Amen.

If anyone ever has wanted refreshing in Jesus, her thirsts have changed from whatever tears the body down, to pure thirsts: clean milk from cattle (for humanity, not so much for cats), not too much honey, purified waters from fresh streams, the unadulterated Bible word — all of which flow from the pure freedom Jesus offered all the world when He gave His life at Calvary.

Some may waste all the faith they could have had on what isn't exactly the provision Heaven believed for us to have.

When Jesus gave His blood, it was to alter men's appetite for murder among mankind.

And don't some men put their own bodies to death through illicit sex, ungodly drugs, and sometimes drunkenness even today?

... I always remember fondly that my grandpa asked me if I drank [alcoholic drinks]. I know he knew the answer (even if it was only sometimes), and that I shouldn't, anymore. That was only one step toward recognizing the salvation Jesus paid for me at Calvary.

Some may feel like Jesus' provision of wine at a wedding was to say the strong drink is part of the freedom we have in Him. But the God I serve says things like grow in faith, and gain moderation and discernment. (For one thing, I believe the new wine Jesus produced was for wedding guests who had missed out, because the old wine had run out. But I also believe there is much more to the turning water to wine than that.)

Just look at what He has said through His own living on this earth:

He came to be God with us to say there is a more perfect way than the old, dark, almost sarcastic, broken wisdom — wisdom that said, "Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more." (Proverbs 31:6-7)

Thank God there were prophets who saw more clearly.

It was prophetic insight that turned the imperfect brokenness of Proverbs 35 into a stream of living, into a dayspring, into the vision of the daily life of the church that was to come.

In Jesus, the imperfect becomes more perfect, living toward "the perfect day," God says through the Bible.

In Jesus, "Give strong drink to the one who is perishing" becomes, "I thirst," when Jesus spoke on the cross. When He took a sip of vinegar from a rag uplifted to Him by a Roman soldier, that, too, was symbolic of His mission to take away our sins, to carry our sour grapes to death.

He gave Himself that we may have day after new day to live.

He turned Hezekiah's pain ["I will chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security. What can I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this. I will walk slowly (go softly) all my years because of the anguish of my soul.] into His own anguish: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Contrary to the error in too many words, in true overthinking on some people's part today, the Savior did cried out loud, for us.

And for that, we repent. We want life in Him. We thirst for what's pure, for things God intended for us.

Amen. And amen.

Heavenly judgment rained down, like a mighty stream.