The Healer's Touch Part 1: The Crowd

"...your faith has made you well; go in peace.” – Luke 8:48 

The story found in Luke chapter 8 about a woman healed of her bleeding is one that most people from a church background are familiar with. We have heard it referenced in sermons, and maybe have read through it a few times.

I was in the same boat, never really giving pause to this story, until after I was saved. I remember reading the story's account in the gospel of Mark a few months after my salvation and it hitting me like a glorious ton of bricks. What I saw in that moment was that I was once just a person in the crowd, but now I'm the one who has been healed!

It was not long ago that I finally sat down and dove into this passage and spent some time studying and writing on it. What a joy it was and I'm very excited to get to share it here in a 5 part series.

The Intro

Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.  

As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” – Luke 8:40–48 

When we read these verses in Luke 8:40–48, we can see them on the surface for what they are, Jesus using his divine power to heal a women's physical suffering.

This woman has been suffering for 12 years from a condition that could not be corrected in her body, and Jesus simply altered her physical state to heal her. He did not preform a surgery or prescribe a medication, but by His power, changed her from incurable to cured. What a display of his power over creation!

While this event alone is enough to capture our awe, I believe there is something beyond the miraculous physical healing for us to see displayed here. That is what I aim to draw out and show in this series. To turn the diamond of scripture and let us see this story through a different facet. To look at this, we need to take a moment and think on what Jesus's ability to physically heal means.

In the gospel accounts of Jesus’s life we see several times his power to heal and restore physically by overpowering sickness, infirmities, and disease. But why is he showing us this?

It is certainly an affirmation of his divine nature, but I think there is another layer to it. Think of where sickness, infirmities, and disease come from? In the beginning death was not part of God's creation. Then in Genesis chapter three we see death introduced as the world is broken by the effects of sin.

Do people die from sickness and disease? Of course they do. Every sickness and death faced in this world is a direct result of a broken world that our sin has created. The effects of sin start to kill us from the day we are born, and in this story we see Christ’s power over those effects in the physical healing of this woman. That is the facet that I want to look through as we walk through this story. To see God's power to heal the brokenness our sin creates.

As we do this, I will go through the various elements of this story and try unpack the people involved and the events that took place as we look at this story in a way that perhaps we have not before.

The Crowd (The Unbelievers) 

The crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him… As Jesus went, the people pressed around him.

Why were these people here? 

Perhaps the crowd was intrigued and curious about Jesus. Perhaps they came to be entertained or maybe it was fascination. Perhaps some wanted something from Jesus, or to see him do something miraculous.

There is a good chance these people had heard of or even seen some of the amazing things that Jesus had been doing, and for whatever reason they were there, I'm confident in saying it was not out of a desire for Christ. Rather it is likely out of infatuation with his power or a desire for what he may do in their midst.

Why is this important? Because we see the same situation today. Many people are intrigued by Christ and are interested in him. Some even see him as the potential relief of their ailments. Perhaps he is a salve to comfort their guilty conscience. They see him as a social experiment, or an additive to their existing philosophy or belief system. 

There are many people that want the benefits and awe of Christ, without wanting Christ himself. RC Sproul's sharing of Thomas Aquinas' observations expounds on this:

"Thomas Aquinas [observed] that to the naked eye it may seem that unbelievers are searching for God or seeking for the kingdom of God, while they are in fact fleeing from God with all of their might. What Aquinas observed was that people who are unconverted seek the “benefits” that only God can give them, such as ultimate meaning and purpose in their lives, relief from guilt, the presence of joy and happiness, and things of this nature." – RC Sproul

In this world, and within our churches, there are many people that are all over and around Jesus. People standing right next to him, but with hearts and minds far from him. They seek nothing of him for the sake of who he is, only for what he can offer. They worship his promises and provisions as their idols, and could do without the provider of them.

I've seen this type of thinking first hand, not only in my life, but in my son's also. It used to be that every time he was going to see my parents, he knew some sort of gift or toy was sure to be there also. It was not long till his excitement to see them was not to be with them and enjoy them, but to receive and enjoy a thing. His love for going to see them, was not a love for them, but a selfish love for himself.

There will be many people in churches this weekend that want to sit and play with a shinny new toy, one that will likely be losing its appeal within a day or two after leaving, rather than sitting, standing, singing, listening, or praying in awe of the one who loves them. The one who can meet the deepest needs of their heart and satisfy them forever!

One of the main reasons for this is we see ourselves as the most beautiful and desirable thing in the universe. But when your eyes are opened to see the glory of God, in his holiness, you see how undesirable, sinful, broken, and dead you are. That is when Christ's beauty shines forth, in his ability to forgive sin, and make us alive!

