Praise the Lord for this marvelous Monday. It is going to be sunny and mild here in Central New York. The Lord blessed us with a wonderful day in His house yesterday. It was good to be in His house with His people. The Lord of the Church, and the Lord of our lives, who is worthy of our praise and worship, descends upon His people with His blessings and promises. He provokes us to love Him and He provokes us to love one another. He blesses our times of worship, praise, laughter, tears, and the proclamation of and listening to His Word. Alice and I walked in the evening across the soccer fields yesterday afternoon. Our hearts were stirred and thrilled to see dandelions blooming in winter.
We extend our Christian sympathy to the family and friends of a young man by the name of Dan, who died suddenly and unexpectedly in his sleep. May Jesus, the Comforter, Healer, and Sustainer, come upon his friends and family with His abiding presence and deep comfort.
We extend our heartiest birthday greetings to Art Ensign, who is celebrating his 92nd birthday this month.
Today our grand daughter, the amazing, adorable, audacious Miss A. from Boston turns 6 years old. We praise the Lord for her. She is energetic, brave, and enthused for life. She loves the simple gifts and simile joys of life. We will be with our Boston family in a few weeks. We are praying for rich blessings of Jesus on A. today. May Jesus bless all the children around the world today; all the children are precious in His sight and they are adored and loved by the Good Shepherd who carries them in His bosom.
Sunita and her youngest daughter in Washington and I here New York watched some Football yesterday, as the Green Bay Packers triumphed narrowly over the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Kansas City Chiefs. We rejoice.
During these past months of my recovery and treatments I have ample time to
pause and ponder. I have time to recount, reminisce, and remember,
and I am so grateful to Jesus for His realness, and for all His
promises. I am grateful for you all, around the corner and around
the globe, who are praying for me fervently, faithfully, and
lovingly. The Lord of life lavishes on me His matchless grace, peace and
abundant life through your kindness, loving concern. I am deeply blessed,
loved, and affirmed. I praise the Lord for the realness and essence of
His love in Christ our Lord extended to us, incarnated in our lives
through his grace and power.
The
longing for love is one of many longings we have as human beings. We long
for significance. We long for beauty. We long for meaning.
Each of these longings can be fulfilled to some measure in this life, but
none of them can be perfectly fulfilled. We always want more
significance, more beauty, more meaning. Bruce Springsteen sings, "Everybody's
got a hungry heart." The longing for love, just like these other
longings, is holy and right and good, but none of these longings can
be fully satisfied in this life. They weren't meant to
be. Lord Jesus gives them to us to bring joy and wonder into
our lives, but ultimately he gives them to us to lead us to himself. In
the end, he alone can satisfy the deepest needs and highest longings of the
human heart. Ultimately that's where the Holy Spirit, the Hound of
Heaven, beckons us - leads us - into the heart and embrace of Jesus—to the
love of God.
I read some time ago about a man by the name of Brian Keenan. In the
1980's a man named Brian Keenan was taken captive in Lebanon and held hostage
for four years, suffering physical beatings and psychological oppression, but
in his imprisonment he turned to God, and one of the books that led him there
was the Song of Songs. That book awakened within him the longing for
romance, the deep desire for intimacy. It reminded him that he was human;
that he was made to love and be loved. It assured him that love was out
there and that it could be found. He ultimately found that longing
fulfilled in a relationship with Jesus, the embodiment of love, beauty and
blessing.
Jesus, the
Lover of our Souls, satisfies our deepest desires, and transforms our
sin-stained lives. He anoints and equips our lives with abundance and
eternity. One hot and dusty day Jesus was walking through Samaria.
At the hottest point of the day, He came upon a well, and asked a woman there for
a drink of water. It must have gone down nicely—cool and
refreshing. Then Jesus offered her some water—living water, he called it,
that would satisfy her thirst like no other, once and for all. "I'd
like some of that water", she said. "I'm tired of coming out to
the well a couple of times a day." "Very well", said
Jesus, "go get your husband and I'll tell you about it". The
woman stammered for a moment. "I have no husband", she
explained. "I know", said Jesus. "I also know that
you've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now is not your
husband".
For
years this woman had been looking for love in all the wrong places; she tried
all kinds of men; she'd tried marriage, singleness, cohabitation. None of
it satisfied, none of them lasted, but that day at the well she met a man who
would love her like no other, a Savior whose love would always satisfy, and
never fail. That same love is available to us today. That same Savior
wants a relationship with each of us.
We
all look for love, and that's a good thing. Love is worth pursuing, worth
waiting for, and worth celebrating, but ultimately we won't really find what
we're looking for until we love and are loved by Jesus, the lover of souls and
the Lord of our lives.
Let
us come to Jesus and live.
In Him.
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