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The Black Brook

by Jerry Ousley
10/20/2023 / Christian Living

The Black Brook

By Jerry D. Ousley

What a perfect day for a hike! Summertime had come, school was out and so was the sun. The fish were biting and it was a perfect day for a long hike. My cousin, Ron, my brother, Ken, and I began our trek down the road. We had taken some provisions but we had decided to “live off the land” as much as we possibly could.

As we walked what seemed to be an endless amount of time the sun began to beat down on us. It was hot enough to melt the soles off your sneakers. You could see the asphalt oozing whatever asphalt oozes. I didn’t know exactly what it was but it was black and sticky. My tongue was getting thicker and thicker. I needed a drink of water.

Now, don’t get me wrong, we were not at the point of dying of thirst. It seemed like we had been out for hours but in reality, we were maybe two miles down the road from home. But we thought we were dying.

That’s when we came upon the stream. Of course - A country stream! This was certain to be the purest water we could drink. We hurried down to the clear running water knowing that this had to be healthy. But as we scooped a mouthful up it came out faster than it went in. It tasted horrible! It was the worst tasting water I had ever

put across my lips! We hadn’t thought about all the chemical runoff that probably was

in that stream from the soybean and corn fields all around us. Nor had it entered our minds that there could be some good ole’ country sewers flowing into this stream as well. All we knew was that this wasn’t pure! Not at all!

The brook “Cedron,” or “Kidron” as it was also called, was such a brook. In my mind I had always pictured this as a perfect brook over which they crossed into the Garden Gethsemane. A picturesque garden should be bordered by a perfect brook.

Cedron was far from that. This brook is said to have been approximately three feet wide but it was most likely the foulest stream in Israel. A canal had been dug from the Temple directly to it and in this brook flowed all the blood and whatever else got washed

from the altars where the sacrifices were slain. Cedron was also used as the main sewer ditch for Jerusalem. It was far from pure. In fact, it ran black. Hitchcock defines the word as meaning, “obscure, making black or sad.”

After Jesus had shared those things He shared with His disciples on the way to Gethsemane, it was time to cross Cedron. I’m sure the stench from this brook caused the disciples to make a few faces, and comments as they passed over. It was not pleasant. The Bible does not tell us that there was a bridge across this brook, and it could be very likely that

they had to jump it. It is said that most of the time it ran dry and is also referred to as the Kidron Valley. Even if that were the case it meant crossing over all the filth and mess that flowed through this brook.

Life is full of unpleasant things. In today’s world sin abounds. To get to the garden requires passing over this mess. Christ did it. So must we. He paid the penalty for our sin, but He also told us to take up our cross and follow after Him (Matthew 16:24). Only He can pay the debt, but we are asked to follow Him in dying out to ourselves. It means first passing over Cedron. `Even though the Garden was a beautiful place, it represented a decision that had to be made. It represented giving up our rights just as Christ did, and truly saying to God, “Not my will but Yours be done.” Before we can ever get to that point however, we must look at our lives and cross over all the sin that is there. We’ve got to see it as the putrid brook of Cedron and we’ve got to go through it somehow.

When we see how wretched our sin really is it makes us sick. How could we have done all those wicked and terrible things? How could we ever have disgraced our Lord like that? But we did. We’ve got to face it.

We do that when we first come to the Lord. But then, over our Christian life, we do it again and again. No, Christ can only be sacrificed once for sin. That’s the Word. But we must face those filthy sins that we have committed. Yes, He forgives us of all of them through and by the grace He showed us at Calvary. They are forgiven when we get saved. Praise God for that! We can never live good enough to deserve this forgiveness and that’s why it is by His grace!

But as we live our Christian lives and He begins to show us little by little those things that are in us that are so unlike Him, we begin to move up. Taking up our cross daily requires a daily self-examination. Every day we look at ourselves. We see the progress that we’ve made. We are thankful for that and we are in love with Jesus for

making it all possible. Yet we also see where we need to be.

Fortunately for us, more often than not, Christ only reveals a thing or two at a time. We see the dirt and the “nasty” of what that thing is in our lives and we see how unlike Christ it is. We cross Cedron again into the Garden. Sometimes it just takes time. Some of those things in our lives are harder to overcome than others. But we must never give up. We must continually seek God about it. In our sincerity He will eventually aid us in getting the victory over that thing.

I want to say something here about that. In some cases, God grants miraculous deliverance to individuals. It seems like that problem in their lives just disappears. For others, that same problem is a constant struggle. What’s the difference? Is the one who gets instant deliverance more “righteous” or more “holy” than the one who struggles? No. Our righteousness and holiness is only through Jesus Christ. Some Christians go boasting about how God gave them instant victory and they just can’t understand why it is not so with others. “They must be doing something wrong,” or “They don’t want it bad enough.” God has His ways. For some He grants instant deliverance and others He does not but it is His will to deliver both.

Sometimes we just need the lessons in our lives that go along with the struggle. So don’t be condemning to a person who hasn’t attained the same victories that you have as yet. Don’t ever forget, it was God Who granted you instant deliverance. You had nothing to do with it. Give Him glory and pray earnestly for your brother or sister who struggles.

The garden is the place we get victory. It is where we agonize over what God has for us. Sometimes we go there with a longing. Sometimes we go there in pain. Sometimes we go there broken hearted for others. Whatever the case, we must cross over Cedron. There is always unpleasantness associated with making ourselves

better. An athlete must sacrifice long hours of training and physical conditioning to obtain his or her goal. To gain knowledge always requires a sacrifice of time and sometimes hours in mental agony trying to “get it.” So, it is in our Christian experience. I hear all kinds of sirens going off out there about grace and works. I am not purporting that our works in any way makes us any more or any less “saved.” When we come to God through Christ, accepting His sacrifice, and His free gift offered by grace and we really believe on Him and believe that He has done the work, we are saved. We’re

ready to go to Heaven when He comes back. But then we must choose if we want to just “lolly-gag” around and just get by waiting for His appearance, or if we want to know as much as possible about our Lord, and grow as close to Him as we possibly can. This is where the revisits to the garden come in.

There are many Christians in this world who are faithful to go to Church, give their offerings, and pray over their meals. They have made a sincere commitment to Christ, but it seems they never go any further in their experience.

Then there are those who spend the rest of their lives searching their hearts and winning back the strongholds that the devil has not released. No, we can’t be demon possessed as a Christian. When we are filled up with Christ there is no room for the devil. Yet, if we all really look at ourselves in truth, we will find that, even though Christ

has forgiven us of sin, there are still a lot of sins hanging on. When we see one, it means a trip over Cedron into the garden to seek the Lord. It doesn’t make us any less or any more saved. It just means that God is preparing us for service in His kingdom. God wants each of us to be close.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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