Being able to articulate the gospel with accuracy is one thing; having its truth captivate your soul is quite another.
J. D. GreearRead
The gospel has done its work in us when we crave God more than we crave everything else in life - more than money, romance, family, health, fame - and when seeing His kingdom advance in the lives of others gives us more joy than anything we could own. When we see Jesus as greater than anything the world can offer, we'll gladly let everything else go to possess Him.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of valuing a relationship with God above all worldly desires and achievements.
J.D. Greear's quote highlights the transformative power of faith in creating a deep desire for God that surpasses all other ambitions or desires, such as wealth, love, or success. It suggests that true fulfillment comes from prioritizing one's spiritual life and finding joy in the growth of faith, both personally and in others, rather than in material possessions or accolades.
In practice
In a sermon about spiritual priorities, one might use this quote to illustrate a life devoted to God.
Being able to articulate the gospel with accuracy is one thing; having its truth captivate your soul is quite another.
At one point, early on, some public figures even asked whether it 'made sense' to rebuild New Orleans. Would you let your own mother die because it didn't make financial sense to spend the money to treat her, or because you were too busy to spend the time to heal her sick spirit?
Even from the simplest, the most realistic point of view, the countries which we long for occupy, at any given moment, a far larger place in our actual life than the country in which we happen to be.
God isn't the son of Memory; He's the son of Immediate Experience. You can't worship a spirit in spirit, unless you do it now. Wallowing in the past may be good literature. As wisdom, it's hopeless. Time Regained is Paradise Lost, and Time Lost is Paradise Regained. Let the dead bury their dead. If you want to live at every moment as it presents itself, you've got to die to every other moment.
The worldwide financial and economic crisis seems to highlight their distortions and above all the gravely deficient human perspective, which reduces man to one of his needs alone, namely, consumption. Worse yet, human beings themselves are nowadays considered as consumer goods which can be used and thrown away.
They [anarchists] spring from a single seed, no matter the flowering of their ideas. The seed is liberty. And that is all it is. It is not a socialist seed. It is not a capitalist seed. It is not a mystical seed. It is not a determinist seed. It is simply a statement. We can be free. After that it’s all choice and chance.
The pain is there; when you close one door on it, it knocks to come in somewhere else.
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