 ESV

This is a passage that has been speaking to me for days. It is such a picture of the exchanged life. God leads me out not so I can cross over but so my feet are no longer touching the bottom in self direction. Then He brings me back to the same side I started on but the river experience is in me. I was in the river but now the river is in me.

"As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, 'This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.' " - Ezekiel 47:7-12 ESV

My eyes are no longer fixed on reaching the other side. Instead they are fixed on God's flow into the world and the leaves that will heal the nations.