A New Set of Cravings: Life from the Writings of John

By Mike Jones

For years I struggled with cravings that were contrary to
the new nature I was supposed to have as a Christian. I
knew that Jesus came that we might have life, so why didnt
I have it. Why did the old sometimes still appeal? Why did
I let it cool the passion I had for God? Why instead, had the
new not forced out the old? Had I missed something along
the way? I came to point where I had to know.
Im glad I came to that point. Jesus words are true; If anyone
is thirsty let him come to me and drink. I knew what it was
like to come to Him; my problem was that I allowed myself
to get distracted from coming. When we come to Him, He gives birth to a new nature in us. To the extent that we feed
it, it will grow. If we neglect feeding it, it will wither.
He really did come that we might have life; He came to give us a new nature. And with that new nature comes a whole
New Set of Cravings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 3, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469192024

Mike Jones

Mike Jones is an award-winning writer and creative producer who works across a variety mediums including books, screen, digital & interactive media.

Book preview

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The Life He Secured For Me

Before Adam was enticed to think he could add pleasure to his life, he simply enjoyed God and all that God had given him. Is that not at the root of all temptation? If you have this, see this or do this, it will add pleasure to your life. Life is pretty good, but with this or that, it would be just a little better.

And so, for the next 4,000 years, not one person rose above this contrived means of luring away from God. Not always a thought to do something evil, but always a thought that it will add pleasure to life and, in the barrage of these enticements, man was powerless to make the choices that would lead to real life.

But just as Adam in the first garden made a wrong choice that would start a chain that would last 4,000 years, the second Adam in the second garden would make a right choice that would break that chain. Jesus was tempted to add to His life by avoiding the cross; but by choosing to endure it, He secured for us both the right and the way to know God as Adam did before the fall.

John 1:12,13 says, ‘Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.’

It is no wonder that satan comes at us with such a barrage; he knows the extent to which God went to secure this life for us. If he can keep us from it, he somewhat nullifies the suffering Jesus went through and, in fact, I think he adds to it.

Though Jesus broke the chain, still, it is not automatic. Though we may be, ‘born of God’, we still have an enemy and his ways have not changed. But what has changed is that Jesus has shown by example the way to beat him. It is not on us to resist that we might then enjoy His fullness, but rather, it is on us to walk in His fullness that we might then have the power to resist. You cannot do it otherwise.

When John wrote this first chapter, all this was already over. Jesus had already been to the cross. He had already risen from the grave. He had seen evidence of the life that Jesus made possible as it was born out in so many who had come to know Him. I find it interesting that he begins his writing with such an emphasis. John 1:4 states, ‘In him was life, and that life was the light of men’.

Tomorrow happens to be Easter—the day we remember the resurrection. But this year I will be more mindful of an event a few days before where in a garden, He made the gut wrenching decision that secured for me the right to this life. Every time someone finds this life, He receives the reward of His suffering.

In the sermon, ‘Ten Shekels and a Shirt’, Paris Reidhead tells the story of a slave plantation located on an island. Once there, you were there until you died. Missionaries were not allowed. Two young Moravians heard about it and sold themselves into slavery. As the young men were sailing away, and knowing they would not return, one raised his hand and shouted, ‘MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN, RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING’. In order that He would, ‘RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING’, may we not miss this life.

Imitations of Life

There is a lifestyle today that has been shaped by ‘craftsmen’. In chapter 10 of Jeremiah, he writes about the ‘craftsmen’ of his day. ‘They adorn it with silver and gold… so it will not totter’. ‘What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple—all made by skilled workers.’

As I read this chapter, and specifically these verses, I couldn’t help but to think of the lifestyle that has been crafted for the rich and famous—a lifestyle of glitz and glamour that is adorned with all this world has to offer. It is ‘all made by skilled workers’.

As there are many craftsmen and skilled workers who apply themselves to this task, I believe there is one craftsman and skilled worker that is behind it all. From the beginning, the angle that Satan uses to distract us from the life that God has for us is one that tempts us to believe that something other than God will add to our lives.

By both blatant and subtle means, these craftsmen subvert God’s truth and His ways. We are tempted to think by all that these craftsmen create, that what they create will lead to life. But their ‘images are a fraud; they have no breath in them’.

The thought that came to mind as I read of how active and effective Satan’s craftsmen and skilled workers are, is how much God’s craftsmen and skilled workers need to apply themselves equally to their task. As Satan’s do all to subvert God’s ways and truth, God’s should be doing all to proclaim them.

Help us Lord to ‘inquire of You’ that we might first possess for ourselves the life You have for all who know You. Let that life be so in us that we would be able to proclaim with certainty, and others would be able to see, that all else is but a cheap imitation.

John 1:4 ‘In Him was life, and that life was the light of men’.

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The Best For Last

John 2:10 Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.

It seems everywhere I turn lately I am reminded of how different God’s ways are in relation to the ways of our enemy. I think the first notice of this came years ago from when Jesus was tempted by Satan. Matthew 4:8 says, ‘Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the