Jesus spoke these very words from the old rugged Cross two thousand years ago. In John 19:28, King James Version … “I THIRST!”

He had been hanging there for six hours, dehydrating every minute no doubt. He WAS thirsty!

Jesus was also fulfilling Bible Prophecy!

Two Psalms specifically come to mind …

“My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.” Psalm 22:15, the Psalm of the Crucifixion!

Also Psalm 69:21 … “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Also Messianic!

This kind of Thirst can be torturous, if acute. Deadly, if unsatisfied. And Jesus was dying as He uttered that thirsty Cry!

The story is told (I first read it in a little devotional booklet named “Baptist Bread”) of a dying confederate soldier on a Civil War battlefield. He lay between the two opposing armies, the North and the South, right in the middle of that brutal conflict!

As he was expiring he kept crying out in obvious agony, Water! Water! Water!” Please someone … “Water, Water, Water!”

A brave union officer said to his troops (with the battle raging) “I am talking that dying man some water!”

His comrades said, “You will be killed if you leave this trench. Shot upon sight! There’s a war going on around you!”

But up he jumped, canteen in hand, heading for the dying boy. As soon as he was seen … I suspect holding that canteen high and clearly visible … all shooting ceased!

The conflict quieted long enough for the captain to reach the thirst soldier and give him all he could drink. He slaked that gnawing thirst! Then turned, and went back to his men! (Thirsty no more!)

That’s right, miraculously (or mercifully), not a shot was fired until he reached safety!

The power of THIRST!

Wow!

Now back to JESUS! Who is of course a much greater hero! Who is our Saviour!

He thirsted too, dying. But He was raised from the grave … and offers to us that very thing He so needed on the Cross … WATER!

The water of Life!

An inexhaustibvle supply!

“Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17

Also … “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38, Jesus talking!

Again, Jesus to a woman at a well … “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14

The once THIRSTY Jesus is now the Supplier of water to all who come! And I do mean “all.”

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

.

As most of you know, I only write the Morning Bible Study every other day now. That’s because on alternating nights I also post a video Bible Lesson.

This afternoon around 4:00 we begin to look at the 12th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Where?

On our YouTube channel but also shared to Facebook. Any search engine will locate these for you. (“YouTube Dr. Mike Bagwell Hebrews,” are key words to find us. Or you can just go to the YouTube Channel and “subscribe.”

And YOU are invited to Class!

Tonight’s “Text,” Hebrews 12:1-2 …

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

It’s mainly about JESUS, obviously!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

.

Yes, the Bible is so personal that it even advises us on diet, concerning the food we consume!

“My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste: so shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul.” Proverbs 24:13-14

I suspect that in reality Solomon is teaching us here that just as honey is sweet to our physical senses … so should the taste of Wisdom (godly Wisdom gleaned from Scripture) be sweet to our souls.

But still, “diet” is in focus one way or another.

Our Lord Jesus too one day said: “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” John 4:32

There are chapters in the Old Testament (Leviticus 11, for example) given solely to legislating what the Jews could eat!

The Apostle Paul even told us some people with whom we are NOT to eat! “But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no NOT TO EAT.” 1 Corinthians 5:11

Yet too this food prohibition is given … “Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.” Proverbs 25:15, tomorrow’s chapter!

Just think about it.

Eve got us all in trouble in the Garden of Eden by EATING the wrong thing!

Esau sold his very birthright/blessing partially because of his taste buds! That bowl of “pottage of lentiles.” Genesis 25:31, boiled beans! (In Hebrews 12:16 Paul called it “one morsel of meat!”

Isaac was nearly willing to bless the wrong son because he so loved the “venison” (deer meat) that boy killed! Genesis 25:28, what a tragedy that would have been!

The first temptation the devil threw at Jesus was to turn some stones into “bread!” Matthew 4:3, another issue with food! Of course Jesus defeated the devil that day, and every other day as well!

Furthermore … our Lord even taught us about “fasting” when He was on earth. And He did not say IF you fast but WHEN you fast! “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.” Matthew 6:16, going voluntarily without food for a time!

Wow!

Maybe this is enough Bible evidence to conclude that we all (I am including myself) should evaluate our eating habits. Or at least balance our physical nourishment with our spiritual needs!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Being “under Grace” instead of “under Law” does not mean we can become gluttons!

.

Yes, that very Clause is in the Bible, the King James Version anyway … “He that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall.”

To put the observation in context, here’s the entire verse in which it appears: “The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.”

Sounds like the Lord removes His “restraining” Hand from the poor dupe who is being lured by the seductress!

God’s restraining Hand, you might ask?

Genesis 20:6, God speaking to an ancient king named Abimelech, concerning Sarah the wife of Abraham … “Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I WITHHELD THEE FROM SINNING against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.”

See it?

Jesus certainly knew what He was teaching when He instructed us to pray after this manner: “Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil.” Quoting both Matthew 6:13 and Luke 11:4.

So I deduce … a man or woman is quite wise NOT to be “abhorred of the Lord!”

This verb “abhorred” translates “zaam” in Hebrew, a word occurring only 34 times in the entire Old Testament!

It first appearance, Numbers 23:7, our Bible says “to defy!” A lifestyle that defies the Lord God Almighty! (No wonder a prolonged state of such rebellion leads God to abhor that person, letting him or her fall into more and more sin, or into deeper and deeper perversion!

A further hint: study what God calls “abominable!” Meeting that infamous standard will sure invoke God’s abhorrence on an individual.

Learn what God loves and learn what God hates! (Of course, from the Bible.) Then you will know how to avoid the curse of our Text.

“He that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall.”

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Much more could be written. You serious Bible students let the Holy Spirit take you further into this pattern of thought.

.

At least I think that’s what Solomon means when he asks us to “write them upon the table of thine heart.” The King advised this in Proverbs chapter 7, verse 3 to be exact.

In the Old Testament the “heart” (in Hebrew the noun is spelled “leb,” meaning one’s “innermost being”) is the seat of one’s intellect, one’s thinking.

Hence I deduce that we are expected to memorize God’s Word, as much as possible anyway.

But isn’t this a lovely word picture? “Writing the very Words of God onto our hearts!”

And doing so deberately, with obvious effort, record (the verb here translated “write” is “kathyab,” meaning “to engrave, to inscribe”) God’s Word in your mind!

Another Proverb, concerning any human being … “For as he THINKETH in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7

The Psalmist, in praise of God’s Word anyway, reminds us of one benefits of memorizing Scripture … “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Psalm 119:11 (The verb “hide” means to treat Scripture as a “treasure!”)

Wow!

I suppose here I now should discuss methods of Bible memory. But for me anyway, though I have tried several procedures through the years, just studying the Word of God “day in” and “day out” familiarizes me with Blocks of Scripture. So much so that soon I have it in my mind (excuse me, heart) and can recall it when the Holy Spirit needs me to.

Any method will work, but do remember this adage … “Repetition is the mother of all learning.”

Getting that familiar with the Word!

Wow … 31,102 Verses in the Bible … what a challenge. What an honor to get to learn some of them.

Class, let’s get to “writing,” to “engraving” them into our hearts!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

.