Sermon Illustrations on Satisfaction

Satisfaction

A farmer became tired of his farm; and no wonder, you’ll say, for he was born on the place. He had spent all his days on that quarter section. When a boy, he drove the cows to and from the pasture, picked apples in the orchard, swam in the creek just around the bend, trudged across the meadow and through the woods to the little frame schoolhouse down at the crossroads.

When he grew to young manhood, he had plowed every acre of the tillable land in the spring, helped to put up the hay in the summer, threshed in the fall, and hauled fodder for the stock in winter.

To this same old home he brought his bride. His three children had been born under the same roof where he was born. They had now grown up and gone to homes of their own.

He was sick and tired of the surroundings. He wanted a change; and often in his dreams he pictured a quiet spot where conditions were ideal, where he could spend his old age in comfort and be happy.

He told the real estate dealer in town how he felt, so the agent drove out and looked the farm over carefully. He felt sure he would have no difficulty in finding a buyer.

When the weekly paper came on Thursday, the old farmer looked over the ads, and found his farm listed. It stated that the Hammond place of one hundred sixty acres was for sale. The land was fertile and productive – a crop failure had never been known. Forty acres were covered with the best of timber; an artesian well furnished water the year round. There was an abundance of pasture land, through which flowed a small creek; and there was an ideal dwelling house of eight rooms. The barn was large and modern; there were machine sheds, and a granary with spacious bins. The place was well stocked with horses, cows, sheep, and chickens. It was close to the city, on the rural free delivery, and had a telephone. There were all kinds of fruit trees, both large and small, with abundance of shade around the house.

The old man read the advertisement the second time, then hitched up the team and drove to town to see the real estate agent. “I have read that advertisement,” he said, “and as nearly as I can figure out, that’s exactly the kind of place I have been wanting. I think I will keep it myself.” – By Charles L. Paddock

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #4659]

Learning Contentment

Job 36:11

1. The following quiz by Tim Sanford can help you examine your personal

level of frustration (or positively, your contentment).

T F I struggle frequently with envy or jealousy toward others.

T F I'm satisfied with my marriage and family.

T F I like the way my standard of living compares with my friends'.

T F I often feel like something is missing from my life.

T F Most of my dreams and goals for my life have been fulfilled.

T F I feel good about my job.

T F My paycheck is sufficient to meet my needs and most of my wants.

T F I often struggle with disappointment about how my life has turned

out.

T F Most of the time I feel inferior to other people.

T F My present life is pretty much in line with my expectations.

T F I'm easily irritated when things don't go my way.

2. What kinds of people and circumstances are most likely to affect your

sense of contentment? How?

3. When you allow discontent to rule you, what are you saying about your

perception of God?

4. What alternatives to discontent do you find in the following verses?

Psalm 100:4-5 and Psalm 131:1-3

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copyright, Discipleship Journal, Issue 97, January 1997

#4240

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Old Man and the Bread

An old man goes to a diner every day for lunch. He always orders the soup du jour. One day the manager asks him how he liked his meal. The old man replies, "Wass goot, but you could give a little more bread."

So the next day the manager tells the waitress to give him four slices of bread. "How was your meal, sir?" the manager asks. "Wass goot, but you could give a little more bread," comes the reply.

So the next day the manager tells the waitress to give him eight slices of bread. "How was your meal today, sir?" the manager asks. "Wass goot, but you could give a little more bread," comes the reply.

So ... the next day the manager tells the waitress to give him a whole loaf of bread with his soup. "How was your meal, sir?" the manager asks, when he comes to pay. "Wass goot, but you could give just a little more bread," comes the reply once again.

The manager is now obsessed with wanting to hear this customer say that he is satisfied with his meal, so he goes to the bakery, and orders a six-foot-long loaf of bread. When the man comes in as usual the next

day, the waitress and the manager cut the loaf in half, butter the entire length of each half, and lay it out along the counter, right next to his bowl of soup. The old man sits down, and devours his bowl of soup and both halves of the six-foot-long loaf of bread.

The manager now thinks he will get the answer he is looking for, and when the old man comes up to pay for his meal, the manager asks in the usual way: "How was your meal TODAY, sir?"

The old man replies: "It wass goot as usual, but I see you are back to giving only two slices of bread!"

Marketing Emptiness

John 7:37

The Steven Spielberg film “Minority Report,” gives its viewers, among other unnerving visions of the future, a glimpse of futuristic advertising. Billboards peer into the retinas of passersby, tailoring their images and sales pitches to fit the individual's interests and shopping patterns.

Such a scene is certainly fit for science fiction, but I wonder if in reality, we are all that far off. A recent news item reported one major city's experiment with “mind-reading” billboards, which boldly charge forward into the future of advertising. These proposed “smart billboards” are equipped with sensors that read radio frequencies from passing vehicles. Images are then molded to fit the desires of the majority based on listener interests and profiles. Or consider an equally inventive but slightly more absurd advertising trial currently being implemented in Europe. For an hourly salary, companies are renting “space” on the foreheads of university students to advertise their products!

Is there any doubt that marketing strategists want our complete attention? Even more so, perhaps they want us to let them do the thinking. Communicated very loudly is the message that all we have to do is “feel” and act on our inner desires, natural impulses, and driving hungers, while money masquerades as king, and marketers bank on the honored position the appetite holds in our consumer-driven society. And the promise is equally clear: If you act on these natural appetites, happiness is attainable.

But what is perhaps the most ridiculous factor in this incredibly influential marketing machinery is that the majority of us know that it's not true! We know that the promises don't pan out. That money can't by happiness, that we can't take anything with us, and that even if you could satisfy people's material and physical wants, you will not succeed in making them happy.

Jesus Christ spoke of the emptiness of the materialistic worldview and the uselessness of storing treasures on earth with piercing and timeless accuracy. (Matthew 6:19) And He spoke of the kingdom of heaven as a merchant searching for fine pearls, willing to sell everything for the pearl of great price. (Matthew 13:45-46) Christ reminds us that creation is good, but it can only be fully understood and appreciated when our eyes are truly fixed on the Creator. His words countered the Gnostics who held the material world as inherently evil, and his words continue to expose the empty promises marketed with mind-boggling persistence today.

Six hundred years ago, Julian of Norwich wrote of the emptiness of a heart that seeks happiness out of order. She observed pointedly: “The reason why we have no ease of heart or soul [is because] we are seeking our rest in trivial things which cannot satisfy... We shall never cease wanting and longing until we possess Him in fullness and joy... The more clearly the soul sees the Blessed Face by grace and love, the more it longs to see it in its fullness.”

