Showing posts with label Satisfaction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Satisfaction. Show all posts

Sunday, June 21, 2026

The Satisfaction That Defeats Sin

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”(John 6:35)

What we need to see here is that the essence of faith is being satisfied with all that God is for us in Christ.

Defining faith this way emphasizes two things. One is the God-centeredness of faith. It is not merely the promises of God that satisfy us. It is all that God himself is for us in Jesus. Faith embraces God in Christ as our treasure — not just God’s promised gifts.

Faith banks its hope not just on the real estate of the age to come, but on the fact that God will be there (Revelation 21:3). “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’” 

And even now what faith embraces most earnestly is not just the reality of sins forgiven (as precious as that is), but the presence of the living Christ in our hearts and the fullness of God himself. In Ephesians 3:17–19 Paul prays “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . . that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

The other thing emphasized in defining faith as being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus is the term “satisfaction.” Faith is the quenching of the soul’s thirst at the fountain of God. In John 6:35 we see that “believing” means “coming” to Jesus to eat and drink the “bread of life” and the “living water” (John 4:10, 14), which are nothing other than Jesus himself. 

Here is the secret of the power of faith to break the enslaving force of sinful attractions. If the heart is satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus, the power of sin to lure us away from the wisdom of Christ is broken.

 John Piper 

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

How to Have a Satisfied Heart

“There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’”

JOHN 3:1-2
 
PONDER THIS

There’s something in people that will never be satisfied until they are born again. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night. There was a void, an emptiness in his heart. He had to talk to Jesus. He had seen Jesus do miracles, and there was a hunger in his heart, a dissatisfaction. So, he came to Jesus by night.

He addressed Jesus as Rabbi, meaning master or teacher. He said, “No one can do these miracles except God” (author’s paraphrase). Jesus answered in effect, “Nicodemus, if you want to understand miracles, you’re going to have to become a miracle. You must be born again.”

Man has a longing in his heart that will never be satisfied without the new birth. No matter how much money you have, how much pleasure you enjoy, or how much fame is spread concerning you, if you are not born again, a part of you is missing and will never be satisfied. That satisfaction is impossible apart from the new birth.

Do you feel satisfied with your life? Why or why not?
Where have you turned in search of satisfaction? What have you learned along the way about yourself and about God?

PRACTICE THIS

Think about the areas in which you do not feel satisfied in your life. Invite God to satisfy your desires in Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Thursday, May 1, 2025

The Mayor of Moscow


Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

MATTHEW 6:19-21

 

PONDER THIS


Where do you turn for life satisfaction? Do you to turn to materialism? If not atheism or philosophy, is it materialism? Do you think things can satisfy you?


I went into the office of the mayor of Moscow. I went up the red carpet, walked across those marble floors, went into that big conference room, and sat down with the leadership of the heart of Moscow. I looked across the table from those men, and I said, “Sirs, I want to tell you something. The Soviet empire has dissolved as such. Communism has come crumbling down.” But I said, “If you follow the West with economic ideas and that’s all, and you say, ‘Capitalism is the answer rather than communism.’ Because capitalism and communism are both two forms of materialism, they will never satisfy the deepest longing of your hearts. God made you for Himself. And even if you have material things, you will still find your hearts and lives empty.” It is of no use to trade one form of idolatry for another. We need Jesus.


What are some ways you have been told earthly things will bring you happiness or satisfaction? What makes that message enticing?

What are some ways you can build your life on Christ instead of on material things?


PRACTICE THIS


Make a list of some material things that are important to you. Ask God to help you be a good steward of the things you have instead of being consumed by materialism.



LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

God Sees Potential in You


“Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 CORINTHIANS 5:16-17

 

PONDER THIS


A thing isn’t valuable only for what it is but also for what it may become—its potential. Do you realize the incredible potential in you? Theoretically, there are three people in the seat you occupy right now: the person you are at this moment, the person you could be for evil, and the person you could be if you yield your life to God. The person you will be if you will yield your life to Jesus Christ has so much potential. If you say yes to Him, one day you will be conformed to His image. You will be like Jesus. The Psalmist said, “I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15). You could be like the Lord Jesus Christ—that is some big potential!


Michelangelo was a famous artist. It’s reported that when asked how he created a sculpture, he said, “I saw the angel in the marble, and carved until I set him free.” He did not see a block of marble; he saw a work of art; he saw the potential—a possibility. That’s what God sees when He looks at you. You probably dare not dream what you will be if you give your heart to Jesus Christ. What a change, what a difference has been wrought when we are made in the likeness of Jesus Christ. Our lives on Earth will be drastically different. Our beauty in Heaven, once we’re fully restored, will be indescribable.


Do you see yourself as a person with potential? Why or why not?

What would it take to surrender to God’s plan instead of your own idea of your potential?


