Real life is hard work. It's full of ups and downs, and sometimes the downs are really down. Even when life is up we're good at filling it with worries and anxieties about the fact that it might not stay that way for long, and that a down might be just around the corner.

I think many of us probably long to be the kinds of people who are better at rolling with the punches. The Bible talks a lot about the importance of "steadfastness", which amongst other things conjures up images of not being discouraged when things don't go your way - of standing firm whilst the waves crash all around you. But how do we get that way? How do we remain steadfast amidst the disappointments and challenges of daily life?

I've said before recently that I'm increasingly seeing the importance of joyfulness in life - and I think that for the Christian person, an attitude of joy and thankfulness is one of our key weapons in the fight. But how are we to remain joyful and thankful when tragedy strikes? How do you rejoice when you lose your job, or when you're anxious about money or about your health?

It doesn't completely answer the question fully, but one passage that I think is really helpful in thinking about this is Philippians 3. It's one of the go-to passages on joy in the Bible:

"Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you."

In other words, Paul is saying "I might as well tell you to rejoice, even if I've said it a hundred times before - I love talking about joy, so it's really no trouble for me, and it'll be really good for your souls, so hopefully you'll not get bored of me banging on about it."

Philippians is a letter written by Paul as he's languishing in jail, so it's somewhat surprising that he should be so focussed on rejoicing. So what is Paul's secret - what is it that enables him to be rejoicing in the midst of his suffering? "Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him"

For Paul, the gospel is THE number one most exciting thing in his life. His relationship with Jesus Christ is more precious to him than absolutely anything else. He's so excited about the fact that he gets to spend eternity with Jesus, that absolutely everything else seems irrelevant by comparison. Stuck in jail because he's a follower of Jesus? Totally worth it - he's got an eternity of true freedom to look forward to. Hated by his fellow Jews because of apparently turning his back on the law? Who cares what men may think of him, when the creator of the entire universe loves him? Poor and destitute and whipped and beaten and shipwrecked and generally looking like a failure by the world's standards? Hardly worth batting an eyelid over, given the heavenly riches he has to look forward to in the New Creation.

You see, when you recognise the immense value of the one thing you DO have, you start to care a little less about all those other things you lack. When Jesus becomes supremely precious to us, we find ourselves enabled to rejoice in the midst of all kinds of difficult circumstances. So long as our saviour is with us, our first love, we can accept a little temporary suffering and hardship - especially knowing that He is ultimately in charge and will not permit anything that isn't for our eternal good.

I really hope and pray that you will find grace to rejoice and thank God for the gospel in the midst of whatever you're going through right now. God is a good and loving Father to those who trust in him through Jesus Christ. I don't know what you're struggling with right now, but I do know that he's promised to bring us to be with him if we're Christians, and live with him in a world free from the sin and suffering that so mars this world.

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself."

Now that's something to rejoice in!

Dave is attempting to blog about the world from a Christian perspective but for a target audience of people who don't consider themselves to be Christians, which means it's a good read for anybody and everybody, and is bound to give you food for thought. It's also just a lot of fun.

Dave's a classically trained musician with a great love of power ballads and Disney movies, currently working as a computer programmer. He is also generally a stand up chap and I am very thankful to God for him and my other flatmate Paul, who doesn't currently have a blog.

Things rarely remain the same for very long in this world: favourite restaurants come under new management who callously change the menu; favourite beauty spots in the countryside get bought up by property developers who turn them into housing estates; friends and family members drift apart, and we lose touch with people who were once close companions.

But there is one person who remains unchangeable: Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13:8 reminds us:

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever."

In his sinless perfection, Jesus' nature and character aren't liable to change. The Jesus we can relate to today as Christians is the same Jesus who walked the earth 2,000 years ago. Certainly his situation has changed: he's now seated at the Father's side in heaven, ascended and glorified in a way that he never experienced during his time on earth. But it hasn't changed his loving character. If it were you and I who were given such honour and authority, I'm pretty sure it would have gone to our heads and turned us into ruthless monsters on the ultimate power trip. But Jesus is the same meek, humble, servant-hearted, loving Lord he was when he walked to his death on the cross.

