I just discovered Podcasting last week. Not only did I find out that I can subscribe to an Indie Music feed and get cool new music sent to my computer every couple days, but I also found that I can subscribe to the feeds of some of the best churches and preachers in the country. Now I can listen to (and even watch) messages from the coolest, most progressive churches and pastors out there. And the best thing about it is that it’s all free.
I haven’t even had a chance to listen to everything I downloaded yet, but I wanted to summarize one of the messages that I listened to, which I found very informative and enjoyable. The message was given by Ravi Zacharias, a brilliant lecturer who has spoken in colleges and universities all over the world (notably Harvard, Princeton and Oxford). The message was titled “What is Worthwhile Under the Sun.” It is based mostly on the book of Ecclesiastes, which was written by King Solomon.
He started with this quote by GK Chesterton:
Meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain. Meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure; when you’ve exhausted that last dream, and you find it has left you rather barren or empty.
He goes on to summarize part of Ecclesiastes where Solomon tries everything he can think of in search of pleasure, and after accomplishing everything he has set out to do, comes to the conclusion that everything is meaningless “under the sun”. “Under the sun” is a phrase that means “outside of God”.
Ravi then gives 3 principles about how we can legitimately pursue pleasure while still pleasing God:
Principal 1: Anything that refreshes you without distracting you from, diminishing or destroying your final goal is a legitimate pleasure. (This means that you must figure out what your final goal, or life purpose is. I advise that you take some time to do this if you haven’t already. Your life purpose may change over time, but it’s important to always know which direction your headed.)
Principal 2: Any pleasure that jeopardizes the sacred right of another is an illicit pleasure.
Principal 3: Any pleasure, however good, if not kept in balance, will distort reality or destroy appetite.
Ravi’s thoughts on pure pleasure: Pure pleasure brings you within the reach of God’s voice. God has given us an enormous wealth of grand pleasure to legitimately enjoy.
Ravi ends his message with the following quote, which I want to print twice, because I found it so powerful:
The intimacy God gives you is so beautiful and pure, no seduction the world has to offer will ever come close.
Again: The intimacy God gives you is so beautiful and pure, no seduction the world has to offer will ever come close.
If you’re interested in hearing the actual message, or listening to any of Ravi’s podcasts, point your RSS reader or iTunes here:
http://www.rzim.org/includes/rss/lmptPodcastRSS.php
