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by Reverend Hubermann Larose<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Si vous voulez lire ce texte en francais cliquez ici<\/a>!<\/p>\n \u201cThey have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.\u201d (Jeremiah 2:13) [KJV]<\/p>\n Last month reflection was based on Isaiah 55:1: \u201cCome, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.\u201d In that passage Isaiah served as God\u2019s mouthpiece to call to the people of Israel in particular, and to men and women throughout time and space. Some centuries later, the same invitation is addressed to us, but this time uttered by the very mouth of God. Indeed on the last and greatest day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood in the midst of the crowd of worshippers and said in a loud voice, \u201cIf anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.\u201d (John 7:37-38)<\/p>\n So, God is calling to men and women from all walks of life to come quench their thirst at the fountain of living water that He Himself is. But He is not the only voice calling; there is another one who raises also his voice to turn the thirsty of this world away from the fountain of the water of life. His voice is as seductive as the voice of the mermaids who lured the mariners into wrecking their boats on the rocks.<\/p>\n As I was reading the June 11, 2007 issue of Newsweek Magazine, something got my attention in the section called PERISCOPE, and compelled me to write this reflection on Jeremiah 2:13, which I have titled BROKEN CISTERNS. It is about the increased popularity of Buddhism in New York. The author, Lisa Miller, stated that \u201cthe baby boomers experimented with everything; they left their childhood faiths for other faiths\u201d (the italics are added for emphasis). Among those \u201cother faiths,\u201d Buddhism holds an increasingly important position. Miller even quoted a certain Allegra Fonda-Bonardi who declared, \u201cI think this generation is looking for a philosophy of hope…\u201d<\/p>\n To be looking for a philosophy of hope and try to find it in Buddhism, after leaving one\u2019s childhood faith (understand by that the Christian faith), isn\u2019t that forsaking the spring of living water to dig for oneself broken cisterns of which one cannot truly drink, because they do not hold water? Since when has Buddhism been a philosophy of hope? Hope in whom? In no one; for Buddhism is in fact an atheistic religion: the concept of God is completely foreign to it. Man is reduced to come through the mire in which he is sinking by pulling himself up by his own bootstraps. Hope in what? In a hypothetical Nirvana that Siddartha Gautama himself, the Supreme Buddha, doesn\u2019t seem to have reached. Maybe will he reach it after his one hundred millionth reincarnation? Who knows?<\/p>\n One of the major problems of man is his guilt before God whom he knows instinctively that he must give an account to. Only Christianity addresses this problem in a satisfactory manner. The Bible teaches us that God has laid on His Son the punishment that we deserved. That is the Gospel, the \u201cGood News!\u201d God took up our guilt, as it is said in Isaiah 53: 4-5: \u201cSurely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.\u201d<\/p>\n The other major problem man is facing is death \u2013 this enemy that swallows up all our joys and all our hopes. There again, it is the Christian faith that brings to men the most satisfying solution in Jesus Christ. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that in Jesus Christ God took up our human condition to die in our place, so that by his death \u201che might destroy him who holds the power of death \u2013 that is, the devil \u2013 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.\u201d (Hebrews 2:14-15) The value of a philosophy or a religion is measured by its ability to help someone enter the dark tunnel of death with the certainty expressed by Job: \u201cI know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God.\u201d (Job 19:2-26)<\/p>\n The Christian hope does not consist in the extinction of every desire \u2013 which is mere illusion \u2013, but in the elimination, when all things will have been made new, of everything that makes our life miserable here below. \u201cGod will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.\u201d (Revelation 21: 4) Any other offers?<\/p>\n Isn’t it odd to think that people leave such a faith to embrace a philosophy or a religion that feeds the soul with empty and illusory promises? One understands God\u2019s affliction before the blindness of these people who turn away from the spring of living water to turn to broken cisterns that don\u2019t hold water. This is the apostasy of the latter times that the apostle Paul has predicted: \u201cThe Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.\u201d (1 Timothy 4:1)<\/p>\n Dear friend, I pray that God grant you a discerning spirit, so that you may detect the peril that hides behind the bewitching voice of the sirens of this world, which have no other objectives than to destroy your soul.<\/p>\n Hubermann Larose<\/a> Si vous voulez lire ce texte en francais cliquez ici<\/a>!<\/p>\n
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\nBroken Cisterns<\/h2>\n
\nAssociate Pastor<\/p>\n
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