Springs of Living Water

John 7:38

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.


I have meditated before on the importance of relationships within the church and especially small groups. I often came from the viewpoint that we need relationships. We need people. We need edification and encouragement from those around us. But this time I am going to come at it from a different standpoint.

A New Glorious Earth

Revelation 21:1-5

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”


The purpose of God, for those whom He has shaped from the dust (Genesis 2:7) and redeemed with Christ’s blood (Ephesians 1:7), is not that they should return to the ground as we often hear at atheistic funerals. He desires that they receive glory. It is important as God’s people to maintain a taste of the glory that He has laid up for us in heaven. 

Righteous Anger

John 2:13–17

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”


Both Ephesians 4:31 and Colossians 3:8 tell us that anger is wrong. According to Paul we must put it away from us. It is also included in a list of despicable sins in 2 Corinthians 12:20. But what about Psalm 4:4 and Ephesians 4:26, which say, “Be angry and do not sin”? That implies there is a way to be angry and yet not sin, that there is a kind of righteous anger. Is that really true, and what then are its characteristics?