Some people accuse Christians of being out-of-date and out-of-touch with the modern world - times have changed, they say, and we need to revise our views and our ethics in the light of it. But if Christianity is first and foremost a relationship with a person, Jesus, then the more important question isn't whether the times have changed, but whether that person has changed - has he revised his views on what he loves and what he hates, what pleases him and grieves him? But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever - there is no shifting or changing with him - and so Christians seek to please him in the same way today that they did long before the Internet and the 60s and vanilla ice cream came along.

The writer to the Hebrews applies his truth in this way: "Jesus Christ is the same... Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings". If Jesus hasn't changed, nor should our views on right and wrong, on the nature of the world and of who God is.

But it also means we can have huge confidence for the future - Jesus will always love those who trust in him, he will always be interceding for us at the Father's side, he will surely fulfill his promises and return one day to bring us to be with him. None of his fundamental characteristics like his trustworthiness or his faithfulness to his word are ever going to change. Hurrah!

I've been blown away recently thinking about the Bible's teaching that Christians are able to please God through their lives and their actions. Allow me to try and explain.

A little group of us were studying Haggai chapter 1 the other day. The prophet Haggai was living in a time after the people of Israel had begun to return from exile to a Jerusalem that lay in ruins. They started to rebuild God's temple there, destroyed by the Babylonians seventy years earlier, but a combination of opposition and general selfishness meant that they gradually lost enthusiasm for the project and it more or less ground to a halt. Along comes Haggai and delivers this message from God:

"Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD." (Haggai 1:7-8)

"Get off your lazy backsides and get building!", says God. But in doing so, he says something which seems to me to be quite remarkable: "I want to be able to take pleasure in this temple you're going to build - this tangible symbol of your obedience and your love for me." God will look at the temple and heave a big sigh of contentment and delight, taking pleasure in his people who built it.

Amazing! I tend to think of God in a very "static" kind of way - he is who he is and that's just the way it is. But the Bible consistently teaches that the way we act matters to God - we can grieve him by our sin and we can delight him by our acts of faith. Now, of course, it's important to say that we can't "please God" in the sense of earning his love by trying really hard to be good. Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that "without faith it is impossible to please him". Or as Romans 8:8 puts it, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

But we mustn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Through faith in Christ, united to Jesus, we can actually bring pleasure to God by living godly lives in line with his will. Ephesians 5:10 puts it like this:

"Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord."

That's a pretty good life motto. Try to figure out what's going to please the Lord. In whatever situation I'm in today, how can I please the Lord in this?

I think it gives real meaning to even the most mundane of moments. Struggling to find joy in your work? Well, try to discern how you can do your job in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. Finding relationships difficult? What's going to be pleasing to the Lord in this situation? Finding church a bit of a battle at the moment? What's going to bring pleasure to the Lord in the way you relate to your brothers and sisters there? Battling away with a particular sin that never seems to go away, and wondering why you're even bothering? Take heart - when you overcome by faith in the power of his Spirit, you can pleases God.

What are you living for at the moment? Who are you trying to please? I'm very challenged by all this to try day-by-day to fix my eyes on God and how I can live in a way that pleases him, and it really encourages me to keep on battling sin even when it seems like an utterly thankless task. What a thought, to know that God might actually take pleasure from those little acts of obedience prompted by my faith.

I'm not always great at having quiet times, and sometimes when I'm struggling to muster enthusiasm I like to try and dip into one of the Psalms as something slightly gentler. This morning I was reading Psalm 57, which I found really encouraging.

Psalm 57 is described in the headline as "A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave." In the rest of the Bible it's generally worth mostly ignoring the section headers, since they're added in later by editors who are trying to be helpful but are often simply misleading. But in the Psalms those introductory sentences are genuine originals, and often give important contextual information. In this case, it's a Psalm written by David - the one who would go on to be one of Israel's greatest kings - but it was written before he was crowned, whilst his predecessor King Saul was still on the throne. Saul was a jealous man who viewed David as a threat to his power, and he spent much of his latter years chasing down David and trying to have him killed. The fact that this Psalm was written in the midst of that, whilst hiding from Saul in a cave, gives real poignancy to David's words. This was no idealistic daydreaming from someone who fancied himself a bit of a poet. This is the outpouring of a heart right in the thick of it.

