Water out, sonny. Never leave a waterin’ place without you take on a-plenty.”
                    –Elmer Kelton  (Stand Proud)

       “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.”
                    –Psalm 63:1 (NKJV)
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               “Thou has the key of the rain; the river is Thine, and it is full of water; every drop Thou dost count, every shower Thou alone dost give….  For this thirst [after righteousness] we pray; the keener thirst, the inner thirst:  the Lord hears us when we ask that we may be satisfied out of the river that flows by His own throne.”
                           –Joseph Parker

     Remember the times that you used to splash as a kid in the puddles after a rain?  Can you recall ever eating snow or sucking on icicles?  Remember, just last week I wrote about the heavy thirst, the need for water, and then there was an oasis?  No, not the floods that we have seen in recent days and years, but a steady supply of life-giving water.
     You were desperate for a drink.  Forget the seltzers, sodas, the ice coffee and cinos and lattes.  Forget asking the waitress for lemon in your tea.  Right then, in the heat of the day, when you were desperate all you wanted was a sip of cool water.  You didn’t quit; you crawled over the hill until you reached the oasis.  The desert wasteland had been merciless, but then you found water.  Ahh, that refreshing life-giving, life-sustaining water.
     Ahhh, that wonderful feeling when you fell into the water at the oasis.  It wasn’t a mirage.  Your mind wasn’t playing tricks on you; it was not another illusion.  Water.  It was pure, clear water.  You drank your fill, you bathed in it, soaking yourself.  Remember the feeling when you poured it over your head, when you splashed in it with your feet, when you rolled in it–life-saving, life-giving water?  Think of that wonderful experience with the Lord when He refreshed your soul with the water that flows from Him.  Gone were the mirages promised by pseudo-ideologies.  Now, you have tasted of the soul-quenching water from the Lord Himself.
     Why is it that we do not fill the soul with eternal water?  Why do some look at the supply, but turn to something else?  Life stems in the desert from an oasis, yet we let the soul become depleted and dehydrated.  We plod on the spiritual trek and never truly seek the oasis, the wells that have been provided.  They are out there in the wasteland of life, but we must seek them.  Sometimes there are tanks in the rocks, sometimes a pool, sometimes it takes a miracle of striking the Rock to get the water, but know this–it is there.  We must seek the Source of the true, pure, clear, cool water and never let our spirits thirst again.
     The oasis experience, never forget them.  It is important to remember the times in our lives when the Holy Spirit came to us in that special way.  Those times when He so overwhelmed us that we bathed in His presence; when we drank deeply from His deep wells.  Remember those times at the oasis of life, then continue on the journey through the wilderness.  Do not substitute the water of the world for the true water that flows from Christ.  Do not indulge in stagnant water from a poisoned pond that promises relief for your thirst but in reality will bring death.  Refresh yourself in the goodness of the Lord.

                “How sweet the living water from the hills of God,
                It makes me glad and happy all the way;
                Now glory grace and blessing mark the path I’ve trod,
                I’m shouting ‘Hallelujah’ ev’ry day.
                         Drinking at the springs of living water,
                         Happy now am I, My soul they satisfy;
                         Drinking at the springs of living water,
                         O wonderful and bountiful supply.”
                                –John W. Peterson

So if I have taken the easy and evil road it is not because I didn’t have sound advice.”
                    –Ernest Haycox  (Whispering Range)

        “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.”
                    –Job 1:1 (NIV)
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I recently started reading a book by Bryce Dominic Valor, and right off the bat it had this:  “We are drowning in information but starved for wisdom.”  That is the part of the premise we see in Proverbs 8.  People do not understand wisdom, and that is clear because if they did they would not shun or mock the things of God.  We see in the two verses below that wisdom is tied directly to the fear of the Lord.  “Coming to wisdom requires coming to God, and coming to God means turning away from all that God hates…” (NKJV Study Bible)

          12 — I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge and discretion.
          13 — The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.  (NKJV)

