THE BELOW ARTICLES ARE FOR EARNEST CHRISTIANS
WHO ARE HUNGRY TO FOLLOW GOD. IF YOU ARE NOT, I RECOMMEND YOU GO TO ANOTHER PAGE. BUT IF IN YOUR HEART YOU YEARN
TO HUNGER FOR A CLOSER WALK WITH GOD, YOU WILL FIND TREASURES IN THE BELOW ARTICLES.
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LORD, I WANT A FULL CUP
By Frank E. Henrich A TRUE EVENT
I was 2,000 feet up in the sky without a plane, parachute or support.
With my arms outstretched like a bird, I was moving through the air viewing the Earth below. There was someone flying with
me. What is happening? Will I fall? My mind slipped back to how it all began. It was a September night in 1982. I was in my
study at my San Rafael, California home. The chair in my office felt comfortable, as I sat praying. In the quiet of the room,
the joy of being alone with God filled me with peace and contentment. Suddenly my mind was impressed with the urge to relive
a vision experienced in 1972. Ten years had passed, yet the details jumped out before me in my mind’s eye.
I had the sensation that I was flying like a bird. I felt no fear. There was someone flying with me, just ahead and to the
right – you might say alongside of me, but just slightly above me. I did not want to look up because I found it so fascinating
to glance down.
The ground appeared covered with a bright white mist, yet the lushness of the light
green earth penetrated the fog. I was heading somewhere, but did not know where. I was not anxious; yet, a sense of anticipation
filled me. Then, a small spot of land on the horizon appeared and kept growing larger; it intrigued me and soon drew all my
attention. My silent companion and I were flying toward that stretch of land. Still, I felt no fear, knowing my silent friend
directed my way.
As we drew closer to the land I could see activity; people moving about. Oh, how
vibrant the colors were, not gaudy to the eye but soft watercolor shades of white, red, yellow, green and blue.
The plateau rapidly grew larger in my sight. I discerned that the top of the hill was flat with edges sloping back down into
the white mist. That flat expanse with its sloping sides was all that pierced the fog in all my vision. Everywhere else, I
saw nothing but bright white mist. Then a circle of buildings became visible.
These structures completely
encircled an open courtyard. The courtyard was round, green and looked grassy. My silent partner and I traveled closer and
then in the middle of the courtyard, I sighted a brown object. There were buildings surrounded the courtyard and placed next
to the slopes. Yes, Yes, I believed I saw them well enough to identify them as canvas tent booths of beautiful different colors
and shades – too many to count – perhaps fifty or sixty were there. Oh, how splendid those booths appeared against
the background of the green lawn! The colors and contrasts were beyond description. There were groups of people standing about,
throughout the courtyard.
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The brown object in the center was large enough
by then for me to recognize. It was a well; a water well with a stone side surrounding its round shape – and on its
edge sat people, dipping into the water with cups. I could see others walking to the well to obtain water. The people either
drank their water themselves or shared it with others. The groups that stood closer to the tent booths would send runners
to the well, who would obtain cups full of water and bring them back to their little groups; there, each one would sip from
the cup. But then, there were those who sat on the edge of the well and drank from their own cups, having all the water they
wanted.
In a flash, my mind became clear regarding the purpose of the well. The words of Jesus rang
in my ears: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me,” as the Scripture has said,
“out of their hearts shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-38). The Scripture from the book
of Revelation came to me: “He who sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’” In addition,
Jesus said, “I will give from the fountain of the water of life without payment.” He who conquers shall have this
heritage, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” (Revelation 21:5-6) Then, there was Samson, of the Old Testament,
who called out to God because of his thirst. God responded, as recorded in Judges 15:19: “God split open the hollow
place and there came water from it; when he drank, his spirit returned and he revived.”
Suddenly,
I had an inward knowing that it wasn’t desirable to be near the booths. Stay away from the compartments, I thought.
Those people near them were receiving their spiritual water in small doses from others. I wondered why they did not go to
the well themselves and why they depended on others.
We swooped down and landed on the green. No
one seemed to pay any attention to us. Then, my flying companion disappeared before I could look at him or her. I stood there
alone. My focus turned to the booths. A deep sure knowing filled me that the tents were Booths of Pleasure, brightly decorated
and appealing to the eye.
There was a hidden power that could lure people to them. A sign hung over the entrance of each tent. What did it all mean?
There were so many booths surrounding the courtyard. The sign in front of one booth said “Golf”; in front of another,
“Fishing”; and on another, “Secular Work’. Other signs read “Bridge”, “Social Work”,
“Tennis”, and “Bowling”.