PRACTICE THIS


Encourage another believer about his or her potential in Christ.



LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Sunday, October 1, 2023

The All-Satisfying Object


Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)


The quest for pleasure is not even optional, but commanded (in the Psalms): “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).


The psalmists sought to do just this: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1–2). “My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).


The motif of thirsting has its satisfying counterpart when the psalmist says that men “drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights” (Psalm 36:8 NASB).


I found that the goodness of God, the very foundation of worship, is not a thing you pay your respects to out of some kind of disinterested reverence. No, it is something to be enjoyed: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8). Taste. Taste! And see.


“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103).


As C.S. Lewis says, God in the Psalms is the “all-satisfying Object.” His people adore him unashamedly for the “exceeding joy” they find in him (Psalm 43:4). He is the source of complete and unending pleasure: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).



John Piper 

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

The Satisfaction That Defeats Sin


Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)


What we need to see here is that the essence of faith is being satisfied with all that God is for us in Christ.


Defining faith this way emphasizes two things. One is the God-centeredness of faith. It is not merely the promises of God that satisfy us. It is all that God himself is for us in Jesus. Faith embraces God in Christ as our treasure — not just God’s promised gifts.


Faith banks its hope not just on the real estate of the age to come, but on the fact that God will be there (Revelation 21:3). “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’”


And even now what faith embraces most earnestly is not just the reality of sins forgiven (as precious as that is), but the presence of the living Christ in our hearts and the fullness of God himself. In Ephesians 3:17–19 Paul prays “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . . that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”


The other thing emphasized in defining faith as being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus is the term “satisfaction.” Faith is the quenching of the soul’s thirst at the fountain of God. In John 6:35 we see that “believing” means “coming” to Jesus to eat and drink the “bread of life” and the “living water” (John 4:10, 14), which are nothing other than Jesus himself.


Here is the secret of the power of faith to break the enslaving force of sinful attractions. If the heart is satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus, the power of sin to lure us away from the wisdom of Christ is broken.


John Piper 

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Our Good Is His Glory


“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)


One common objection to Christian Hedonism is that it puts the interests of man above the glory of God — that it puts my happiness above God’s honor. But Christian Hedonism most emphatically does not do this.


To be sure, we Christian Hedonists endeavor to pursue our interest and our happiness with all our might. We endorse the resolution of the young Jonathan Edwards: “Resolved: To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.”


But we have learned from the Bible (and from Edwards!) that God’s interest is to magnify the fullness of his glory by spilling over in mercy to us — to us sinners, who desperately need him.


Therefore, the pursuit of our interest and our happiness, even if it costs us our lives, is never above God’s interest and God’s happiness and God’s glory, but always in God’s. One of the most precious truths in the Bible is that God’s greatest interest is to glorify the wealth of his grace by making sinners happy in him — in him!


When we humble ourselves like little children and put on no airs of self-sufficiency, but run happily into the joy of our Father’s embrace, the glory of his grace is magnified and the longing of our soul is satisfied. Our interest and his glory become one.


When Jesus promises in Matthew 6:6, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you,” this is a reward he wants us to seek. He does not lure us with joy we shouldn’t have! But this reward — this joy — is the overflow of turning away from human praise, and going into our closet to seek God.


Therefore, Christian Hedonists do not put their happiness above God’s glory. They put their happiness in God himself and discover the glorious truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.


John Piper 

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Complete Satisfaction


1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! 
2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 
3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 
4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.  - Psalm 130:1-4

Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.  - Psalm 143:2

14 If I sin, you watch me and do not acquit me of my iniquity. 
15 If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction.  - Job 10:14-15

for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" - Revelation 6:17

There is a satisfaction that can't be humanly explained. 
It is supernatural! 
It goes beyond what man can comprehend.
We just can't fathom it cause we don't have the capacity.
It's peace in the midst of total chaos, whether it's a physical disaster or a mental one.   
This peace comes from a God who is able!
Christ has conquered!
It is in the stillness of the moment when you realize that it's Christ alone!
Praise Him!
Glorify Him!
What a debt we can never satisfy! 

Refine us Oh Lord.
We praise and glorify You.
Forgive according to Your mercy.
When our throat closes up from the fear of the sting of sin, let us see You.
When we see the suffering of Your people, let us pray to You alone.
You alone are able. 
Let's shout it from the rooftop. 
Amen

For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish." - Jeremiah 31:25

23 Sing to the LORD, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. 
24 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! 
25 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be feared above all gods. 
26 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens. 
27 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place.  - 1 Chronicles 16:23-27





Thursday, July 4, 2019

When Will I Be Satisfied?

“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26)

Imagine being able to enjoy what is most enjoyable with unbounded and increasing energy and passion forever.