So it's amazing how utterly God-focused it all is. If I were hiding in a dingy cave from a murderous tyrant I'd be full of talk like "what are you doing God?! Get me out of here, now!!" Instead, David's longing remains firmly fixed on seeing God's name glorified: "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!" (v5)

David is utterly confident that he can trust himself to God and that God will do what's best. "God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!" (v3) God's love and his care are utterly unwavering - and he has the sovereign power to back up his good intentions to. Hence the note of confidence behind David's prayers: "I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me." (v2) Whatever the outcome, David knows it will be for the best. It won't necessarily be comfortable and straightforward. It certainly doesn't mean that Saul gets struck down dead in an instant so that David is safe again - it took many years before Saul's rule came to an end. But it does mean that David could trust God to care for and provide for him.

And ultimately, David's heart is not about his own safety, but about God's glory. He knew that God's motive in caring for him and protecting him was not first and foremost so that David would feel better. God's primary motive in acting on his behalf was so that David would have cause to praise Him - so that God would get the glory. David so loved God that he longed to see God's name exalted - for his glory to be over all the Earth. He longed to have a better reason to praise God's name - to have yet another story to tell around the camp fire of God's grace and provision at work in his life. A right concern for God's glory gave him the strength to persevere through suffering in the present without descending into grumbling and despair.

Yet as you read Psalm 57 you can't help but feel echoes of another king in David's line who was also pursued to death by his enemies - the Lord Jesus.

"Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfils his purpose for me.
He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who tramples on me.
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
My soul is in the midst of lions;
I lie down amid fiery beasts--
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords. " (v1-4)

As Jesus hung on the cross, surrounded by those who hated him, despised and mocked by all and sundry, he was able to entrust his soul to his almighty Father. He endured the cross because ultimately he valued God's glory above his own comfort. His desire was not to be spared pain, not to be immediately rescued, but to see God's name exalted above the heavens. That might seem like a cold and dispassionate concept, except that God's glory is bound up in our good - God is glorified as we have cause to praise him. And three days later, as Jesus was resurrected from the dead, he had some pretty serious reasons to praise God!

I found myself really challenged in the way that I think about my life, and about prayer. How much do I really value God's glory above my own ease and comfort? How confident am I that God will work all things for my ultimate good, even if it hurts in the short term? I pray that my heart will be changed, and that as someone who is united to Jesus I'd be able to pray with that same sense of confidence: "I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me."

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!

The heart of the Christian message is the message of forgiveness. There are plenty of religions and philosophies of life out there for good people - people who think they're good might get on well with Buddhism or Islam. Say your prayers, do your meditations, try to be nice to people and generally feel a bit better about yourself when you see other people royally stuffing up their lives - "at least I'm not that bad". Even vegetarianism or a strict diet can be a good opportunity to look down our noses at other people who don't have as much will power as us. There are plenty of religions out there for good people.

But what if you're not a good person? What if you're a failure, or a loser? What if you've stuffed up and you know you've stuffed up? What if you're the kind of person that would never fit in in a club full of good people? The kind of person that people would stare at in disbelief if you dared to show your face in a prayer meeting?

Well that's exactly the kind of person that Jesus came for. Christianity is a message of forgiveness for bad people - it's good news for rotten sinners who know they could never be good enough to please God by their own efforts. Jesus is a saviour for bad people who are honest enough to admit they're bad.

We meet just such a woman in Luke 7:36-50. She's a notorious "sinner" by reputation - everybody knows what kind of woman she is, and it's clear to all that she doesn't stand a chance in the religious rankings. And yet when she has an encounter with Jesus, she discovers that he came to forgive people exactly like her. The joy of being forgiven a debt that she could never possibly hope to pay back overflows from her in an embarrassingly lavish expression of love towards Jesus:

"when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment."