Sadly however, the North American church is full of people that have never seen Christ. But they come wanting his benefits, just as this crowed in Luke 8 did. We see people who were the same way in the scripture.

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. – Mark 10:17-22 

The rich young ruler did not come wanting Christ, he came wanting to gain eternal life while also keeping his idol close to his heart. Jesus does not call people to come to him and bring their idols along for the ride. He calls us to repent from their sin, to destroy the things that will never satisfy us, and to run to that which will forever meet our deepest needs.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

Jesus turned away the half hearted. We cannot come to him on our own standards, telling God what following him will be like. We do not assert ourselves over him, no, we come to him willing to abandon all for him, because he is everything to us!

Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. – 
Psalm 73:25-26 

This is the attitude of the believer! The one who says I don’t long for the benefits that help me here on this earth, I long for you Christ!

There is nothing wrong with enjoying the benefits of a relationship with God, however if you want the benefits without the relationship, there is huge problem. And that relationship with him is not one that we enter in on our own terms. It is through a genuine repentance from our sin, and following of Christ for who he is, the glorious King of Kings!

Finding Freedom In Prayer To A Sovereign God

“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;

nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”—Matthew 26:39

I love God, and I love how big and massive and beautiful He is. I also love how He is in control of all things. (Psalm 135:6) However, as God began to deepen and widen my view of His sovereignty, something started to happen in my prayer life. A tinge of fear started to arise when praying certain things. If God is over all things and is accomplishing His will through everything, are my prayers an attempt to assert my will over His? When I pray, “God please heal them of their sickness,” what if it’s not God’s will do to that? Am I trying to tell God what to do? Shouldn’t I just be quiet and trust He is doing everything according to His good and perfect plan? This really bothered me. But I knew that in His word, God asks His children to bring their requests to Him, (Philippians 4:6) and there was the beginning of a change in my prayer life. The Phrase My first response to this tension in my heart and mind came through a phrase I began using in my prayers. Any time I would bring a request to the Lord that I uneasy about, I would follow it with something along these lines: God let your will be done, and give us the grace we need to walk through it. As I saw more and more of God’s sovereignty in His word, the more this phrase felt so necessary in my prayer life. And honestly, I welcomed it, felt comforted by it, and still do. I felt too uncomfortable coming to God and asking Him to alter mine, and even someone else’s situation in life. How am I to know what God may be working in that person’s life through that? How am I to know that the pain and struggle they are experiencing isn’t exactly what God has for them? (James 1:2-4) So I would still make my requests to the Lord, but this phrase kept coming with them. I didn’t fully understand it then, but God was shaping and growing my own heart in this struggle. He was shaping my desires in prayer to be more focused on changes of the heart, rather than changes in circumstances. More on being made into the image of Christ, than on being made comfortable. (Ephesians 3:14-19) When your prayers start changing from only asking God to do or change something for you, to including more of asking God to do or change something in you, I think that is a good thing. The Family Prayer This simple phrase eventually evolved into a prayer for my family. My wife and I went through some really rough times at the end of 2014, and in the months that followed a prayer arose that I would pray often for me and my family.

Lord, give us a desire for your will,

and the grace within it to be still.

Knowing that in unknowns that be,

glory is given when we trust in Thee.

This prayer is very special to me. God gave it to me in some of the darkest days I’ve experienced so far in my life. Still today I say it to myself when things arise that I don’t understand, cannot comprehend, or that I don’t know what the outcome will be. Every word and phrase in this prayer is packed with meaning. A confession that I don’t naturally desire my Lord's will, and in my own strength I’m restless when things fall apart; and without God’s power in my life I am unable to be still and rest in His control. That I need Him to help me know, KNOW with certainty of mind and heart that He is holy and trustworthy and in control, to the point that His name is made great by the peace He gives me in the unknowns. While I love this prayer, and I think it is God honoring and I still pray it often, at times I found it replacing my requests to God to do something specific. There was still this unsettled fear in my heart that I did not want to come to God telling Him what I think He should do. Thankfully God is a gracious and patient God. He kept working on my heart till it finally clicked. Using a scripture I had read and heard several times God opened my eyes to this reality, that Christ prayed like this! The Model Oh the beautiful example of our Lord. Everything finally fell into place to remove the tinge of fear of bringing these specific requests to God by seeing that in His prayer in the garden, Christ brought His requests to God. He humbly made his pleas, and God denied them. Yet in that denial Christ submitted to the perfect will of the Father.

Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 

Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 

...he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.—Matthew 26:38-39, 42, 44

If Christ can go to God the Father in His moment of deepest anguish and cry out for God to do something to change His circumstance, and be sinless in that cry, I do not need this burden of tension in my heart in doing the same thing! Oh the freedom this brings! Oh to come to God with no fear, bringing my requests before Him and still saying, "your will be done, and I need your grace to walk in it.” Because the truth is, if He alters my circumstances to remove suffering, or if he keeps me while I walk through it longer, I will need His grace to glorify Him in either outcome. The key we see from Christ is confidence in His relationship with God, and also humility and faith in God’s will. Oh God cultivate our hearts more to that of Christ, and may we boldly come with our requests, and also humbly submit to Your will for us.

Truth Vs Opinion

...These words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children... Deuteronomy 6:6-7

A few nights ago after dinner an odd conversation came up. I cannot remember exactly how it did, as are many of the conversations around the table with a 4 and 6 year old, but the one for that particular night involved armpits.

Yes, armpits. But at least this one did not involve food going in them.

So joining in this intriguing discussion, I threw out a comment to my 6 year old son. I told him that arm pits are like opinions, everyone has at least two of them and they are all trying to make them smell better. He didn’t get it. But he did better than most adults do when they don't get something. He asked questions. On of which was, “What’s an opinion?"

That’s a good question to ask. I told him that an opinion is what you think about something and gave him a few examples. You think pizza tastes good. You think green is the best color. You think Batman is an awesome superhero. You think playing in the dirt is one of the best things ever.

As we talked a little light popped on. It’s the light that clicks on when there is a chance to teach something bigger. He was understanding what an opinion was, so I grabbed an apple and showed it to my son and we had this short conversation:

“What is this?"

“An apple."

“Right, and that is not an opinion, that is the truth. You can have an opinion about apples, that you like the way they taste or their color, but you cannot have an opinion on what it is. What if told you this is an orange. What would you say?"

“No, it’s an apple."

“But what if I believed it was an orange?"

“It’s still an apple."

“Right! What we believe about something does not change the truth. We can have different opinions about something that is true, but we cannot change what is true by our opinions."

And I left it at that for now, and hopefully in the future I can build on that and attach other truths to it.

I share this little story for two reasons. One is to show that even a child can understand this concept that our world has abandoned with its relativistic thinking.

The second is to encourage other dads. This conversation was not hard to have, you just have to look for them. If teaching your child about truth, God, or the gospel, is at the front of your mind then the light will click on when you're in a situation or when your kids say something you can use. Jump on it and use those moments to help teach your kids the things they need to hear most. As a dad, this is one of your most important and rewarding jobs.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.—Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Is Your Hunger Being Satisfied? - Part 2

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they shall be satisfied. – Matthew 5:6

This post is the second part in a two part series looking at the idea of spiritual hunger and spiritual satisfaction. In Part One I shared some thoughts on spiritual hunger. What it looks like, ways we respond to it, and how it can never be satisfied by our own efforts. If you missed it and would like to check it out, you can find it here: Is Your Hunger Being Satisfied: Part1

Now in Part Two, I would like to share some thoughts on the idea of our hunger being satisfied. But before jumping into that, let's recap a few things so they are fresh on our minds. In Part One we discussed how we try to satisfy ourselves with self-glorifying pleasure and self glorifying praise. However those attempts never leave us truly satisfied.

We also discussed that righteousness is the true, deep longing of our souls and that we are unable to satisfy that hunger for righteousness ourselves. So again, what is righteousness?

Righteousness:

1. acting in accord with divine or moral law :  free from guilt or sin

2. morally right or justifiable

This is a good definition, yet it does not stop there. You have to take the next step and see that those who have righteousness have a right relationship with God. This is due to the fact that sin separates us from a holy God and places us under His judgment. So if you are free from the guilt or punishment of sin, then you have a right relationship with God.

Now if you hunger for righteousness—if you hunger to be right with God; and if you hunger to act in accord with His divine law—then how is that hunger satisfied as Matthew 5:6 says it will be?

As we concluded in Part One, it is satisfied only by Christ! He satisfies our hunger for righteousness by being the only source of our righteousness. But how does He do that? That's what I want to talk about, and I see in scripture three ways that He does it.

1. Christ satisfies our hunger for righteousness by giving us His righteousness, and paying the penalty for our lack of it.

As I mentioned in part one, when we hunger for something it is because we do not have it. Our stomachs rumble because they don’t have food in them. Our souls rumble because they are not right with God.

