It’s human to look back nostalgically and sepia-tinge away the bad memories, focusing on only the good ones. ‘Ah, the good old days’ we say. ‘Back when I was a kid’ we begin our stories.
And it’s like that when we read Acts. ‘Ah, that first century church. Those were the good old days of church. We should be like them. I wish our church was like them.’
And it’s true. There was a vibrancy and a wonder to that first century church that seems to be absent from many churches today. There was radical giving, fervent fellowship, tremendous sermons, and powerful signs and wonders. Who wouldn’t want that?
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6).
Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: Blessed are they which do hunger … – Hunger and thirst, here, are expressive of strong desire. Nothing would better express the strong desire which we ought to feel to obtain righteousness than hunger and thirst. No needs are so keen, none so imperiously demand supply, as these. They occur daily, and when long continued, as in case of those shipwrecked, and doomed to wander months or years over burning sands, with scarcely any drink or food, nothing is more distressing. An ardent desire for anything is often represented in the Scriptures by hunger and thirst, Psalm 42:1-2; Psalm 63:1-2. A desire for the blessings of pardon and peace; a deep sense of sin, and want, and wretchedness, is also represented by thirsting, Isaiah 55:1-2.
Interesting, isn’t it? When I’m hungry, all I can think about is getting food. When I’m thirsty, I’m not satisfied until I drink. Jesus wants us to be the same way about righteousness. Hunger for it. Thirst for it. Seek filling it. Don’t do anything else until it’s satisfied.
The way John MacArthur described the current state of chaos in “A World Gone Mad” explains a lot of the unsettled feeling I’m having these days. I recommend the article. Here is the excerpt-
On top of the endless chaos surrounding us, our society is drowning in a sea of lies, such that the culture is permeated by a sense of devastating insecurity. We no longer have confidence in politicians, health experts, social activists, academics, or the media—all of them have lost credibility by pursuing agendas over honesty. Even religious leaders have shown a knack for doublespeak and outright deception when it suits their purposes. We have been lied to so routinely that we treat every claim as dubious. Living in that constant state of doubt and suspicion is both exhausting and exasperating.
There are two points. The deplorable state of affairs in America right now is doing a good job of spotlighting sin. The corruption in systems, in people, in society, in organizations is oozing out in more quantity than the Great Molasses Flood of 1919, and a lot of people are getting swept away in its sickening draw.
Sin is ugly, isn’t it? We sinners tend to forget that, having it in us and all around us all the time. We dwell in it, and so, make peace with it, pet it, weakly slay it, only to allow it to return, grinning. But sin is the ugliest thing in the universe. The current scene in America with obvious moral and ethical corruption in academia, politics, law, government, science, and so on shows us that. This is good.
It should make us hunger and thirst for righteousness all the more, shouldn’t it? Seeing sin exposed in its putrid corruption should make us hasten to the cross in agony, pleading for forgiveness for even the most ‘minor’ sins of our own that we’ve committed. If there is anything we can call ‘good’ about the sin-saturated United States, it’s that. When we hold a puppy’s head over his waywardly dropped feces and say “Look at it, just look at it! Bad dog!” God is doing likewise with His children.
Secondly, the last part of the verse: “they shall be filled.” For those that hunger, the promise is not perhaps they will be filled, or maybe they’ll be filled, or later they will be filled. They SHALL be filled. Barnes’ Notes again:
They shall be filled – They shall be satisfied as a hungry man is when supplied with food, or a thirsty man when supplied with drink. Those who are perishing for want of righteousness; those who feel that they are lost sinners and strongly desire to be holy, shall be thus satisfied. Never was there a desire to be holy which God was not willing to gratify, and the gospel of Christ has made provision to satisfy all who truly desire to be holy. See Isaiah 55:1-3; Isaiah 65:13; John 4:14; John 6:35; John 7:37-38; Psalm 17:15.
The desire to be holy should be in each one of us, if we are saved by His grace. The pursuit of that holiness should be a fervent goal daily. Imagine what a life filled with hunger & thirst for righteousness is like contrasted to the darkness all around!
One who pursues righteousness and loyalty Finds life, righteousness, and honor. (Proverbs 21:21).
“And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
Hell is not a pleasant Bible concept to ponder. So most of the time, Christians don’t. But it’s the end-all of the journey for millions and billions of people. Forever. So we must.
Sproul has passed on, Piper’s retired, JMac is aging, and Steve Lawson isn’t far behind. Voddie is getting there, and Washer had a heart attack. I frequently hear, “Where is the upcoming crop of pastors? Where are the next faithful men of God? What will we doooo?”
Does it bother anyone that the literal name of this new year is “2020 won”?
LOL I didn’t make that line up, I saw it on Twitter. It’s true, though, isn’t it? I feel like I’ve gone through 2020 with Jake “Raging Bull” LaMotta. Beaten up from pillar to post, knocked down only to get up and be knocked down again, emerging from the year battered and bloody and barely standing. I guess the ‘difficult times’ finally came to America. (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
2020 felt like the Time of Judges. If you are skeptical, look at this summary of the Book of Judges and see if it doesn’t fit:
I think it’s good to ‘take stock’ and look back over the highs and lows, goals met and goals abandoned. People here and people gone. The stream of life is ever moving, an increasingly rapidly rushing brook that widens and bounds faster as it hurtles downhill to its source. It’s helpful to see where I’ve been and then resolutely turn my head to look forward. I’m not one to dwell.
As the virus called COVID-19 and government responses to it continue to tramp around the world and encroach on normal lives, there have been effects. Terrible effects. In many cases the effects of the various local and global governments’ response have been worse than the virus itself.
Suicide and food scarcity are two of the worst effects of the lockdowns but they are silent and hidden.
food insecurity is on the rise. Prata photo
On December 7, the US Global Leadership Coalition issued a white paper warning of “a looming food crisis.” In it, they list some devastating facts.
Christmas means baby Jesus. Everybody loves the baby. The swaddling clothes (so cute!) the manger (awww, really?), the Wise Man (distinguished solemnity). It is a tremendous story. It is THE story of all of history. God Himself came in flesh, incarnated solely to grow, live a perfect life, and die. Continue reading “Advent- Thirty Days of Jesus: Postlude 2, Like the Sun”→
Two days ago I published an update to theRavi Zacharias situation here on this blog. I’d posted about the man other times, first in 2016, later that year here, and again in 2019. With the news that the Ravi Zacharias International Ministry (RZIM) had engaged a private investigative company to look into certain allegations against the now-departed Ravi, and that the Ministry announced this week allegations seemed to have merit, I published those facts Saturday.
No one likes it when a tower falls. Ravi was globally well known, a Christian celebrity if you will. His many decades of apologist speeches all over the world had affected many. Of course we would all prefer that any man of faith stay above reproach, but sadly, many do not. The Bible is replete with these sad facts, and it addresses them forthrightly.
the-end-time.org 