You see, the unrelenting thirst of our souls need not be met with empty promises, or even pessimism like Arthur Schopenhauer, the famous German philosopher who reasoned, “Man is never happy, but spends his whole life striving after something he thinks will make him so.” [1] The thirst of humanity, recognized King David, is the soul's continuous panting for its Maker. (Psalm 42:1) And it was Jesus who “stood and said in a loud voice: 'If any one is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.'“ (John 7:37)

Dear friend, may you delight in the One who first saw all things and called them good. For He is the deepest desire of our hearts, and in Him, we see all good things most clearly.

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1. Armand Nicholi, The Question of God (Free Press: New York, 2002), p. 98.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5138]

He Never Knew What Was Lacking In His Life

It is said that Ole Bull[*] and John Erricson met for the first time in the city of New York, and the great musician said to his new found friend, “Come around and hear me play tonight.” The invitation was not accepted. It was given the second time and again was not accepted. The third time Ole Bull said if you do not come and hear me play I will come and play for you, and John Erricson said, “Do not bring your violin into my shop for I do not care for music.”

But the next day Ole Bull was there and he said, “There is something the matter with my violin,” and they talked about tones and semi-tones and fibres of wood, and then he said, I will show how it is.” He strung up the instrument, drew the bow across the strings and began to play. In a little while the building was filled with waves of harmony. The men left their work and gathered about the great musician.

John Erricson rose from his desk, stood for a moment in the outer circle, then came close to Ole Bull and listened to every note that came from the violin. At last the player drew his bow across the strings for the last time and stopped, the men turned back again to their work; not so John Erricson. With tears streaming down his checks he said, “Play on, play on, I never knew what was lacking in my life before.”

This it is with many a man who thought he knew the needs of his soul, and sought to be satisfied with honor, and wealth, and power, but only Christ call satisfy, and until we learn this and claim him we shall be devoid of peace.

[*] Ole Bull [1810-1880] was Norwegian and one of the greatest violin virtuosos of his time.

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“Present Day Parables” by J. Wilbur Chapman

I'm Full

George Klingman, a preacher who taught at David Lipscomb College years ago, was heard by Mrs. Betty Kennamer when she was girl in Virginia to remark after an especially good meal: "My gastronomical satiety tells me I've reached that state of delectation consistent with dietetic integrity." In other words, "I'm full."

Laughing Millionaires Are Rare

“Millionaires who laugh,” said Andrew Carnegie, “are rare.” Sir Ernest Cassel, who spent vast fortunes for the benefit of mankind, a multi-millionaire, the friend of kings and emperors, said to one of his visitors: “You may have all the money in the world, and yet be a lonely, sorrowing man. The light has gone out of my life. I live in this beautiful house, which I have furnished with all the luxury and wonder of art; but, believe me, I no longer value my millions. I sit here for hours every night longing for my beloved daughter.”

Four Dissatisfied Rulers

The 19th century Bible scholar G. S. Bowes pointed out the ultimate futility of ambition that isn’t accompanied by dedication to God. Citing four powerful world rulers of the past, he wrote: “Alexander the Great was not satisfied, even when he had completely subdued the nations. He wept because there were no more worlds to conquer, and he died at an early age in a state of debauchery. Hannibal, who filled three bushels with the gold rings taken from the knights he had slaughtered, committed suicide by swallowing poison. Few noted his passing, and he left this earth completely unmourned. Julius Caesar, ‘staining his garments in the blood of one million of his foes,’ conquered 800 cities, only to be stabbed by his best friends at the scene of his greatest triumph. Napoleon, the feared conqueror, after being the scourge of Europe, spent his last years in banishment.”

The True Source of Peace

John 10:10

Women live longer than men do but they are unhappy. Well, maybe -- it depends on whose study you want to believe.

USA Today reported on an upcoming study in the Journal of Happiness Studies that states men’s happiness exceeds women’s happiness by age 48. On the flip side, U.S. News & World Report referenced a study earlier this year that showed women reach the zenith of unhappiness at 38 years old, men when they are 53 years old. So, who knows?

What is undeniable is that men and women go through periods of crisis based on finances, family and their future. That’s where the followers of Jesus have the opportunity to step up and make a difference. We need to share the peace that comes through Jesus.

In the Old Testament, the Lord spoke through Jeremiah the prophet to remind the captives in Babylon, “For I know the plans I have for you -- [this is] the Lord’s declaration -- plans for [your] welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

The New Testament words of Jesus in John 10:10 are an oft-quoted promise of peace, “I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (HCSB)

The first verse speaks to God’s concern for the individuals that make up his chosen nation. God has not forgotten you. In your pain and despair, there is hope. The latter verse states that eternal life is a blessing for this life, not just life after death.

The cliché says, “I may not know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.”

If you have a friend, female or male, who is struggling with unhappiness, you can share your testimony or story of faith with him or her. Although your circumstances may be different, the God who takes care of you can take care of your friend as well.

With verses like those referenced above, show your friend God’s promises of peace. Then share how He has given you peace.

Walk them through verses that tell of God’s offer of eternal peace. It can be something simple like the Roman Road (Romans 3:23; 5:8; 6:23 and 10:9-10) concluding with the great promise, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Be intentional about showing genuine concern. People are hurting.

Invite them to trust Jesus alone for their salvation, receiving His peace. Use your own words. I usually ask something like this, “Wouldn’t you like to have the kind of relationship with Jesus these verses describe?”

If the friend says “no” be respectful of his or her decision. You are not the means of salvation but only a messenger. People need to have an encounter with the Holy Spirit of God. Only Jesus saves.

If the person desires to begin a walk with the Lord, help them through a prayer of surrender. Since there are no magic prayers to pray or exact words that must be spoken to receive Christ, I lead them in a prayer, based on the promise of Scripture in Romans 10:9. “Dear Jesus, I confess you to be my Lord. I repent of sin and surrender my life to you. I believe that you are alive, that you are God. Thank you for saving me. Amen.”

It doesn’t take years of study to find out that people are hurting and unhappy. Just look around. The person hurting may be your co-worker, your friend or your family member. Won’t you share the greatest source of happiness, joy and peace with someone today?

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #7253]

C'mon, Get Happy!: Small Wonder Americans Are Less Happy

The book FALLING BEHIND attempts to resolve one of the defining paradoxes of our age: Why doesn’t increased prosperity and rising standards of living translate into more happiness?

