HOW TO FULFILL OURSELVES

                    By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.

   In 1960, the Chief Justice of the British Supreme Court addressed the American Bar Association on the basic principles of law. He said: "All law is based upon one idea: man is born to die and has but a brief time to fulfill himself."

    Dr. Thomas Wyatt wrote: "That is a good definition of the word existence: 'to fulfill ourselves'.  All law, all striving, all hungers, all ambitions are the result of our deep desire either to experience or to perfect self-fulfillment. Our sorrows, frustrations and sicknesses are hard to bear because they prevent our self-fulfillment.

    “Our problem, therefore, is to discover who we are in order that we may fulfill our destiny…It is impossible to know who we are until we know to whom we belong. Alone, man is truly lost. Man cannot live in a vacuum. He must belong or he becomes eccentric, or perhaps even insane. A whole personality, on the other hand, is developed by wholesome relationships and a noble purpose in life.”

                 JESUS CHRIST IS THE SOURCE!

   God made us in His own image. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are spirit, soul, and body. Adam was a spiritual being but fell into the sin of disobedience to his Creator and Father. His tragic sin took away from us the deep fellowship he had with his Maker. Lucifer the Rebel archangel was jealous, proud, and a Liar. He sought to turn them away from their Father and God. They fell for his lies and disobeyed their Maker and were driven out of Paradise, the Garden of Eden!

     God sent His Son Jesus Christ to this sin-cursed earth to restore that fellowship! To bring humanity back into fellowship and redeem man, our Heavenly Father gave His only begotten Son to purchase our redemption through His death on the Cross, to satisfy the righteous demands of Divine Justice!

     Jesus Christ is the Answer to the hunger and thirst mankind has for things. Jesus said, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.” (Matt. 5: 6, 8, 16)

     “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven; but My Father giveth you the true bread from Heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from Heaven. For the Bread of God is He which cometh down from Heaven, and giveth His life unto the world.

                              I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE!

    “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life; He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life, I am the Bread of Life.

    “Your fathers  did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead, This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven, that a man nay eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the Bread which I shall give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”  (John 6: 35,47-51)

    “In the last day, that great day of the feast, JESUS stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and DRINK. He that believeth on Me as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of Living Water. But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7: 37-39; 4:10)

                            WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD!

     Jesus Christ came to this earth to introduce us to His Heavenly Father. He wanted His Father to be our Father also. The Bible states: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.." (John 3: 16, 17)

   "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the Son  hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3: 36);

   "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father and ye in Me, and I in you...If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will make our abode with him." (John 14: 20, 23)

    "And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father  may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it. If ye love Me keep My commandments. 

                         I WILL COME UNTO YOU!

    "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you... because I live, ye shall live also.

     "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you....he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him....And My Father shall love him, and we will come, and make our abode with him." (John 14: 13-23)

    Jesus said: " Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest; The thief cometh not but for to steal, kill and destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."  (Matt. 11:28; John 10:10). Amen.