Over the Sun

It wasn’t an oldie when I first heard it.

I guess that gives away my age.

In 1965, the Rolling Stones’ big hit Satisfaction was released in the United States. I remember watching them on our little black-and-white TV as they were performing on Shindig! Looking back at my very conservative upbringing, I can’t imagine that my parents allowed it, but I remember it vividly. Mick Jagger sang “the verses in a tone hovering between cynical commentary and frustrated protest, and then leaps half singing and half yelling into the chorus, ‘I can’t get no satisfaction.’” (Wikipedia) The song was all over the airwaves, poor grammar and all. It hit a cultural, collective nerve whether you were a fan of the Stones or not.

Have you ever felt like Mick, that you simply couldn’t get satisfaction from anything?  Maybe your list of things that haven’t lived up to your expectations differs drastically from Jagger’s catalogue of disappointments—or even Solomon’s—but I think it is a common human experience to be dissatisfied.

I know I have been.

As C.S. Lewis stated, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world” (Mere Christianity).

I think it’s incredibly important for us to remember that.

As our study of Ecclesiastes reminded us last Sunday, life is short. Our time on planet Earth, our life “under the sun,” is like a breath or a vapor compared to eternity which God has set in the hearts of all mankind. But this awareness of the brevity of our existence, this longing for the eternal, is a precious gift from our Father to provide an unsettling or a discomfort in the here and now as a reminder of what is ahead if we pursue our God who controls time, place, and purpose. There is another world. There is a lot more for us over the sun. And it is satisfying and eternal.

But do we really believe that our ultimate satisfaction will be found elsewhere? That it is eternity and rest that our hearts desire?  Paul Tripp, New Morning Mercies, explains.

It is sad how many people constantly live in the schizophrenic craziness of eternity amnesia. We were created to live in a forever relationship with a forever God forever. We were designed to live based on a long view of life. We were made to live with one eye on now and one eye on eternity. You and I simply cannot live as we were put together to live without forever. But so many people try. They put all their hopes and dreams in the right here, right now situations, locations, possessions, positions, and people of their daily lives. They load moment after moment with undeliverable expectations. They ask people to be what people this side of eternity will never be. They demand that a seriously broken world deliver what it could never deliver even if it were not broken. They fail to recognize that at the bottom of all of this drivenness and insanity is an expectation that now can be the paradise it will never be.

It is wonderful for you to have a good marriage, but it will never be a paradise. It’s great to have a good relationship with your children, but they will never deliver paradise to you. That beautiful house that began decaying from the moment it was built will not be your paradise. Those still-flawed people around you will not offer you paradise-like relationships. In forgetting who you are, forgetting how you were designed to live, forgetting who God is, and forgetting what is to come, you make yourself and those around you crazy.”

Since our hearts have been hard-wired for eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11), we hunger for paradise.

No one is satisfied with things the way they are. So either you try your hardest to turn your life right here, right now into the paradise it will never be and therefore become driven and disappointed, or you live in this broken world with the rest and peace that comes from knowing that a guaranteed place in paradise is in your future. You’re sad that things are as broken as they are, so you work to be an agent of change in God’s gracious and powerful hands, but you’re not anxious or driven. You know that this world is not stuck and that it hasn’t been abandoned by God. You know that God is working his eternal plan. He is moving things toward their final conclusion. You can’t see it every day, but you know it’s true. In the middle of your sadness there is celebration, because you’ve read the final chapter and you know haw God’s grand story is going to end.

So you get up every morning and give yourself to doing the things that God says are good, because you know that if grace has put eternity in your future, there’s nothing that you could ever do in God’s name that is in vain. (Paul Tripp, New Morning Mercies)

This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

Unlike the Rolling Stones, you will get satisfaction. Genuine, lasting, and sweet.

For all eternity.

Now that’s something to sing about, Mick!

—Eileen Hill

How He Loves Us...

How does God love us? One of my favorite places to find this answer is in the book of Hosea. Here, God uses Hosea’s relationship with his wife to show us how He has loved us. I pray we are convicted and encouraged as we look at God’s love for us in action.

Before we can understand the depth of God’s love for us, we must first understand the depth of our sin against Him. The book of Hosea gives us a picture of our sin. Here we are likened to Hosea’s wife Gomer, who betrayed her husband to make a name for herself through a life of prostitution. Like Gomer, we are all guilty of similar adultery for seeking life outside of Him. We are promise breakers. We have rejected God to seek satisfaction elsewhere. While walking in sin, God has loved us. In Hosea’s response to Gomer we find how God demonstrates His love to us.

First, God tells Hosea to reclaim his bride. I can imagine Hosea considering the most likely places to find a prostitute and then heading out to search the dark alleys and abandoned buildings for her. After seeking her, I picture him finding his wife in a room with paying customers. In this moment I can image the surprise as he claims her as his beloved while she is filled with shame. God wants to be associated with us. He reclaims us as His own even in our most broken form. God reclaims the sinner. This is love.

Second, God tells Hosea to redeem his bride. Picture Hosea demonstrating his love for Gomer by outbidding her other clients. Redemption takes sacrifice. There is a payment made to buy something back. Hosea pays to be with his wife. God redeems the sinner. This is love. 

Third, God tells Hosea to renew his beloved. He tells Hosea not to share the marriage bed with her for a long time. After many long, lonely nights of not being considered, Hosea is asked to consider the broken state of His wife and understand that healing will take time. Hosea must not immediately demand what is rightfully his. Instead, he must be willing to build intimacy over time. God renews us. This is love.

Fourth, God tells Hosea to restore his bride. Hosea hopes that all that has been lost with Gomer will be regained. He demonstrates trust that the broken things will be made whole again. God restores us. This is love.

We can see this reclaiming, redeeming, renewing, and restoring love of God on display in the life of Jesus. He claimed those others were ashamed to associate with. He gave it all to redeem the lost. He had mercy on those damaged by their sin and was patient with the process of renewal. He was confident that dead things would be restored to life. This is love.

As we consider how God loves us, may we love others the same. How will God use you to show His reclaiming, redeeming, renewing, and restoring love?

In Christ,

—Roger Garrison

Mustard Seed and Mountains

“Truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you” Matt. 17:20. So why do I struggle with the molehills?

Praying for the Asaro mud men of New Guinea or for the salvation of Hindu’s in the city of Tirupati in India somehow seems doable. I know that the Lord has a heart for the lost and He calls people to go to the far corners of the world to reach those lost. So I know I’m praying for something that’s close to His heart. Even closer to home, I don’t have a problem praying for the needs of the Saavedra's family and their ministry in Mexico.

In all these prayers my faith seems to know no bounds. But when the person is standing right in front of me asking for prayer, that’s when my doubts and fears show up, and I start trying to grab for that, seemingly, elusive mustard seed of faith. Like trying to grab a handful of air.

When it comes to the smaller, more personal, prayers for people, my faith seems to evaporate.

Jesus was frustrated with the disciples for their lack of faith (the whole incident runs from Matt. 17:14-21), yet at the same time encouraged them, that even with faith as small as a mustard seed, they could move mountains.
In Romans 12:3 we read, ”God has dealt to every man a measure of faith.” So, at the very least, it would seem, we have something close to a mustard seed to start with.

As I think about this, perhaps my focus has been too much on my measure of faith. Being unsure of God’s will in the particular situation and fear of getting things wrong. I end up depending too much on my own wisdom and insight, what there is of it, and almost forgetting God’s interest in the transaction.

I always like to go to the dictionary. It helps me get the full meaning of a word. I think we often use words without thinking about their full meaning.
Faith, to put your trust in someone; trust, a firm belief in the reliability of a person. Confident expectation.

I can only imagine what my prayers would be like if, each time I came to the Lord, I came with a firm belief and confident expectation in Him and His faithfulness.

Faith is believing, believing that Jesus is willing and able to do anything we ask. Trusting in the Lord's faithfulness, and His promise to hear our prayers and answer them. There are so many scriptures that not only encourage us to pray but declare God hears our prayers and is more than willing to answer them. As it says in Psalm 65:2, “He is the God who answers prayers.”

Going back to that mustard seed, what encourages me is, when fed and watered, seeds grow (you might not know that). It means, as I step out, putting that seed of faith to work, looking to Jesus, seeing His power at work in my life and in those I pray for, I’m encouraged. My confidence in Him and my ability to hear His voice grows.

What this means to me, as I pray for the molehills or mountains of others, is to put my pride and fear aside and put all my trust and confidence in Jesus. Remembering, in all things, we depend upon Him, and taking time to wait on the Holy Spirit to give me the understanding I need to pray effectively.

Not forgetting that, “He is the God who answers prayer.”

—Mick Sanderson