Streams of Life

Psalm 65:9-13

 

⁹ You care for the land and water it;
   you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
   to provide the people with grain,
   for so you have ordained it.
¹⁰ You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
   you soften it with showers and bless its crops.

¹¹ You crown the year with your bounty,
   and your carts overflow with abundance.
¹² The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
   the hills are clothed with gladness.
¹³ The meadows are covered with flocks
   and the valleys are mantled with grain;
   they shout for joy and sing.

I very often like the idea of abundance.  But I do not as often like the transformation and change that precedes it.  I came upon this passage at a moment last fall when I was wrestling with God over a significant decision.  The imagery was so deep and powerful to me that even today as I came upon it again while revisiting some Psalms, it still carries much depth of meaning.

In the deserts of Israel, run-off from rainstorms was not only highly valued for the sustenance it provided in a water-scarce environment, but it was also a profoundly shaping force on the physical features of the landscape.  On any given year, there may be different streams and rivulets cut by the water through the sandy mountains and geography.  The result of this, as we see in the Psalm, is an abundance of life and produce stemming from these streams that have flown through.

And so it is with us.

Our ability to produce fruit and live abundantly is linked directly to being “drenched and leveled” by the Holy Spirit working in our lives.  We often speak of abundant life but neglect the radical transformation that happens in bringing forth that life.  Just as the physical landscape is dramatically altered by these “streams of God,” so our souls and spirits must also be shaped to produce the fruit God desires.

How are you allowing the “streams of God” to form and shape you?

A Great Word from InterVarsity's President

Alec Hill: The Importance of Dependence

“God’s design for our life is that we should be dependent.”
Professor John Wyatt,
University College London

Last month, I began a series of reflections on discipleship by focusing on the theme of non-conformity. In this column, we will briefly explore the trait of dependence.

For most Americans, dependence is a very uncomfortable subject. Preferring to see ourselves as rugged individualists, we romanticize about characters such Ayn Rand’s main character, Howard Roark, in her novel Fountainhead. Reliant upon no one, he follows only his own inner sense of direction.

As disciples of Jesus, we pursue a very different path – not to autonomy but to obedience; not to ascension, but to surrender; not to seizing control but to yielding it. Indeed, the concepts of lordship and dependence are at the very core of Christian discipleship.

As the InterVarsity community continues to experience an extended season of blessing, we must be ever vigilant to guard against seeing our cleverness, hard work, and piety as the primary reasons. Such thinking – even if unspoken – is not only wrongheaded but highly dangerous.

The Wilderness Paradigm

The difficulty of living in a dependency mode is illustrated by Jewish refugees fleeing from Egypt over three millennia ago. In one of the greatest chapters in Scripture, Deuteronomy 8 captures the tension well.

For four decades, the Lord had led the community through many hardships, provided manna, and even maintained their clothing. His greatest concern as they stood on the brink of entering the Promised Land? That they would take credit for the produce of the land and praise themselves for their beautiful homes, saying“My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.”

In other words, the Lord’s fear was that His people would see themselves as self-made and self-reliant. The presenting issue remains the same for us today. Who calls the shots in our lives? Who gets the credit when things go well?

The Illusion of Independence

How easily we are seduced by the myth of control. Seeing ourselves as the masters of our own fate – captains of our destinies – we are seduced to believe that we control circumstances and the future.

The reality, of course, is quite different. How much control do we really exercise over our genetic composition? Over macro economics? Over cancer? Over a drunken driver in the next lane?

In the classic TV program, The Twilight Zone, a curmudgeon librarian is portrayed as loving books more than people. When an atomic blast occurs while he is in a protected vault, he is actually thrilled to find that his books have survived but the people are gone.

All goes well until he trips and breaks his glasses, rendering reading impossible. With no one to repair his spectacles, the chilling reality of his dependence becomes abundantly clear.

Dependence vs. Risk

Let me confess: losing control is perhaps the most difficult aspect of following Jesus for me. As a confessed “Type A” personality, I enjoy plotting out adventures and relying on my own wits. Some of my best college memories involve hitchhiking across country.

We must be careful never to confuse dependency with risk-aversion. The paradox of discipleship is that the more we rely on Him, the more risk we experience. The more control we yield, the bumpier the ride.

As we live out our daily lives, our dependence upon Him should become more and more evident. It becomes clearer just how dependent we are upon His goodness and grace. As a result, we respond to His initiative, live in obedience to His word, and minister out of love for Him.

New Awakenings at Rockbridge

Every May, over 800 students from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina gather for our end of year conference, known as Rockbridge.  Rockbridge is always one of the highlights of my year and the Holy Spirit moved powerfully as students prayed and learned and worshiped!

I was a part of the Good News track where we spent time teaching students about evangelism and equipping them with tools to take with them back to campus.  I also led a small group of 8 students from the track and we met over the course of the week to study scripture and process what was being learned and experienced.  It was such a blessing to witness how God was growing these students and inspiring them to reach their friends back home and on their campuses!

Students often struggle with misplaced fear and misconceptions regarding evangelism.  So one of our primary goals was to demonstrate that we must be compelled by love to reach our friends and people on our campuses.  We memorized a passage from 2 Corinthians 5 where Paul starts out saying that "Christ's love compels us . . ." demonstrating that this is to be our overriding posture in the ministry of reconciliation that God has given us.  We are to be a people so convinced of our need for God and his love for us that we have no choice but to be compelled by love to proclaim the gospel to those around us.

One of the other great components of the track was highlighting for students the role of the Holy Spirit, both in our own lives and in our friends.  In the life of the early church we see an overwhelming role that the Holy Spirit plays in drawing people to God and communicating words of life through the believers.  One of the greatest acts we can do in evangelism is to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to work.  Not only does this take the pressure of us to do evangelism well, but it recognizes God's sovereignty in the lives of others around us and the fact that he is ultimately the one that can change hearts and make us into "new creations."

I am praying that the experiences these students had at Rockbridge will translate into many conversations and relationships over next year and that God's kingdom will continue to grow!

Another impression I had from the week is that God is doing something powerful in our chapters and on our campuses.  As we gathered for worship on the last night of camp, there was a time carved out for corporate prayer and listening to God.  With 500 students gathered together in the room, I was amazed by God's outpouring of the Spirit as students cried out for their friends and campuses and asked God to do something great.  Just to give some context, this is a pretty dramatic shift from my experience as a student at Rockbridge.  God has always been faithful to work at camp, but there seems to be something new that he is doing in this generation of students in calling them to prayer and dependency on his Holy Spirit at work in and through them.  I am praying with them that God would begin a revival in our region and on campuses across the country!