We were made to be with our creator. We were formed to find our joy through fellowship with Him. However, our sin has severed that connection with Him. We have made ourselves His enemy by rejecting Him as the only one who can satisfy us, and choosing to try and satisfy ourselves with the things of this world. (James 4:4) That is the very nature of sin, that we are dragged away from God by our own desires to reject Him and place our ourselves, our desires, our ways, over Him. (James 1:13-15)

Everyone of us has done this. We have all desired our way over God’s. We have all separated ourselves from God by our sin. This is the very reason our souls cry out in hunger and thirst. They long to be reunited with the one who can satisfy and our soul will not be satisfied by more money, more stuff, more power, more sex, more popularity, a more picture perfect family, or even more morality. It will only be satisfied by being brought back to a right relationship with its Maker.

And getting back to that right relationship with God, becoming righteous, is nothing we can do for ourselves. It is here in that moment, when you realize that your soul will only be satisfied by God and that you are incapable of getting to Him, that Christ suddenly radiates with glorious beauty!

Why does He shine so brightly in that moment? Because He is what you hunger for. He is righteous, you are not. He is sinless, you are not. He is right with God, you are not. It is because He is everything you want to become, and He has made the way for you to become those things.

To the homeless man who is dying of starvation and longing to be fed, how beautiful to him is the one who offers everything they have to feed him? (Luke 15:11-24) We are that starving beggar, and Christ offers us everything we need, and that need is to be right with God.

Jesus Christ, God Himself in human flesh, lived a life void of any sin. A righteous life. Therefore He had no penalty of death on Him (Romans 6:23), and He offers to credit that sinless and righteous life to you. He offers to give you His right relationship with God, and take away all your unrighteousness. It requires humbling yourself, admitting that you have rejected Him in choosing your way over His, leaving that behind and desiring to follow and trust Him as Lord of your life.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.—2 Corinthians 5:21

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption—1 Cor 1:30

"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"—Mark 1:15

Your heart longs to be satisfied by its Creator, repent from your sin and trust Him!

2. He satisfies our hunger for righteousness by being the power within us to taste righteousness now.

The second way Christ satisfies our hunger for righteousness, is  after we have repented and trusted Him, He empowers us to taste and experience practical righteousness in our life. There is a lot that could be said on this, however I’ll try to keep it brief.

Let's consider one of the greatest realities of a true Christian.

The fact that Christ comes to dwell in his followers.

I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.—Galatians 2:20

Now let's consider this truth’s implications. In Part One we talked about how all we desire is to satisfy ourself by the pursuit of self glorifying pleasure or self glorifying praise. This is all a person can do before coming into a saving relationship with God. Even what we would call “good works” are tainted by the underlying selfish motivations of fear or pride in the unbeliever. (Titus 1:15-16)

However Christ, God in flesh, lived a perfect life without sin. This means that He not only did all the right things from an outward perspective, but did them from the right motivations in the heart also. We see this mentioned in places like John 6:38 and John 17:4. Christ wanted to accomplish the will of the Father, and that will is that God be glorified.

If this same Christ now lives in us, and the life we live is no longer ours but Him living in us, then what is to be expected? God will be glorified in us, because Christ will live for God’s will and God’s glory within us! So how does that take place? Our eyes are opened to see that our self glorifying pursuits do not satisfy, only God does. Christ in us empowers us to desire God more than our sin, which glorifies God!

So practically, how does that enable us to be satisfied by tastes of righteousness now?

In Part One I used the example of a lie, let's look at it here too. Look at these two responses to avoiding telling a lie.

Response 1

“I chose not to lie because I am satisfied by God and I love Him! I want to stay close to Him and I know a lie will be disobeying Him and will hurt my relationship with Him.” With this response, God is made to look beautiful and satisfying as you choose to act in righteousness by telling the truth. His beauty and glory is made great as your enjoyment of Him is made the motivation for your obedience.

Response 2

“I don’t want to lie because I know I would get in trouble if I was caught. Besides, I am not the kind of person who lies.” With this, you are made to look beautiful, and you sinfully rob God of His glory, and you live bound by pride and fear.

One glorifies you and displays your slavery, and one glorifies God and displays your freedom. One is a righteous choice, one is sinful. When Christ dwells in you, He gives you the power to desire God’s glory over yours, because He makes God more satisfying to you than yourself!

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.—1 John 3:9

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.—Romans 6:6-7

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.—Romans 6:12-18

After salvation, it is Christ in you that frees you from the slavery of continually being unsatisfied by unrighteousness and allows you to finally taste the sweet beauty of true righteousness in your life! We still fight and struggle with sin, but the believer is now equipped by the Holy Spirit to fight their sin by desiring what is more satisfying. And we find what is more satisfying by God’s promises in His word.

