Yes! There is Good News! 4.2.2016

In my last article I mentioned that there was a "hole in my life that needed to be filled." Have you ever felt that way?

I believe that God is the Creator of all things. I believe that when He said, "Let us create man in our image and in our likeness," He truly had that aim in mind. But our first parents, Adam and Eve, believed the lie of Satan and ate of the wrong fruit and so they were banished from the Garden of Eden and not allowed to eat from the Tree of Life. And so something was missing from this created man and woman. This missing ingredient left an empty spot, a hole if you will, in what the Apostle Paul would later call "the inner man." Perhaps today we could call it the "inner psychological make up of man." Yes, we do have a hole that we need to fill.

This is why the artist paints another picture, the poet writes another poem, the astronomer wants to understand the newly discovered galaxy, the botanist a new plant species and so on and so on . . . . It is the "thing" that drives us to go further. What is it that you want?

Do you desire to see your team win the Super Bowl next year? The next time you take your clubs to the golf course, do you want to shoot a better score? Perhaps there is something out there that will begin to fill that hole. The fruit of this world is tempting, always tempting. Perhaps we desire a better job, more pay, newer car or a bigger house. The wisest of all men, Solomon, said this, in his book of Ecclesiastes, "All things are restless, more than man can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing" (Ecclesiastes 1:8). Somehow we never have enough. As I drive my school bus through the countryside each morning, I can not tell you how many beautiful sunrises I have witnessed and praised God because of them. (Just a small perk from bus driving!)

Indeed, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with any of these things. We all have dreams and want better things for ourselves and our loved ones. But somehow when our first parents forsook the tree of life, they left a "hole" deep inside that begs to be filled. And all the activities we engage ourselves in do not - in the end - fill that hole. Deep inside we know that there is something we are missing.

Adam and Eve missed out on something called "the fruit from the tree of life," and hence, left that hole. And that is just where the proverbial rubber meets the road!  The "Good News" is that this fruit is available to us today. And oh my is it tasty, sweet and filling! God is good!

Some of you might say to me that you are Christians and have been for all the years of your life and yet you feel that there is an empty spot within. Why is this?

Well, I would have to ask you what it means to be a Christian. Is it just a belief in God?

To be continued . . . Stay tuned!!