Ultimately, FALLING BEHIND misses the mark, like other similar efforts, because it doesn’t understand where happiness comes from in the first place.

What columnist Robert Samuelson calls the “economic disconnect” is evident in polling data: thirty years ago, 36 percent of Americans said that they were “very happy” and another 53 percent called themselves “pretty happy.”

In 2006, only 32 percent called themselves “very happy” and 55 percent said they were “pretty happy.” Our sense of happiness has barely budged despite increased prosperity and even greater improvements in our standard of living. What’s more, as Samuelson points out, people aren’t any happier during boom times than they are during recessions.

The disconnect between money and happiness is even more pronounced from a global perspective. A few years ago, NEW SCIENTIST magazine asked the residents of 65 countries how happy they were. The survey found that Nigerians, followed by Mexicans, Venezuelans, and Salvadorians, were the happiest people in the world. Obviously, prosperity didn’t play much, if any, role in the happiness of these countries.

The author of FALLING BEHIND, Cornell economist Robert Frank, argues that while increased prosperity can’t make you happy, it can, ironically, contribute to unhappiness. Rising standards of living also raise our expectations. Since we can never fully meet our expectations, we are always going to be less than happy, and our attempts to “keep up with the Joneses” leave us feeling unsatisfied.

While Frank’s argument makes sense, it doesn’t tell us anything about what makes people happy in the first place. Thus, it can’t tell us why increased prosperity doesn’t translate into increased happiness.

To understand that, you need to talk to someone other than an economist, such as your spouse or a friend at church. Literally. The National Opinion Research Center found that married couples are two-and-one-half times more likely to call themselves “very happy” than divorced people. A similar difference exists between married people who attend church weekly and single people who don’t.

Results in other countries are similar to those in the United States: A survey of Australians found that “Christians are happier than atheists and more generous . . .” The results led the researcher to conclude that the “decline of the significance of church life in Australia” has led to a loss in the “fabric of community well-being.”

The role that faith and family play in our happiness suggests a possible answer to the paradox I mentioned: The same period that saw rising standards of living also saw a weakening of family life and increased secularization.

While we were getting richer materially, we were becoming poorer in the things that most contribute to our happiness. That’s why we don’t feel any better about ours lives.

Twenty-five hundred years ago Isaiah asked the question: “Why spend your labor on what does not satisfy?” The question still applies. That’s because we, like the people he first asked, have forgotten where happiness comes from.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #7563]

Are They Ever Satisfied?

A group of girlfriends is on vacation when they see a 5-story hotel with a sign that reads: "For Women Only". Since they are without their boyfriends and husbands, they decide to go in. The bouncer, a very attractive guy, explains to them how it works. "We have 5 floors. Go up floor by floor, and once you find what you are looking for, you can stay there. It's easy to decide since each floor has a sign telling you what's inside."

So they start going up and on the first floor the sign reads: "All the men on this floor are short and plain." The friends laugh and without hesitation move on to the next floor.

The sign on the second floor reads: "All the men here are short and handsome." Still, this isn't good enough, so the friends continue on up. They reach the third floor and the sign reads: "All the men here are tall and plain." They still want to do better, and so, knowing there are still two floors left, they continued on up. On the fourth floor, the sign is perfect: "All the men here are tall and handsome." The women get all excited and are going in when they realize that there is still one floor left. Wondering what they are missing, they head on up to the fifth floor.

There they find a sign that reads: "There are no men here. This floor was built only to prove that there is no way to please a woman."

Garrision Keillor On Getting What You Want

"Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted, but getting what you have, which once you have got it, you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known."

Garrison Keillor

Radio personality

Cited in BITS & PIECES

A Gerbil On A Wheel

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Our family of five voted - and the vote was four to one. I lost. The issue was whether or not we would get a pet. Since I had grown up an apartment boy, the only pet I ever had was some cockroaches. But I went along with the vote, and we started down Pet Avenue with the purchase of a gerbil. And I really took a liking to him. But there's something a little strange about those furry little guys. If you could interview a gerbil about, like, what he was anticipating for today's activities, he might say, "The same as yesterday and the day before that." If you asked, "Well, what's that?" he would answer, "The wheel." And so Gerbil climbs on his wheel and starts running. Come back later, he's still running on the wheel. I guess they don't realize what's happening: lots and lots of activity - and absolutely no progress.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Gerbil On A Wheel."

My friend Mark has a successful business, a great family, and he's actively involved in a good church. But the other day, in a heart-to-heart conversation we were having, Mark summed up this deep restlessness in his heart. He said, "I'm sick and tired of the status quo." He's not alone.

I know more and more people who are tired of the "gerbil wheel" of status quo living. It's not that the wheel is bad - it just isn't satisfying. It feels too much like a life that is full of activity, but in terms of doing something really eternal, not really going anywhere. This feeling of restlessness about the wheel you're spinning on may be leading you to the same conclusion my friend has reached. Even though there's nothing really wrong in my life, I really want more from it than just more of the same.

Okay, the reason for the restlessness may be traceable to the reality that God shows us in Ecclesiastes 3:11. He says, "He has set eternity in their hearts." You've got this "hankering," as they say down South, for something that will give your life some eternal significance. You want more than a "gerbil wheel" of doing your job, making some money, maintaining your Christian activities, meeting your responsibilities. It's all good stuff, but again not enough to satisfy a heart that's restless for something more eternal.

The first step off the "gerbil wheel" of status quo living may be in our word for today from the Word of God - Matthew 6:32-33. Speaking of the pursuit of earth-stuff, Jesus says, "The pagans run after such things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you as well."

As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we were not created to just spend our life building and maintaining an earth-kingdom. We are eternal beings created to make an eternal difference. The restlessness of our heart is ultimately to make a greater difference with the rest of our lives than we've ever made before.

If the status quo isn't enough for you anymore, ask God for a mission that will affect people's eternity, for a life that's committed to building His Kingdom; carrying out His agenda. Nothing matters more to Jesus than the mission for which He came to earth. In His words, "to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10)

My friend Mark, who told me of his discontentment with the status quo, said he wants the rest of his life to really be about sharing Christ, getting out the life-saving Gospel of Jesus, and taking people to heaven. He told me he wants his business profits to be about that, his relationships with the people in his world, his influence, the use of more and more of his time. See, that kind of passion to make the maximum possible difference with everything you've got with the rest of the time you have is the beginning of the great adventure your heart has been hungry for.

