Scripture Reading: John 4:1-26
If we reflect over our lives, there are people that the Lord brings across our paths that are life changing encounters for us. Sometimes those people are a consistent force like a parent/grandparent, sibling, youth director, neighbor, Bible study leader, etc. God demonstrates Christ’s love for us through these relationships. At others times God weaves unexpected encounters that might just last moments but have great impact on us. Let me tell you about one.
When my children were both in the double stroller (now freshmen in high school and college), we had walked downtown to an arts festival. I signed up for a “free year supply of Culligan Water.” To my surprise, the next week I received a call that I had won! What I didn’t realize was that when I set up the appointment for the installation, God was setting me up for a “divine appointment” that was going to bring me life-changing water!
The salesman was like no other man I had ever met. He was full of life; full of joy. Finally, I couldn’t resist asking him what made him so bubbly. He told me he was a Christian. (Well, so was I but he seemed to know something that I did not!) This man went on to talk to me about his relationship with Jesus as he installed my free water system. It’s as if he knew Jesus personally. He talked about his love and faithfulness. About experiences God had given him. In our conversation, he told me that when he had first been saved he began to read the Letter of James every night for five years in a row. He said it was only five chapters long and the Word changed his life. I wanted my life changed too!
Once he left, I went to find my Bible. It had that very nice new look because at that time it mostly sat on a shelf and was seldom opened. I opened it and looked for James. I admit as I began to read it, I stopped as I got to the second verse. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,(James 1:2). Seriously, JOY??? Does this person realize what it’s like to go through trials? Joy was not an adjective I would use. Yet, I had just encountered someone filled with joy! I continued. At first I could hardly understand what I was reading and in fact it made me take a hard look at myself questioning God and my relationship with Him. But I kept reading and re-reading and re-reading daily just like the Culligan Water Man. Not for five years but for a period of time where the Word began to change me from the inside-out.
As my love for the Word has grown over the years, I can now say I know Jesus intimately and everyday more and more our relationship continues to grow. God knew what He was doing when He crossed my path with the Culligan Water Man. He wasn’t just bringing me natural water, He was giving me a drink of Living Water. It’s as if I was the “woman at the well” in John 4. Her sins were different than mine but sin is sin. Jesus encounters this broken, hurting woman in Samaria. “Jesus said to her. ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14.
I was a broken, hurting woman who did not realize that my sins are forgiven by Jesus’ finished work on the cross!
Well, last week I was sharing the Culligan Water Man story with someone..again. I asked the Lord, you know I sure wish I could find him and tell him thank you for sharing this Living Water with me. Just today, I was flipping through the newspaper and there was an ad with his picture in it celebrating 25 years of Culligan Water service. My, oh my, can you imagine the lives that have been refreshed by God through him! Now the question becomes, how does the Lord want us to become fountains of living water for others as we cross paths with them?
Kim Bookmyer grew up in Ashland, graduating from AHS in 1983. She then attended Bowling Green State University where she graduated in 1988. Kim went on to teach 5th grade in the Bowling Green district for 5 years before becoming a "stay at home mom." During this time, God walked along beside her teaching her many lessons about what it means to truly be available to Him and to have her complete identity in Him alone. In 2010, Kim began attending the Winebrenner Theological Seminary in Findlay, Ohio. Kim and her husband John have been married 25 years and have a son, Brennan at Taylor University, and a daughter, Elizabeth who is a freshman at Findlay High School.
If we reflect over our lives, there are people that the Lord brings across our paths that are life changing encounters for us. Sometimes those people are a consistent force like a parent/grandparent, sibling, youth director, neighbor, Bible study leader, etc. God demonstrates Christ’s love for us through these relationships. At others times God weaves unexpected encounters that might just last moments but have great impact on us. Let me tell you about one.
When my children were both in the double stroller (now freshmen in high school and college), we had walked downtown to an arts festival. I signed up for a “free year supply of Culligan Water.” To my surprise, the next week I received a call that I had won! What I didn’t realize was that when I set up the appointment for the installation, God was setting me up for a “divine appointment” that was going to bring me life-changing water!
The salesman was like no other man I had ever met. He was full of life; full of joy. Finally, I couldn’t resist asking him what made him so bubbly. He told me he was a Christian. (Well, so was I but he seemed to know something that I did not!) This man went on to talk to me about his relationship with Jesus as he installed my free water system. It’s as if he knew Jesus personally. He talked about his love and faithfulness. About experiences God had given him. In our conversation, he told me that when he had first been saved he began to read the Letter of James every night for five years in a row. He said it was only five chapters long and the Word changed his life. I wanted my life changed too!
Once he left, I went to find my Bible. It had that very nice new look because at that time it mostly sat on a shelf and was seldom opened. I opened it and looked for James. I admit as I began to read it, I stopped as I got to the second verse. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,(James 1:2). Seriously, JOY??? Does this person realize what it’s like to go through trials? Joy was not an adjective I would use. Yet, I had just encountered someone filled with joy! I continued. At first I could hardly understand what I was reading and in fact it made me take a hard look at myself questioning God and my relationship with Him. But I kept reading and re-reading and re-reading daily just like the Culligan Water Man. Not for five years but for a period of time where the Word began to change me from the inside-out.
As my love for the Word has grown over the years, I can now say I know Jesus intimately and everyday more and more our relationship continues to grow. God knew what He was doing when He crossed my path with the Culligan Water Man. He wasn’t just bringing me natural water, He was giving me a drink of Living Water. It’s as if I was the “woman at the well” in John 4. Her sins were different than mine but sin is sin. Jesus encounters this broken, hurting woman in Samaria. “Jesus said to her. ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14.
I was a broken, hurting woman who did not realize that my sins are forgiven by Jesus’ finished work on the cross!
Well, last week I was sharing the Culligan Water Man story with someone..again. I asked the Lord, you know I sure wish I could find him and tell him thank you for sharing this Living Water with me. Just today, I was flipping through the newspaper and there was an ad with his picture in it celebrating 25 years of Culligan Water service. My, oh my, can you imagine the lives that have been refreshed by God through him! Now the question becomes, how does the Lord want us to become fountains of living water for others as we cross paths with them?
Kim Bookmyer grew up in Ashland, graduating from AHS in 1983. She then attended Bowling Green State University where she graduated in 1988. Kim went on to teach 5th grade in the Bowling Green district for 5 years before becoming a "stay at home mom." During this time, God walked along beside her teaching her many lessons about what it means to truly be available to Him and to have her complete identity in Him alone. In 2010, Kim began attending the Winebrenner Theological Seminary in Findlay, Ohio. Kim and her husband John have been married 25 years and have a son, Brennan at Taylor University, and a daughter, Elizabeth who is a freshman at Findlay High School.