Buy Without Money! (Is 55:1)

One day I was in a fast-food line behind a lady and her four kids, a couple of them teenagers. She was at the till, fumbling through coupons and coins, trying to come up with the money for something really basic for them to eat. She was dressed as a prostitute, and the kids' heads hung low, their eyes on their shoes as mom tried to find the money... Her heart was broken. The kids' hearts were broken. My heart was broken... I asked for a quick word with her to the side, and gave her money. I remember as she looked into my face, with tears rolling down hers. She thanked me, and got back in line to buy the food.

One of life's most tragic realities is money. Some people have too little money to buy what they need, what they want, and it breaks hearts. People enjoy 'buying' when they have the resources to buy (that fun transaction, exciting exchange of one thing of value for another), but the issue of money and all that money is, has made 'buying' an impure experience from the craddle to the grave.

When God describes his heart for us, his home for us, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, he leaves us the thrill of buying, without the mortal currency of money:

'Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.' (Isaiah 55:1)

Here God gives us the dignity of 'buying', but without the limitations, pressures and shame that money brings. This is an impossible reality for us to fathom. This is the very essence of paradise. All peoples with the dignity to choose and 'buy', without needing money to do it. 

This Spirit of this Paradise can be yours even now. Jesus called out to us all:

'Is anyone thirsty? Let him come to me and drink! He who believes in me... streams of living water will flow from within him.' (John 7:37-38)

Here Jesus echos the words of Isaiah from 600 years earlier, calling out to the thirsty, and promising not just refreshing, but 'living' water, and not just to flow over us, but 'from within us.' This is the 'impossible' reality of paradise, the Spirit of 'living water', the thrill of limitless life, buying without money... and this is the Spirit of Jesus that God offers us here and now. How desperately we need this in and through our souls! How desperately we need this in and through our land!

For more on 'First Steps' with Jesus, please visit: https://1peter1three.weebly.com/first-steps.html 

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