Ever notice everything seems kind of screwed up. Situations, jobs, relationships, and people -- especially people. I mean one day, we're up - next day we're down. Sometimes confidence overflows, next day we have none. Sometimes it seems like things are going right, then the next day it all blows. There is something going on...God. He's trying to get our attention. But we won't listen. For some, the down times finally direct our attention to something we've all said..."there's got to be something more." There is something more. We can't find it because we're continually told to look in the wrong places. We are told to focus on self. We seek more money, more sex, more good times, better jobs, different experiences, different people, travel. And we do this over and over again until it becomes useless. In the long term - it doesn't help. Once everything has been tried, despair and depression sets in. Perhaps it's here that God's spirit can work on us, and lead us to what He has to offer.
Another problem with this chain of action, is that those of us who know better...those of us who know the One who can fix our situations, have fallen into the same tragic process of trying to focus on self and fill our voids with things that cannot help. Not only can we not help ourselves, but we cannot help others.
God is real. He loves us. And His ways are not our ways. What we think we can do for ourselves cannot be done. So despite the laughter, the parties, the good times, the self-indulgence, and all the advertising for these things, we really are tragic creatures. Humanity has no hope for joy, peace, and life unless Jesus Christ is real, and unless He is who he claims to be - "God with us."
Good news...He is real!
Thank God we're not alone in our confusion.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
A little on fulfillment...
"I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly." John 10:10
There are many mysteries to life. We're all waiting for opportunities to make things better. Better circumstances, better finances, more fun, stronger friendships, and love. The thing is that no matter how hard we try, and how much we attain, the true prize seems to continually evade us. That prize is fulfillment.
God offers fulfillment when we accept His provision for us. When we accept Jesus Christ and surrender our lives to Him, He provides fulfillment in this life and security for what lies beyond death!
There are many mysteries to life. We're all waiting for opportunities to make things better. Better circumstances, better finances, more fun, stronger friendships, and love. The thing is that no matter how hard we try, and how much we attain, the true prize seems to continually evade us. That prize is fulfillment.
God offers fulfillment when we accept His provision for us. When we accept Jesus Christ and surrender our lives to Him, He provides fulfillment in this life and security for what lies beyond death!
Yep, we're 30 now. Consider this...
Some of us have turned 30 within the last year, or will turn 30 soon. It seems strange to still feel like we ought to be about 20-21, but knowing that time has marched on. Knowing that we won't be young forever, and that we won't physically live forever is becoming more and more of a reality. Opportunities are coming and going, and so are people.
Society tells us that we have to make our own way and that what WE want is most important. The trouble is what we want is continually changing as the world around us is continually changing. It seems to me like we should be more concerned with what we need.
What do we need to make us calm? What do we need to give us peace of mind? What do we need to truly live?
God. We NEED him, and what he has to offer. The world really has nothing to offer when you honestly think about it. Popularity, money, success in jobs, relationships, good times. These are all good - but they're not the answer. Why aren't they the answer? Because they cannot last. There is nothing permanent in this world. Even the most seasoned actor/actress will eventually lose mass appeal, get old, and die. Someone better and more efficient will one day succeed you in your job. Money may buy convenience, and fun but it can never buy true happiness. Having the right friends or the right women cannot guarantee happiness either. Why not? Because people are temporary also, they do not exist only to please me, and they are also searching for the same things. Good times can create good memories, but they always become memories - they also are not permanent.
So if my life is valued by the sum of all the relationships, money, popularity and good times I can accumulate, and I still die in the end - what was the point to all of it? If the end of our lives is truly the end of us, then what is the point of anything? Trouble is, no matter what the world tells us, we cannot let go of the notion that there is "something" after we die, and that there is or should be a point to all of our life experiences.
The answer to life, the value of this life, and the reasons for life can only be found in God - not just any "god" either. The God who tells us about himself in the Bible. The one who understands how meaningless life on earth is without Him - the very One who created us to need Him. The one who sent himself in Jesus Christ to die for our inadequacy, failure and pain. He is the only one who can grant meaning to our existence.
Think about it. Cemeteries are full of people who once thought life was about them. They were once young, and now they're gone.
What is your hope in?
"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting about what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." - 1 John 2: 15-17
Society tells us that we have to make our own way and that what WE want is most important. The trouble is what we want is continually changing as the world around us is continually changing. It seems to me like we should be more concerned with what we need.
What do we need to make us calm? What do we need to give us peace of mind? What do we need to truly live?
God. We NEED him, and what he has to offer. The world really has nothing to offer when you honestly think about it. Popularity, money, success in jobs, relationships, good times. These are all good - but they're not the answer. Why aren't they the answer? Because they cannot last. There is nothing permanent in this world. Even the most seasoned actor/actress will eventually lose mass appeal, get old, and die. Someone better and more efficient will one day succeed you in your job. Money may buy convenience, and fun but it can never buy true happiness. Having the right friends or the right women cannot guarantee happiness either. Why not? Because people are temporary also, they do not exist only to please me, and they are also searching for the same things. Good times can create good memories, but they always become memories - they also are not permanent.
So if my life is valued by the sum of all the relationships, money, popularity and good times I can accumulate, and I still die in the end - what was the point to all of it? If the end of our lives is truly the end of us, then what is the point of anything? Trouble is, no matter what the world tells us, we cannot let go of the notion that there is "something" after we die, and that there is or should be a point to all of our life experiences.
The answer to life, the value of this life, and the reasons for life can only be found in God - not just any "god" either. The God who tells us about himself in the Bible. The one who understands how meaningless life on earth is without Him - the very One who created us to need Him. The one who sent himself in Jesus Christ to die for our inadequacy, failure and pain. He is the only one who can grant meaning to our existence.
Think about it. Cemeteries are full of people who once thought life was about them. They were once young, and now they're gone.
What is your hope in?
"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting about what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." - 1 John 2: 15-17
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