Dear people of God, I was literally in tears as I prepared this message today. Looking out at the Body of Christ, and especially at the leadership- not with a critical eye, but with an aching heart- I am weeping with the prophet Jeremiah, "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the Spring of Living Water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" (Jeremiah 2:13).

I pray as I give this message that it is received by believers as their hearts are reaching out to Christ in the most sincere way, that they- WE- all of us together- would seek nothing but His Own Heart at this very moment...

In the passage here, God's heart is grieved as He watches His own people seeking after other things than Himself. He knows that only HE is the true spring of living water. He created man with an unquenchable need for Him, and we were designed in a way that we require Him ultimately and Him alone. He knew that nothing of our own devises would ever satisfy the genuine longing that He put in our heart for Him, yet here He is, watching His beloved children attempt do just that...

Now Jeremiah, as you know, was called 'the weeping prophet' because he could actually feel the pain in God's heart for His wayward people, as he was constantly calling them back to Him. It was a very deep, intimate calling that Jeremiah had. It was also very intense and painful, but it was God's call on his life, and he was faithful in it throughout his life. "They have forsaken Me, the Spring of Living Water, and have dug THEIR OWN cisterns- BROKEN cisterns that CANNOT hold water". What was a cistern for? For holding water!

What can you do with a broken one? Leaving God and going our own way, even in 'small areas' in our life, will always prove to be a 'broken cistern'- always!.....

I have watched as some of Christanity's leaders today- people who probably started out with a passion for Christ and Him alone, falling prey to the 'good life', the 'comfortable life', the 'way of least resistance', or the 'prosperous' life. They got a taste of the gold, and slowly began to go after it, then they began to run after it, then to crave it. They have forgotten their Lord, though they use His name all day long!

They have dug their own cisterns, and all the while God's heart grieves for them! Look at Israel throughout the old testament- starting with God's promise, then bragging that "we will do all that the Lord our God has told us!", then falling away and following their own devises- again and again and again. Turning their backs on the very One who would gladly have given them all their heart's desires if they would only seek Him... yet their God would bring them back every time, many times through extreme pain and suffering....

I'll tell you that today's new believers are being cheated! How will they grow in grace? How will they stay passionate about their Savior when God's 'leaders' have gone their own way? Where is the proclamation of the cross? Why won't God's ministers preach Christ as He is, not as we would have Him? How will the Savior's wonderful Presence ever come forth, when His preachers are more interested in manufacturing their own cheap imitation of it? Who are they fooling? Beloved, the world TODAY needs to see Jesus!

Not our own impression or imitation of Him, but HIM! He is here, and He is here now! Covet His Presence in your life, and covet to have the grace to show Him to others. Only He can heal this lost world. Look only to Him.

En Agape,
pastor Jim Ewing