“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.”
John 7:37 (NIV)
The festival described in John 7 is the same festival described in Nehemiah 8, and is an occasion of great joy. It is the Festival of Tabernacles - a time when the Israelites lived in booths for a week to celebrate the truth that their ancestors lived in temporary structures as God was delivering them from Egypt and bringing them to the Promised Land. When we read the instructions in Leviticus 23, we discover that the last day is a closing special assembly – and it was on this last and greatest day the Jesus stood up and gave his invitation. It is said that no one gave an invitation like Billy Graham- and it is hard to imagine anyone filling his shoes in our world - surely God blessed all of us by what God did through this man who knew how to give an invitation! May I suggest that Billy was following His Lord’s steps, that our Lord was the greatest ever at extending an invitation- and what an invitation it is! Come and receive the Spirit! Friend, are you lacking joy even as you worship God in a prescribed way? Fall on your knees in your room - think a prayer in your work place, whisper a prayer in your school, speak a prayer in your car - tell Jesus you are thirsty and ask Him to give you the Spirit, and joy like a river will flow out of this temporary dwelling place Paul calls our earthly tent.
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