3 . He satisfies our hunger for righteousness by providing the means to one day be perfectly righteous.

The last way Christ satisfies our hunger for righteousness should leave your soul’s mouth watering for it! He will one day lay out a never ending feast of righteousness for your heart to dine on forever. And that feast will be His glory!

Christ has promised that He will return, and when He does, those who have repented of their sinful attempts to satisfy themselves, and have accepted Him as the all-satisfying desire of their soul, will be made perfectly righteous with Him!

All will be resurrected, with a physical body, and those who continually rejected God as the only one who can satisfy them, will be resurrected to suffer under His judgement. However those who repented and long to be with Him will be glorified and will never struggle with sin again. For the follower of Christ, our sinful hearts will be made new and right, and we will see God’s glory completely unveiled. Christ will be radiating with such beauty that we will long for nothing more than Him! No longer will we be lured away by our sinful desires. No more will self-glorifying praise or self-glorifying pleasure take the place of God in our lives, because we will be glorified and we will see Him in His full glory! (Rev 22:3-4)

The curse will be gone, there will be no more death, no more sickness, no more pain. All of these things are the result of sin (Romans 6:23) and if God (who cannot lie Titus 1:2) has promised that they will be done away with (Revelation 21:4), then we can conclude that in heaven we will be incapable of sin! What a glorious rest from the fight those who trust Him endure every day! (Romans 8:13)

We will be glorified and enjoy the righteousness of Christ forever, as we live in perfect righteousness, in a right relationship with a God of infinite glory who satisfies us forever!

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.—1 John 3:2

...those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.—Romans 8:30

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. –2 Corinthians 5:6-9

For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things – Ps 107:9

If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.—Philippians 1:22-26

I hope that you, in the depths of your heart and being, long desperately for Christ’s return. To look in the face of the only one who can fulfill the deepest desires of your soul, and be satisified by Him forever. Come quickly Lord Jesus!

I hope that you have enjoyed journeying with me in my thoughts on this. If you have any comments on how you find God satisfying your heart, or questions about anything I’ve shared, I’d love to hear them!

Is Your Hunger Being Satisfied? - Part 1

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they shall be satisfied. – Matthew 5:6

Have you ever gone a day where you're running late and skip breakfast, then for whatever reason you have to miss lunch too? I have had it happen a couple times and I can tell you, by the time I get home after work I am ready to pillage and plunder the kitchen. Nothing within the pantry is safe at that moment. Even stale chips in the back of the cabinet begin to look appetizing.

We all know what it means to be hungry. In varying degrees, it is something every human is familiar with. It is not something we need to be taught to identify or discover. From the newborn screaming at three o’clock in the morning, to adults getting hangry in the afternoon, you know when you are hungry. It is a basic, instinctual, hardwired reality in our life. When our bodies need food they let us know, and if that need is never met, we die.

I find it interesting that this idea of hunger and thirst, along with their satisfaction, is used by Jesus as an illustration in Matthew 5:6. This idea has captured my thoughts lately, and I would love to share a few of those thoughts with you.

I plan to do this in two parts, looking at hunger first, then its satisfaction second.

HUNGER

This may not be earth shattering news for some, but when you are hungry or thirsty, it's because you are not eating or drinking. Feel free to pause if you need to collect your thoughts after that mind blowing truth. But seriously, your body reacts to its need and creates a physical experience to get you moving toward food or water. It’s that simple.

In the same way that we all have physical hunger, we also all experience a hunger within our hearts. Every one of us has a spiritual hunger, and there is no problem with desiring that it be satisfied. However, we do have a problem in that we deny and suppress what the hunger is pointing us toward (John 12:43). The problem is our rejection of what will actually satisfy the hunger.

This is a sad reality when it comes to our spiritual hunger, that there are many who think they are full and satisfied, as if just finishing their fourth plate from a buffet, yet they are wasting away from starvation. Like walking skeletons, they move from one craving to another while their souls are starving to death, all while denying the reality of their terminal condition. They refuse to see that their souls are desperate for satisfaction, but what they are feeding it never gives it.

We all, deep down, know this reality of our heart’s condition. We know this because no matter how much we get the things we desire, we keep wanting more. The money, the toys, the pleasure, the fame, all of it, never satisfies.

To try and open this idea up more, let’s look at the ways we can respond to our soul’s hunger. I believe there are two ways.

ATTEMPTING TO BE SATISFIED BY YOURSELF

I see this response fleshing itself out in at least two ways. I’m sure there are others, but these two have been on my mind the most.