     Wisdom is personified and speaks to the way of holiness.  Do not listen to false teachers, those who would deceive.  The true worship of Christ is distinguished by the call to holiness.  He alone is altogether righteous and holy.  He hates evil and every evil work (Beasley).  Know this that man is sinful and undone.  “The way of holiness leads only by the cross of Christ, where the holiness of God met the sinfulness of man.” (Beasley).  
     We see in these verses that wisdom is a person; the person of Jesus Christ.  He is wisdom personified.  Wisdom, then, is part of the grand character of God.  When people reject God they are rejecting wisdom.  Evil and wickedness are hateful to Him; therefore, if we belong to Him, we will hate these things also. (McGee)  Those who partake of them show that they in reality hate wisdom and refuse to be guided by it.
     Prudence means discretion; that is, being cautious in one’s actions.  This is necessary for wisdom.  J.L. Flores says that it is “the best manner in which to carry out what wisdom has designed.”  For example, “wisdom decrees that a certain word is to be spoken.  Prudence decides upon the best time, place, and manner in which to say it.” (Flores)  Adam Clarke adds this, “wisdom applies to practice; wherever there is true wisdom it will lead to action.”  So wisdom is not passive.
     Wisdom and prudence then act in union for the promotion of moral ends.  Satan will try to deceive by offering false wisdom and prudence as he did Eve in the Garden.  Scripture declares, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12, NKJV)  Man’s wisdom and judgment are often misleading, that is why diligent study and knowledge of God’s Word is vital.
     We know what is “that good, and holy, and acceptable will of God” through the use of holy, godly wisdom.  Stephen Charnock states that “Whatsoever wisdom there is in the world, it is but a shadow of the wisdom of God.”  We are to avoid evil, and Paul goes further by saying we are to “avoid the appearance of evil” (1 Thessalonian 5:22, NKJV)  The ESV puts it this way, “abstain from every form of evil.”  (Hmm, good thing to remember as we enter this devil’s holiday of Halloween).  We read in Romans, “Abhor what is evil.  Cling to what is good.” (12:9, NKJV)  This means that we are to be repulsed by something that they shun and avoid it at all costs (Renner).  Evil–that is “anything that is full of destruction, disaster, harm, or danger” (Renner) to the physical, mental, or spirit.  To honor the Lord is then to hate evil.
     What then will you do with wisdom?  Do you listen to it or turn from it to your own ways and opinions?  Do you fear the Lord enough, honor Him enough, to hate and shun the things that He hates?  The choice again belongs to us.  Choose godly wisdom or choose man’s and the ways of the world.  One keeps and leads to life eternal, the other is the way of perdition.

Nor could he bear to leave the lands of immense distances, the purity of the air, the vast sweep of the mountains, plains and forests, the smell of his lonely campfires, the feeling of a good horse under him, and the song of the lonely winds. It was in his heart now, in his blood and bones, and in all the convulsions of his brain.”
                    –Louis L’Amour  (The Rider of Lost Creek)

       Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!   Selah”
                    –Psalm 24:10 (ESV)
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What did Paul and Silas sing while in prison?  What was it that caused the bars to shake so hard that they broke open?  We know it was the power of God, but was it their singing of His praises that brought it on?  Perhaps it was like this little song that is found in Philippians 2:9-11.  Some call it the “Hymn on Christ’s Exaltation.”

          9 — Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
        10 — That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
        11 — And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.    (NKJV)

I might add here that we need to understand that singing and music has evolved over the years.  It was more of a strum on a stringed instrument and then the voice in some sort of tonal quality would recite something.  Not quite the advance of the progressive chant of the monks (I’m being facetious).  
     Look at what is being said in those three verses!  Here is power!  Here is the rule of the sovereign Lord God Almighty!  Here is the recognition of His glory and deity!  William Petersen reminds us that “We say the three names–Lord Jesus Christ–very casually, almost as if we were talking about someone named John Henry Doe…  But if you were living in the first century, you would realize that there was nothing at all casual about the name.”
     Jesus was His given name, the Greek of Joshua.  It means “Savior,” and it was not uncommon nor unusual in first-century Israel.  Now add to that Christ and the name and meaning changes.  He is now Jesus, God’s anointed Messiah.  Peter proclaimed, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’ (Matthew 16:16).  The Jews couldn’t quite handle that much less accept it, and it led to His crucifixion.
     To add the third name, “Lord,” would also get you into trouble with the Romans and other Gentiles.  “Lord” was an imperial title acknowledging the divinity of Caesar.  It could have also referred to other deities.  The name “Lord” was sacred among the Jews as well.  Jews would not use the name of Yahweh as it was considered sacred, so they often used Lord.  Now comes the clincher, when Christians spoke of Jesus as Lord they meant He was Deity Himself. (Petersen).  Barclay says that “When men worship the Lord Jesus Christ, they fall at His feet in wondering love.”  The words of Isaac Watts cause me to tremble in awe, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.”  This is worship “founded, not on fear, but on love.” (Barclay)
     To be a Christian, from the first century until now, was to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!  A Christian believes that Jesus is who He said He was; it was to believe in the totality of the three names.  We need to ask, who/what is Jesus to you?  To me?  To all?  Is He the Messiah, God’s promised Redeemer?  Is He the Lord, the divine Son of God?  Get it right now!  “One day all of creation will bow before Him and acknowledge, with full meaning, that threefold name.” (Petersen)

               “One day all creation shall bow to our Lord,
               Even now, among angels His name is adored.
               May we at His coming, with the glorified throng,
               Stand singing His praises in heaven’s great song:
               Jesus, Jesus, Savior adored
               Of all men and angels, forever our Lord.”
                       –Dutch Hymn (translated by W. Kuipers)

Fear and faith couldn’t co-exist, they were like oil and water.”