Are You a Jesus Pointer?

“Life comes only through Jesus. Death comes through anything that tries to fabricate intimacy or seeks to deaden the pain you may feel inside because of hurts… When you realize you are truly loved by Jesus, you become complete in Him and you are fulfilled inside.” – Os Hillman

Every Monday night, we open a local gym for some “Bible and basketball.” We call it our Living H2O Initiative, taken from the passage in John 4 where Jesus offers the women at the well some “living water.”

About 30-35 young men, from their early teens to their early twenties, attend each week. At halftime, we sit them down and share a devotional message straight from God’s Word.

One of the points that I continue to stress to these often headstrong young men – in addition to learning self-control and how to de-escalate a potentially explosive situation – is to stop chasing after worldly things and to start chasing after God instead. “Everyone has a hole… a void… in their lives,” I tell them. “You can try to fill that vaccuum with drugs, alcohol, money, women, fame, or fast cars, but you will come up empty every time. Only Jesus can fill that hole in your heart.”

Some of them listen intently and others just blow me off, counting the seconds until they get to go back on the court. Regardless, I keep telling them the truth… and keep pointing them to the Truth, too.

I trust that you are doing the same in your area of spiritual influence.

“But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.” John 4:14 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President