What do you thirst for?

Our pastor (Thank you Pastor Tuuri!) preached a message titled "Spiritual Gifts and the Renewed Heart" yesterday.  I need this message every day!  I heartily encourage you to listen to it and to let it soak into your bones. 

Oh how we need Jesus!  His sermon made me think of a section from a book by John Piper (God is the Gospel)...on pages 15-16, it prompts us to question: "Would you be happy in heaven if Christ were not there? The critical question for our generation - and for every generation - is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there? And the question for Christian leaders [and I would add parents] is: Do we preach and teach and lead in such a way that people are prepared to hear that question and answer with a resounding NO?  How do we understand the gospel and the love of God?...Can we really say that our people are being prepared for heaven where Christ himself, not his gifts, will be the supreme pleasure?...May the church of Jesus Christ say with increasing intensity, 'The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup' (Psalm 16:5). 'As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God' (Psalm 42:1)."


1 Cor 13:1-3 says: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing."

I don't want to be like sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  Jesus, please be my all satisfying Treasure today and forever.  Unite my heart to fear Your name. Please grow me in the knowledge of the heights and depths of Your great love.  And please make Your love to flow through me to everyone You allow me to interact with.