Good as New

"Look at my shoe!" I exclaimed to my husband. I had come upon the still-practically-new shoes in my closet and put them on, only to discover that the thin heel cap was gone from one of them! Maybe that was why I had quit wearing them!

"Don't worry, I can take it to the shoe shop," Howard told me. We dropped the shoe off yesterday, and while there, I saw a man get out of his pick-up truck carrying a single cowboy boot. It was well-worn, crumpled and caked with mud. I couldn't believe he would take such a dirty boot and plop it on the counter, but he did, and the repair man did not seem at all fazed.

When we picked up my shoe today, Howard saw a friend there with a suitcase. "Are you getting ready to take a trip?" Howard asked him, to which he replied, "No, I'm just having this suitcase sewed up."

Thinking about this later, I reflected on how it reminded me of the salvation experience. Even though some may have lived good lives and look perfect on the outside, like my shoe, there may be some hidden flaw or sin. Everyone needs the Lord. We all need to go to the altar of repentance, or to the "Repair Man." He receives dirty, old sinners just as the shoe repairman received the dirty, old boot. God is no respecter of persons.

The suitcase the man was carrying had a tear in it, or a ripped seam. He obviously didn't want the contents to spill out while in use. On a recent trip, I discovered I had worn a hole in the end my duffel bag by hurriedly pulling it incorrectly against the concrete instead of resting it on the wheels. I had to insert a make-shift cardboard liner to keep from losing something.

Jesus told the woman at the well that he could give her living water so that she would never thirst again. "But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life," John 4:14.

In John 7:38-39 Jesus says, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (39) (But this he spoke of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)"

I have heard it taught that when the Bible says, "Be filled with the Spirit...," Ephesians 5:18, it means to be "being filled," with the Spirit, a continuous process, necessary because we "leak." Verse 19 continues further, "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord..."

Once at a Rodney Howard-Brown meeting, otherwise known as the "Laughing Revival," the congregation was invited to form a line for prayer. The line stretched around the large auditorium and down every hallway. When a minister laid his hand on my head and prayed, I found myself on the floor. After a few minutes, I felt a bubble in my tummy and a small "hmph" came from my mouth. It was followed by more bubbly sounds, then ha-ha-ha. Soon I was laughing hilariously. Everything was so delightful! It was as if a fountain of living water was flowing from my belly! I had had a re-filling!