10 Jul, 2009
What's In Your Water?
What's in that bottle? Congress says water unclear
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bottled water makers make millions off people who believe their products are purer than tap water, but consumers do not realize that they are less regulated than plain old tap water, according to a U.S. Congressional report released on Wednesday.
The report from the General Accountability Office also found that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has little power to regulate the safety of bottled water, and even states with the power to regulate it concentrate more on tap water.
The report was just one piece of ammunition unleashed at the bottled water industry at a hearing of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
"Of particular note, FDA does not have the specific statutory authority to require bottlers to use certified laboratories for water quality tests or to report test results, even if violations of the standards are found," the GAO report reads.
Jane Houlihan of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that submitted a second report to the committee, said in a statement: "Many people assume bottled water is healthier and safer to drink than ordinary tap water.
"But some companies have lured consumers away from the tap with claims of health and purity that aren't backed by public data."
Sponsors of the hearing agreed.
"Americans are willing to pay top dollar for bottled water, which costs up to 1,900 times more than tap water and uses up to 2,000 times more energy to produce and deliver," Michigan Representative Bart Stupak told the hearing.
Full Story and Image found at http://www.reuters.com.
John 4:1-30, 39-42 (ESV)
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria
1Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus,wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." 13Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."
16Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." 17The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." 19The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." 21Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me,the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." 26Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."
27Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" 28So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29"Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" 30They went out of the town and were coming to him ...
.... 39Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, "He told me all that I ever did." 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world."
What an encounter! If ever someone wondered "what's in your water?" it had to be this woman when she heard Jesus say, "... whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever." All she wanted to do was draw some water in the heat of the day when no one else would be there. But what she received was so much more. She received the amazing opporunity to come face to face with Jesus. And there, at that well, he gave her the unconditional love and acceptance for which she had been longing for so long. But it didn't stop with her. That encounter at the well spread to others from that Samaritan town, as "Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony." (v. 39)
- Spend some time today thanking God for His unconditional love for you!
- Read John 4:31-38 and see how the disciples responded to Jesus's encounter with the Samaritan woman.
- Make a list of some ways that you could organize an effort to meet practical needs of others in your community over the summer that would model God's unconditional love.
- Ask God to show you someone you might be overlooking who needs his love. Find a practical way to connect with them this summer to model God's unconditional love.
- Are there some places where you could actually hand out a cold drink of water in the heat of the summer? Organize a cold water give-away with your family, or church, or friends. Have no agenda other than sharing the love of Jesus by the giving of the water. Those bottles of cold water may or may not open the door for some great conversations about God's love. Let Him be in control!
- Keep working on the list of practical needs in your community. Commit to doing one thing each week from that list that would model unconditional love to someone.
- May 2012 [14]
- April 2012 [19]
- March 2012 [21]
- February 2012 [19]
- January 2012 [18]
- December 2011 [20]
- November 2011 [15]
- October 2011 [15]
- September 2011 [14]
- August 2011 [22]
- July 2011 [19]
- June 2011 [21]
- May 2011 [20]
- April 2011 [20]
- March 2011 [21]
- February 2011 [20]
- January 2011 [21]
- December 2010 [21]
- November 2010 [21]
- October 2010 [21]
- September 2010 [22]
- August 2010 [21]
- July 2010 [22]
- June 2010 [20]
- May 2010 [18]
- April 2010 [20]
- March 2010 [23]
- February 2010 [19]
- January 2010 [22]
- December 2009 [22]
- November 2009 [21]
- October 2009 [22]
- September 2009 [21]
- August 2009 [20]
- July 2009 [21]
- June 2009 [22]
- May 2009 [18]
- April 2009 [15]
- March 2009 [7]
- February 2009 [17]
- January 2009 [20]
- December 2008 [23]
- November 2008 [19]
- October 2008 [22]
- September 2008 [22]
- August 2008 [19]
- July 2008 [22]
- June 2008 [11]
- May 2008 [19]
- April 2008 [22]
- March 2008 [21]
- February 2008 [18]
- January 2008 [20]
- December 2007 [18]
- November 2007 [15]
- October 2007 [19]
- September 2007 [18]
- August 2007 [12]
- July 2007 [12]
- June 2007 [9]
- May 2007 [11]
- April 2007 [10]
- March 2007 [11]
- February 2007 [14]
- January 2007 [7]
- December 2006 [4]
- November 2006 [13]
- October 2006 [17]
- September 2006 [11]
- August 2006 [16]
- July 2006 [10]
- June 2006 [3]