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(right below picture)
for balance of article
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READER, AFTER THE VISION ABOVE, THE THOUGHT CAME
TO ME "HOW CAN I GET TO THE WELL?" THE RESULT OF PONDERING ON THIS QUESTION WAS THE BELOW ARTICLE. I PROVIDE
IT FOR YOU IN THE BELIEF THAT YOU MAY HAVE THE SAME QUESTION. HERE YOU HAVE MY THOGUHTS ON THAT SUBJECT.
WANT
SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT?
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HOW DO I GET TO THE WELL?
By Frank
E. Henrich
Reader are you saying, “Lord Jesus, I want to come to the well of your spiritual waters so I can have a full cup, but
I can’t!” Inwardly, you wonder, “Would I be welcome at the well, my life has been so terrible, so sinful
that Jesus would not welcome me.” This thought is so wrong!
Jesus told his disciples the parable:
(Luke 15:3-7) What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them does not leave
the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays
it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice
with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner
who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15: 3-7)
The
Door Knob Episode: The problem lies not with God but with us. We hold the key. I remember as a child studying an oil painting
of Jesus. My mother had painted a duplicate of a masterpiece that showed Jesus knocking at a closed door. The door had no
knob on the outside and had to be opened from the inside by you and me. Yes, the key for you is the door knob in your hand.
This door opens into the world of Presence Christianity, and requires that you turn the knob. But you say, “Where is
this knob and how can I turn it, for what you describe I seek!” The action required to turn the handle is the humble
asking for forgiveness while acknowledging God’s rightful place in your life. Some of us can enter into Presence Christianity,
for a moment, --- long enough to ask for forgiveness --- or we can try to live in it most of our lives. For the sinner, who
is just coming to the Lord, it may be a momentary running up the ladder of the pleasure booth and grabbing a sip of the Spirit
of God. What is important to know is; that the stairwell is always there, the doorway is never locked. In C. F. Andrews’
1933 book, Christ in the Silence, he writes,
“For I have
found in Christ's friendship the one single support that has never failed thorughout all trials and temptations. Life itself
would have been entirely different if the sense of Christ's presence had been absent and the joy of His friendship had
not been known. It is true indeed, that I have failed from my side to keep that sacred tie of His friendship unbroken,
and times without number I have been unworthy of His love; but His own great blessing has never let me go.
Just
as Christ's own love for us creates that heart-hunger in us, even as His love also fulfills it. For in the great passion of
His freindshp our whole life is raised toa highter power. Old evils are consumed in the fire of that love.
As we set our affectios on things above, the things that are below cease tohold out any attraction for us. We become
a"new creation" in Jesus Christ." (1)
God is always present,
and always ready to forgive the darkest of our sins if we but humble ourselves and ask for His forgiveness. We are never cut
off from God while we’re here on earth. He constantly calls us to repent.
But I am
not a serious sinner!
Perhaps you’re not a serious sinner, but have a habitual
sin that you can’t seem to control. You’re tired of asking God to forgive you; so you’re not going to ask
Him anymore. You’re going to stay down in that hazy mist that’s at the foot of the stairwell. For such a life,
there can be no real joy.
Do you know that the German word “misst’, pronounced like our
English word “mist” means manure? There is no hope down there --- there’s only anguish and despair --- especially
for earnest Christians who knows that God is Real! To live a life that’s a lie is harder than to live a life in darkness.
You have been made light. You have seen the light of Christ. The darkness of Satan’s world can never hold a candle of
priority in your life --- unless you’re confused --- thinking you’re too sinful for God to forgive you. If you
say, “I’m too sinful, God can’t forgive me”, what you’re saying is not really that at all. You
are saying, “I don’t want to change my life to where I have to bend it to God’s will!” “God
won’t forgive me” is being used as an excuse to hide your real motive. You say, “Frank, you sure call a
spade a spade.” My response is: “You may kid others but not yourself.”
Are you
down in one of those pleasure corridors where you’ve substituted Golf, or Tennis, or Family, or Business, etc, for God?
Come up, and out, now! Each of those areas is good in moderation but they should never become your god.
Go
to top of the right column →↑
to words "Have you made pleasure a false god" for balance of article.
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←To
understand this article you need to start reading the article in the left column and when you have read it completely
start reading below:
(Article continued below from the left column)
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I walked around and read the signs of the different
booths; “Books of Pleasure”, “Professional Students”, “Family Worship”, “Youthful
Appearance”, “Model Trains”, “Photography”, “Horses”, etc. By then, my head reeled.