Jesus explains her behaviour like this: "her sins, which are many, have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little". It's not that her love earnt her forgiveness - that much is clear from the rest of the passage. Rather, it is evident how much she has been forgiven - and how much she knows she's been forgiven - from just how thankful towards Jesus she is. By contrast, Simon the Pharisee, who clearly considers himself to be in a much better place before God, shows very little affection towards Jesus, being barely aware of how much he needs to be forgiven.

Christianity is a message of forgiveness for bad people. The life of a Christian is all about thankfulness for what Jesus has done for us, about rejoicing in what he's done, and looking forward to a future with the One who's saved us. Life goes so much better when we remember that - when we keep reminding ourselves of what we deserve, and how merciful and gracious God has been to us. Thankfulness, thankfulness, thankfulness - more and more I'm beginning to see that thankfulness is the key to our contentment. May we never forget how much we've been forgiven.

I've been thinking a lot about joy recently, and about hope. I've realised that the New Testament talks a lot about joy and about rejoicing, and yet it doesn't really register as a concept in my consciousness very often. And it's linked very closely with the idea of our hope. Take this passage from Romans, for instance:

"Isaiah says,
'The root of Jesse will come,
even he who arises to rule the Gentiles;
in him will the Gentiles hope.'
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." (Romans 15:12-13)

God is described as "the God of hope". That should give us a clue that it's an idea God considers pretty important - that it's somehow bound up with his very identity. Paul's prayer is that the Romans would be filled with joy and peace as they believe the gospel, so that they abound in hope.

So what's going on here? Firstly, I think it's important to establish what kind of hope we're talking about. He doesn't mean a vague and fluffy kind of 'hope' - "I hope it won't rain today", when what we really mean is "it looks as though it probably will rain today, and that would be a shame". When Paul talks about hope here, he means the sure and certain confidence of something that's in the future - the hope of Romans 5:5: "hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." We abound in hope as we grow in our confidence that Jesus really will return and deliver those who trust in him from our bondage to decay - that a day is coming when we will be conformed to his image as we assume our resurrection bodies in the presence of God the Father.

Hopefully you can see why that would be tied up with a sense of joy and peace in the present! No matter what trials we face in the present, no matter how conscious we are of our sinfulness and our halfheartedness and of the challenges that are bound to confront us on the journey, if we know where we're headed and we trust the one who's going to bring us there, we can rejoice in our sufferings now. We can have peace about our situation. There is an end in sight! It doesn't mean we're glib in the face of real hardship - it doesn't mean we smile and laugh as though everything is fine when really nothing could be further from the truth. But it means we know that suffering won't get the last laugh, that our trials aren't forever. That God really is good, even when it's hard to imagine what he could possibly be up to.

So as we struggle with the challenges of today, I'm realising more and more how God calls us to respond with joy. To give thanks for the gospel afresh, to remind ourselves of the glorious future that awaits us in the New Creation, and to rejoice that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Another new year begins, and yet we're still the same old us. Yet another Christmas reminds us once again how sinful and selfish we are, as family tensions rise to the surface and arguments break out up and down the land.

January 1st is often a good opportunity to take stock and reflect on the year gone by and think and pray about what lies ahead. But such reflections often take place in the context of a renewed awareness of our own sin and our need for God's forgiveness. It's both encouraging and challenging, therefore, to be reminded of Christ's example to us:

"For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, 'The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me'" (Romans 15:3)

How many of those Christmas arguments could have been avoided if we'd all taken the same attitude - seeking not to please ourselves and have our own way, but to lay aside our rights and put the needs of others first. If we'd sought first and foremost to please our Father in heaven and act in a way that honoured him, rather than seeking to preserve our own misplaced sense of honour.

