Fountain
I was watching a short video of a performer who created a popular character explain how, as the character progressed, he lost creative control to a company that distributed content. That company had a different vision on the character’s actions and motivations and interactions with other performers (and characters) than the original creator’s vision. Needless to say, the character fell out of favor, and the creator lost the character and his job with the company.
How often does this scenario play out in our lives? Which part do we play as the story unfolds? I would posit that we play different parts at different times. We have an idea or vision that we build upon, only to have it escape our grasp and turn into a shell of our ideal. Or, we try to enhance another’s idea, with good intentions, only to find that our enhancements have unintended consequences that we did not foresee.
Ad fontes was the clarion call for the Renaissance and the Reformation. It means back to the source, or (more descriptively) “to the fountain”. Coming out of the “Dark Ages”, there was a rediscovery of Greek and Latin texts that led to “renaissance” (rebirth) in ideas and vision that changed the world. What fountain should we seek for refreshment, for rebirth, for reformation?
We are part of the original Creator’s vision. As much as it may seem He has lost creative control to a different “company” — read that as sin, death and the power of the devil — we return to the fountain.
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life.
It turns a person away from the snares of death
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%2014&version=EHV>
“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace, who pleads for mercy. Then they will look at me, the one they have pierced.”
On that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zechariah%2013&version=EHV>
Ad fontes: May God, the source of patient endurance and encouragement, grant that you agree with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that with one mind, in one voice, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2015&version=EHV>
Trust the Promises,
Steve Skiver