First is the pursuit of self glorifying pleasure.

I want it, so I’m going to get it. It makes me feel good, so I’m going to do it. I want sex, so pornography or fornication is ok. I want this standard of life, so sacrificing my family for my job is ok. I want to be accepted, and will compromise anything to gain it. I was hurt by this person, so I get to hurt them back. And the list goes on.

This response is from the person who throws caution and conscience to the wind in pursuit of their pleasures, simply because they want them. The desires are real, the hungers are real, but the means of satisfying them fail over and over. It is as if you are thirsty, yet by passing up a cup of clean cool water, you scoop up a handful of salt and throw it in your mouth. This not only fails to satisfy the thirst, but it will leave you with a greater thirst than before.

What is even more troubling is that when the person gets what they hoped would satisfy, and then when they discover its inability to truly satisfy, they tend to go on denying the water will help and continue gorging on the salt over and over, in increasing amounts, expecting it to somehow meet their need. However, it never does, and in this pattern of life your soul will starve to death.

Second is the pursuit of self glorifying praise.

I go to church. I’m nice to my neighbors. I’m not perfect, but I try to do what is right. I’m a good person. I don’t lie, steal, cheat, or murder. I pay my taxes. I’m a hard and honest worker. And on and on.

This type of response, on the surface can look right, and that is why it is so deadly. The question is not about what the person is doing on the outside, the question is about what is satisfying them on the inside. If it is their own glory and praise, then the person is driven by pride or bound by fear. They are seeking to be satisfied by their adherence to moral duty or following religious systems. They seek self glorifying praise by giving every effort to prove they are a good person to themselves, to others, or to God. Then on the other side, they live in fear of being seen as a bad person by themselves, others, and God.

Think of it in the context of telling a lie. Let's assume you chose to tell the truth in a difficult situation. It may even cost you something to be honest, but why did you do it? If you are seeking your own glory, it is motivated by fear or pride. Either you said it because you were afraid you would be caught in your lie, and things would be worse, or you did it because you want to be seen as a noble and good person who tells the truth. Jonathan Edwards called this common virtue, and while it helps society function, it does not satisfy your soul. Instead, it is as if your stomach growls, and you pass up a steak dinner to go run a marathon hoping it will fix it. However when you finish running, you are exhausted and now even more famished than before. You work harder and harder, pushing yourself to try and prove you can do it yourself, or because you are afraid of what failing will cause. If this pattern continues in your life, your soul will collapse on the track, dead from it’s starvation.

Both of these two ways of trying to fulfill the hunger of your soul will leave you empty. The scary part is they are both so alluring and deceiving. Self glorifying pleasure can feel like it is meeting your needs for a time, but the shine starts to wears off, and you find yourself wanting more. It's like a child getting a new toy, to then only see something else a week later that catches his eye, and suddenly the new toy in his hand is not as satisfying as the one in someone else's. It's a vicious cycle, and we treat the hunger in our soul the same way.

Self glorifying praise can feel like it is satisfying us, but we never feel like we have done enough good to keep the applause coming. Or we constantly look over our shoulder, walking in fear of someone finding out where we have failed. We live exhausted lives working to both bring and protect our praise with our actions and choices.

This continual effort brings up a question, if we seek to satisfy your soul's hunger with our own pursuits and efforts, however we never feel satisfied and continually long for more, what is the conclusion?

We find that we cannot supply the satisfaction to our hunger.

Now some at this point may say that the answer then is to deny the hunger. We cannot satisfy it, so you must fight the cravings. However, you will never overcome them. A hungry man living on the streets cannot stop the pain in his gut by will power or convincing himself he is not starving to death. Only food will stop it. He will die if he does not eat. In the same way, neither can we stop the hunger pains in our soul, or the coming spiritual death if it is not satisfied. We must accept that we were designed and created with a desire for satisfaction, pleasure, and joy. It is hardwired within us, just like physical hunger. The difference is, our spiritual hunger cannot be satisfied by our own efforts. They just will not work.

So what will work? We have to accept what our soul is hungry for, which brings us to the other response to our hunger.

DESIRING SATISFACTION IN CHRIST

I find it interesting that in Matthew 5:6, Jesus gives a qualifier for the hunger before it can be satisfied. Christ doesn't just say that if you are hungry, you will be satisfied. Instead he tells what type of hunger will be satisfied. Don't miss that! All of our souls are growling in hunger and are panting in thirst, the question is what kind of food and drink will satisfy it? It is not the desire to feast on our own self glorifying pleasure or praise, but one for righteousness that is satisfied!

