Human Needs and the Gospel

From: "Theophile International Inc." By Dan Jenkins Most "ministry", especially in American Christianity, is designed to assuage (satisfy, appease, pacify, calm) "felt needs". Thus, real discipleship isn't very popular, because Jesus' teachings and the Gospel are not at all focused upon "felt needs". Why? Because "felt needs" are not the problem! If we want to end the endless cycle of greed, unhappiness, heart hunger, emotional roller coasters, etc., we must allow Jesus to get us to look in the mirror and confront the real problem in our hearts, and change us from the foundation up! We don't need the house remodelled .. we need the old house razed and a new one built according to HIS blueprints! Amen? So, you have sought "biblical solutions" for your "felt needs", over and over. How is it working for you? Let's look at how Jesus dealt with a woman who had massive "felt needs", and see how he addressed those "felt needs" ... Joh 4:6 Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his children, and his livestock?" 13 Jesus answered her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I don't get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." 17 The woman answered, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You said well, 'I have no husband,' 18 for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly." 19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. 22 You worship that which you don't know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah comes," (he who is called Christ). "When he has come, he will declare to us all things." 26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who speaks to you." Jesus did not ask this woman who had abused her, nor how deprived she was as a child, or any other touchy-feely question. Yet, will anyone say that He was not loving, kind and merciful? Did He not address the REAL problem this woman had? The core of her problem? And, did He not offer her the permanent solution to her problem? Most ministry is band-aids over slight wounds, rather than addressing the disease of the soul. When a diet of "self-help" is offered as the Gospel, the problem remains: self. ____________________________________________________