tai October 10, 2009 Actions Speak, Church Life, Distractions, Prayer, Quiet Times, Spiritual Disciplines 3 comments full post »

Hunger and Thirst

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” ~ Matthew 5:6

This is just going to be a short post. (That’s unusual, I know…) My church has just started doing a study through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Tonight we just focused in on the first few verses of Chapter 5 – the “beatitudes”. They are all so good to meditate on. But one in particular caught my attention. And, if you haven’t guessed it already, it’s the one I quoted above.

I guess I was firstly just a bit (okay…a LOT) convicted by it, because, this past week, I’ve been making so many other things a priority before my relationship with Christ. And it’s not just my lack of prioritizing that bothers me. It’s the fact that I haven’t been hungering and thirsting after Christ. I haven’t been living as if He were my very source of life…as if I cannot fully function without Him. I am slowly dying inside without Him.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” What is hungering and thirsting? It’s first of all, recognizing your need. Instead of wondering why you’re feeling dizzy, or why you have a cramp, or why you can’t talk, you have to recognize that it’s because you need more food – more water. When you recognize that, your desire for it grows, because you know that you need something, and what it is you need. I know when I’ve been super hungry or so thirsty that I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t think about anything else…and the only thing that really caught my attention was the object of my longing. When we are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, it becomes the only thing that really matters to us. The all consuming passion of our heart. So…hungering and thirsting is essentially “groaning” after something (I have to use that phrasing, because it makes the following quote sound cooler. ). Charles Spurgeon said, “You may judge a man by what he groans after.” What do you “groan” after…or “hunger and thirst” after? Would people be able to tell that you are a Christian if they looked at your “menu”?

And it’s here that the second part of the verse sunk in: “…for they shall be satisfied.” There’s so many things that we can chase after in this world that we can think will fill us up, and satisfy us…and like I said earlier, I have been chasing things that may look delightful on the surface, but can’t quench my thirst, or fill me up. You might compare it to giving a starving child in Africa a bag of cotton candy, and then walking away. It’s a very sad picture, but it’s what we do to ourselves over and over again. None of these things can satisfy us. And when I pursue other things before God in my day, thinking they’re somehow more important (which is absurd to step back and think about; writing a book is somehow more important than the Author of life, and the creator of speech??), I don’t find the satisfaction and joy I think they should be bringing me…because that can only come from spending time with Christ.

So to sum this up (and I’m sorry for lying at the beginning…haha…this didn’t end up as “short” as I had planned – and I hope it’s made some kind of sense, since it is almost 2:30am here…), we essentially have a promise from Jesus here. IF we “hunger and thirst for righteousness”, THEN we “shall be satisfied”. And God always keeps his side of the deal. We can’t keep “our side” on our own. You’ve probably already figured that out the hard way. We are weak creatures…and we need help. Praise God that He has sent His Holy Spirit to help us, and He is always alert when we cry out for help! At any time, we can ask the Holy Spirit to renew our hunger for the Word and deepen our Thirst for the Living Waters, and He will. But…don’t use your weakness as an excuse to keep chasing after the wrong things.

Hungry? Do something about it.

~Tai Sophia

tai March 17, 2008 Church Life, Joint/Guest Posts 0 comments full post »

The Dearest Place On Earth

Monday, February 18, 2008

The Dearest Place on Earth

“If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never
have joined one at all; and the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have
spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of
it. Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us.” – Charles Spurgeon

Below is a speech that was given by my friend, Alex, several weeks ago when we had the great privilege of making a public commitment to our local church, after going through a 10-week course on the mission, doctrine, and beliefs of our particular church. Our pastor usually likes to have one of the new members give a testimony of how they came to feel called to the church…but this year was a little different, since Alex and I had both been going to the church for several years, being members with our families. I asked him to type up and send me basically what he shared at church, because I thought it really communicated the heart and passion we should all have for our church families.

* * *

Will Meiklejohn once asked me,

“So…Alex – what is it that you are most passionate about?”

“Well, that’s a weird question.” I replied. I then proceeded to fumble through some lame answer only to realize later that I had never really answered it. However, I think I have the answer this morning. Perhaps one of the most significant events in the history of my family was standing up here together four years ago. It is now one of my greatest joys to stand here today and personally commit to this local church body.

This church is my home. It means more to me then just a place where I go on Sundays. When I think of this church I think of the first believers in Acts; that sweetness of fellowship and sense of family is alive and well in this church.

This is a group of people seeking to be as biblical as possible – and the implications of that are amazing! We are accountable to one another, we have solid doctrine that magnifies the Glory of God, and we are marked by a pursuit of spiritual gifts. This church has also taught me how to better fulfill Gods call on my life as a single man and this has in turn taught me how to better respect and honor the young women in my life. If it were not for this church I never would have learned such a valuable lesson.

However, the most important thing that this church has taught me goes much deeper than this; it cuts to the very core of my existence. You see, the difference between now and the day when I stood weeping in my Dad’s arms in the middle of a hockey arena (at a Promise Keepers conference), is that now I understand more fully what happened on that day. That day I was regenerated. At that moment a holy God looked upon me and no longer did he see my sin, but he saw Christ’s perfect life. I stood justified by the blood of Christ. Now day-by-day, from glory to glory, I am becoming more like him. I am on my way with this church to a place where our feet should have never touched.

You see, the local Church is not only a conduit for the gospel to go forth in this community, but it is also a place where the gospel can be practically lived out in our lives. I could not commit to a church that did not celebrate this, worship God for this, and preach this every Sunday. For this reason I will invest my life and any pathetic gifting God may have given me into Sovereign Grace Church. I am a sinner marking myself among other sinners, joining my hands with them in the building of a local church for the glory of the God who sovereignly brought it into existence.

posted by Lady Tai at 11:59 AM 2 comments

Hunger and Thirst

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be...

The Dearest Place On Earth

Monday, February 18, 2008 The Dearest Place on Earth “If I had...