==What Can We Learn From Jesus Offering A Woman Living Water? (Part 1 of 2)==
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">“We should get it because it is good, and it is God,” says Chandler, 8. </SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">Children see things through uncomplicated eyes. What else do we need to know? Living water is good, and it’s God. If we would only remember that God is good, most of our worries would be recognized instantly as silly and unfounded. </SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">When teaching about God’s goodness, Jesus asked a simple question, “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9). His reasoning was simple: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11).</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">Part of our sinfulness is pretending we’ve got it together. Spiritual thirst is an inner soul longing for reality that only God can quench. If we doubt God’s goodness, we’ll look in all the wrong places for satisfaction. Instead of being humble and admitting our emptiness, we’ll continue to chase things or people that promise fulfillment.</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">“Even though the woman was a Samaritan (remember Jews and Samaritans never mixed), Jesus said that if she had asked, he would have given her the Holy Spirit,” says Elizabeth, 12. “We can also learn that if we delight ourselves in God and his ways, we shall never be discontent or ‘thirsty.’ Jesus will give us everything we need physically, spiritually and mentally.” </SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">Jesus went out of his way to overturn the ingrained prejudices of his day. In general, women were considered second-class citizens. Furthermore, Samaritans were the lowest of the low. The prejudice and hatred was so great that most Jews wouldn’t even walk through Samaria. </SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">Remember the parable Jesus told of the Good Samaritan? Calling a Samaritan “good” must have sounded like an oxymoron to Jewish ears. </SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">“God so loved the world” means that God doesn’t play favorites. All people created in his image possess infinite value. Ethnic and cultural prejudices diminish that value. Ask God to help you see all people through his eyes. God’s eyes make all the difference.</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">The reason Elizabeth equates living water with the Holy Spirit is because of what Jesus said later in his ministry: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). </SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">If you want your life to flow, trust Christ as your savior so that God can pour out his love through you to quench the souls of thirsty people. Ideally, every Christian should be a fountain whereby God’s blessings flow to others. </SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">“We can’t live without water, and we can’t live eternally without Jesus Christ,” says Annika, 11. </SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">That’s exactly the connection I believe Jesus wanted us to make. </SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">“We can all have living water if we believe in Jesus,” adds Melinda, 9.</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">Think about this: God wants to satisfy the inner longings of your soul by pouring his life into you.</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">Memorize this truth: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 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” (John 4:13-14). </SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">Ask this question: Have you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, who is a fountain that will satisfy your soul?</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: medium;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">_________________________</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: small;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">Carey Kinsolving is a syndicated columnist, producer, author, speaker and website developer. To see Carey's Kid TV Interviews and more, visit www.KidsTalkAboutGod.org. The Kids Talk About God website contains free, online content for children and families. Print free lessons from the "Kids Color Me Bible" and make your own book. Watch for free the adventures of an 11-year-old girl traveling around the world, visiting missionaries in the Mission Explorers Streaming Video. Print Bible pictures drawn by kids that illustrate Scripture verses. Receive a complimentary, weekly e-mail subscription to our Devotional Bible Lessons.</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: small;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">Bible quotations in this column are from the New King James Version.</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="font-size: small;"><SPAN style="font-family: Verdana;">Copyright 2013 Carey Kinsolving</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
[[Category:For Children"]]