More of the same running on the same old gerbil wheel will never be enough for a heart that's made for the eternal. Be all about Jesus' Kingdom, and your life will count more than you could have ever dreamed.

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Stranded On This Side of the Rainbow

John 4:13

So what was the greatest song of the Twentieth Century? That was the question on a major survey taken in the first year of the Twenty-First Century. And the winner - Judy Garland's signature song from "The Wizard of Oz" - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The tragedy is that Judy Garland herself could never seem to get there. She was an international star at the age of 17, and she remains one of the towering entertainers of the century. But tragically, her search for health and happiness led her down a road of drug addiction, disappointing relationships, psychiatric hospitals, and a physical collapse. She died of a drug overdose in a London hotel. It's painfully ironic isn't it? The voice that tried to take us "over the rainbow" could never make it there herself.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Stranded On This Side Of The Rainbow."

"The rainbow" means something a little different to all of us - but it ultimately represents the fulfillment, the worth, the love we all want to fill us up inside. But Judy Garland's inability to ever get what her heart craved is not an isolated exception. In a sense, maybe you feel stranded on this side of the rainbow.

It isn't for lack of trying. It's just that every achievement has left you feeling hollow afterwards ... every relationship has left you still feeling unexplainably lonely ... every great experience - even spiritual experience - has left you strangely unsatisfied. In a sense, you've been searching for as long as you can remember - but, so far, never really finding. The rainbow is still beyond your reach.

It always will be - until you belong to the Person who gave you your life in the first place. Every other "rainbow" in our life is a terribly inadequate substitute for a love relationship with the God of the universe.

In our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus is talking to a woman who's been looking for the end of her search in relationships with men. You can fill in the blank and put in there whatever your rainbow has been. Jesus has run into this woman at a well where they were both looking for water, and in John 4:13-14, He says, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again." There's the problem with every "rainbow," every "well" we've thought would do it for us - we end up "thirsty again."

Jesus goes on to say, "But whoever drinks the water I give Him, it will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life." Jesus is offering to her - and to you - a spring inside that will never leave you thirsty again, a relationship with Him that will literally give you life here and life forever in Heaven. We've cut ourselves off from our Source by stubbornly living our way instead of His way. And there would be no hope of belonging to the One we were made for, except that Jesus died on the cross to absorb the death penalty you and I deserve.

And He's coming to you today to offer you the relationship with Him that will end your search once and for all. He's reaching out to you - but you have to reach back and grab His hand as your only hope of being forgiven ... your only hope of going to Heaven. If you want to belong to Jesus from today on, tell Him that right where you are. And, if you'd like, I want to send you the booklet I wrote about this relationship called "Yours For Life" - just let me know you want it.

If you're tired of seeking ... if you're ready to find ... then make this your "Jesus day." He's everything your heart has always looked for and never found. Until today.

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One More Hill

John 6:35

There was just something about those great vacation adventures I would plan for our family! Somehow our kids got to dreading my announcement that I had another one scheduled. Maybe it was that day on Cape Cod. Near Provincetown there are these monster sand dunes. And I had heard that if you climbed to the top of this particular mountain of sand, you would have a beautiful panoramic view of the ocean. So on a hot July day, we started trudging up that dune. And I kept encouraging the troops with the prospect of that fabulous view at the top. And when we finally reached the top, there it was - a panoramic view of ... another sand dune. Well, against strenuous protests, I moved the troops down that dune and up the next one, sure that our view was one dune away. And there, atop that next dune, we were rewarded with, yeah, another sand dune. And so went our afternoon, up a dune, down a dune, up a dune, down a dune. My mistake - I was sure that what I was looking must be just over that next hill. It wasn't.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "One More Hill."

You know, a lot of people live their whole lives that same way - thinking that what they're looking for is just over that next hill. The love, the peace, the fulfillment I'm looking for - it'll be in that next relationship ... that next accomplishment ... that next experience. But so far, we've left behind us a trail of hills that were supposed to fill the hole in our heart and didn't. Some people trudge on all the way to that final hill called death - still looking, still not finding. Maybe for you, life has been a lot of climbing hills to nowhere ... to disappointment and emptiness and loneliness.

You may need to climb one more hill - the one that really does have what your soul has been searching for. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 6:35, where Jesus Christ promises to satisfy what nothing and no one else has been able to satisfy. "Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty.'" Oh, there have been people or things that briefly satisfied the hunger and thirst in your heart, but never for long ... never for good.

Jesus says He is the end of that search for satisfaction. Why? Because He came to earth to reunite us with the God whose love we were made for. We've lost Him by living for ourselves instead of for Him. We've got this wall between us and God, the One we were created for. The hole in your heart was made for your Creator - and He's on the other side of that sin-wall. No one, nothing on earth can ever fill that hole. No matter how many more hills you climb.

But there is that one hill that will finally bring the restless years to an end. It's called Skull Hill. It's got a cross on top of it. On that cross hangs the Son of God, suspended by nails in His hands and feet. He's there, in Jesus' own words, "giving His life a ransom for many." In other words, paying the price to get you back to your Creator. And when you fall at the foot of that cross, putting all your trust in the Man who died for you there, the wall between you and God finally comes down. And the hell you deserve is replaced with the heaven you don't deserve. And the search for what's always been missing is finally over.

Today can be your day to climb the only hill where you'll find what you've looked for all these years. At Jesus' cross, you can finally begin the eternal love-relationship you were made for. If you want to begin that relationship with Jesus Christ, tell Him that right where you are. And if you'll let me know, I'll send you the booklet I wrote about it called "Yours For Life." We'll tell you how to get in touch in just a moment.

You don't have to waste one more day climbing hills to nowhere. Jesus is what your heart is hungry for. Your lifelong search ends at His cross.

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Beautiful Things That Fall Apart

John 4:13

Occasionally my wife flips on the TV to one of those home shopping channels. And there actually are some good deals that show up there. She saw this 14-karat gold bracelet and she decided to order it. When it arrived, it looked just as beautiful as it had on television ... until our two-year old grandson got interested in it. He saw it on a dresser and was instantly fascinated with the bracelet. He picked it up, played with it for a moment - at which point the bracelet just totally fell apart. Karen said there was one drawback to ordering from television or catalogs - she just couldn't hold the jewelry in her hand and feel the weight of it. The bracelet turned out to be very attractive on the outside - but hollow on the inside.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beautiful Things That Fall Apart."

Maybe you've experienced that kind of disappointment in your life - not with jewelry but with relationships, your job, your dream, your accomplishments, or even your marriage. It was beautiful for a while, but then it just fell apart. It's almost like many of the things we depend on for happiness and meaning turn out to be hollow inside.

