News Flash – Thank God for the Israel/Hamas Hostage Release agreement. May it move forward and be perfectly completed.

The Jordan River divides Jordan (photo #1) from Israel (photo #2). Both countries share the river which is divided by a rope carrying brown floats visible in photo #1.

The rise of our world’s civilizations depended on rivers. It still does. That’s especially true in the Middle East where desert nations threaten to fight wars over water.

Egypt rose along the Nile. Ninety-per-cent of its people still live along both sides of the Nile from Ethiopia’s highlands to the Mediterranean. Ancient Mesopotamia, between the Euphrates and Tigris, literally means land between the rivers. In desert lands and everywhere, life depends on water.

In Israel, Bible tours didn’t let us board their buses unless we each carried five to six liters of water each or had shekels to buy water because the low humidity, far-below sea level conditions dehydrate and endanger people. Lack of water can cause death.

In Deuteronomy 8, when the Israelites left Egypt, God promised a land of “flowing streams and pools of water,” with “fountains and springs that gush out in the valleys and hills.” When they reached the Jordan River to enter “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey,” the river stopped flowing and became dry ground as soon as the priests put their feet in the water. With God’s help, they carried the ark of the covenant, the golden box portraying His powerful presence and protection, into their new land.

Water is still essential to lives. Human bodies are 50-75% water. Water to extinguish fires would have saved thousands of structures and precious lives in this month’s Los Angeles destruction.

When you picture Living Water, what do you see? The verses below describe the vast river of life available in our Lord every day.

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.” Isaiah 55:1 NKJV

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:37-38 KJV

Drink abundantly each day. Take generous supplies to your family members, neighbors, cities and towns, nations–our thirsty world.

Delores Topliff