forgiven

Many of our hopes and dreams are rooted in something good, they truly are, but they aren’t rooted in something that has life.

We seek first the kingdom, but the kingdom that we live in has nothing for us … nothing that can fill us … nothing that will bring us life.

And so it brings us to Solomon, who strongly professed that “life is meaningless”. And he did so after winning at all the things that many of us strive to acquire.

MEANINGLESS

I love the gospel, because you can always start out with the truth but find your way onto the Greater Truth. And the Greater Truth is this:

We need to spend less time Wanting From Man and ALL of our time Needing From God. Because Needing From God gives us ALL THAT WE COULD HOPE FOR while Wanting From Man leaves us with MEANINGLESS.

As I pondered this this morning, I asked the question, “What does God think of me? What does He truly believe about me?”

And here are just a few of those things:

He SO LOVES ME. John 3:16 says that He LOVES ME SO MUCH that He traded His son for me.
He rejoices over me. Zephaniah 3 says that He is so happy about me that the heavens rejoice with singing.
He has adopted me as His son. (Ephesians 1).
He has paid off my unpayable debt. (John 19:30).
I am royalty. (1 Peter 2:9).
He renews His love for me every morning. (Lamentations 3).
He has prepared “a place” for me. And this place is better than any place that I could even fathom. (John 14:3).
I am MORE than a conqueror. (Romans 8:37).

In Luke 24, an Angel asked Mary Magdalene and the other women who entered Jesus’ tomb “why do you look for the living among the dead?” and I often have to ask myself the same question. Why am I looking for confirmation, affirmation, or encouragement from a spirit who wants to steal, kill, and destroy? And, truly, most of the time that is what we seek. The reality is that God has something greater for us—and He actually will propel us to be better than what we seek to be by feeding an insatiable appetite.

Walking into Syria, Paul realized what he was … a broken man who had everything the world had to offer. His pursuit of education, popularity, privilege … they had filled his carnal desires and emptied out his very soul. And so he made a great decision, he pursued, and filled, his need for God.

The risen Savior has something for us … and it is better than anything that we could ever want.

So don’t spend your time trying to get filled up in the world and then going to God questioning why it isn’t working … Get filled by the Spirit … then go into the world.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Coach J

The greatest miracle that happened in the book of Jonah did not involve a fish.

It happened in the middle of a city.

And Jonah was upset about it.

Jonah 4 ² He prayed to the Lord , “O Lord , is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. ³ Now, O Lord , take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

The greatest miracle was that the entire city repented and came under the authority of the King of the Universe.

And Jonah, a great prophet, saw that coming from a mile away. And a people, who were probably Jonah’s enemies, came to know the only thing that could save them.

I truly believe that Jonah was justified in his hatred.

He probably had been betrayed.

He probably had great human justification for his anger.

He probably could have won in a court of law.

But Here’s The Thing:

The law of the land was taken captive by Jesus Christ. And in the greatest law book ever written, God tells us this:

Romans 3 ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

We all, like Jonah, want to accept the righteousness that Jesus gives us but then forget that we had nothing to do with it. We ARE the Ninevites. We are the very people that Jonah hated.

And, yes, we are as guilty as they were.

And instead of sitting over feeling sorry for ourselves and asking God to take our lives … we should be walking around the city in repentance.

Because Here’s The Thing: Without Jesus, we are sitting ducks for Hell.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

2 MINUTE WARNING

WITH DOUG JOHNSON

Tag

527 Wanting From Man

507 Here’s The Thing