Those disappointments start us searching for something that's both beautiful and solid gold inside and out. Something that won't fall apart on us, something that won't let us down or leave us alone, something unbreakable ... "unloseable." That search has led millions of people ultimately to Jesus Christ. It could be that He's where your search can end, too.

Jesus met a searcher at a well one day; a well where both he and this woman had stopped for a drink on a hot day. Their conversation later revealed that this woman had been looking for love and fulfillment in relationships with one man after another. Now, we all look different places, but we're all looking. Her hopes, her search just happened to be in series of relationships.

In John 4:13 and 14, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus identifies the problem with so many of the "beautiful things" we look to -and then offers something very exciting. Speaking symbolically, Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again." Translation: things just keeping leaving us unsatisfied, still searching. "But whoever drinks the water I give him," Jesus says, "will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." That's "eternal" as in unloseable.

What Jesus offers is the one relationship, the one love that will totally fill the hole in your heart. It's the relationship with Him that the Bible says you were literally created for. That's why all those other beautiful things ultimately seem so hollow. But that relationship with Jesus is impossible as long as your sin stands between you and Him. No religion can take it away. Only He can - because He died to pay for it.

So your search for your life-anchor finally ends when you open up your life to the One who paid for your life on the cross. If you've never done that, you could do it right where you are. Tell Jesus, "I'm Yours from this day on." And you will finally belong to the One who loves you most. If that's what you want, I would love to send you my booklet, "Yours For Life" - it's all about beginning this relationship. Just let me know you want it.

You know what it is to pin your hopes on something that's beautiful for a while - until it falls apart in your hands. Jesus offers you life that is beautiful eternally. And no matter what else falls apart, this relationship is the one thing you'll never lose.

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I'm Okay - [poem]

I’m Okay

The house is a mess, the dishes are dirty.

I’m too old for this stuff, I’m well over thirty!

The car is not clean, my hair is a wreck,

And I’ve already spent next Friday’s paycheck.

The laundry needs washing, the kids are too rowdy,

And I never have time for a leisurely “Howdy.”

With all that I do, it’s never enough,

It’s never quite finished, it always looks rough.

I looked in my mirror and what did I see?

A harried old stranger, where I used to be.

The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.

Today is tomorrow, and I’m not caught up yet.

My kids are growing at such a fast pace,

That I’m missing their childhood for the sake of this race.

I work and I clean and I cook, and I say

“Hit the books, clean your room!” there’s no time for play.

Well, the Lord, for some reason, chose ME with the care

Of three of His children, but I’m rarely there!

I’ve GOT to slow down lest there’s nothing to show

For my role as their mom when they pack up and go!

I’m only one person, but look through my door,

What appears to be one, divides into more!

I’m a chauffeur, a cook, a planter of trees,

A teacher, an umpire, a mender of knees.

Sometimes, I forget that deep down inside,

There’s a lady with feelings, and last night, she cried.

She gets tired and lonely, feels taken for granted

She wants to see blooms from the seeds that she’s planted.

Then, amidst all the turmoil in this mind-bending pace,

My little ones look at me — square in the face…

And just when I need it, they all in one day

Say, “Momma, I love you” and then … I’m OKAY!

Remember Who You Are and Whose You Are

Luke 22:19

In his book THE SWANN'S WAY, the French novelist Marcel Proust wrote of returning home late one evening on a dull winter day when he faced the prospect of a depressing tomorrow. The maid greeted him and, seeing that he was tired, brought him a cup of hot tea and some cake. Being both tired and depressed he at first refused them. Only at her insistence did he finally begin to drink the tea and eat the cake. Proust wrote that an unexplainable delight suddenly came over him. His anxieties and troubles seemed to vanish. Suddenly, he wrote, I had “ceased to feel mediocre, accidental and mortal.”

What caused this wonderful sensation to come over him? He was at a loss to explain it. How could a taste of tea and cake produce this feeling of peace? He drank and ate more but he still could not decipher the secret. The truth, he guessed, must be in himself and not in what he was eating and drinking.

Proust began to search within himself. Suddenly he began to remember. His mind carried him back to Combray, France, where in childhood he visited his Aunt and she feed him cake and hot tea. Proust had been unmoved by the sight of the tea and cake but the taste had sent shockwaves through him and reminded him of scenes long forgotten. Suddenly he remembered the little town, the village church, the old house, the long forgotten relatives, and the flowers in the garden. The tea and cake had recovered for Proust the memory and mystery of an existence long past.

Is it, indeed, possible to hand a person a cup of tea and say to that person: Now drink this and remember who you are? It not only is possible but we believe that in a real sense that is what we do when we partake of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. By partaking of the bread and wine we are seeking to recover the experience of salvation. Like the novelist Proust, it causes us to think back on experiences that happened long ago and in remembering these experiences we begin to recover our own sense of identity. In a haunting and mystical way the sacrament calls us to remember -- remember who we are and whose we are.

Contentment

Acts 20:33

“But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” (Php 4:10-12 NKJV)

Contentment

• flourished — put forth new shoots

• wherein[though] — with an eye to which

• careful[care] — anxious

• opportunity — not lack of will to do good

• not…want[need] — I do not mean that I have been in absolute need

• learned — by considering Christ, by my past experience

• content — 1 Tim 6:6, 8, Heb 13:5 — Gk., self-supporting, independent

• abased, how to endure having little

• instructed[learned] — Acts 20:33-34 — initiated

• both…need — how to deport myself in every condition

The school of God — I have learned: I am instructed — H. T. Miller

This school is:

I. Old — a most venerable university — God the teacher — man the learner.

II. Wealthy. What titles, privileges, possessions, and employments, God confers!

III. Select — the pupils are made to differ — they are separated, sanctified ones.

IV. Free — free to enter and advance — the highest seats are for the holiest.

A parable of contentment — A violet shed its modest beauties at the turfy foot of an old oak. It lived there many days during the kind summer in obscurity. The winds and the rains came and fell, but they did not hurt the violet. Storms often crashed among the boughs of the oak. And one day said the oak, “Are you not ashamed of yourself when you look up at me, you little thing down there, when you see how large I am, and how small you are; when you see how small a space you fill, and how widely my branches are spread?” “No,” said the violet, “we are both where God has placed us; and God has given us both something. He has given to you strength, to me sweetness; and I offer Him back my fragrance, and I am thankful.” “Sweetness is all nonsense,” said the oak; “a few days — a month at most — where and what will you be? You will die, and the place of your grave will not lift the ground higher by a blade of grass. I hope to stand some time –ages, perhaps — and then, when I am cut down, I shall be a ship to bear men over the sea, or a coffin to hold the dust of a prince. What is your lot to mine?” “But,” cheerfully breathed the violet back, “we are both what God made us, and we are both where He placed us. I suppose I shall die soon. I hope to die fragrantly, as I have lived fragrantly. You must be cut down at last; it does not matter, that I see, a few days or a few ages, my littleness, or your largeness, it comes to the same thing at last. We are what God made us. We are where God placed us. God gave you strength; God gave me sweetness.”

