Spring of Living Waters

I love the hebrew names of our God and saw this one again.

He is the Spring of living waters. A few years back I had a video link on a song praising our Lord with this name. The song was done by Zemar Levav which I repost here today.

Also on the left here is a picture from Michael Belk a fashion photographer which also reminded me of this beautiful name of Our Lord . The picture shows Yeshua's relevance in a modern context through his amazing amazing Photographic book "Journeys with the Messiah". The woman at the well here is depicted as the bride and Jesus giving her the Kingdom stock wine..what a powerful visual!

The stories of the old testament show the complete fulfillment in Yeshua in every name, character, story and nature of Yahweh in His ministry is mind blowing and awesome indeed! King David was both a lover and a warrior of God. In Psalm 63 he expresses the sentiment of his thirst and panting that can only be filled by God. Believers in Yeshua get even more....drink O lovers of God His offer of intoxicating wine!

I say again:

May He the Spring of living waters quench your soul and then let him also offer you the intoxicating wine of His Holy Spirit  that will bring you in even more -  to a greater intimacy with Him!!

Blessings & Shalom,

Sam

From My Journals: Understanding

From entry on 10/18/2013

I was recently reading an ancient book called "Euclid's elements"  written by Euclid a greek mathematician. He is known as the father of Euclidean geometry who famously  quoted "The laws of nature are the mathematical thoughts of God". A neat quote indeed irrespective of what your beliefs in God are. Euclid is also know as the father of Geometry even when there were other famous greek mathematicians like Pythagoras who preceded him. I think its mainly because of his 13 volume treatise he wrote explaining the measurement of "Geo"(earth) and hence the term "Geometry".  His volumes were in the original greek, later on shepherded by the Arabs, translated to Latin and then finally made its translation into English around 1570's. Euclid's Elements was the second most published book after the Bible. In fact there was a time when one was not considered educated if he or she hadn't read Euclid's Elements.

Anyway this post is about "Understanding" I will try to correlate. As I was reading Euclid's elements
I also came across an amazing quote by Abraham Lincoln who seem to have studied Euclid's Elements. He said:

'In the course of my law reading I constantly came upon the word "demonstrate". I thought at first that I understood its meaning but soon became satisfied I did not. I said to myself What do I do when I demonstrate more than when I reason or prove? How does demonstration differ from any other proof? I consulted Webster's dictionary. They told of a certain proof "a proof beyond the possibility of doubt.'; but I had no idea of what sort of proof that was. I thought great many things were proved beyond the possibility of doubt without recourse to any such extraordinary process of reasoning as I understand demonstration to be. I consulted all the documents, dictionaries and books of reference I could find but with no better results. You might well defined the color blue to a blind man.  At last I sad - Lincoln, you never will make a good lawyer if you do not understand what demonstrate means and I left my situation in springfield, went home to my father's house and stayed there till I could give any proposition in the six books of Euclid at sight. I then found out what demonstrated means and went back to my law studies.'

When I read this I thought to myself the men of old had little access to all the information and knowledge we have today but differ from us that they had a deep yearning for understanding.

Proverbs 2:2-6  comes to my mind which aptly gives us insights on the importance of 'understanding':

"Listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding. Furthermore if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding

If you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.

 For the Lord gives wisdom, from His mouth come knowledge and understanding

I am also reminded of the root word of demonstrate is also linked with dunamis as in the writings of Paul when he says "When we entered a city we came in demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit and then we preached" (Paraphrase mine).  An understanding that helps in demonstration and demonstrating beyond the possibility of any doubt.

Interestingly Raphael's painting of Euclid is a poignant reminder of the same as an effective teacher he was demonstrating to his students and not merely teaching. Fascinating!!

Blessings and Shalom,

Sam Kurien

From My Journals: Our Atonement

Wow its been a long time that I have now written or posted here. I have been so busy working, traveling and then working some more :). However I have been a constant in writing my journals. Four journals in a year is personally outstanding for me. So to fill posts here I may cheat a little bit by transferring things from my journal to bits on this blog. Of course I will be selective as capturing and transferring everything will take me hours of typing.

Entry from: 10/27/2013:

Just finished reading "The Happy Gospel" by Benjamin Dunn. Some facts that blew me away again on the compassion and kindness of the Lord is regarding the Day of Atonement.

In Leviticus chapter 23 we see how how the Lord is zealously jealous of the day of atonement. If you don't remember well - the idea was the High priest on this day sprinkled blood upon the mercy seat as instructed by the Lord to cover Israel's sins. On this particular day the Lord commanded that no one, absolutely no one should work, otherwise they would be destroyed. This is amazing as it reveals that  not only our our efforts are not required and unnecessary for salvation; it was commandment of the Lord not work but celebrate...party!!.

I love the fact that we must yield to the ease and effortlessness of the Gospel (as He says His yoke is indeed easy!). We like the Israelites on the day of the atonement must completely surrender to the divine grace of Yahweh.  Today, unfortunately the day of atonement for the Jewish people is somber day a sober day  because of the uncertainty of their forgiveness when historically the day was filled with jubilation and celebrating the mercies and goodness of God.  The absence of this ecstatic joy in the contemporary experience of the Yom Kippur is taken for granted in the Talmud - the book of rabbinical discussion of the law and the customs of the jews. This was very different in temple times as the talmud records that there was a red string tied on the temple door that urned white serving as a visible reminder of God's forgiveness of man. When this sign was shown celebration erupted in the camp of Israel. This type of joy was spontaneous even when it was a yearly occurrence. The women of Yerushalaiym would dance in the vineyards singing and celebrating the Lord's goodness.

Rabbi Yishamel says: "But they had another sign too; a thread of crimson wool was tied to the door of the temple and when the goat (hazozeal - scapegoat) reached the wilderness the thread turned white. As

it was written "Though your sins be a scarlet they shall be white as snow" (Yona 68b). This is also prophetically referenced in Isaiah and the Psalms.  On the head of the scapegoat the piece of thread that was tied also turned white. Tradition of the jews states that if God accepted the sacrifice the scarlet thread turned white but if God had not accepted this expiation the redness continued and the year was spent in mourning (Adam Clarke commentary).  The ancient Hebrews write that 40 years before the destruction of the temple which was about the time of Christ's death this red string turned no more white. I believe Yeshua paid for the atonement of sins for all mankind there was no need for another visible reminder. Tradition holds Yeshua was resurrected in white garments as He had supernaturally passed through the blood stained grave clothes that He had left in the tomb.

Let the Joy of atonement once again explode in the people of God. Our sins are completely been paid for. The sin offering and the perfect offering has been given by the The Anointed One Himself. He has saved the world single handedly and our efforts are not required. So let our hearts erupt in unquenchable abiding joy. When God looks on us at He looks at His perfect offering for those who have believed in this simple truth that Christ died for us and have been made righteous because of the Righteousness of the One that pleases the Father.

Blessings and Shalom

Sam