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Given the materialistic nature of our times and the steady increase of wickedness around, people are hungry for spiritual refuge and nourishment. If the emergence of numerous religious groups and churches is any indication, then many are veering toward religiosity and spirituality. With such trend, we can only surmise that there is indeed a great need to meet many people's spiritual hunger and longing. We should not, however, be surprised of this because with the prevalence of crass materialism and evil in our surroundings, there are those who have reached the point of emptiness within themselves and long for a spiritual reprieve. And it doesn't help that the recent global economic meltdown has drastically affected countless peoples' lives and their lifestyles. Thus, in the midst of uncertainties, people seek spiritual solace in religion or in the churches of their own choosing. But do all religions, or belief systems, for that matter, genuinely satisfy man's spiritual hunger or longing for a refuge? Apostle Paul gives us the answer, thus:
There are those who are zealous for God but their zeal is not based on His knowledge and righteousness. Instead of submitting to God's righteousness, they seek to establish their own. Surely, such kind of religiosity and zeal of God will not bring them near to Him and will not truly satisfy their spiritual hunger.
It must be understood that for man's spiritual needs to be satisfied, he should follow not his own but God's righteousness. The apostle Paul tells us where we can find God's righteousness that should be the basis for man's religiosity and zeal for Him:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." (Rom. 1:16-17, New King James Version)
It is in the Gospel that God's righteousness is revealed. This is also God's power unto man's salvation. If man wants to be brought near to God for the satisfaction. If man wants to be brought near to God for the satisfaction of his spiritual hunger, he should base his faith in and zeal for God on the gospel.
Be brought back to God first
The satisfaction of man's longing for a spiritual refuge hinges on his relationship with God, hence, he needs to be first brought back to Him. The prophet Isaiah explained why:
"But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." (Isa. 59:2, NIV)
Man's relationship with his Creator, our Lord God, has been separated from God because of his sins and iniquities, thus, losing his right and privilege to serve and call on God. Sin has become the dividing wall that separates man from God. So even if he calls on God, the Creator will not listen and will not accept his services to Him. And this has been man's sad situation since the time of his ancestors. The prophet Malachi wrote:
"Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you; Says the LORD of hosts. 'But you said, "In what way shall we return"?'" (Mal. 3:7 NKJV)
God says that since the day of the fathers, dating back to the time the first man committed sin and was driven out of the Garden of Eden, man has since been separated from God. Man has turned away from God and not kept His commands and ordinances and so God calls man to return to Him. However, man cannot return to God and have his spiritual hunger satisfied through his own way. And there are not many ways, as far as the Bible is concerned, of truly satisfying man's spiritual hunger. Here is why:
"There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." (Prov. 14:12, Ibid.)
A way may seem right to a man, but the end of it is death. That's why as Apostle Paul mentioned earlier, there are those who are zealous for God, thinking that their way of serving Him and their religiosity will bring them near to Him. But then, because they do not conform to God's righteousness but establish their own, they will simply end up in perdition. Their zeal for God and their spiritual longing will not bring them near to Him but lead them farther away from Him. So instead of having peace and harmony as should be expected from man's religiosity, what we see happening is the opposite--this world continues to be engulfed in darkness and chaos. The prophet Isaiah accurately depicted in his prophetic words the religious scene in our time:
"The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace. So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead." (Isa. 59:8-10, NIV)
Despite the presence of countless religions today, most if not all, claiming to be of God, they do not in anyway satisfy man's spiritual longing and hunger. So, what instruction of the Bible should people follow to be able to return to God and their spiritual hunger and longing satisfied? Our Lord God Himself gives this instruction through the Prophet Jeremiah:
"This is what the LORD says: 'Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, as where the good way is, and walk in it , and you will find rest for your souls'. But you said, 'We will not walk in it'." (Jer. 6:16, Ibid.)
People should ask and look for the good way, and after finding it, they should walk in it. So, it is not only finding and seeing the good way that should be done, but walking in it. Only through this can people find true spiritual refuge. Only through this can they return to God and find rest for their souls or their salvation.
The only way
We should understand that there are not many ways that will lead man back to God. Who is the way that man should look for and walk in? The Gospel according to John enlightens us on this regard:
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'." (John 14:16 NKJV)
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the way back to God. Christ made it clear that except through Him, which means, there is no other way, no one can come to God or to the Father. By walking through Christ one can be certain to have the truth and life itself. Now, people may say, "That's precisely the reason why we declare our faith in Christ. We believe and have accepted Christ as our personal Savior because we know that He is the way to God." But is that the way people should walk in our Lord Jesus Christ, just to believe in Him and accept Him as one's personal Savior? Is walking in the way back to God accomplished by merely declaring one's faith in Him? What did Christ say that was followed by those who have walked in our Lord Jesus Christ? Recorded in John 10:19 is this:
"I am the door, anyone who comes into the fold through me will be safe." (Revised English Bible)
Those who walked in the way and entered through the door are found in the fold or flock. They will be safe or in other words, find rest for their souls. The apostle Paul clarifies which is this flock where those who have walked in the good way are found:
"Take heed therefore to yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, to feed the church of Christ which he has purchased with his blood." (Acts 10:28 , Lamsa Translation)
The fold or flock is the Church of Christ. Those who are in the true Church are the ones who truly have found and walked in the good way. They are the ones who have been redeemed by the shed blood of Christ. By virtue of their redemption, they have been cleansed from "acts that lead to death" or they have been forgiven of their sins and can now "serve the living God" (Heb. 9:14), the right that man lost due to sin. Hence, they have found true spiritual refuge. Not only have they found th truth in our Lord Jesus Christ but even true life itself, salvation in Christ.
True faith and the process
There may be those who would argue that they, too, have found the truth and their spiritual hunger and longing have been abated. What with the abundance of so many preachers who also teach about Christ as the way and make use of the Bible doing so! But what makes the preaching in the Church of Christ different so that this is where people can truly find satisfaction for their spiritual hunger? Not to give a self-serving testimony, the apostle Paul teaches concerning this matter in Romans 10:14-15:
"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news'!" (NIV)
Apostle Paul showed here how people can have true faith. It's not just a matter of merely proclaiming one's faith in Christ. The process is that people should listen first to the preaching of not just anybody but of the ones sent by God. True faith comes from listening to the preaching of God's words recorded in the Bible. But not all who preach using the Bible have the authority to preach and their preaching will result in a person's having the true faith. Only those whom God has sent or His messengers have that authority.
Certainly, if the preacher whom one has listened to is not sent or is not a messenger of God, then one's spiritual hunger would not be satisfied and he would not find rest for his soul.
Unless one hears and believes in the true gospel preached by the messenger of God, he cannot possess true faith. Even if he belongs to a church that professes to be Christian, he will never get to know the truth that will never give him rest for his soul.
What they are itching to hear
We should not be surprised though, if there are people who do not subscribe to the biblical teaching concerning the relevance of God's messenger for man's salvation. Instead, they seek preachers who will teach them what they want to hear without necessarily satisfying their spiritual longing. The apostle Paul forewarned about them:
"The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear." (II Tim. 4:3, Good News Translation)
We see this forewarning being fulfilled nowadays. Many people today do not listen to sound doctrine anymore; instead, the ones they seek are the preachers who tell them just what they want to hera. They reject the messenger of God like what the people mentioned in Jeremiah 6:16 did. For despite hearing form God's messenger that they should seek the good way and walk in it to find rest for their souls they say, "we will not walk in it." And this is because a lot of the preachers they have listened to teach them to just believ and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior to the exclusion of membership in the true Church. To them, faith alone, as a matter of convinience, is enough; no need to join the Church of Christ. This is the teaching that many people today are itching to hear.
Obviously, this does not conform to what our Lord Jesus Christ clearly taught that to get to the Father or to be able to return to Him, one should enter in Christ and be a member of the Church of Christ.
This is how we, members of the Church of Christ today, know that the one who preached to us is God's messenger. Brother Felix Y. Manalo proclaimed this truth---that people should enter in Christ and become members of His Church in order to be saved---even if this is not what many want to hear. Indeed, as biblical prophecies attest, Brother Felix Manalo is the man "Who executes [God's] counsel" from the Far East who would bring His righteousness near to the people that they may be saved (Isa. 46:11-13).
As for those who heeded God's righteousness as taught by His messenger, our Lord Jesus Christ gives this assurance:
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." (John 10:27-28, NIKV)
The sheep of our Lord Jesus Christ are those who follow His voice through the preaching of His messenger. They obey His command to enter Christ's flock or the Church of Christ. The Savior promised them eternal life or the rest for their souls. With their salvation assured on the day of Judgment, truly their spiritual hunger and longing are genuinely satisfied.
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