The Welcome Valley Reader
Spring or Rock Formation?
You are looking at a picture of Liberty Cap. This rock formation at Yellowstone National Park in the western United States stands over thirty feet tall. It’s one of the many impressive natural features in the park.
Just to keep you guessing, though, Liberty Cap isn’t a rock formation. It’s a spring of water. Water? That’s correct, or at least it was. Once, Liberty Cap wasn’t a huge stone chess piece. It was a stream of hot water springing from the earth. Doubtlessly, it sent a steaming flow down the mountainside. But as the water came to the surface and flowed away it left traces of minerals. Those minerals began to form a small rock. The rock grew--one foot, two feet, five feet, ten feet, twenty. And yet, the water flowed from its top and ran down its sides. The base of the fountain grew wider as it grew upward, almost like a mountain in the making.
Then, something happened. Maybe the minerals began to plug the very channels the water flowed through. Maybe, the tower of rock grew so high that the pressure pushing the water upward was no longer strong enough to reach the top. Maybe something shifted under the earth and the water flowed elsewhere. In any event, the spring at Liberty Cap was quenched. The surrounding earth dried up. The spring became a dry rock.
The Bible tells us that rivers of living water will flow out of the Christian. It is speaking symbolically, of course. Living water represents the Holy Spirit working in and through the child of God. Unlike the water that flowed from that Yellowstone spring, the "water" flowing from the Christian is pure. It will never choke itself off. There is no greater power to force it to flow elsewhere. Yet the Bible also warns against quenching the Spirit. We can supply the forces that will turn a spring of living water into a cold, hard rock. Frequent indulgence in sin, harboring a bad attitude, valuing the riches and pleasures of life more than we do God—all these will, with time, turn us from people through whom God works to sour, unhappy losers that do more harm than good. Allowing sin into our lives will turn us from sources of spiritual power and blessing, to the equivalent of hard, dry rocks.
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) –John 7:37-39
Quench not the Spirit. –1 Thessalonians 5:19
This essay is in the public domain and may be copied and distributed freely.
How to Have a Relationship with God
Home * Contact Info * About This Site * Copyright Release * Bible Studies * Easy English Home
A Father's Faith * A Man for an Impossible Situation * A Mother's Triumph * All they Did Was Show Up for Work * Angels in the Sky * Dealing with the Evidence * Enforcing the Enforcer * Magic Vs. Miracle * Reclaiming a Failure * Taking Away the Stone * The Beginning * The Decision * The Devoted One * The End of the Boy King * The Flood * The Good Samaritan * The King and the King of Kings * The Making of a Traitor * The Man Who Sold His Rights * The Man Whose Eyes Were Opened * The Outcast * The Secret Agent * The Stranger * The Testing * The View from the Cave * The Weak Commando * Two Men, Two Scandals, Two Results * Where Is the God of Elijah?
Bridges to Burn * Come in Out of the Cold * Dropping Out * Dying Faith * Everything I Didn't Have * Failed Horizons * Failing for the Lord * Fire Danger * Living Water * Negligence * Spring or Rock Formation? * Stepping Toward God * The Beacon * Swimming with Piranhas * The Road Through the Swamp * Tracks in the Woods