Jesus' desire to please God rather than himself can be seen in all manner of ways right throughout his life - from his willingness to leave the glory of heaven and be born in a mangy stable, to his life of selfless sacrificial love, through to his struggles in the garden of Gethsemane as he contemplated the anguish of the cross. At any moment he could have turned back from the path that lay before him and decided to put his own interests first. Yet he persevered, knowing exactly what it would cost him.

So this New Year, who are you going to seek to please? In whatever decisions you face this year, whose interests will come first? And every time we fail, when we end up aiming to please ourselves rather than to please God, may we come back to the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus on our behalf, and find the forgiveness that we so desperately need.

We had our Christmas carol service at Euston Church tonight, and we were encouraged by these words from Luke's gospel:

"An angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.'" (Luke 2:9-11)

I find it so easy at Christmas time to become so hardened to the familiar verses that we hear year after year, but the story of the nativity remains an astonishing account of the most remarkable grace of God - that he should extend the hand of friendship to a world that has treated him so abominably, and even condescend to come to Earth and be born as a baby boy in order to rescue us. No wonder the angel proclaimed that his coming was news of "great joy" - for if we really saw the state of the world clearly, and understood our own predicament rightly, then what could be more joyful than discovering that God has made it possible for there to be peace between him and us?

The faithful people of God had been waiting for centuries for the promised king in the line of David. We all know the anticipation of counting down the days until Christmas - how much more exciting must that first Christmas have been, seeing the arrival of the one who had been expected for so long? May God give us grace to wonder anew at the message of Christmas this year.

I've been revisiting recently the excellent essay by Jonathan Edwards, "The Sin and Folly of Depending on Future Time". In his characteristic style, Edwards diagnoses and dissects the problem of living in the future instead of being content to get on with making the most of the present moment that God has given us. This may sound over-the-top, but I'm gradually coming to realise that this is probably the biggest battle I struggle with in my life, the prior cause from which many of my other battles originate.

The Symptoms of Depending on Future Time

Let me illustrate with a couple of examples. God willing, I'm getting married in 172 days' time, and I find it all too easy to just wish away the days and resent the fact that it's so far away in the future. As at many other times in my life, I've fallen for that lie, that what I need is a change of circumstances - if only this were the case or if that were different, then I'd be able to get my life sorted out. Maybe it's a change of jobs, maybe it's living in a new place, maybe it's graduating from university. Whatever it is, you look at your present situation and see all of the difficulties and downsides, a kind of "informed pessimism", whereas you look at the grass on the other side and all you can see is potential and exciting opportunity - the optimism of ignorance. Instead of getting on with growing and serving in the situation God has currently put me in, I look to the future and imagine that I could serve him much more contentedly once I arrive at the next place. If prior experience is anything to go by, that's absolute nonsense! Why should the next situation be any different from the current one, or the one before that? What possible grounds do I have for imagining that I'll be any more content, until I learn to cease living in the future?

The other example I could give is in the daily battle to work productively, on whatever project it is that I'm currently struggling with. A piece of work that I need to tackle comes up, and instead of just getting on with it, I worry about how hard it might turn out to be. Or even sillier than that, I worry that I might actually finish it, and then what on earth would I do with myself? Anxiety about what the future might hold makes me shy away from fulfilling my responsibility in the present. It's similar to the battle for patience regarding my wedding day: the thought of continuing to fight for another 172 days just seems too overwhelming - how can I possibly stay now-focussed for such a length of time?? And so it seems hardly worth even trying to battle in the present, and I give in.

An Alternative Way of Living

Jesus' words in Matthew 6:25-34 seem very pertinent: "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on... which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ... But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Do not be anxious about tomorrow - sufficient for the day is its own trouble. In other words, leave the future for God to worry about. Your job is just to make the most of today, to fight sin today, to figure out how to love God and love your neighbour today. Now is the only moment of time God has actually entrusted to you to use - all the rest belongs to him.

A Personal Response

So what am I going to do in response to all these swirling thoughts?

Firstly, I'm going to try and take the issue more seriously and put some proper prayer into it each day.

