WORD TO PONDER:  A DRINK OFFERING  12/02/06

There are times in your life, when fighting against all odds, you have risked everything, in order to grant the wishes of your loved one.  And yet, once given, such sacrifice was too much to receive or seemingly did not make a difference.  Beloved one, it is not your gift that was rejected.  Nor was your loving devotion.  The sacrifices you have poured out, may have seemed but a tiny portion upon the dried cracked ground of that which is barren.  However, you truly have made a difference, and I want you to know that.  This was a hard time for you, and you have been faithful to love with a pure heart.  Nothing is lost or wasted in My kingdom, not one drop.  I see all and I know all.  My brave and valiant warrior, your devotion is known in all of heaven, and so is your sacrifice.  Thank you faithful one, thank you.

2 Sam 23:13-17  NLT

Once during harvesttime, when David was at the cave of Adullam, the Philistine army was camped in the valley of Rephaim. The Three (who were among the Thirty — an elite group among David's fighting men) went down to meet him there. David was staying in the stronghold at the time, and a Philistine detachment had occupied the town of Bethlehem. David remarked longingly to his men, "Oh, how I would love some of that good water from the well in Bethlehem, the one by the gate." So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew some water from the well, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out before the LORD. "The LORD forbid that I should drink this!" he exclaimed. "This water is as precious as the blood of these men who risked their lives to bring it to me." So David did not drink it. This is an example of the exploits of the Three.