Having a Centered Life Free from Empty Pursuits

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Have you ever felt utterly alone in a crowded room? That's exactly what happened one night in 1980 when, surrounded by party-goers in my own home, I realized a devastating truth: once what I provided was gone, these people would leave. This moment of clarity became the backdrop for a life-changing spiritual encounter.

The voice cut through my emptiness with three simple words: "I love you." Something about it was unmistakable – Jesus Christ was speaking directly to my heart. While everyone around me wanted to take something, He wanted to give something. While my relationships were transactional, His love was transformational. This stark contrast illuminated the deception I had been living in – what I thought was freedom was actually bondage, what looked beautiful was ultimately destructive.

This personal testimony opens our eyes to a profound spiritual truth: there's a fundamental difference between pursuing relationships, substances, or experiences to fill our emptiness versus allowing Jesus to occupy the central place in our lives. When we make Him central – not ourselves, not others, not our careers – spiritual doors open that nothing else can unlock. The deepest human longing to be loved and to love can only be genuinely fulfilled through Christ, who demonstrated the ultimate expression of love by laying down His life. As the Holy Spirit continues working across nations, He's clearing away clouds of delusion to give us clearer glimpses of our magnificent Savior.

Ready to experience God's love at a level you've never known before? It's waiting for you – not in religion, but in relationship. Contact us at [e-mail] to continue the conversation about moving from eternal religion to eternal life.

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Shalom to you and your home.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
It was somewhere around March or April 1980 that
I was with a group of 10 or 15people that had been partying
nonstop for about three days andthree nights.

(00:27):
We'd been drinking smoking, hadbeen doing just a variety of
different drugs, kind of amarathon and it wasn't an
uncommon thing for us to do that.
In fact that was something thatwas really a way of life for

(00:50):
many of us and in some respectswe found some sense of enjoyment
.
Otherwise, I mean, we wouldn'thave done it or wouldn't have
been doing it had there beensome enjoyment involved.
Or isn't appealing or doesn'tgive some sense of gratification

(01:15):
is telling you a lie.
Because if sin or things thatwe do that aren't good for us

(01:38):
didn't have something in themthat were attractive, there
wouldn't be a temptation to dothem again.
But because of the nature ofand the deception of that whole

(01:59):
facet of life, facet of life,sin has something that is on one
side.
We've heard the beautiful.
It has on one side somethingbeautiful.

(02:21):
We've heard it said, thebeautiful side of evil.
Now, ultimately, there'snothing beautiful about evil,
but it can be enticing and forme, drugs and the lifestyle that

(02:44):
went along with that was veryenticing for me in my late teens
and early 20s and I was of thatschool that kind of went along
these lines, thought along theselines Only the good die young,

(03:09):
right.
I mean, if you lived to be over30, you were really old and
that if you really wanted tolive life, you'd live it real
hard between the age of 12 and25.
And give it all you got andthen coast until you're about 30

(03:34):
and then be done with it.
That was really, that was mymindset, and so I was.
As I said.
I was with this group of peopleand we were at my house and

(03:56):
there were couples that weresleeping together all over my
house in different rooms and Icouldn't find anywhere to sleep.
And it was my house, in fact.

(04:19):
I couldn't find anything todrink and I had supplied all the
booze and I looked forsomething to smoke and couldn't
find anything to smoke, eventhough I'd supplied that.
And I realized that as soon asthe supply that I had been

(04:49):
providing was depleted, oncewhat I had to offer had been
taken and used up, most everyonewould leave, and that really

(05:09):
dawned on me.
I looked around and I thought,if I didn't provide the basis
for all this entertainment andif I didn't throw the party,
what and where would thesepeople really be?
I mean, who would really be whoreally cared about me?

(05:32):
And I kind of I realized thatthere really weren't many people
who cared about me, many peoplewho cared about me.

(05:54):
And that really struck me and Iheard in the deep part of my
innermost being a voice sayingto me I love you.
And I recognized that voice.

(06:15):
Even though it wasn't reallyall that familiar to me, it had
something unique to the qualityof it and it was so genuine.
But it was also really insaying that he was the one who

(06:43):
really loved me.
He actually that he was the onewho really loved me.
He actually had the tone in hisvoice that he could back it up,
or that voice had the tone init that it could really back up
what was being said.
It was a male voice, so he andthat he happened to be Jesus.

(07:10):
Jesus Christ was speaking to myheart and was using a scenario
that had really been one of manyscenarios throughout my life,

(07:32):
but this particular time he wasusing it to show me that there's
a difference difference betweenpeople getting things from us
and something being given to us.

(07:56):
And he wasn't saying he wantedsomething from me.
And he wasn't saying he wantedsomething from me.
He was saying he wanted to giveme something, and he was saying

(08:19):
he wanted to give me love, hislove.
And somehow I knew in the depthof my, even my depravity, that
what he was saying he coulddeliver, and I knew that that
was what I was looking for.
I was looking for love, Isimply wanted to be loved.

(08:44):
In fact, I realized that I waswilling to pay to be loved and
granted, I was also one who isaccustomed to using people to
get what I wanted.
So it was really just a societymade up of that way of doing

(09:10):
stuff to each other you scratchmy itch, I'll scratch yours,
type of thing.
Except this voice, this person,was telling me something

(09:33):
differently and he made it realto me that actually no one, no
one, including you know.
This was a real mind-expandingmoment for me at that time,

(09:56):
where I realized that there wasa malevolent being, that there
was a malevolent being, therewas a evil force, there was a
power that wanted to not onlytake from me, but it wanted to

(10:21):
destroy me and bring it into aplace of bondage that it was in
and was disguising it in love,and that being that was doing

(10:45):
that was Satan.
And it became real to me thatSatan Satan never once offered

(11:05):
to lay his life down for me inorder to bridge a gap that I had
in my life concerning myrelationship with God.
Concerning my relationship withGod.
In fact, as I looked at it, itbecame clear to me that it was

(11:30):
just the opposite Life was beingtaken from me instead of being
given to me, and the only, only,only the only source that was
on planet Earth and throughoutthe cosmos that was capable of

(11:58):
giving me love was Jesus.
Now, we've been taking a look,recently, at this wonderful
dynamic of the life of Christand the centrality of Jesus him

(12:24):
being central to all of life, hebeing the focus, he being the
center.
Not us, but Jesus, not otherpeople, but Jesus, not our
occupations, but Jesus beingcentral, being center, being the
centerpiece.
And because of Jesus beinggiven that place, there are

(12:58):
spiritual doors that are openedup.
There are spiritual doors thatare opened up that we can't open
up on our own and no one elsecan do so and will not be able
to satisfy the deep longings ofour life, which all stem from
our longing for love and then tobe able to give love To be

(13:21):
loved, to give love To be lovedand to love.
But there's something aboutthere's something about there's
something about elevating Jesusand exalting him, even if we're

(13:45):
not all that eloquent in ourways of being able to
communicate.
But we have the simple way ofacknowledging that Jesus is God,
the Son who is sent by God, theSon who is sent by God, the
Father, as a sacrifice of lovefor our sins, and that by us

(14:20):
believing in him, he cleanses usfrom all unrighteousness, and
that by us believing in him, hecleanses us from all
unrighteousness and gives us theright to become known as
children of God, to literally bethose who carry the nature of

(14:40):
God in us, where we didn't haveit before.
It's granted to us as a gift inresponse to our faith in
believing that what Jesus didwas exactly what needed to be

(15:06):
done and that he did it becauseof love and he wanted to show us
the depth to which his lovewould go.
No one else would do that.
No greater love does any manhave than this but to lay down

(15:29):
his life for his friends.
Satan wouldn't lay down hislife for me.
Lay down his life for me.
He wanted to take my life.
The culture that I was in didn'twant to lay down its life for
me.
It wanted something from me.

(15:49):
Jesus wanted to give me life.
Religion Religion doesn't wantto give me life, it wants me to
perform.
There's no other name underheaven by which we must be saved

(16:11):
, or which we even can be saved,except through the name and the
very person of Jesus.
He is the way, the truth andthe very person of Jesus.
He is the way, the truth andthe life.
No one comes to the Father andhas a relationship with him
except they come through Jesus,and we can't even come to Jesus

(16:32):
on our own.
It's a gift from God for us tocome, because we're drawn by God
and we're given the ability toturn and change our mind and
change our ways.
The gift of repentance is givento us, repentance meaning to be
able to change our mind andchange our ways.

(16:53):
And so and so I just want us tochew on that again that no one,
no one, no one is willing tolay down their life for you to

(17:19):
the degree, to the degree thatJesus did.
Some might say well, I reallylove my kids, I would do
anything for them, except ifyou're to be tortured to the

(17:41):
point where the only way to getthat torture to stop would be to
renounce your relationship withyour children.
There is an element of torturethat is so great that it could

(18:03):
cause the greatest people withthe greatest intent to switch
foot and renege on theirpromises.
Peter, one of the chiefdisciples of Jesus, had that
happen.

(18:23):
He said that he would doanything.
Anyone else can turn their backon Jesus.
Everyone else, anyone, everyoneexcept him.
And yet when it came down to it, at a place where his skin was
on the line, he denied Jesus.

(18:48):
There's no greater love that canbe given to us, except it's the
love of God that comes to Jesus, to us, except it's the love of
God that comes to Jesus.
And Holy Spirit is doing amagnificent job once again

(19:25):
throughout the nations, blowingaway the clouds of delusion so
that we can have a clearerglimpse of this magnificent
Savior, jesus, that we can seeGod revealed in a greater way.
And that's what's happening inyour life, in my life, on a

(19:48):
level that none of us have everexperienced before.
You've heard this word before,but you've never experienced the
love of God to the degree thathe wants to reveal it to you and
through you To me, and throughme To us and through us.

(20:12):
So I just want us to rememberthat exalting, lifting high the
name of Jesus, worshiping Him,is our highest priority.

(20:45):
Let's pray, father, I thank youfor who you are, for what you're
doing, for why you're doing it,for how you're doing it.
You alone are God and there isno one like you.
Help us, help me be in a placewhere I can see Jesus exalted

(21:19):
Less of me and more of him, thatit wouldn't be me that people
remember, but it would be Jesusso that hearts can be drawn into
relationship in a more intimateway with you, breaking us free

(21:45):
from religion and setting usonce again on the path of
eternal life, not eternalreligion.
I thank you of eternal life,not eternal religion.
I thank you, I thank you, Ithank you, god, and I stand here

(22:08):
in the name of Jesus and Ideclare these things to be done
in his name, by you, holy Spirit, and say amen, amen, amen, amen
, amen, all amen, amen.
All right, folks, I love youand if you have any thoughts,

(22:39):
questions, concerns regardingwhat we've been talking about,
please once again feel free todrop us a line at
lifearoundthefire, at gmailcom,or type in lifearoundthefire and
look us up on the web.
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you.
Adios amigos.