Secondly, I think I'm going to try and start a journal. Try and write something each day, maybe one thing to be thankful for from the day that's just passed, something that's encouraged me from God's word, maybe jot down a few thoughts about what the day ahead will hold and how I hope to make the most of it. Something, anything, to try and keep me rooted in the moment and encourage me to enjoy it and make the most of it rather than wishing I was somewhere else.

Thirdly, and I don't really know how this one will work out, I'm going to try and slow down and enjoy life a little more, rather than always rushing from one thing to the next. Maybe make myself a cup of tea in the morning with my breakfast. Have a decent quiet time. Put a little music on when I get home from work. Enjoy doing my laundry and hanging out my socks to dry, rather than just resenting it. Hang out with Christian brothers and sisters after church chatting about the sermon. Basically, prayerfully seek to make the most of the situation God has put me in at that moment, rather than killing time until I'm somewhere else.

Salvation through Jesus Christ will cost you nothing, and it will cost you everything. It will cost you nothing, because for those who'll cling to the cross of Christ, God graciously rescues us from sin completely free of charge - there is nothing we can do to earn or contribute towards our salvation. Yet it will also cost you everything, because once we receive salvation we are called to die to ourselves and follow the pattern of life left for us by our crucified saviour:

"And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, Jesus said to them, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.'" (Mark 8:34-38)

This isn't about giving up the occasional piece of chocolate during lent - this is about a radical, life-long commitment to a whole new way of living that no longer puts myself first - my wants, my ambitions, my rights - but instead puts God's will first and resolves to repeatedly put my own desires to death in pursuit of serving Him. Jesus' own life - a life marked by suffering and sorrow before his eventual glorification through his resurrection from the dead - sets the pattern for those who will follow him. If we seek for satisfaction and glory now here in this life we risk forfeiting the riches that really count in the life to come. But if we're willing to die to ourselves here on earth, Jesus promises a place with him in his kingdom - a kingdom which will never end, and where our enjoyment will never be spoilt or brought to an end by the curse of sin and death.

Doing what's right here on Earth can often feel painful and frustrating - it's often accompanied by a sense of wishing things were easier. But it will be so worth it on that when Jesus returns in his glory. "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?"

All of us have some vision of what we think will make us happy. We're all working towards something. Maybe it's that dream job that we think will leave us feeling fulfilled which gives us a sense of purpose; maybe it's a relationship that we're in or wish we were in - we look to that person to satisfy our deepest desires; maybe it's the clothes we wear or the new kitchen we dream of. We yearn for something more than we currently experience, and we look in all kinds of places to satisfy that longing within us.

Jesus speaks of this search for joy in John's gospel, and he gives some wise counsel: "Do not labour for the food that perishes". Ultimately, none of these things we've mentioned will last. The job gets boring or we get fed up with the deeply ingrained politics of the office; the person we cherish lets us down or goes away; the clothes we buy go out of fashion or get holes in them. Even the most sumptuous banquet runs out, or come back to it a week later and it's all gone mouldy. You certainly need to eat again the next day, no matter how much you ate. Don't invest all your energy seeking after food that's just going to perish and leave you wanting more, says Jesus. Instead, labour "for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you." Jesus offers us a food that will never run out - food which will leave us feeling satisfied for all eternity.

What is this bread? Jesus tells us a few verses later: "For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world ... I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."

There is one relationship which we'd be right to invest all our hopes in - one man who will never let us down or forsake us. The one thing that will truly satisfy us is that for which we were created - to know and love Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Everything else we long for is designed to point us towards that greater reality.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

A good meal can keep you going for a few hours. A good pair of trainers can protect your feet from blisters. But nothing on this earth can guard against our eventual death. Yet Jesus says that people who feed on him - people who find their satisfaction, their joy, their delight in him - well those people will never truly die. They will be raised again to new life with Jesus in the New Creation and enjoy an eternity in relationship with their Creator.

May God forgive us for our short-sightedness and idolatry. We settle for second best so easily. As C.S.Lewis described it, we're like children who prefer to keep playing with our mud pies in the back garden because we don't know what it is to have a holiday by the sea side. The bread of life that will truly satisfy us is on offer, completely free of charge, and instead we labour after junk that will perish in no time at all.

