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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Spiritual Awareness</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">In
a broadcast address in London, T. S. Eliot talked about "spiritual
awareness." He observed that many persons aspire to become Christians
and believe, presumably, in the efficacy of the Christian faith, but
never reach the stage of actually experiencing it. Aspiring towards real
belief, i.e., becoming truly Christian, is one thing, whereas complete
awareness of it is another. Aspiring can easily become an end in itself.
And, as Charles H. Duthie of Edinburgh remarked: "It is a matter of
living forever in the preface and never becoming involved in the story."</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">This
condition of spiritual awareness is clearly defined by Jesus in the
words of our text. It is a state of soul devoutly and eagerly to be
aspired to, in contrast to what Lord Cecil of Britain once referred to
as "believing in God in a commonplace sort of way." And, it becomes the
gift and possession of any persons who are utterly dissatisfied with
themselves, and who decide to fulfill those important requisites that
make them completely satisfied in Christ.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Donald MacLeod, Know The Way, Keep The Truth, Win The Life, CSS Publishing Co.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">A Messy Kitchen</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Recently, I received an e-mail about real signs found in the real kitchens of real people.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">"A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen and this kitchen is delirious." </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">"A clean house is a sign of a misspent life." </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">"If we are what we eat, then I'm easy, fast, and cheap." </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">"Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator." </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">"My next house will have no kitchen, just vending machines." </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">"A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand."</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">These
sayings point to some of our society's attitudes about food: 'only junk
food is enjoyable', 'food is meant to satisfy us', 'if I had to cook
it, it doesn't taste good', and 'as long as it's not good for me, I
should eat as much as I want'. We stuff ourselves, trying to fill the
hole inside of us with food, as if we could eat something that would
satisfy us. But we could stuff ourselves at every meal and still be
hungry for something deeper! </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Staff, <a __removedlink__1475388285__href="http://www.eSermons.com" target="_blank">www.eSermons.com</a></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Are You Hungry?</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">There’s
a story found in the Chronicles of Narnia. In The Voyage of the Dawn
Treader, the fifth volume of that series, Mary, Edmund, their cousin
Eustice, and some of the colorful creatures of Narnia, come upon a
crystal clear pool of water with what appears to be a golden statue of a
man at the bottom. Only, they discover that it is a magical pool that
turns everything into gold that touches the water. It appears that the
statue at the bottom of the pool is a man who either didn’t know about
the pool’s magic powers, or he was so consumed with accumulating gold
that he ignored its dangers. Even though the characters of the story are
awed at the magic of the pool, they recognize that such a place is far
more dangerous than it is beneficial, and so they swear themselves to
secrecy and wipe their memories clean of that place. <br>
<br>
You see, when you waste your energies seeking to fulfill the hunger for
things that perish, what you’ll find all too often is that you’ll still
be dissatisfied, and your dissatisfaction will usually put you deeper
into the hole you’re digging for yourself. Whatever piece of the pie
that you’re hungering for – whether it’s a bigger slice of acceptance or
riches or gratification of your urges – you’re going to find yourself
hungry for more and more and more, until you’re so out of control that
you can’t back-peddle fast enough. In our consumer-driven world, in
which many people literally work themselves to death accumulating a
never-fully-satisfying abundance of things, Jesus’ words challenge our
society’s misguided substitutes for "life."<br>
<br>
Steve Wilkins, Are You Hungry?</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">God-shaped Vacuum</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">"There
is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never
be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known
through Jesus Christ." </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Blaise Pascal</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Searching for Jesus <br>
<br>
Some searches take people to unexpected places and give surprising
results. For example, Columbus searched for a new route to Asia and
found America instead. Louis Pasteur tried to find a way to keep wine
from souring and came up with the pasteurization process instead.
Alexander Graham Bell wanted to improve the telegraph but wound up with
the telephone. Roentgen worked to find a better light for photography
but invented the X--ray instead. Sometimes we do not find what we are
searching for. <br>
<br>
In today's text the people had been with Jesus and were fed. But the
Lord had many other people to feed so he left the place where the
miraculous feeding had occurred. Apparently not satisfied with one
miracle, the people set off in search of Jesus.<br>
<br>
Don M. Aycock, Searching for Jesus<br>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">A Time to Remember</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">In
his book The Swann's Way, the French novelist Marcel Proust wrote of
returning home late one evening on a dull winter day when he faced the
prospect of a depressing tomorrow. The maid greeted him and, seeing that
he was tired, brought him a cup of hot tea and some cake. Being both
tired and depressed he at first refused them. Only at her insistence did
he finally begin to drink the tea and eat the cake. Proust wrote that
an unexplainable delight suddenly came over him. His anxieties and
troubles seemed to vanish. Suddenly, he wrote, I had "ceased to feel
mediocre, accidental and mortal."</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">What
caused this wonderful sensation to come over him? He was at a loss to
explain it. How could a taste of tea and cake produce this feeling of
peace? He drank and ate more but he still could not decipher the secret.
The truth, he guessed, must be in himself and not in what he was eating
and drinking…</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">The rest of this illustration, as well as many additional illustrations and sermons for the whole year, can be accessed at </span></span><span style="color: black"><a target="_blank" __removedlink__1475388285__href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8DCggHCw9aCkkCCAFKDAtXUVw%3D"><span style="font-size: small"><font color="#0000ff">www.Sermons.com</font></span></a></span><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">. </span></span></div>
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