This is not now our experience. Three things stand in the way of our complete satisfaction in this world.

Nothing in this world has a personal worth great enough to meet the deepest longings of our hearts.

We lack the strength to savor the best treasures to their maximum worth.

Our enjoyment of things here comes to an end. Nothing lasts.

But if the aim of Jesus in John 17:26 comes true, all this will change. He prays to his Father about us, “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” God does not love the Son the way he loves sinners. He loves the Son because the Son is infinitely worthy of love. That is, he loves the Son because the Son is infinitely lovely. Which means that this love is totally pleasure. Jesus prays that this pleasure that God has in his Son will be the same pleasure we have in the Son.

If God’s pleasure in the Son becomes our pleasure, then the object of our pleasure, Jesus, will be inexhaustible in personal worth. He will never become boring or disappointing or frustrating. No greater treasure can be conceived than the Son of God.

But add to this what Jesus prays for; namely, that our ability — our energy, our passion — to savor this inexhaustible treasure will not be limited by human weaknesses. We will enjoy the Son of God with the very enjoyment of his omnipotent Father.

God’s delight in his Son will be in us and it will be ours. And this will never end, because neither the Father nor the Son ever ends. Their love for each other will be our love for them, and therefore our loving them will never die.


John Piper 

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Will God accept me? Forgive me?



BIBLE MEDITATION:

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God … 1 Peter 3:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A soldier and a prison guard walk down a narrow corridor to a cell in a Roman dungeon. Imagine this scene: the soldier holds up a torch. Back in the shadows a man crouches in terror. The guard takes his key and opens the door. “Barabbas, get up and come with me.”

Barabbas begins to plead, “No, wait! Don’t take me! Have mercy!” The soldier interrupts. “You’re not going to die. Come here. Look over on that hill. See that cross we made for you? There’s somebody else on it. He’s taking your place.”

I don’t mean to imply that Barabbas was saved, but that God arranged a perfect picture of substitution.

When the Lord Jesus Christ died, He fulfilled yet another Old Testament symbolism. The high priest would take a goat called “the scapegoat,” lay his hand upon its head, and confess the sins of the people. Their sins were symbolically transferred to the goat, which would then be led outside the city walls. There, the goat would be killed and his blood shed. Jesus was led outside Jerusalem’s walls where His blood was shed and He died. Jesus was our scapegoat. Our sins were laid upon him. He carried them to the cross where in agony and blood He died.

ACTION POINT:

The sole purpose for Calvary’s cross was substitution. God forgave our sins through Jesus’ suffering in our place. Just and sinless, Jesus died for the unjust—for Barabbas, you, me, every human being—that He might bring us to Himself. Salvation, eternity in fellowship with God—it’s all there for the taking. Receive God’s offered gift today. All you must do is receive Him and make Him Lord.


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Sunday, March 31, 2019

Life Fixer Upper


1 He entered Jericho and was passing through.
2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.
4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.
5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today."
6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.
7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."
8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold."
9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." - Luke 19:1-10

1. Desire a change!
Come to the realization that there's something missing from your life, it just feels empty.
Your job, your career, your possessions etc. just don't satisfy.
There is something that you need, peace and joy from God.
Jesus satisfies deep within your soul!

2. Get desperate for Jesus!
Pursue Him!
Thirst for Him!
Get to know Him intimately!

Two times when people desperately search for God.
1. When you lose everything.
Your job, your marriage, your kids, your health.
2. When you have everything.
Things don't satisfy!
Only Jesus!

11 And he said, "There was a man who had two sons.
12 And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.' And he divided his property between them.
13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.
14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.
15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 "But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!
18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants."'
20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
21 And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
22 But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.
24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate.
25 "Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
27 And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.'
28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him,
29 but he answered his father, 'Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.
30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!'
31 And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'" - Luke 15:11-32

3. You must respond quickly!
God created me!
God loves me!
God has a special plan for my life!

That's the shame of abortion.
God is Creator of all life.
Every babies' life is under God's plan.

4. Ignore the criticism!
Some people won't like it!
They will see the change in your life.
Then the conviction will fall on them.
There will also be some back sliding Christians who will wag their tongues.

5. Receive God's forgiveness!

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. - 1 John 1:9

Do you know Jesus?

Thanks Pastor Kevin!


Monday, March 25, 2019

Forever Satisfied

I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)

This text points to the fact that believing in Jesus is a feeding and drinking from all that Jesus is. It goes so far as to say that our soul-thirst is satisfied with Jesus, so that we don’t thirst anymore.

He is the end of our quest for satisfaction. There is nothing beyond, and nothing better.

When we trust Jesus the way John intends for us to, the presence and promise of Jesus is so satisfying that we are not dominated by the alluring pleasures of sin (see Romans 6:14). This accounts for why such faith in Jesus nullifies the power of sin and enables obedience.

