From our first breath until our last, we have few truly essential needs. Without oxygen, we would perish in minutes. We must have food and water. Our bodies, when exhausted, require rest. And in harsh weather, we must seek shelter. So, while we are needy creatures, our basic needs are few.

When it comes to our wants, however, there seems to be no limit. Indeed, the entire advertising industry is devoted to expanding our “needs.”

But what about those basic needs we overlook? What about our need for the Bread of Life and the living water of God’s truth? What about our need for spiritual fellowship that gives strength, hope, peace, and comfort? The vague dissatisfaction so many people experience is really spiritual malnutrition and thirst.

Jesus told a Samaritan woman about water that would become “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). He had what she truly needed—what Peter later called “the words of eternal life” (6:68).

Have we been ignoring the words of Jesus: “Man shall not live by bread alone”? (Luke 4:4). Have we been failing to nourish our souls while pursuing our wants? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33). – By Vernon Grounds

This story by Robert Morgan is one of my favorite stories. It is about a woman who left home one morning to do her shopping.  It was a small European village where you go to every shop individually, and so she went to the cheese shop for some Swiss cheese for her quiche.  Then to the bakery for a baguette.  Then to the fruit stand for some oranges.  Then to the vegetable market for some salad fixings.  Then to the patisserie for dessert.  But everywhere she went she frowned and turned up her nose and said how terrible everyone else smelled.  Every shop had a bad aroma.  Every person had an unpleasant odor.  The very streets smelled badly.  She complained to everyone she met about the stink in the air.  It was only after she returned home and unpacked her purchases that she discovered that the clerk at the cheese shop had given her limburger cheese instead of Swiss, and limburger cheese has a very ripe odor to it.  She had been complaining about everyone else when in reality she had been carrying the problem around her in her own packages.  The problem had been with her all the time.

That’s the way it is with our attitudes.  Sometimes we think our circumstances stink.  We think other people stink.  But when we’re perpetually unhappy or irritated or depressed or angry or anxious or unpleasant, the real problem may be our own attitudes which we’re carrying around inside of ourselves all the time.

• The Roman statesman and philosopher, Seneca, said:  “A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.”
• Abraham Lincoln reportedly said:  “A person is about as happy as they make up their mind to be.”

·        And the great Scottish preacher, Robert Murray McCheyne, once said:  “I feel it my duty to be as happy as the Lord wants me to be.” So, my dear friend, how happy are you this morning?

“Esau … for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.” Hebrews 12:16

It is often possible to barter life’s best values for a momentary gratification of physical appetite.

That is what Esau did. He had come in from the field tired and hungry. At that moment Jacob was cooking a pot of red bean soup. When Esau asked for a bowl of the “red stuff,” Jacob said, in effect, “Sure, I’ll give you some if you’ll sell me your birthright in return.”

Now the birthright was a valuable privilege which belonged to the oldest son in a family. It was valuable because it gave him the place of eventual headship in the family or tribe and entitled him to a double portion of the inheritance.

But at that moment, Esau considered the birthright worthless. What good is a birthright, he thought, to a man who is as famished as I? His hunger seemed so overpowering that he was willing to give almost anything to satisfy it. In order to pacify a momentary appetite, he was willing to surrender something that was of enduring value. And so he made the awful bargain!

A similar drama is being reenacted almost daily. Here is a man who has maintained a good testimony for years. He has the love of a fine family and the respect of his Christian fellowship. When he speaks, his words carry spiritual authority, and his service has the blessing of God upon it. He is a model believer.

But then comes the moment of fierce passion. It seems as if he is being consumed by the fires of sexual temptation. All of a sudden nothing seems so important as the satisfaction of this physical drive. He abandons the power of rational thought. He is willing to sacrifice everything for this illicit alliance.

And so he takes the insane plunge! For that moment of passion, he exchanges the honor of God, his own testimony, the esteem of his family, the respect of his friends and the power of a sterling Christian character. Or as Alexander Maclaren said, “He forgets his longings after righteousness; flings away the joys of divine communion; darkens his soul; ends his prosperity; brings down upon his head for all his remaining years a cataract of calamities; and makes his name and his religion a target for the barbed sarcasms of each succeeding generation of scoffers.”

In the classic words of Scripture, he sells his birthright for a mess of pottage.–(By William MacDonald)

Our limited knowledge robs us of many things. Because of it people do not realize what an awful condition they are in without Christ. But, that’s just part of the problem–it also deprives us of realizing what tremendous treasures we have in Christ. We need to consider both of these.

Listen to these wise words from Henry Law in 1877:

Washed from sin, we escape just wrath; but we need more than the absence of guilt to constitute a claim for entrance into the purity of heaven. In Jesus we have a Treasure of righteousness.

In our nature, as representative of man, He thoroughly obeyed the law, and fulfilled to the uttermost its requirement of perfect love. This work is perfect, because wrought by the God-man, Jesus. In it He arrays the whole company of the redeemed. He is the Lord their Righteousness.

In His work the piercing eye of omniscience can discern no flaw. It is pure as God is pure. It is bright as the eternal day. It is glorious as the heaven of heavens. And it is ‘unto all and upon all those who believe.’ Is not such righteousness a Treasure? We bless You, O our precious Lord, that You are this Treasure to us!

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (2 Cor. 5:10)

While it is true– that there are no degrees of fitness for heaven, it is also true that there will be degrees of reward in heaven. The Judgment Seat of Christ will be a place of review and reward where some will be rewarded more than others.

Also there will be differing capacities for enjoying the glories of heaven. Everyone will be happy but some will have greater capacity for happiness than others. Everyone’s cup will be full but some will have bigger cups than others.

We must get away from the idea that we will all be exactly alike when we reach the glorified state. The Bible nowhere teaches such dull, faceless uniformity. Rather it teaches that crowns will be awarded for lives of faithfulness and devotedness, and that while some are being rewarded, others will suffer loss.

Here are two young men who are the same age and who are converted at the same time. One goes out and lives the next forty years by giving top priority to the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The other gives the best of his life to making money. The first talks enthusiastically about the things of the Lord, the second about activity in the market. The first has a greater capacity for enjoying the Lord now, and he will take that greater capacity to heaven. The second, though equally fit for heaven through the Person and work of Christ, is spiritually dwarfed, and he takes that reduced capacity to heaven.

Day by day we are determining the rewards that we will receive and the measure to which we will enjoy our eternal home. We determine it by our knowledge of the Bible and our obedience to it, by our prayer life, by our fellowship with God’s people, by our service for the Lord, and by our faithful stewardship of all that God has given to us. As soon as we realize that we are building for eternity with every passing day, it should have a profound effect on the choices we make and the priorities we set. (By William MacDonald)