Jesus said "Do not labour for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you." May God give us grace to listen to him.

Jesus was the master storyteller. He knew exactly how to get under people's radar, and his stories frequently shocked and deeply challenged his hearers, as indeed they still do today. One such parable that contains a glorious surprise is that of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector:

"[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:9-14)

The Pharisee looks like exactly the sort of person you would imagine to be right with God: he's a morally upright man who seems to be deeply religious, giving generously of his resources. It's understandable that he should approach God with a sense of confidence. The Tax Collector, on the other hand, is utterly empty-handed before God: as a traitor to his country and his people, a collaborator with the Romans, he was no doubt precisely the kind of "unjust extortioner" that the Pharisee was so quick to distance himself from. He has no assurance at all as he feebly approaches God - not even daring to lift his head towards heaven. It's all he can do to utter a few simple words begging for mercy.

Yet look what Jesus says of this ungodly tax collector: "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other".

What a glorious gospel message of hope! The death of Jesus in the place of needy sinners means that the way of salvation is entirely opposite to what we would expect. People like the Pharisee who "trust in themselves that they were righteous" fail to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, whilst the most unlikely of candidates get right with God, because they are the ones who recognise their need and cry for mercy.

Hurrah!

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd." (John 10:11-16)

We are dirty, mangy, stupid sheep. But Jesus is a kind and gentle shepherd. He always leads us and cares for us for our good. Sometimes he leads us places we don't really want to go, but only because he knows more fully than we do. We make silly choices and settle for second best because in our sinfulness and idolatry we cannot conceive of the fulness God has in store for us. But mercifully, our shepherd Jesus loves us too much just to let us wander off- in his grace he leads us to find good pasture, even when we're not really looking for it. Many a time does he spare his sheep from the misery of getting what they want. He graciously restrains sin and stirs up our hearts to love him when by nature they are cold and dead. Supremely, he demonstrated his love for his sheep by laying down his life at the cross, throwing himself in harm's way so that we might escape the clutches of death. The life of a wonderful shepherd for the life of a few mangy sheep.

Utterly glorious.

I absolutely love "Due South", the classic TV show about a Canadian mountie who ends up in Chicago following the trail of his father's killer. Without doubt, one of the most compelling features of the show is the mountie himself, Benton Fraser - a true gentleman, a man of integrity and kindness who has little regard for his own concerns and who is constantly risking his own life for the sake of others. And he has a cute wolf, too.

Maybe it's just me, but I find characters like Fraser inspiring because they paint a little picture of what I know humanity was supposed to be. I should be that man of integrity, I should care more for others than I do for myself, I should be above reproach in the way that I relate to women such that they feel safe in my presence. Maybe I should start wearing bright red mountie uniforms out in public too. But though humanity was created in the image of God, designed to reflect his perfect nature, that image has been marred and spoilt by sin. We still catch glimpses of the character of God reflected in our lives from time to time, but so often we see selfishness and jealousy and ugliness instead.

Ultimately, I love Benton Fraser because he reminds me of Jesus. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that "He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power." Jesus is the true man, the true picture of what humanity was designed to be. He is the perfect image of God (Colossians 1:15) without flaw and without blemish. And what a sight to behold he is!

Gloriously, graciously, in the gospel we have the promise that God is at work to conform us to the likeness of Christ. Romans 8:28 reminds us that God is using all of the circumstances of life to mould us and shape us to be more like him - perhaps especially through our suffering. And day by day, as we meditate on the perfect humanity of Jesus, God will change us - so says Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:18:

"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

So next time you're tempted to despair at all the ways in which you fail to live up to the ideal, turn your gaze away from yourself and towards Jesus - and ask that God will make you just a little bit more like him each day.

Thank you kindly.

P.S. As an added bonus, let me direct your attention to this awesome song by Canadian band The Crash Test Dummies which was featured in the pilot episode of Due South and which, let's face it, is ultimately all about Jesus: