| Vol. VI Number 1 | January 7, 2002 |
What are you seeking? Are you seeking wealth, happiness, prosperity, friendship, love, or anything else that the world can give you? If so, you are seeking only a portion of what you can have if you seek the Lord. There are many temptations in the world that are designed to draw away the Christian from his first love. These same temptations are in the world to keep the sinner in his place. Satan has all sorts of temptations to keep his followers in line. Though they think that they are following their own desires, in reality they are following the orders of their master.
How many people are taking drugs to help them quit smoking? How many people cannot quit drinking? How many people try to find love in bars and other places? How many people are hooked on gambling hoping for that big win? All of this is a sign that these people are not in control of their lives, but Satan is their true master. Satan commands and they follow thinking that they are doing these things by their own will. Satan even has the wealthy under his total control in their insatiable desire to gain more wealth. Ever notice that they never have enough to be satisfied?
Satan would have you believe that you are doing all of this on your own and that it is your right to destroy your body. Many now believe that it is their right to kill unborn children. Many believe that it is their right to live in debauchery. There is a large population who believe that it is their right to practice homo-sexuality. All of these are deceptions of the devil who has totally deceived the world into thinking that the Christian is nothing but an up tight stuffed shirt. These deceptions are so real to the sinner that they don't even know that they are being deceived.
Hosea 2:1-7
1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
The children of this world are just like the Adulterous harlot in Hosea. The busy themselves seeking all of the devices, pleasures, and wealth of the world and never are satisfied. They are always hungry for more and never find it. Whereas the children of God are content, being filled with the Holy Ghost. Their search for all of the pleasures that the world could not provide them has been fulfilled. Any born again Christian will tell you that all of the pleasure he was seeking in the world has been fulfilled by the infilling of the Holy Ghost. The Christian who seeks the Lord with all of his heart is the happiest of people. Their search for pleasure, contentment, or whatever they were seeking is fulfilled when they give their life totally to the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the total commitment to the Lord, the Christian will never be fulfilled.
The Bible tells us that we are to seek the Lord with all of our heart and all of these things will be added unto you.
Matthew 6:25-33
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Many Christians worry about the cares of this life and the necessary things of the world. Jesus has instructed us that we have no need to worry about our necessities. This is a promise that is written in the Bible. Also along the way Jesus will fill us with his divine spirit and give us all of the joy that we can contain. This is not the phony joy that the world keeps seeking, but a real joy that never leaves us. This is a real joy that continues for the rest of our lives. What the world gives is only a fake substitute of the real thing. The sinner is seeking everything that the Christian has while not even knowing what he is seeking. On the other hand the Christian has all of his desires fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Ghost.
3014 E Street Philadelphia, PA 19134 Church Office Phone: (215) 634-3637 Published by: Rev. LeRoy D. Cressy (215) 535-4037
Services:
Sunday School . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11:30 AM
Sunday Morning Worship . . . . . . . . . . 12 NOON
Sunday Evening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6:30 PM
Wednesday Evening . . . . . . . . . . . . 7:30 PM
Copyright © 2002 LeRoy D. Cressy
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