>Subject: Question
>Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 16:55:14 +0800
>
>My dear brother,
>
>
>I am so glad to have communiation with u regarding BIBLE.
>
>One of my net friend asked me: This world is full of desire like power,
>money, sex and so on. How to balance this is always puzzled his mind.
>
>My quesion is, Does GOD aggree us to pursue above things? If someone
>believes in GOD, he will stop desire for Power, monsy and so on?
>
>He want my help, and I want your help.
>
>Thanks
>
>Sister Yelia
>
>

Dear Yelia,

Qiang asked me about this question.  I hope I can give you
some kind of response from the words of God.

The fundamental question is why was man created and
what is the purpose of man?   It is written that:

"You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour
and power: for You have created all things, and for
your pleasure they are and were created."  Revelation 4:11

So, according to the Bible, man was created in the image
of God to give Him glory. Let's look at the beginning,
when God created man:

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:
and let them have dominion over ... all the earth.  So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created them."  Genesis 1:26-27

When God made man/woman, He gave them a free will, the ability to choose
whether they would serve God or live after the desires of their own heart.
So He tested them to see who they would serve.  To test them, He put them
in a garden and said "of every tree of the garden you may freely
eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not
eat.  In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."  Genesis 2:15-17

But the god of this world tempted them saying "you shall not die.
God knows that in the day you eat of the tree of knowledge of
good and evil, then your eyes will be opened and you will be
like gods knowing good and evil."  Genesis 3:4-5

"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for fruit, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to
make a person wise.  She took the fruit and ate it, and gave
to her husband, and he ate it.  Then the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons."  Genesis 3:6-7

So what happened to the first man and women is like God said
they died, but it was a death in three ways:

1. they died spiritually:  before they disobeyed God they
   were naked and unashamed.  After they disobeyed God they
   were afraid and ashamed.  Basically, before this time, man
   had six senses: touch, taste, feel, hear, smell, plus the
   a spiritual sense or connection with God.  After this
   mankind was left with five senses.  And was left spiritually
   dead, with a spiritual void or emptiness within him.   This spiritual
   void was then passed on to every descendant of Adam and Eve,
   thus, the entire world.

   So the desire people have for money, power, things, etcetera,
   is a result of the fact that they have a spiritual void
   (or emptiness)
   within them, and they are trying to fill that void with
   anything that looks like it will make them happy.  But
   the problem is that money, power, etc. does not satisfy.
   In other words, if I try to cure my unhappiness and pain,
   by drinking alcohol, it might temporarily make me feel
   a little better, by numbing the pain, but the next day,
   the pain is still there.  God offers us a permanent solution
   to this pain, one that completely satisfies that spiritual
   emptiness.  He will replace that spiritual void with spiritual
   life, if we believe in Jesus Christ, and ask Him to come
   into our life.  In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says "Behold, I stand
   at the door and knock.  If any man will hear my voice, and
   open the door, I will come into him, and will dine with him,
   and he with Me."

   The Scriptures say that Seth, Adam's son was born,
   in Adam's image (in the image of man, not of God). (Genesis 5:3)
   And so this spiritual death passed to all men.  Romans 5:12
   says "As by one man sin entered into the world, and
   death by sin.  And so death passed to all men, for
   all have sinned."  Romans 3:23 says "For all have sinned
   and fall short of the glory of God."  We have become
   sinners because we were born that way.   That is why
   you do not have to teach a baby how to lie, or cheat,
   or steal.

   God was so angry that man chose to live for himself that
   He put a curse on the earth and said "cursed is the ground
   for your sake; in sorrow you shall eat of it all the days
   of your life."  (Genesis 3:17)

2. physical death - before Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they
   would have never physically died, but after they disobeyed
   Him, God put a maximum timelimit on how long man could live.
   "his days shall be one hundred and twenty years"  Genesis 3:6

3. second death - after we die, our souls will live on eternally,
   but we will either spend eternity with God, or forever
   banished from Him.   Revelation 20:14-15 says "and death and
   Hell were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.
   And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was
   cast into the lake of fire."