“If you are but content, you have enough to live upon with comfort” — Plautus

“But if men live according to reason’s rules, they would find the greatest riches to be to live content with little; for there is never want where the mind is satisfied.” — Lucretius

“Is that animal better that hath two or three mountains to graze on than a little bee that feeds on dew or manna, and lives upon what falls every morning from the storehouses of heaven, clouds, and Providence? Can a man quench his thirst better out of a river than a full urn; or drink better from the fountain which is’ finely paved with marble, than when it wells over the green turf?” — Jeremy Taylor

I Wish

Psalms 145

I recently heard radio host Ira Glass point out a common element of musical storytelling that he called the “I wish” song. Most musicals start with some form of a song in which the main character states the wish he or she would like to see fulfilled. Disney cartoons provide some good examples. In Snow White's first scene on screen she sings a song called “I'm Wishing” in which she states her desire to be found by the one she loves. Disney's Little Mermaid begins her story singing, “I wanna be where the people are....” In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's story begins in black and white as she sings about her desire to go “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” In Broadway musicals, a classic example of the “I wish” song is Eliza Doolittle's “Wouldn't It Be Loverly” from My Fair Lady. Stephen Sondheim even parodied the “I wish” song in the first number of his musical Into The Woods in which familiar storybook characters catalogue their wishes. All of these songs set up the plot of their story as the audience settles back to watch the fulfillment of these desires.

There is something inexpressibly satisfying about the fulfillment of a desire, and the Scriptures recognize this. Time after time the psalms describe God as the one who satisfies our longings. Psalm 145 says, “You satisfy the desire of every living thing” and “He fulfills the desire of those who fear him.” Just as “the fulfillment of desire” could summarize the plotline of so many familiar stories, it also captures the essence of our story. Yet critics of the Christian faith take this idea and twist it, claiming that Christianity is a “mere wish-fulfillment fantasy.”

Those who believe that Christians have invented their belief-system in order to satisfy their own fancies overlook a crucial element of the Christian faith. The Gospel is not merely about the satisfaction of our desires; it is also about the reformation and reordering of our desires. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the nourishment of the Scriptures transform a believer so that his or her desires change and ultimately center upon God. Psalm 37:4 encapsulates this truth: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” If you think carefully about what the psalmist is saying, you will realize that by delighting oneself in the Lord, one's desires become such that only the Lord can satisfy them. It is almost as if the psalmist is saying, “If you desire God, you will get God.”

The transformation of desires is not foreign to “I wish” musicals. For example, by the end of The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy no longer wishes to live over the rainbow, but proclaims, “There's no place like home.” Such a story of transformed desire, the discovery that there is something better than that which we initially longed for, can be even more satisfying than a story of “mere wish-fulfillment.” Our story is one of discovering that God's desire for us is better than our desires for ourselves. God wants to give us himself, to be both our satisfier and our satisfaction. You can be assured that your faith is not “mere wish-fulfillment” (the product of your own desires) when you feel it transforming those desires, making you wish for things that you would never want on your own. Who, apart from the transforming Spirit of Christ, would want to love their enemies, to bless those that persecute them, or to consider others better than themselves?

__________

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Abundant Satisfaction

Psalms 36:7

Psalm 36:7–9 Abundant Satisfaction « Leader information shown in this fashion »

A. 7 How precious is Thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Thy wings. 8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Thy house; And Thou dost give them to drink of the river of Thy delights. 9 For with Thee is the fountain of life; In Thy light we see light. (NAS)

B. What do you find in these verses that fill man’s deepest needs?

1. « the excellence (preciousness) of God’s loving mercies; David cannot estimate it … only exclaim about it; for it is the basis of our having communion with the Creator of the universe »

2. « the protection afforded by God to those who will trust in Him; how Jesus wept at those who refused what God had given; and against an enemy far too strong for our own skills »

3. « the abundance (fatness) to be found in joining together in the house of God to praise, to serve, to listen to Him »

4. « the pleasure (delights) of drinking in from the fountain that is Christ — John 4:10–11 — assuages the thirst for God that has existed since man was cast from the Garden of Eden and He gives to us fullness of joy (John 15:11) »

5. « light, which not only removes the gloom and misery of this dark world, but also light which enables us to comprehend and know the One who is Light (John 1:4) »

C. These verses are taken from the pictures found in the tabernacle: there seem to be references to all of the wings of the cherubim on the mercy seat, the richness of the sacrifices, the streams of oil and fragrance, and the light of the candlesticks.

Hunger Fix

Joel 2:19

Not long ago I was in a store standing in a line that snaked its way through rows of candy. A young couple waited behind me with their daughter. The little girl seized upon some candy and asked excitedly, “Ooh, can I get this?” She was holding a tube of goo that had been colored fluorescent green. The candy makers had thoughtfully designed it so that kids could squeeze the goo right into their mouths. I have to say it was one of the least appetizing things I have ever seen. Her mother quickly responded, “No way, all that is, is sugar.”

There was a time that the sugar in a tube would have appealed to me. As children we quickly learn that sugar satisfies an appetite immediately and provides a burst of energy, not to mention a pleasing taste. We learn to recognize that sweet things are brightly colored and cleverly packaged. When we are hungry, we want whatever will satisfy us right now. It may confuse a child to hear, “That will spoil your appetite for supper,” because isn't the point of eating to satisfy your appetite? Why not just eat candy and forego supper? Anyone who has done this knows that the quick satisfaction of candy wears off just as quickly, leaving one even more hungry and weak. It is only after we learn the more lasting satisfaction of a healthy meal that we may find candy less appetizing.

But children in a checkout line rarely want to hear this and are likely to accuse their parents of being mean or stingy. I know it is tempting for us to accuse God of the same things when he denies us what we want.