John 4:14 points in the same direction: “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.” In accord with John 6:35, saving faith is spoken of here as a drinking of water that satisfies the deepest longings of the soul. And the satisfaction becomes productive, like a well overflowing.

It’s the same in John 7:37–38: “Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’”

Through faith, Christ becomes in us an inexhaustible fountain of satisfying life that lasts forever and leads us to heaven, and on the way sets us free from the sinful illusions of other satisfactions. This he does by sending us his Spirit (John 7:38–39).


John Piper 

Sunday, December 2, 2018

True Satisfaction Is Found in the Lord


The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psalm 23:1

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The Scottish-born naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club, John Muir, once had a conversation with railroad magnate and industrialist E. H. Harriman.

“I’m richer than you are,” declared Muir to the railroad baron.

“And how is that true?” responded Harriman.

“Because you don’t have all you want —and I do. Therefore I am richer than you,” answered Muir.

Well, perhaps these two men were playing word games with one another. We don’t know if either man was truly satisfied with his life, but there's one thing of which I’m certain. Our search for satisfaction will not be found at the end of the rainbow in a pot of gold. It can only be found in Jesus.

ACTION POINT:

What satisfies you today? Is it the things you own? Your relationships? Your job? Ask the Lord to fill you with the source of lasting satisfaction—Himself!


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Thursday, June 21, 2018

The Satisfaction That Defeats Sin

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)

What we need to see here is that the essence of faith is being satisfied with all that God is for us in Christ.

Defining faith this way emphasizes two things. One is the God-centeredness of faith. It is not merely the promises of God that satisfy us. It is all that God himself is for us in Jesus. Faith embraces God in Christ as our treasure — not just God’s promised gifts.

Faith banks its hope not just on the real estate of the age to come, but on the fact that God will be there (Revelation 21:3). “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’”

And even now what faith embraces most earnestly is not just the reality of sins forgiven (as precious as that is), but the presence of the living Christ in our hearts and the fullness of God himself. In Ephesians 3:17–19 Paul prays “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . . that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

The other thing emphasized in defining faith as being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus is the term “satisfaction.” Faith is the quenching of the soul’s thirst at the fountain of God. In John 6:35 we see that “believing” means “coming” to Jesus to eat and drink the “bread of life” and the “living water” (John 4:10, 14), which are nothing other than Jesus himself.

Here is the secret of the power of faith to break the enslaving force of sinful attractions. If the heart is satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus, the power of sin to lure us away from the wisdom of Christ is broken.


John Piper 

Sunday, February 11, 2018

The Best Form of Slavery

He who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. (1 Corinthians 7:22, my translation)

I would have expected Paul to switch the places of “Lord,” which means Master, and “Christ,” which means Messiah.

He correlates our liberation with Jesus being our Master (“a freedman of the Lord”). And he correlates our new slavery with Jesus being our Messiah (“a slave of Christ”). It seems strange because the Messiah came to liberate his people from their captors; and masters take control of their slaves’ lives.

Why does he say it this way? Why correlate slavery (rather than liberation) with Messiah, and liberation (rather than slavery) with Master?

Suggestion: The switch has two effects on our new liberty and two effects on our new slavery.

On the one hand, in calling us “the liberated of the Lord,” he secures and limits our new liberty:

His lordship is over all other lords; so our liberation is uncontested — absolutely secure.

But, free from all other lords, we are not free from him. Our freedom is mercifully limited. Jesus is our Master.

On the other hand, in calling us the “slaves of Christ,” he loosens and sweetens our slavery:

The Messiah lays claim on his own in order to bring them from the confines of captivity into the open spaces of peace. “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:7).

And he makes them his own to give them the sweetest joy. “With honey from the rock I would satisfy you” (Psalm 81:16). And that Rock is Christ, the Messiah.

So, Christian, be glad in this: “He who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord” — the Master. “Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ” — the loosening, sweetening Messiah.”


John Piper 

Friday, May 26, 2017

The Authentic Thirst-Quencher

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 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 of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:13-14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Have you ever been outside working in your garden or bicycling or playing football and become very thirsty? You go inside and perhaps grab a soda. It tastes great and seems to hit the spot. You return to your activity and you get thirsty and go for another soda. It is satisfying at first, but just doesn’t seem to keep you quenched. Finally you fill a tall glass with water and you’re satisfied.


Why? If you look at the ingredients on the soda container, it says it is artificially colored and/or flavored and/or sweetened. It doesn’t have that touch of authenticity.


ACTION POINT:
There are many who are trying to satisfy their thirst with things that are artificial when what we need is the water of life! When was the last time you quenched your spiritual thirst with the sparkling refreshment of time spent with God?


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers