"The Scent of Water"

 

Friends: that I recall in these twelve years, I do not think I have ever written an Orange Moon devotional for a Sunday (I don't think it appropriate to distract from your pastors' preaching and teaching).  Technically, this is still Saturday where I am, however, so I taking this one liberty.  Thanks, Glen.

 

 

    "For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant" (Job 14:7-9).

 

    "Rooted... in Him" (Colossians 2:7).

 

    The life of the born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a Tree that was cut down, but sprouted again.  It is the Stock of a root that died in the ground, but budded, and brings forth boughs like a plant.  We are rooted in our crucified and risen Savior.  Therefore, every outward portion of our being could be destroyed, but we will rise again, whether figuratively in this life, or literally in the next.

 

     This is a hard truth to believe, and even harder to feel.  We are all tempted to imagine scenarios of loss that seem to portend of impossibility to survive and overcome.  Every leaf stripped bear, every branch lopped off, our very trunk cut down and burned to ashes.  "How could I bear this sorrow, or that calamity?"  Our spiritual enemies love to torment us with such ominous prospects.  We do well to recognize that such notions are, in fact, temptations.

 

     Our response must be the Biblical truth that our bearing of sorrows is not the issue.  "Thou bearest not the root, but the root thee" (Roman 11:18).  Our Lord would not have us wonder how we could handle worst case scenarios of life.  He would rather have us remember that He has already done so.  "In the world ye shall have tribulation.  But be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).  The depth and permanence of our Root is the issue.  What will He be if our leaves fall, our branches break, and our trunk be destroyed?  Every believer knows the answer, and as we trust the Lord regarding the contingencies and exigencies of life to come, "through scent of water," the living Water, we will bud, and we "will bring forth boughs like a plant."

 

    "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (I John 5:4).  The Lord Jesus is a burnt over forest that will never ignite again.  "Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more" (Romans 6:9).  We are spiritually "hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).  We are hidden in the Root.  Thus, all can seemingly be fallen, shorn, cut down and dead.  But let us be sure.  We will rise again.  We will rejoice.  We will know peace.  We will sing, and we will overcome the world.  Because the Root bears us, and nothing can hinder just the scent of His living water causing us to ever spring forth in newness of life for the glory of our risen Lord Jesus.

 

"Because I live, ye shall live also."

(John 14:19)

"Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal bodies."

(II Corinthians 4:10)