It may be that there is something that you know — absolutely know — would bring you happiness. It may be hard to understand why God is denying you what you want. It may be that although God knows it would bring you a rush of happiness, he also knows the happiness it would bring is not the lasting kind. Ravi Zacharias has said, “The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced what you thought would deliver the ultimate, and it has let you down.” (1)

Sometimes God refuses to satisfy our hungers because if we live from sugar fix to sugar fix, we will never learn to hunger for food that satisfies. If a child is allowed to live off of candy, she will never learn to appreciate a steak dinner. That tube of goo would have been as sweet as the little girl expected it to be, but it would probably have left her sick to her stomach. If you are gazing longingly at something out of your reach, it may be that it would only spoil your appetite for the very best that God wants to offer you.

In the 23rd Psalm, we read that God has spread a table before us. Perhaps right now the feast that God has spread before you doesn't look very appetizing. We are promised every spiritual blessing in Christ, but this may not be what you would have wished for. Yet if you will approach God's table in faith, you will “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). There is a French proverb that says, “Appetite comes with eating.” The sustenance that God gives us may not provide a sugar rush, but it satisfies us and makes us strong. You will find the quick fixes you once craved become less desirable when you eat at God's table, dining on the richest of fare.

________

1. The Real Face of Atheism (Baker Books, 2004) 85.

________

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The Want Behind the Want

In her novel WISE BLOOD, Flannery O'Connor created a character named Hazel Moates. Hazel Moates is a bizarre figure. Literary scholar Ralph Wood describes him as somebody who believes everything he was ever told in an advertisement. I believe this is an accurate assessment, and it leads Moates to make many ironic statements, my favorite of which is, “Nobody with a good car needs to be justified.”

At some point, most of us have probably tried to analyze commercials or ads with some detachment. “What is this commercial really saying to the viewer?” a marketing professor asks her students. “What do these magazines ads tell us about our culture?” a pastor asks his congregation. Those who have been through this exercise before can quickly rattle off answers. Ads send subtle but pervasive messages that appearances are vital, possessions make us happy, and the quick solution we've been waiting for has finally arrived.

We need to go a step beyond asking what ads tell us about our culture and move to the more challenging question of what ads tell us about ourselves. In a recent newsletter to subscribers, Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio wrote, “'The culture' is not simply something 'out there.’ Unless we live in a cave, the culture is something within and about us, in our heads, hearts, and homes.”

Madison Avenue would not keep churning out commercials with the same messages if they were not effective. And although we expect the next guy to be the one to fall for the gimmicks, we ought to stop and take stock of how often we are grasping for what is being dangled in front of us. We each have our own particular Achilles heel when it comes to marketing. It's not bad to want what is advertised, but we need to spend more time pondering why we want what we want.

You see, sometimes very shallow images can call forth deep emotions from us. It's why some people get teary-eyed over life insurance commercials and others drool over car commercials. The delectable meals in magazine advertisements may send you straight to the refrigerator, or the model on the cover may make you promise yourself you'll go on a diet. None of these responses start with the advertisement; they all go back to a deeper hunger within us that can only be permanently satisfied by God Himself.

We can be wise to the ways we are manipulated by marketers. I can step into a department store and recognize that the sights, sounds, and smells are all meant to prime me for spending. But will this recognition do my soul a bit of good? If the recognition stops there, I don't think it will. Instead I need to ask myself, why am I so eager to buy? Am I believing that if I buy something new, I'll feel new? Do I need to prove myself to people who thought that I wouldn't succeed? Do I believe that if I own the right things, I'll be on the inside of the inner circle and satisfy my craving to belong?

It is not wrong to buy things. But when buying things provides the comfort that God longs to provide, we suffer. Hazel Moates believed everything he ever saw in an advertisement. We are prone to believe the messages of ads when they confirm what we already believe about ourselves. The next time your spirit leaps up at the thought of what you could buy to make your life better, take some time to reflect on what you're really seeking. Chances are, there's a need behind the want that God is ready to satisfy.

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Fill My Cup, Lord

John 4:15

1. Like the woman at the well I was seeking

For things that could not satisfy;

And then I heard my Saviour speaking:

“Draw from my well that never shall run dry.”

Chorus:

Fill my cup, Lord– I lift if up, Lord!

Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;

Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more–

Fill my cup, fill it up and make my whole!

2. There are millions in this world who are craving

The pleasures earthly things afford;

But none can match the wondrous treasure

That I find in Jesus Christ my Lord.

3. So, my brother, if the things this world gave you

Leave hungers that won’t pass away,

My blessed Lord will come and save you,

If you kneel to Him and humbly pray:

The Coffee Or the Cups?

Luke 12:15

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old University of Notre Dame lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups.”

“Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change.”

“Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.”

________

Source: Nascent Dew Drops, http://www.topica.com/lists/Nascent_Dew_Drops/

An Accomplished Life

Deuteronomy 11:21

Your days may be multiplied … as the days of heaven upon the earth. — Deuteronomy 11:21.

No one thinks of measuring life only by days and years. To live long with the constant feeling that life is not worth living, or to live long with the constant apprehension of death, must be counted as a small and empty life. Now, it is the chief blessedness in the lot of the children of light that each day is a full, rich day, unmarred by recollections, unshadowed by apprehensions. Each day is distinctly worth living; it has its own exquisite lessons of cloud and sunshine, its own beautiful revelations of love, and pity and hope. Time does not hang heavily on the hands, nor yet is its hurried flight a cause of vain regrets; for it has accomplished that for which it was sent, and by staying longer could not accomplish more. — R. F. Horton.

Direct, control, suggest this day

all might, or do, or say;

That all my powers, with all their might,

in Thy sole glory may delight.

Ultimate Satisfaction

Psalms 145:16

Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. — Psalm 145:16.

Desire — it is a dainty word! It is much that He should satisfy the need, the want; but He goeth far beyond that. Pity is moved to meet our need; duty may sometimes look after our wants; but to satisfy the desire implies a tender watchfulness, a sweet and gracious knowledge of us, an eagerness of blessing. God is never satisfied until He has satisfied our desires. — Mark Guy Pearse.

Saviour, Thy love exceeds our thought,

But this at least we see,

The soul that knows Thy love is taught

To value naught but Thee.

A Pear-shaped Heart

Ecclesiastes 3:11

He hast set the world in their heart. — Ecclesiastes 3:11.

The eyes of man are never satisfied. — Proverbs 27:20.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. — Ecclesiastes 1:8.

