Wed
Apr
12
2006

What we need the most

I’ve just heard a promo for ABC TV’s religious program Compass which is airing this week on Good Friday evening.
The show is something of a tribute to a Catholic Priest, Ted Kennedy, who died recently. Ted Kennedy worked for many years in Redfern in Sydney’s materially-poor inner city. The promo made a big point about how some people considered Ted Kennedy “The prophet of Redfern”. One of the sound bites in the promo in particular grabbed my attention. It was a bite from someone who clearly knew the man and went something like: “He showed real friendship to people, and after all, that’s what people need the most”

For some reason, that phrase “What people need the most” really triggers something in me. Especially in the week leading up to Easter.
Good Friday is Good because of the extraordinary sacrifice Jesus made for mankind.
It’s Good because that sacrifice buys us the very thing that we really do need the most – forgiveness and eternal life.
Friendship is good. Kindness is good. Service of others is good. Serving God is good. But what all humans need the most is the thing that only Jesus can bring us on Good Friday – a restored relationship with the one, true God.
Everything else pales into relative insignificance.

Posted by Neil, 12 April 06
Filed under: ,
§

Comment

  1. I know we need Jesus more than anything. I need him every moment of everyday. I pray without ceasing because some days I don’t know what else to do. There are some serious situations going on in my life and I am beginning to wonder if the situations are part of the sacrifice God wants me to make. I do have questions about setbacks though. It appears that I am experiencing several setbacks. I just don’t understand what the delay is. God shows me visions of what he will do in my life in every area then everything goes opposite of that. I wonder if Satan came before God again with a devious plan. My father told me that “You don’t know what is going on in heaven”. He reminded me that God never told Job why he lost everything. He just blessed him doubly after he passed the test. I must say I am no where near as perfect as Job but I do ask God many times why my blessings are held back. Now God has given me everything. But you know when things are close to your heart and you really want to progress and you seem to be in a stand still it is difficult to keep from complaining.

    — EDEN · May 2, 07:38 PM · #

  2. You are saying quite a lot in there Eden…
    It seems to me from reading the Bible that some important principles about the ‘how and why’ of this life emerge:

    * Job didn’t ‘earn’ the blessing that God gave him. God blesses people in all sorts of different ways, but it’s not in response to what we do. We can experience a greater or deeper sense of fulfilment or ‘blessing’ if we seek to serve God in the ways that the Bible encourage – but that’s primarily because we are seeking to live the way God planned for all people to live: in obedience to Him – rather than any specific ‘reward’.

    * That brings me to what ‘serving God’ means. In the the N.T. that is always tied to the gospel. Everything in the N.T. comes back to who Jesus is and what He did for us. Take the example of Paul: he served the gospel in an extraordinary way, yet experienced some terrible things and came close to dying at the hands of godless men more than once (and some terrible things at the hands of so-called believers!). That says to me that serving God does not usually mean a smooth path or a comfortable life.

    * Paul took the smooth and the setbacks in his stride. He must have wondered at times why things were happening the way they were, but he kept his eyes on the bigger picture and left the rest for God to work out. So sometimes, our setbacks are simply God working things out His way. Our job is to press on doing what we know the Bible urges us to do, in whatever wisdom God has given us.

    * While a vision did guide Paul on at least one occasion, I would be very wary about trusting such things routinely today. We have the Bible to guide and direct us in a way that Paul did not, and we don’t need anything else. Be especially careful of visions that may advocate something that Scripture doesn’t. Scripture needs nothing added to it for our guidance and direction.

    — NeilA · May 3, 05:04 AM · #

  3. Honestly I do make an effort to not ask God the why of everything. I understand it is all in his timing. I feel stronger now a days. I feel as if I am dealing with the residual emotions of the past pity partys.
    We all know that God orchestrates things in our lives. We know he already knows and we are just living things out.

    I think my basic problem is I have been saved for a long time. I am learning even more nowadays that I thought I knew. I am getting to know more of God. Maybe it is overwhelming. I told the Lord I wasn’t growing at my old church and he sent me to another church and definitely I know I am growing. I am learning more than ever.
    But something is missing. Yet there are days when I feel that I have touched what is missing in my life. Those are the days where me and Jesus are so close in my mind and heart and I desire nothing else but him. But it feels as if those moments only last for seconds. I have wanted to hold onto them longer but don’t know how. It is like I go back to being regular afterwards.

    — EDEN · May 3, 07:38 PM · #

Commenting is closed for this article.