When God calls us out of the world, we are eager to soak up all the information and knowledge we can! Through our daily study of the Bible, listening to sermons, and reading church publications, we have a good beginning. Add the supporting material of concordances, Harmony of the Gospels, e-Sword, Bible Hub etc., and there is much more to aid in our “iron sharpening iron” after Church services each week.

It can feel like you can never have or get enough. That first year of going through one full cycle of holy days was, for me, so eye-opening and incredible. It was the basis for the solid foundation to be laid for the future. I know I felt like a thirsty sponge, lapping up everything I could get. I was dry, deficient, and devoid of the water of life. God called me in the month of November so I learned about the 7 annual Holy Day festivals in God’s order, culminating with the Feast of Tabernacles (FOT) and The Last Great Day. I vividly remember entering the hall, dripping wet because it was raining outside, and I couldn’t care less. That had never happened before! Throughout the whole eight days of my first FOT, I concentrated on soaking up all the wisdom that was offered.

We should be like a sponge in absorbing the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ that is never-ending. We will spend a lifetime absorbing God’s truth. Some of the water of life we contain will flow out of us as we share the good news of the coming Kingdom of God with others. Does that mean we will have less water for ourselves? No, not at all. We can drink of the fountain of life continually as much as we desire because God tells us in John 4:14, in Jesus Christ’s words, “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

A physical message about a spiritual matter

This message from John 4:14 has had a profound impact on me and I would like to share the story of what happened to me early on in my conversion.

Most of my life I frequented many different libraries—for myself personally, with all of my children, and for attending university studies. Not just little suburban libraries, but The State Library of South Australia and various university campus libraries. I could not honestly tell you how many times I have visited, but I would guess well into the many hundreds.

Only on one of these occasions, and soon after being called by God, I had a small card pop out of a book I picked up off the shelf. The card read “A message from God to you” on the front. When I folded back the cover, the inside contained the verse from John 4:14. It literally stopped me in my tracks. It was one of those “Aha!” moments, where it was not some offbeat coincidence. It was real. It was life changing. It is not every day that this sort of thing happens; well, not to me anyway. However, the more this road is traveled, the more adventures it contains.

As I draw an analogy to that of a thirsty sponge, I realize that some sponges develop layers to them. The core of the sponge contains the most water, just as we should. Let’s resolve to soak up more of the water of life that God is freely giving to us while considering Revelation 7:9-17: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying: ’Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honour and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen’. Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘Why are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?’ And I said to him, ‘Sir, you know’. So he said to me, ‘These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

As we all so eagerly await that glorious time we join as one in desiring that God speed that day. As the penultimate verse in The Bible says...even so, come Lord Jesus!