Bitter Waters
[The Communist prison camp was]... in the hottest region of the country and the sweltering heat became more, and more, and more unbearable as the day grew. We were thirsty and yet no one had asked if we wanted anything to drink, let alone anything to eat. We were as the children of Israel in the wilderness... Perhaps they began to murmur because the children were constantly asking for water to drink. That triumphant song of victory recorded in Exodus 5:21-24 did not last long. "I will sing unto the Lord a new song, for He has done excellent things... " What words of confidence and joy, yet it is a difficult thing to go on from the place of God's great miracles, into trials and testings.
Moses had to force the people to move on from their contented place of blessing... the words that I had read so many times became very real to me. The children of Israel also were asking for water, just as we were. They could not find water anywhere just as I could not. When they finally found water, God had made it bitter to them because of their failure to accept from God the situation they were in. So much bitterness had begun to seep into my heart also.
It was then that Moses prayed to God and found the solution in a piece of wood. This bitter water and the piece of wood were separated, just as I had separated from the wood of the Cross. It was a sad thing that because of my situation, I had lost sight of the Cross, and was no longer together with it. I was so overwhelmed by the bitter waters of my situation, instead of letting the sweetness of the Cross change the bitterness that my situation had brought into my life.
I know how much my Savior loved me, and how He had suffered on the Cross for my sins. He had paid such a great price for me, a price that pierced my heart and suddenly made me realize that I did not want to take part only of His power and joy of His resurrection. With it, I wanted to be a partaker of His sufferings. Where was that piece of wood now? Where was my love for the Cross? There in that unkempt yard, representing so much bitterness, I realized that I had forgotten the Cross in the midst of my own personal sufferings. I was caught up only with what had happened to me and not what Jesus had gone through on the Cross. Instead of abiding in His passions and feelings, I had remained in my own.
[JF, (c)1989]
Moses had to force the people to move on from their contented place of blessing... the words that I had read so many times became very real to me. The children of Israel also were asking for water, just as we were. They could not find water anywhere just as I could not. When they finally found water, God had made it bitter to them because of their failure to accept from God the situation they were in. So much bitterness had begun to seep into my heart also.
It was then that Moses prayed to God and found the solution in a piece of wood. This bitter water and the piece of wood were separated, just as I had separated from the wood of the Cross. It was a sad thing that because of my situation, I had lost sight of the Cross, and was no longer together with it. I was so overwhelmed by the bitter waters of my situation, instead of letting the sweetness of the Cross change the bitterness that my situation had brought into my life.
I know how much my Savior loved me, and how He had suffered on the Cross for my sins. He had paid such a great price for me, a price that pierced my heart and suddenly made me realize that I did not want to take part only of His power and joy of His resurrection. With it, I wanted to be a partaker of His sufferings. Where was that piece of wood now? Where was my love for the Cross? There in that unkempt yard, representing so much bitterness, I realized that I had forgotten the Cross in the midst of my own personal sufferings. I was caught up only with what had happened to me and not what Jesus had gone through on the Cross. Instead of abiding in His passions and feelings, I had remained in my own.
[JF, (c)1989]
posted by CS at 7:45 PM
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