Deep Creek Java – April 14, 2008
(Serving Over ? Cups)
“God’s Truth…….Always Fresh, Always Aromatic”
April 14, 2008
“Pleasure that Lasts” – Champion of Love”
Scripture Reading:
Psalm 16:11 (HCSB) You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right hand are eternal pleasures.
Devotion & Meditation
Lots of people are living for temporary pleasures today. To them, work, and everything else is just filler between the parties. But today’s richest pleasure-seekers would pale in comparison to King Solomon, the wealthiest and wisest man ever to have lived. Later in his life, Solomon lost sense of the meaning of life. In an attempt to recapture it, he turned first to pleasure, as he himself admitted in Scripture. He thought if he could “party hearty,” if he could have a good time, he would find the sense of purpose he sought. Solomon’s problem is a simple one, he began to live for three people; me, myself and I. Of course you don’t have this problem, right? No one in the 21st century has this problem at least that they’ll admit too!
People today are living for that goal, working hard for the day when they make enough money that they won’t have to deny themselves anything they want. Well, Solomon could identify with that, I believe. Solomon did not go to parties, he was the party. Did earthly pleasure solve his problem of purposelessness? Look at his answer, “When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.”
Talk about futility! Try to grab a fistful of wind, and you’ll have the essence of what Solomon was saying. That’s what the wrong kind of pleasure was like for Solomon. He threw the party, but the party ended. He had the good times, but the good times expired. And he was left as empty as when he started. If you are banking on the world’s pleasure to fill you up, you are going to be left empty. But once you find real, satisfying pleasure in a dynamic relationship with God, you’ll find “the path of life”! “The world behind me, the Cross before me…”
Keep the Son in your eyes,
Dr. Ben J. Lahay
~ Phil 1:21 ~