Someone has said, “The heart of man is pear shaped and the world is round; put the whole world into the heart of man, it is not filled.” Whether this is the truth stated in a logical way, or not, it is nevertheless a great statement of truth. Give a man all this world can give him and if he is sane and rational he is not satisfied. There is a place in the mind and heart of men which nothing but God can fill. — W. S. Hottel.

Satisfied with Thee, Lord Jesus, I am blest,

Peace which passeth understanding on thy breast.

No more doubting, no more trembling, all is rest. — Miss C. A. Wellesley

Buying Happiness

Luke 12:15

“Better a dry crust with peace than a house full of feasting with strife” (Proverbs 17:1). Or to put this proverb another way, “Better to have little materially with peace than material abundance with strife.”

A University of Southern California study entitled “Explaining Happiness” compiled responses from around 1,500 people in a survey that lasted almost 30 years. Participants ranging from early adulthood to retirement recorded their feelings, responses and all pertinent information during this time period and researchers tallied the results.

USC economist Richard Easterlin stated: “Many people are under the illusion that the more money we make, the happier we’ll be. So we put all our resources into making money at the expense of our family and health. The problem is we don’t realize our material wants increase with the amount of money we make. We always think the more money we make the happier we’ll be. This illusion leads us to misallocate time to material pursuits.”

This secular study concluded that finding happiness in “stuff” was an “illusion.” Whether they acknowledge it or not, they also reaffirmed what the Bible has been telling us from the beginning: “Stuff” won’t make you happy. Money won’t make you happy. Nothing in this world will make you happy. Happiness begins with a sold-out commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this relationship, believers learn to prioritize their time not around things, but around people. They learn to “love one another.”

Are you wishing you had more “stuff?” Are you struggling to pay for the “stuff” you’ve already accumulated? There is far greater peace in having paid-for things than owed-for things. There is far greater peace in not worrying about impressing other people but in impressing the Lord with your obedience, love and faithfulness.

Want to avoid a lot of strife? Stop looking for your satisfaction in things and start working on a deeper relationship with Jesus.

“Why do you spend money ... on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me ... Pay attention and come to me; listen, so that you will live ... Seek the Lord ...” (Isaiah 55:2a,3a,6a).

The World's Wells

John 4:13

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. — John 4:13.

The wells of this world cannot satisfy our thirst for three reasons. First, their relief is but temporary. Second, they fail to reach man’s deepest need, that of his spirit, which only God can satisfy. Third, the wells of earth’s pleasures and pursuits create rather than quench thirst. Sin, like a narcotic, creates an appetite for itself which it cannot satisfy. Lord Byron had learned the truth of the text. When facing death at the age of thirty-seven, he wrote:

“My days are in the yellow leaf

The flower, the fruit of life are gone

The worm, the canker, and the grief

Are mine alone.”

– G. M. Landis.

Unsatisfied Longings

John 4:14

Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. — John 4:14.

We have all been made to realize that this life is characterized largely by unsatisfied longings, unrealized ambitions, unfulfilled anticipations, grievous vexations, discouraging frustrations and bitter disappointments. Over the fountain of this world’s amusements, our Lord has written the words: “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again!” Against this drab background of disappointment, disillusionment and disgruntlement, how attractive is the guarantee of eternal satisfaction which Christ makes to those who come to Him, and make Him the Lord of their lives!

He is not a disappointment! Jesus is far more to me

Than in all my glowing daydreams I had fancied He could be;

And the more I get to know Him, so the more I find Him true,

And the more I know that others should be led to know Him too.

The Fountain of Life

John 14:4

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well (fountain) of water springing up into everlasting life. — John 4:14.

The Lord Jesus is Himself the fountain of life. In Him is life and from Him life issues in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ, the living water, perfectly satisfies the spiritual thirst of man. This fact is illustrated in that the woman of Sychar left her waterpot at the well. Her thoughts now centered entirely on Christ and she felt the compulsion to tell others about the One who had brought such joy, peace and satisfaction. — G. M. Landis.

“I tried the broken cisterns, Lord, but ah! the waters failed.

E’en as I stooped to drink they’d fled and mocked me as I wailed.

O Christ, in Thee my soul hath found, and found in Thee alone,

The peace, the joy I sought so long, the bliss till now unknown,”

Continual Feeding

John 6:35

He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. — John 6:35.

It is not occasional, but continual feeding on Christ that really satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness. “He did eat continually at the king’s table.” It is he that cometh to Me who shall never hunger, not he who did come. “To whom coming,” always coming, never going away, because we “have tasted that the Lord is gracious,” we shall be built up.

Coming humbly, daily to this Saviour,

Breathing out our souls to Him in prayer;

Coming some day to the heavenly mansions,

He will give thee welcome there.

Happiness, A Relationship With God

Romans 5:1

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ … and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so. — Romans 5:1-3.

Men are longing for and seeking that which can only be found in one way, from one source, in one Person. That way is God’s way of salvation from sin. That source is God’s grace. That Person is God’s Son. God is the source of man’s happiness. So long as sin separates any person from God, that person cannot be happy. Open your Bible and search out who are happy and who are miserable, and you will find it all depended upon their relation to God.

My God, I have found the thrice blessed ground,

‘Where life and where joy, and true comfort abound.

‘Tis found in the blood of Him who once stood

My refuge and safety, my surety with God.

He bore on the tree the sentence for me,

And now both the surety and debtor are free.

Satisfaction

Proverbs 22:4

By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. — Proverbs 22:4

Becoming rich and famous does not guarantee contentment. If it did, multimillionaire athletes would not jeopardize their careers by using illicit drugs. If it did, a wealthy lawyer would not have tearfully told me that he would gladly trade everything he had for a change in the behavior of his sons. If it did, the occurrence of multiple marriages among celebrities would not be commonplace. Obviously, contentment must come from a source other than wealth and fame.

In Ecclesiastes 5, Solomon said that because sinful people rule the world, we shouldn’t be surprised when the poor are oppressed and when justice and righteousness are denied (Eccl 5:8-9). The life of those who love money is not as rosy as it seems. They are never satisfied with what they have, and they face the emptiness of watching other people consume their riches (Eccl 5:10-11). The humble laborer, content with little, can sleep soundly, while the rich man lies awake at night worrying about his money (Eccl 5:12).

How about you? Are you frustrated or satisfied? Paul wrote that we are “not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17). Only when we trust in the Lord will we find true and lasting satisfaction. — HVL

You may have much gold and grandeur,

Yet by God be reckoned poor;

He alone has riches truly

Who has Christ, though nothing more. —Anon.