General News
13 April, 2025
In good faith
During the week we took some of our students to a camp run by the local Walungurru Land Council rangers at a place called Ilpili, about 400km west of Alice Springs.
Ilpili is a large, flat plain surrounded by low foothills.
It was once a location where Aboriginal people camped because there is one low point where a natural spring comes to the surface which once provided a reliable water source.
The rangers showed us some photographs of that spring taken about 50 years ago.
It was a shady, sheltered and treed area where wildlife gathered to drink alongside whoever may have been camping there.
Today it is nothing more than a muddy bog-hole, the result of 50 years of infestation and damage by wild camels.
What a sad sight it was to see what used to be an oasis in the desert that provided life-giving water but is now nothing more than a polluted swamp filled with bacteria and other organisms which, if consumed by humans, could likely be fatal.
The rangers explained their plans for installing camel-proof fencing and restoring the area to its former beauty, but that is a long way off.
In the Bible, there are many places where Jesus spoke of water.
He did so to use a common but treasured commodity to illustrate spiritual truths.
One of these occurred when he was speaking to the family of Nicodemus, where he said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you 'You must be born again.'”
In saying this, Jesus is teaching the need for the rebirth of a dead spiritual soul, except this time being ‘watered’ under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
He said, “Anyone who believes in me may come and drink. For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”
This gift is freely offered to all who will accept Him as Lord and saviour.
But also, we must always take care not to be led astray by those who may twist the scriptures to suit their own agendas.
In Matthew chapter 24, when asked about the end times, the first thing that Jesus said was “Take heed that no one deceive you”.
Christians are warned against distorting the gospel or allowing others to lead them away from the pure gospel and into following one of the many competing and contrary influences that have always abounded.
This would be akin to taking the pure, life-saving water of the spring and polluting it to the point where it becomes deadly.
When Jesus was speaking to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, He said, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
Note, living, not polluted, water.
Jesus also said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
We must never forget that this is the primary mission of the Christian Church, the spreading of the pure gospel, that living water.