Money, sex, power. Your source of happiness and leaves you more than empty - but with a lost of ourselves.

I was thinking, it must be right. We are too easily pleased. A new toy, the latest coolest cars, "endless supply" of  girls, winning a championship, getting hold of the latest computer games - role playing in a great fantasy world, buying a big beautiful house, getting into relationships with the opp. gender, dating, talking... we please ourselves with such.

Not that all of the above are wrong. It is alright to win a championship or for a kid to enjoy playing a game. It is absolutely okay.

It's only all wrong when we take the above as a way for our "happy ever after", as our ultimate source of joy. And it's like we never get satisfied...

Jeremiah

¹² Be appalled at this, O heavens,
       and shudder with great horror,"
       declares the LORD.

    ¹³ "My people have committed two sins:
       They have forsaken me,
       the spring of living water,
       and have dug their own cisterns,
       broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

John 4:10 

 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

later... at verse 13 onwards

¹³Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water (refering the water in the well) will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

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Your Turn 

So, tell me what do you think. Are we too easily pleased? If God has promised us gift of living water - to enjoy the ultimate pleasure that never ends and actually SATISFIES which is Jesus himself, in a relationship with us...

"God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in him"
John Piper, during Passion 05 conference.

Do you believe in that? Do you think we can find joy in God? Do you think it is the answer to our emptiness? 

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Personally, I am so far from being a christian who abides in God (takes joy in him). I have to admit. At so many times I have settled for less and have pursued temporary satisfaction, making me miserable...

I remember reading a birthday card, from two cousins of mine, EuniceL and Esther, for my 18th b'day. They wrote at the end "Never settle for anything less than the best"....

My prayer to God would be "make me a man that is after your heart, that I may ENJOY YOU and no longer be in bondage to the little pleasure of this world..."

"Lust is over-craving for anything but God. Worship is wanting to take pleasure in God so much... is wanting to enjoying him SO MUCH, so much so that we live and die for him"

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An EXAMPLE 

See those roses there. Beautiful. If I take them and give them to my wife (presuming I am older and married).
She says "Thank you so much. The roses are lovely"

And if I say this "Don't mention it. It is my duty."

She would have every right to be angry or disappointed by me. It is not loving to be dutiful. Same with God. He wants us to worship him NOT OUT OF DUTY.

"Their lips praise me but their hearts are far away" Jesus

So, where are our hearts?

Forever contemplating on meaning in life,
Judson

Christmas is coming! I'm happy 'bout that... all the lovely decos, beautifully wrap gifts (though I don't wrap any), jazzed-up carols, that happy-all forgiving atmosphere... Wow.

Anyway, I was just thinking... yet again. What difference does Christmas make?

Deutoronomy 30: 6
The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.

Jeremiah 31
31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD,
       "when I will make a new covenant
       with the house of Israel
       and with the house of Judah.

 32 It will not be like the covenant
       I made with their forefathers
       when I took them by the hand
       to lead them out of Egypt,
       because they broke my covenant,
       though I was a husband to ^[d] them, ^[e] "
       declares the LORD.

 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
       after that time," declares the LORD.
       "I will put my law in their minds
       and write it on their hearts.
       I will be their God,
       and they will be my people.

 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
       or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,'
       because they will all know me,
       from the least of them to the greatest,"
       declares the LORD.
       "For I will forgive their wickedness
       and will remember their sins no more."

Whoa! This verses are just SO RICH WITH VALUE. This has always been what Christmas is about! In old times, our fathers did the laws externally - they work with their own might and strength do please God. But they couldn't. We can't now either. We just can't love God with all our soul, mind and strenght... Jesus said we were sinners, BORNED SINNERS...

STORY 

So, Christmas is this. Let me put it in a story form...

Chris always aspired to be a singer. Since he was a little boy, he would watch the guys on TV and would wish he would grow up to be like them, singing to large audiences and inspiring many...

He had only ONE problem. He was tone-deaf.

Jesus said we were "dead in our sins" and he came to bring life. Chris was dead in his pitching.

So along comes Ariel (You ever watched "Little mermaid"?). And she told Chris.
"Hey, I'll give you my voice. And I'll sing through you. And people will praise me because I sing through you. And I will share those praises with you."

It's like Jesus saying, I give you the holy spirit who will enable you to LOVE ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND SOUL AND MIND. And you will be SATISFIED and NEVER THIRST AGAIN. 

Simple? That was just theology. Understanding the bible isn't difficult. It was meant for the simple too. God give understanding. So, it's not how deep your brains can go.  

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So, this is my grown-up Christmas list (since I'm already 18...).

1. That God, you will ENABLE ME TO BE SO IN LOVE WITH YOU that I will find you as the PERFECT PLEASURE that no other pleasure or pain will hinder me from KNOWING YOU.

2. God, I want a Alienware Laptop, Lancer Evolution (fast car), Kurzweil Piano, Korg Oasis, Yamaha Digital Mixer, My Own Studio, A big nice house with a garden and lots of trees, a beautiful and Godly wife, education at a great university (preferably music & film), oppurtunities to travel, and everything else I would desire in the future as long as it is within your will.

Korg Oasis

Alienware Laptop

Lancer Evolution

Kurzweil Piano

Btw, feel free to get me any of those for Christmas...haha... will be much appreicated... 

Amen