And with that, we have a big problem! But before we jump into that, we need to define this term righteousness. Webster does a pretty good job on this one.

Righteous:
1. acting in accord with divine or moral law :  free from guilt or sin
2. morally right or justifiable

Justified, free from guilt or sin, to act in accord with the standards of God. Sounds pretty tough. Can you do that? Can you be that? Can you be morally perfect, are you free from guilt or sin?

Some may read this definition of righteousness and only see it as a cause to try harder. Please, do not hear that! The definition points to a greater reality. A person who is justified, and free from guilt or sin, is someone who has a right relationship with God. Sin separates us from God, and we all have sin in our hearts. (Matthew 15:18-19) That is what your soul is hungry for. It is starving for a right relationship with God, but our sin keeps us from it! (Isaiah 59:2)

Now do you see the big problem? It is not only that you have been trying to feed your soul the wrong thing, it is that you are unable feed it the right thing! (Romans 3:10-12)

It is when we realize the hunger of our soul is for a right relationship with God, that we realize that we cannot satisfy it, because we cannot produce it, and that is when hope arrives!

It arrives because we can now see that our hunger and thirst for righteousness is actually a hunger and thirst for Christ! God knows the hunger we have, because he made it in us. He knows we cannot satisfy the hunger ourselves by making our own way back to him, so he came to us! He took on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, and lived a sinless, perfect, and righteous life on behalf of those who will lay down their desires to glorify themselves with pleasures and praise, and long to glorify him by seeing him as worthy of all praise, and as the source of our ultimate joy and pleasure.

---

It is when we realize the hunger of our soul is for a right relationship with God, that we realize that we cannot satisfy it, because we cannot produce it, and that is when hope arrives!

---

Christ does not give you satisfaction, as in giving you something outside himself, he himself is the satisfaction to the hunger. He is the glass of water, rather than the handful of salt. He is the steak dinner rather than the marathon. He is the one who will satisfy you for all eternity, because He is the one who can give you what your heart longs for the most; to be right with God, the one your soul was made for.

So the question is simple, what are you trying to satisfy your soul’s hunger and thirst with? One leads to life, one will starve it to death. Consider these verses as you reflect on your answer.

My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. – Jeremiah 2:13

Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. – John 4:13-14

You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
    for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
    that you might comfort me.
“Behold, God is my salvation;
    I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
    and he has become my salvation.”
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. – Isaiah 12:1-3

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

Stay tuned for part two on how Christ gives us righteousness to satisfy our hunger.

He Will Judge The Nations

 

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment – Hebrews 9:27

Exodus is one of my favorite books in the Old Testament. Its stories are epic in scale with the author sharing real events that paint the dramatic picture of God’s deliverance for His chosen people. Within its account of Israel's freedom from slavery in Egypt, it is rich with beautiful and vivid symbols that point us to Christ, foreshadowing the work of our Savior. One of the stories that I enjoy most is the passover.

Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses.

It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. – Exodus 12:3,5-7,11-13

If you have been in church for sometime, this is likely a story you are familiar with. God is setting His people free from their captivity through bringing judgement on the land of Egypt. By this point in the narrative, God has sent nine other judgements upon Egypt as the pharaoh continues to deny the release of God's people. Finally God warns of a final plague, He will go through the land and kill all the firstborn of every man and beast. (Exodus 11:4-5)

But there is something here that I don’t believe we always think about, and I don’t want us to miss it.

Israel was not spared God’s judgement. We tend to simply let that thought pass because they were the ones set free from captivity, however the picture is bigger than that. God’s judgment swept across the entire land of Egypt, and this included Israel. God’s people were not spared the judgement, instead, they were given a way to escape under the judgement. And what was the means of their escape? Trusting in the blood of the lamb.

What would have happened if they would have trusted in something else? What if rather than believing God’s word, they trusted in themselves to determine what would protect them from God's impending wrath? What if they convinced themselves that God is not a God who judges, and would never do anything like that to them? Or if they decided mud would work on the door, rather than blood? Or if they decided that blood from a different animal would work, or even accepting a few blemishes on the lamb they sacrificed? What would have happened, is that they too would have suffered under the judgement. God's wrath came out upon them, however they believed and obeyed, and it passed over them. They escaped it, but they were not spared it.

But why were they passed over?

Because something died in place of their first born. The blood of the lamb showed that the necessary death God's judgment required had been satisfied.

