The Quest for Life

Coral Ridge Ministries

The Quest for Life

Mark 8:35

September 30, 2023

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
— Mark 8:35

When, at the end of your life on earth, you look back over your life, what do you hope to have accomplished or experienced? I think we would all like to “go for the gusto,” pursuing life with a capital “L”. But many pursue this goal in the wrong way. Sadly, even many Christians seek life with a capital “L” in a way that will prevent them from ever attaining it.

People miss out on abundant life because it is a paradox. The way we truly gain life runs 180 degrees counter to the way we think we gain life. Jesus tells us, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Yet most people frantically do all within their power to save their lives by heaping upon themselves all manner of comforts, pleasures, delights, and securities, not realizing that everything they do destroys the very thing they want to save. As they attempt to gain life, they lose it.

Jesus’ words are difficult. Many people read them, shrug them off, and go on their way, hoping that somehow those words don’t apply to them. For many, those words seem beyond understanding. But let me make it clear: If we focus all our attention and energies upon our material well-being, upon our lives in this world, then we shall lose that higher, greater, and more abundant life that we can have in Christ. Only when we release our lives to Christ, allowing Him to do whatever He wishes through us, do we gain life and gain it abundantly. Live for Jesus every day, including today, and you’ll experience life with a capital “L”.

QUOTE:
“Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in;’ aim at earth and you will get neither.”
— C. S. Lewis

Possibilities Unlimited

September 29, 2023

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. —Philippians 4:13 What would you try if you knew you could not fail? Would you climb a mountain? learn to fly an airplane? share the gospel with your family? The Scripture promises us that we can do “all things.” Have you claimed that promise? A person who professes to believe he or she “can do all things through Christ” and does not exercise that belief is like a miser who has a hundred million dollars in the bank but goes hungry day after day. For many of us, our belief is more like this: “I can do a few things through Christ, who gives me a little help.” Why do we sometimes believe that we can do only “a few things”? We believe this because we listen to the lies Satan speaks through his voice of discouragement. We believe this because we allow persecution to stop the Lord’s work. But if we want God to use us, we have to bank on that verse. Those who have turned the world upside down—Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, and William Carey—believed God could do mighty things through them. They made this verse their life verse, and it transformed them. And even though the apostle Paul was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and left for dead, he attempted great things for God because he expected great things from God. He lived by the verse he had penned—“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” If you let the truth of this verse permeate your thinking, it can transform your life! We achieve only a fraction of what we could because we don’t take God at His Word. Are your expectations too low? Do you dream big dreams but never act on them? Then ask God to plant this promise deep in your soul and help you live in His power! QUOTE: Man, with God’s help and personal dedication, is capable of anything he can dream. —CONRAD HILTON

John Milton

September 28, 2023

“… to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever …” — Revelation 1:6 How blessed we’d be if we could give ourselves over, body and soul, to the glorification of our Savior Jesus Christ. John Milton, England’s most profound poet, did precisely this. He was a man molded by the Scriptures, and many consider Milton one of the highest examples of Puritanism. Though he lived much of his life in blindness, God granted him the vision to see things in the vast universe that lie beyond what the rest of humanity can see. John Milton saw the power of sin that, left unchecked, brings death. He saw the reality of Jesus Christ, the Second Adam. His masterpieces, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, involve two principal characters: the first Adam, by whose disobedience all of humankind plunged into sin; and the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, the beginning of the new creation. Milton’s epic poems describe the tremendous power and deception of sin that had come into this world, wreaking havoc and misery upon the earth. They also contain another reality—Jesus Christ, who gave thirty-three years of perfect obedience to God’s commands, who regained the kingdom for those of us who trust in Him. Milton was a poet of the invisible. He splashed on a vast canvas the history of the world from eternity to eternity, painting with his pen the greatest panorama of all time. He saw things that no one had ever seen before. And he has shared that vision with others, opening the eyes of millions. Milton believed that humankind has a high calling—to glorify the living Christ—and he fulfilled this calling in all he wrote. May we all have that same vision to be a blessing to God, to open the eyes of others by glorifying Jesus Christ in all we do. QUOTE: “Beyond compare the Son of God was seen, Most glorious; in him all his Father shone, Substantially expressed, and in his face, Divine compassion visibly appeared, Love without end, and without measure grace.” — John Milton

Commanded to Sing

September 27, 2023

“Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” — Ephesians 5:19 Do you ever find yourself, without even realizing it, humming a praise song? Did you know that as the Holy Spirit fills you, the joy you experience will express itself in song? The Bible makes it clear that God is bound up with singing. When God created the world, the morning stars sang together for joy. The seraphim and the cherubim praise God around His throne forever, not because God has commanded them to do so, but because in Paradise their song inevitably rises like a wellspring from their hearts to their lips. Even the birds continually sing their praises to God. Do you have a song of joyfulness in your heart today? The great saints of the faith expressed their God-given joy in song. Moses wrote songs. The Bible contains a whole collection of prayers and praises written by that sweet psalmsinger of Israel, David. Jesus and the apostles sang. When they partook of the Passover, they sang a hymn. Before his conversion, St. Augustine heard Christians singing songs of praise to God, and because those praises filled his heart to overflowing, he wept for joy. Christianity is a singing religion more than any other. We have the great hymns of the Reformation, such as Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Wesley wrote hundreds of hymns, and many other Christians have given us hymnals filled with songs of praise. Other religions may have their sad and mournful chants, but only in Christ do people find joy that rises in song. Christians, therefore, should be a singing people. A gentleman of the Church recently told me, “The most exciting day of my life was one day when I was home fixing my dinner. I was just thanking God for everything. I was thanking God for the food, for the pan to cook it in, for the stove, for the hands I had to hold the pan. And I just broke forth in song.” God wants us to have that kind of overflowing joy. Do you have a favorite song that expresses your joy in Christ? Then sing it today. Sing it as you go about your business, letting your joyfulness overflow in musical praise to God. QUOTE: “I sing because I’m happy! I sing because I’m free! For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.” — Hymn