Pastor Larry Rowland explains the law of nature is that blessing only continues to flow as it is passed on to others. “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Luke 6:38 NIV)
There are two bodies of water in the land of Israel. These 2 seas are as different as night and day, as death and life. The Southern of the 2 is actually called the Dead Sea. It is named well because there is not one living creature in it. With a salt concentration 9 times that of the Ocean, there aren't even any birds around it. No boats dot it’s rocky beaches. Even though roughly 5 million tons of fresh water are poured into it every day, the Dead Sea contains 24% solid matter - mostly salt along with magnesium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium chloride and magnesium bromide. When you swim in the Dead Sea, you come out feeling like you have baby oil all over your body. Not the clear, clean look of baby oil more like a greenish brown yuk color and very grainy.
In contrast, some 80 miles north of the Dead Sea is the Sea of Galilee. And what a difference there is found in this body of water. Teeming with life, this Sea even today provides the livelihood for scores of fishermen. When one visits the Sea of Galilee, they see the beaches dotted with fishing boats. Jesus spent a good portion of his ministry here, because the people were here. Catching the fish for food and profit, farming the fertile land around the Sea, building their towns and cities by the water's edge, this formed a major hub of activity during the days of Christ and it remains so even to this day.
If the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea have the very same water, what accounts for the stark difference between the two? The answer is very simple. The Sea of Galilee receives its life giving water from the Hula River and then passes on the blessing down the Jordan River. The Dead Sea, on the other hand, is the lowest spot on the face of the earth - some 1,286 feet below Sea level. It receives all of that life-giving water, but it doesn't give any away. It just takes and takes and takes. And in its hoarding, it turns life-giving water into death.
A pearl to string: The world tells us that happiness and fulfillment is found in getting and making and accomplishing as much as you can any way you can. The American Dream? That message runs in direct contradiction to the law of nature that God has set forth as a principle of life. The chain of blessing only continues as the author of blessing is recognized and as the flow of blessing continues. When either the author of blessing is denied or the flow of blessing is stopped, the blessing becomes a curse, life becomes death. And we are seeing this process happening all around us today. In a nation of unbelievable affluence and prosperity, we are seeing more unhappiness and discontentment and unfulfilled lives than ever before in the history of man. Seems as a people we have missed God’s heart. The chain of blessing that God bestows on us must pass through us and on to others. The blessings came from God. So as we have freely received, we freely give of ourselves to others.
“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously”. 2 Corinthians 9:6
Pass it on …..
You are loved,
Lyndi
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