Now this event that took place in the ancient world will happen again. However it will not be localized to the land of Egypt, instead it will cover the entire earth. There is a judgement coming that every person will face, and it is a judgement of life or death. Not one person will be spared it.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment – Hebrews 9:27

The mortality rate of every person is 100%. We are appointed by God for death, and then the judgment. No one is spared it, yet just as Israel had hope in the death of the lamb, so do all men today have hope in the blood of Christ! He is the lamb that was slain to provide freedom from sin's penalty! (John 1:29)

We all have earned death from our sin (Romans 6:23), but this death is maybe not what you think. We have all sinned against a holy God, yet you are alive reading this. Your heart beats, and your lungs work, so what is this death? It is the death that comes after the judgement. It is the casting away that God will do to those who have not had their sins paid for by the death of Christ.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. – Revelation 2:11

So have you conquered? Has the penalty and power sin has over your heart been conquered by Christ? Do you love, submit, pursue, desire, and trust Him? There are many today, who refuse to believe and obey what God has said on this subject. They are busy trying to find something else to put on the doorposts of their heart, rather than submitting to Christ. Perhaps they have convinced themselves that His words are not true, and He will not judge anyone. However, the judgement will still come and Christ is our only hope to escape it, and that escape gives us everything!

The escape is not the end, but a means to the end. It is the means to be with God forever. To enjoy His glory forever, and to see and experience Him as our source of all joy, peace, and satisfaction.

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. – Psalm 16:11

If you do not know Him, I beg you to see Him as beautiful in His death on the cross. He is the lamb that died in your place. See what he offers you, a right relationship with God, then abandon your sin and run to Him!

You can purchase a print of this poster on the shop at Society6.

Dads, Wash Your Children's Feet

He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. – John 13:4-5

It was a Saturday afternoon and I had tried to carve out a bit of time to work on a drawing. I gathered my papers and pens and had set up shop at the table. I started to make a few marks and then it happened. The sound of a child crying because they couldn’t find a blanket, or someone needed help in the bathroom, or a doll needed a wardrobe change, or someone couldn’t reach something. Then after the second or third, or other times even at the first interruption, I slammed down my pen and trudged off to try and address the problem quickly so that I could get back to what I wanted to be doing. To make matters worse, while trying to take care of their needs, things came from my lips like, “you need to keep up with your stuff…” or, “if you wouldn’t be so rough with your toy, it wouldn’t keep coming apart…” These words in themselves were not bad advice and could be good instruction, however, too often the tone of my voice coupled with body language simply said, “Do things right so you won't bother me with it!”

These moments are too common. I don’t have it all together as a father or husband. I really don’t. I get impatient at the drop of a hat and I am prone to be extremely selfish with my time. It's a hard fight within me. My sinful flesh ignites quickly in those situations and the first thought that goes through my mind is not serving my family, but that they are taking me away from my selfish desires.

I’m sure every father can relate to this on some level. Maybe it's while working in the garage, trying to watch the game, read a book, or just get a moment to sit and relax, but the result is always the same.

If you really want to boil it down and say it truthfully, the way we treat our families in those moments is telling them that we are more important than them; and that we will make them suffer for needing us. Regardless of our intentions, it communicates that it’s their fault for taking us away from what we were doing. That when you need us, we will get angry at you, and it is like pounding a wedge between us and our children.

Fellow dads, we have to fight this, and our only hope to overcome is not in our ability to will new reactions and censor ourselves, but it is in a new heart. This is because our words and actions flow out of our hearts.

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. – Luke 6:45

The reality is that this is not something we can create for ourselves. We cannot give ourselves a new and good heart. Rather it must be done by the transforming work of Christ dwelling in us! We must depend on his grace to give us strength in those moments to follow his example. (Psalm 51:10)

And what an example he gave us! Think of the night Christ shared the passover in the upper room, where he washed the feet of his disciples. Here is Christ the night before he would give his life up for others, among the men that he loved, listening to them argue about who would be the greatest among them; and Jesus takes the position of a servant. He humbles himself to wash their feet, their dirty, mud-crusted, slop-covered feet. When you watch him, he doesn’t slam down his cup, or bang his fist on the table and grunt or sigh. He doesn’t throw the basin down so everyone knows he is frustrated and upset that he had to get up and do this. Instead, he humbly and quietly takes action to serve those he loved. He saw their need, and his ability to meet it.

I want to be like that for my family. Seeing their needs and giving up my wants and desires to help them have theirs, just as Christ saw my need for him as being greater than his holding on to heaven (Philippians 2:5-8). So men, let us fight hard when the urge arises in us to let loose our frustration by remembering God’s long suffering and patience with us. Let us display to our children the love of Christ that patiently welcomes them with their needs.

Let us pick up the towel, the water, and get on our knees and wash our families’ feet.