The scene made no sense. The
booth named “Golf” had a lapse of activity, so I walked slowly toward it, alert to whether anyone observing my
actions. It was as if I wasn’t there. Those present greeted their friends; but no one noticed me. People went in and
out of the tents. Some went to the well for water and then went back into the booths again. I needed to know what was behind
the veil! I pulled the curtain aside and what do you think I saw? There was nothing more there than
a descending stairway. It must be the stairway into the mist that I had seen from the air leading down the hillside and into
that mist. Quickly, my mind filled with the knowledge that the booths were booths of Perverted Pleasure.
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Golf is not evil. However,
golf, as one’s god, and the love of golf that keeps one from church on Sunday, is wrong. Golf that so fills one’s
mind and leaves no time to honor and praise God or do God’s work here on earth – that is wrong!
A verse I have always loved came to mind: “But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. For
my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have dug out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:11) The cistern here was golf. What
was true about golf was also true about the other decoys such as the gods of secular work, bridge, intellectualism, college
degrees, stamps, gardening, tennis, family worship, auto repair and all the other hobby booths there on the plateau.
Then, without warning, I was back in San Rafael sitting in my comfortable office chair that September night in 1982. A vision
had been relived and expanded in meaning ten years after it had first been experienced. For, in 1972, I had not seen the signs
hanging on the tents nor the stairways. My only discernment in 1972, concerning the booths, had been that that the entrance
into them was destructive to the soul. Praise You, my God, for this insight.
Oh, God do not let me
ever get caught in one of those booths of pleasure! Grant me the gift of sitting on the edge of Your well of living water!
Oh Jesus, do not let me ever get caught going down one of those stairwells! Make me thirsty to always desire to drink from
You. The beautiful Psalm came to me:
“Some wandered in desert wastes,
Finding no way to a
city to dwell in;
Hungry and thirsty, their soul
Fainted within them.
They cried to the Lord in the their trouble;
And He delivered them from their distress;
He led them by a straight way,
Till they reached a city to dwell in.
Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love,
For His wonderful works to the son of men.
For He
satisfies – him who is thirsty and hungry
He wills with good things.”
(Psalm 107:4-9)
I thought of the many times our roads become straight by
God. When tragedy has struck, we have bent our knees and humbly prayed. God has heard our prayer and called us to visit the
grassy court and have a drink of living water. Then, later, we have forgotten our true God and returned down into the mist.
Has this happened to you?
I thought again of the well and the wonderful things that Jesus did
for us by dying on the cross, providing us with salvation with the Father, salvation with our God. I thought how wonderful
it is when the Holy Spirit comes to direct and comfort us.
Within my vision, I saw no one I know.
If I had, I would have encouraged them to move closer to the well. To not be afraid! In addition, if trapped in some booth
of pleasure, I would have encouraged them to break that bondage and to move into the circle that surrounded the well. I did
not know what lay down those steps in the valley below; but certainly, nothing could be as wonderful as drinking the spiritual
water of grace and truth that the well represented.
May I ask you some questions? Do you dwell in
the mist? Have you made pleasure – a god to stand before the real God? Do you want your cup to be full? How thirsty
are you? Do not be thirsty. Come up to the fountain. Ask Jesus, your door to the Father, to show you the way to the well.
The end of the article but a new beginning for you……..
End of article
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understand the second article below you need to start reading the article in the left column and when you have read
it completely start reading below:
(Article continued below from the left column)
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Have I made my pleasure
a false god?
Here is one of the tests to determine if a pleasure has become a fake god?
It is when a golfer goes out to play golf on Sunday morning, because it’s less crowded, instead of going to formal church.
The same thing for a tennis player. The businessperson who says he can’t live a good Christian life because the business
world is so corrupt that he has to be corrupt also to exist. The woman who spends all of her time for her family, and none
for the Lord, has family worship. The woman whose career demands exceed her commitment to Lord Jesus and her husband. The
declarations of young adults who replace God with a confidence in their physical & mental abilities crying: “Do
self.”
God wants to be first and does not desire to consume all actions in our life ---
expects you to live a normal life --- a family life --- a fun life. But these aspects are not to become number one in your
life. We are a creation of God; for His glory, we were created is expressed so beautifully in the first chapter of Ephesians.
So give Him glory in your work. The best way to do that is to live at the well.
So now reach out
for that banister --- walk up that stairwell. Tell Jesus you seek to destroy the fake god that bound you in it’s false
pleasure --- that would pull you away from Him. Walk boldly up that stairway, walk over to the well and take a cup of water
--- a cup of God’s Spirit. Do it now! You may say, “Frank, I want to go to the well, but the well is in your imagination.
