HUNGER GAMES: Hungering and Thirsting

Beloved brothers and sisters:

This is something we urgently need to consider. I am applying this to a specific item right now, but I believe that the concept applies to every single part of our life.

I'm assuming all of you know what "The Hunger Games" are. (books and movie) When the books started becoming such a huge deal, I became aware of them and a bit concerned. I was concerned because although I didn't know even the plot of the books at that point, I knew that they were wildly popular in SECULAR circles AND Christian circles. As Christians, we have been made dead to sin, ALIVE to Christ and have the Holy Spirit indwelling us and causing us to love God and His Word. Unbelievers on the other hand, according to Scripture, are still entirely in sin, DEPRAVED, and ENEMIES OF GOD who are HOSTILE in mind to Christ and the gospel. In fact, 1 Corinthians says that the message of the cross is FOOLISHNESS to them. That being said, there really isn't a whole lot of things that unbelievers and true, Scripture-filled saints have in common and enjoy... So when I see them all linking hands around something and embracing it side by side, it tips me off to be concerned and look into things. 

I read a review of the plot of the books and it didn't sit well with me. I couldn't exactly put a finger on it but I think this guy (Doug Wilson) kinda nailed it. I encourage you to read his review which is both short and direct.

(Click here to read his review at http://credenda.org/index.php/Reviews/what-did-everdeen-ever-do.html )

Im not trying to be "oh so spiritual" or point fingers. Honest. I just have been PERSONALLY challenged more and more these days to not settle for "it's not really that bad" but to seek and understand "Taste and see that THE LORD is good".

This is really what I want to get at with this post; simply to encourage my brothers and sisters to start humbly thinking BIBLICALLY and to HUNGER and thirst for RIGHTEOUSNESS.

I think we don't know God, experience His power and love his Word like we WANT TO because we are so filled with things that arent spiritually nourishing.  Weights that hinder and entangle, things that might not be CLEARLY BAD and EVIL, but certainly not BEST.

Loved ones, I am convinced of this and am trying to grab a hold of what it should look like in my life: There can be NOTHING more THRILLING, EXCITING, FULFILLING or DELIGHTING - nothing more SATISFYING, SANCTIFYING or SWEET - there is nothing more PURE, more PEACEFUL, or more POWERFUL than this: TO KNOW GOD through Jesus Christ in a PERSONAL, INTIMATE, TANGIBLE way and to be FILLED with the Holy Spirit. 

"I say to the LORD, 'You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.'”
(Psalm 16:2)

"Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing."
(Psalm 34:8-10)

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ"
(Philippians 3:7-8)

 You might say, "what will I miss out on if I live fully surrendered to God, seeking Him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength? Think of the friends I wouldn't get to hang out with, the movies I wouldn't get to watch, music I wouldn't get to listen to, all those 'good times'! I'd have NO LIFE!" 

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
(John 10:10 )

WHAT ARE WE MISSING OUT ON WHILE WE SIT IN OUR HALF-HEARTED, LUKEWARM, COMPLACENT "CHRISTIANITY" of CONSTANT "SETTLING"? Oh, the countless glories and joys that could be OURS from our GOOD GOD WHO LOVES US!!Brothers and sisters, THIS IS WHAT WE WERE CREATED FOR.

I want for myself, and for you my beloved brothers and sisters to hear "WELL DONE, my GOOD and FAITHFUL SERVANT".... and not "I had SO MUCH MORE for you!"

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
(Hebrews 12:1-2)

"Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation"
(1 Peter 2:2)

LET US SEEK GOD IN HIS WORD WITH ALL OUR STRENGTH. With every single second of song, movie, book, conversation, relationship, money-spending and time-spending, let us choose only that which furthers us toward the all-surpassing glory of knowing CHRIST.

Let us repent of our seeking after worthless idols and turn to the Lord who is MERCIFUL. Read this last passage and take hope if you have been convicted of your faithlessness as I have.

"Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
    “When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice. For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them."
(Deuteronomy 4:23-31)

-Cody †