How Hungry are You?

James Moore begins to delve into the realm of righteousness in Chapter Six. John Wesley in his sermons on the Beatitudes, observes that. " Righteousness is every holy and heavenly disposition combined. Righteousness springs from, and ends in, love for God as our Father and Redeemer. It also includes love for all others for the sake of Christ." Moore looks at our hunger and passion for righteousness. It should be an all consuming appetite. Like the little dog, Datu, there should be an excitement, enthusiasm, and anticipation in our love for righteousness. That is how Jesus put it in the fourth Beatitude. Hunger and thirst are two of our most basic bodily appetites. Nothing but food and drink will satisfy those appetites. We become like the lost young man that was only interested in eating. He only wanted food! The description that Jesus gives of one that hungers and thirsts for righteousness is of one that is just as ravenous as the starving person. Moore, like Wesley, places righteousness on several levels. First is the personal righteousness that comes from "going on to perfection". When we are hungry for food, we look to the place that can provide what our body is calling for. Moore tells us that Jesus expects us to be that clear in our search for righteousness. This can be no willy nilly quest. We have to get a fix on the coordinates and go toward "morality, pursuing character and ethics and cleanness" In fact, it calls us to seek a new life and new direction with a renewed hope. When Jesus changed the water to wine at the wedding feast in Cana, there was no room left in the jars for water, only, new wine. Righteousness also calls upon us to hunger for the humane treatment of all in our society. Our souls will cry for those that are misused and abused and seek "new wine" for their circumstances in life. I have always found a strong symbolism in the fact that the Jews used wine for cleansing wounds. Jesus used that analogy to refer to his ministry; as, He set out to right the wrongs of the world. Finally, the word Righteousness means that the relationship with God will be reflected in "joining hands in ministry". Joining hands with each other and with God in right relationships to change our lives and all around us. The difficult part is; that, "religion" does not spell righteousness. Pray that you never lose the hunger and thirst that drives you to constantly seeks the "living water" of righteousness.