How can I get there?” I’ve been down on my knees and have humbled myself before the Lord, and I’ve asked
for His forgiveness.” My response is, “God is Spirit.”
Some thoughts nearly
100 years old:
A famous Christian leader of the last century, Charles Spurgeon, published
a book under the title, Till He Comes. This 1894 edition had an article called “Divine Visitations”.
Charles talked about asking God to visit him. The key is to ask for his forgiveness and seek His presence. I’m sure
some quotes from this article will show you the way:
“When first
of all the Lord draws near to the heart, the trembling soul perceives clearly the searching character of His visit. Remember
how Job answered the Lord, “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees you.” We can read
of God, and hear of God, and be little moved: but when we feel His presence, it is another matter to us.” (2)
In this next quote from this same book, I have inserted ‘perverted booths of pleasure’
in brackets where appropriate:
“The process of destroying follies (perverted
booths of pleasure) is more hopefully performed at Jesus’ feet than anywhere else. Oh, that the Lord would come again
to us as at the first, and like a consuming fire discover and destroy the stain, which not alloys our gold! The word visit
brings to us who travel the remembrance of the government officer who searches our baggage; thus does the Lord seek out our
secret things. But it also reminds us of the visit to the physician, who not only finds out our maladies, but also removes
them. Thus did the Lord Jesus visit us at the first?
Do you ask me to describe those manifestations
of the Lord? It is hard to tell you in words, you must know them for yourselves. If you had never tasted sweetness, no man
living could give you and idea of honey. Yet, if the honey be there, you can “taste and see”. To a man born blind,
sight must be thing past imagination; and to one who has never know the Lord, His visits are quite as much beyond conception.
For our Lord to visit us is something more than for us to have the assurance of our salvation, though
that is very delightful. None of us should be satisfied until we possess it. To know that Jesus loves me is one thing; but
to be visited by Him, in love, is more.
When the Lord visits us in the night, what is the effect
upon us? When hearts meet hearts in fellowship of life, communion brings first peace, then rest, and then joy of soul. I am
speaking of no emotional excitement rising into fanatical rapture; but I speak of sober fact when I say that the Lord’s
great heart touches ours, and our heart rises into sympathy with Him. Jesus fills the horizon of our being.
Now, beloved friends, you may be saying to yourselves, “We have not enjoyed such visits as these.” You may do
so. If the Father loves you even as He loves His Son, then you are on visiting terms with Him. Breathe a sign to Him, and
say –
When will you come unto me, Lord?
O come, my Lord most dear!
Come near, come nearer,
nearer still;
I’m blessed when you are near.
When will you come unto me, Lord?
I languish
for the sight;
Then thousand suns when you are hid
Are shades instead of light.
When will you
come unto me, Lord?
Until you do appear
I count each moment for a day,
Each minute for a year.
If you are running to Christ, He is already near you. If you sigh for His presence, that sign
is the evidence that He is with thee. He is with thee now; therefore be calmly glad. Have your hearts right with Him and He
will visit you often, until every day you shall walk with God. (2)
End of
quote and this is Frank Henrich back again. It is always refreshing to see your thoughts expressed by others. A thought, still
good after nearly 100 years, must have a ring of truth to it. Please, get down on your knees and ask Jesus to show you the
way to the well --- for visits by Him --- and for a full cup. This is my prayer for you --- God bless you.
Sources
books 1.Andrews, C F., Christ in the Silence. The Abingdon Press, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago (1933). pp 223-244, p 229
2. Stevenson, H. F Light Upon the Word. Fleming H. Revell Company, Old Tappan, New Jersey (1979). pp 70-76
Source
of images: First artice of two hands: Photo by Meg Henrich Patterson; The tent and well artist is Mary Henrich Doria;
The praying man permission is from Summit Productions, Modesto, CA.
Both articles Copyright © 2006 Frank Henrich
email frankehenrich@sbcglobal.net. Articles maybe given out to friends but not produced commerically without permission of author. For the page on THE VISION OF THE CRYING VICTOR, Click here
For the Yellow Rose Miracle, click here
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_____________________ For Page ON CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS TO PONDER Click here
A vision walk is a vision, yes a special Christian vision of how to lead a Christian life guide where false gods
do not come and we can receive spirtual waters;yes, the cup of God's spirit. Some would call it a mystical vision of mystical
wisdom but it is realy of mission and vision or could be stated as Chritian character vision.
A Chrisian character vision of mission and vision could be called a mystical vision or mystical wisdom. Spiritual waters come
from the cup of God's spirit, not from false gods, but by those who follow the Christian life guide of Christian vision and
of the full cup and vision walk.
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