But the problem with all this is now that God still wants us to
be with Him.  But since God is perfect and just, He must punish
sin.  But God thought of a way to fix the problem that the
first man made for all mankind.  He Himself would become a man
and pay the price for all men, by living a perfect life, and then
be sentenced to death.  This God/Man entered the world 2000 years
ago.  His name is Jesus Christ.  Colossians says of Jesus:
"He is the image of the invisible God".  John (chapter 1) says of Jesus
that He was in the beginning with God, and He was God.  And
that all things were made by Him.

So, in short, because Adam disobeyed God, we also have been
condemned to death.
Romans 5:18-19 says: "Therefore, as by the offense of one judgement
came upon all men to condemnation (we are all condemned to die),
even so the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life
(God has offered us a gift so that we can continue to live).  For
as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so by the
obedience of One shall many be made righteous" (by one man, Jesus
Christ, we can be made righteous, or made right with God).  John 3:36
says "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that
does not believe the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God
abides on Him."

So how can we be made spiritually alive again?  Jesus said "Most
assuredly I say to you, he who hears my voice and believes on Him
that sent me, has everlasting life, and will not be condemned, but
will be passed from death to life."  (John 5:24).  John 1:12 says
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become
children of God."  John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

When we trust in Jesus Christ, we become spiritually alive again.
God says "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit
will I put within you." (Ezekiel 36:26). God also said, he will
"regenerate our spirit" (Titus 3:5) and clothe us with perfection
(Isaiah 61:10).

When a person accepts Christ, he/she becomes spiritually alive.
And when that happens, he/she is perfectly fulfilled.  So when
you become perfectly fulfilled, you lose all desire for power,
money, etc., because you have found the satisfaction you were
always looking for.  King David said "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want."  (Psalm 23:1)  That means that he was completely
satisfied in God alone, and needed nothing else to make him happy.
Jesus said "I am the bread of life.  He that comes to me
shall never hunger, and he that believes on me shall never thirst."
(John 6:35)  God says through the prophet Isaiah, "Ho
every one that thirsts, come to the waters"  Isaiah 55:1.
And Revelation talks about "the pure river of water of life,
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of
the Lamb."  (Revelation 22:1)  God freely offers us the water
of life, as a gift, through Jesus Christ.  If we drink it,
we will find the deepest contentment in life.

But God wants us to enjoy life, food, sex, etc.  The problem
is that everything that God has created for us to enjoy, man
has perverted.  God gave us food to enjoy, but man has taken
food and made it his god.  Now we have many people that are
overweight and obese.  God gave us wine to drink, but man
has made it his god, and now we have many people that are
alcoholics.  God gave us sex to enjoy, but now we have many
sexually transmitted diseases.  God has given us many things
to enjoy, but we worshipped the things, and not the true God.

God gave us certain instructions, so that we could enjoy them.
So all the things that are written in the Bible are written
"that our joy might be complete"  John 15:11 and that we
might have peace (John 16:33) and that we might be free
(John 8:35).  For example, God wants us to have sex, but
He gave us an instruction that it should only be between
a husband and wife.  He said this so that it would be better
for us.

The truth is that whenever a person ignores the truth of
God, and decides to go his own way, he/she thinks might think
he/she will come out better.  But the truth is that he will come out
worse, 100% of the time.  The things that are written in the Scriptures are
spiritual laws.  They are just like physical laws.  For
example, if you jump off a tall building you will most
likely be hurt and/or die.  Similarly, if you have sex
outside of the confines of marriage, you will most likely
be hurt emotionally and/or contract a sexually transmitted
disease.  This is summed up in Galatians 6:7
which says "Be not deceived; God is not mocked. For whatsoever
a man sows, that he shall also reap."  So whether a person
believes it or not, he/she lives by the spiritual laws
that God has written and spoken to mankind through the Bible.



When I trusted in Christ, all these things happened to me.
Before I trusted in Him, I always was trying to fill the pain
in my life with something: food, drugs, alchohol, women, money,
buying lots of things, having a nice car/house, etc.  But
after trusting in Him, He made me spiritually alive and spiritually
whole, and I found the deepest contentment and joy in life.  And since I have
trusted in Him, I have lost all desire for money, food, alcohol,
etc.  And the deep pain of my life was forever washed away.
I have found that no material thing can compare to the love
and peace that God gives.  James says "that you may be perfect
and entire, wanting nothing"  (James 1:2-4).  John says
"who is he that overcomes the world, but He that believes
that Jesus is the son of God."  (1John 5:4-5).

I hope this is helpful for you.

wes