food for thought: green slimy pools

September 16, 2011

Anyone who really receives the Holy Spirit as an indwelling presence will be fully and forever satisfied, and that is the only possible way to be fully and forever satisfied.  ... when one has this fountain of satisfaction and joy within him, he is entirely independent of the world's sources of joy.  What does he care for the dance, card party, theater, or any other kind of earthly satisfaction? Who would go to an old green slimy, pool to drink when he had at hand a clear crystal spring? I tell you, the world with its allurements has no power over the person who has this fountain within!
I often think there is little use in telling young Christians that they must not dance, must not play cards, must not go to the theater, must not do this, that, any other thing. There is a better way. Get them to receive the Holy Spirit, and let Him have full right of way within, and they will have no desire for such things. They will stay away from the theater and the dance, and all the rest, not merely because they ought to, but because they will not desire to go. No one who knows of a clear crystal spring will sneak off to some green, slimy, pool to drink.
When Mr. Moody was holding meetings in Philadelphia, a lady came to him one day at the close of one of his meetings and said,"Mr. Moody, I don't like you!"
     "Why?" he asked.
     "Because you are so narrow," she said.
     "I didn't think I was narrow," Mr. Moody replied. "Why do you think I am narrow?"
     "Because you don't believe in the dance," the woman said. "You don't believe in cards, you don't believe in the theater, you don't believe in anything nice."
     "Let me tell you something," he said, "I go to the theater whenever I want to."
     "What!" She exclaimed. "You go to the theater whenever you want to? Oh, I do like you, Mr. Moody! You are much broader than I thought."
     "Yes," Mr. Moody replied, "I go to the theater whenever I want to, I just don't want to!"
If you have this fountain within, you will not want those things. The pure crystal spring of the Holy Spirit in the heart will make it impossible for you to seek to satisfy your thirst at the green, slimy, pools of this world's pleasures.
But someone will ask,"Why is it, then, that so many Christians do run after these things?" The answer is very simple. It is either because they never have really received the Holy Spirit as an indwelling fountain of life and joy and satisfaction, which is doubtless true of many professing Christians, or else the fountain has become choked.
(The Holy Spirit Who He Is and What He Does - RA Torrey)

When will we realize that all the pleasures of this world, all the entertainment are but green slimy pools? When will we start living by that fact? When we cultivate the Holy Spirit within - when we allow the Holy Spirit to so fill us, to so consume us as to be a fountain of life, satisfaction, and joy for all eternity. Receive the Holy Spirit in all of His fullness!