PURSUE
THE MARROW OF LIFE
BREAD
14 I have
seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a
chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 1:14 (NIV)
10 Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever
loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. Ecclesiastes
5:10 (NIV)
18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a
man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the
sun during the few days of life God has given him--for this is his lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives any man
wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be
happy in his work--this is a gift of God. 20 He seldom reflects on the
days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. Ecclesiastes
5:18-20 (NIV)
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 (NIV)
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like
treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in
his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for
fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold
everything he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:44-46 (NIV)
17
Command those who are rich in this
present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so
uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything
for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good
deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they
will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so
that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 1
Timothy 6:17-19 (NIV)
5 Those who live
according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature
desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set
on what the Spirit desires. 6 The
mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and
peace. Romans 8:5-6 (NIV)
25 Jesus said to her,
“I am the resurrection and the
life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you
believe this?” John 11:25-26 (NIV)
20 I eagerly
expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient
courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by
life or by death. 21 For to
me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians
1:20-21 (NIV)
15 Then
he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against
all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his
possessions.” Luke 12:15 (NIV)
10 He was in the
world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize
him. 11 He came to that which was
his own, but his own did not receive him.
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. John 1:10-13 (NIV)
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. John 1:10-13 (NIV)
1 Keep
me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge. 2 I
said to the LORD, “You are my
Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” 3 As
for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all
my delight. 4 The sorrows of those
will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of
blood or take up their names on my lips. 5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion
and my cup; you have made my lot secure. 6 The
boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a
delightful inheritance. 7 I will
praise the LORD, who counsels me; even
at night my heart instructs me. 8 I
have set the LORD always before
me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue
rejoices; my body also will rest secure, 10 because
you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
11 You have made known to me
the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal
pleasures at your right hand. Psalm
16:1-11 (NIV)
12 “Let
the beloved of the LORD rest
secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.”
Deuteronomy
33:12 (NIV)
BUTTER
“The marrow of life is not in our possessions or titles or degrees
or anything else that will pass away with this age. The marrow is found in the
man Christ Jesus and the mission he has given us. All transitory gifts God
provides are for us to enjoy and for us to employ in the mission he calls us to
(1 Timothy 6:17-19). But if we look to
these things for life’s marrow, we will find them hollow bones.” Jon
Bloom
“Popular morality is now a wasteland, littered with the debris of
broken convictions…. So our young people go riding down the highroad to hell in
an atmosphere that would make any self-respecting animal sick to its stomach,
and no one thinks that matters are as bad as they seem….The answer is not simply
in passing more laws. It is to be found
in regeneration by His Spirit, who alone can set men’s souls on fire with a
divinely sent thirst for greater purity, both for the individual and the good
judgment of the body. Apart from such
spiritual burning and purging, men sink beneath the weight and corruption of
their own sin.” Anonymous
“No one in heaven envies the rich of this world. No one covets the
famous. No one praises the powerful. They have discovered what it means to ‘live
deep and suck all the marrow out of life.’ They have found that which is truly
life: Jesus Christ.” Jon Bloom
“There is
something, Someone, right and good to hold on to. There is a worthy treasure; a
valuable pearl. There is a Precious that is life giving and promise keeping.
Jesus is the True Precious who actually holds onto us. Instead of poisoning us,
he gives us life. Instead of diminishing us, he makes us flourish. Instead of
ensnaring us, he sets us free. It is Jesus who holds us and who we hold above
all else.” Scott
Sauls
“He is present and
precious to His own.” Hudson Taylor
“You will see
at once from reading the text (Philippians 4:11), upon the very surface, that
contentment in all states is not a natural propensity of man. Ill weeds grow
apace; covetousness, discontent, and murmuring, are as natural to man as thorns
are to the soil. You have no need to sow thistles and brambles; they come up
naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth, upon which rests the
curse; so you have no need to teach men to complain, they complain fast enough
without any education. But the precious things of the earth must be cultivated.
If we would have wheat, we must plough and sow; if we want flowers, there must
be the garden, and all the gardener’s care. Now, contentment is one of the
flowers of heaven, and if we would have it, it must be cultivated.” Charles
H. Spurgeon
“Are you
in prison? You are if you feel better when you have more and worse when you
have less. You are if joy is one delivery away, one transfer away, one award
away, or one makeover away. If your happiness comes from something you deposit,
drive, drink, or digest, then face it -- you are in prison, the prison of
want. Paul says that ‘godliness with
contentment is great gain’ (1 Tim. 6:6 NIV). When we surrender to God the cumbersome
sack of discontent, we don't just give up something; we gain something. God
replaces it with a lightweight, tailor-made, sorrow-resistant attaché́ of
gratitude. What will you gain with
contentment? You may gain your marriage. You may gain precious hours with your
children. You may gain your self-respect. You may gain joy. You may gain the
faith to say, ‘The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.’ Try saying it slowly. ‘The LORD is my
shepherd; I shall not want.’ Again, ‘The
LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.’
Again, ‘The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.’” Max Lucado
“In a world that
tries to crush us with complication and overwhelm, desire this simple truth –
in learning to be with people as Jesus was, we’ll discover the abundant life.” Shannan Martin
“When the love of
Jesus captivates us, and when we begin to see him as our True Precious, our
hearts will naturally, and quite effortlessly, love him first and to love him
most. This will lead us to hold everything else loosely, no longer desperately
tightening our grip. And yet, when we loosen our grip on these things, our
loving Jesus sometimes has a way of giving them all back to us—and in an even
greater, more healthy measure than before.” Scott
Sauls
“We are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend
it. No created being can ever know how
much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them.” Julian of NorwichHEART SAVOR
·
We will never know if He is our all
until He is our all.
·
The pursuit in the further knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ is always for our very best. He
is the marrow of life. He alone
satisfies the human soul totally, completely, absolutely, abundantly. There is no Jesus plus anything else to fill
our cups – it is simply Jesus. That is
why Paul so strongly declares in Philippians: 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his
resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him
in his death, 11 and so,
somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all
this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that
for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers,
I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the
prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians
3:10-14 (NIV). Such a pursuit of Paul’s
is so well worth our emulation.
·
Our lives do not consist in the abundance of the created
rather in the abundance of the Creator.
