Live in the light...confess your sins one to another! (Part 1)

Wow...I just loved the message at Buckhead Church today! It was the third message in a series called, "More", which is about our "appetites". The message series is called "More" because, as it was explained to us, that is all our appetites know how to say. For example, people who have the appetite for power, want more power; people who have an appetite for wealth, want more wealth...and so on and so forth. Plug your favorite appetite in there and I think you will agree that yours says "more", too! Today, Joel Thomas taught that we are given many appetites and in the right context they are good because God gave them to us. They become bad when taken out of context and used by the evil one to enslave us and prevent us from living the life we were created for by God. In my opinion, the three appetites that he listed today are the three basic ones that all our other appetites arise from. They are:

• Hunger


• Significance


• Intimacy

Joel started out talking about what I think is the most basic of our appetites, hunger. We all need food to live, but when we use food as a source of comfort it can cause problems such as obesity and heart disease. It is hard for me to identify with this, because I have never been one to eat to make myself feel better, but I know it occurs quite often. Heck, you don't have to look to hard to observe that there are way to many people in our society that are overweight. Other underlying issues present themselves when someone has an eating dosorder such as bulemia and have to plan for purging so that no one can see them or detect that they have a problem.

No...I haven't had a problem with overeating; but the other two...well that's a different story. For years, I looked for significance in the field of coaching. My goal was to be a high-school head football coach and win a state championship. I jumped from school to school trying to find better jobs and was applying for every decent head football coaching job that came open. You see, I thought that being a head coach and all the accolades that went along with it would make me feel good about myself. I wanted everyone to look at me and say, "what a great coach, he's really a winner". That changed when I got saved and was "born again" through the power of the Holy Spirit. At that point in time, my whole outlook on life changed and, of course, it affected my attitude toward coaching. I realized that my identity was not in coaching, but in being a child of God and a follower of Christ. I quit applying for head coaching jobs and focused on loving my position players and being the best coach I could be for them. Several years ago, I completely got out of football and haven't missed it at all since. That was God's easy job I guess...the third appetite was the hard work he had to do in me.

Joel said today that the evil one knows where your real weakness is and knows how to exploit it. He said to think about where he hits you over and over...its always with the same appetite isn't it? I know it has been for me. The appetite that has been in control of me for most of my life is the appetite for intimacy. I have only recently been able to control the appetite for intimacy by coming closer and closer to God through Jesus. I will explain further in my next blog.

Yours in Christ,

Joe