My father used words that I thought he made up, but to my surprise found that they are real words. When his doctors recommended he use margarine instead of butter, whatever brand of margarine we had he called, "ersatz". Ersatz is a real word which means artificial or inferior substitution or replacement. It is a German word literally meaning substitute or replacement.
A couple heart surgeries, high blood pressure and high cholesterol brought the recommendation of the ersatz butter to my dairy farming father. Today, studies are showing that the "real" is often better than artificial substitutes, but must be consumed in moderation. Eating real food excessively will still create heath issues.
The opposite is true for our spiritual health. Any imitation is harmful and everything that is true is good for our lives. Excess of things that are true in our lives is even better! Too often we settle for ersatz beliefs, ersatz love and ersatz relationships. Jesus is the real deal and settling for anything else is an artificial, inferior substitution.
A king named, Solomon, had the position and ability to choose the real or the ersatz. He chose ersatz and his spiritual heart became clogged.
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.
11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Jesus answered a woman who wanted the real, but did not know how to get it.
John 4: 13-14 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
His invitation to this woman extends to us today to take Him, the One who is fully real and completely true. Take Him into our lives not in moderation, but Excessively.
A couple heart surgeries, high blood pressure and high cholesterol brought the recommendation of the ersatz butter to my dairy farming father. Today, studies are showing that the "real" is often better than artificial substitutes, but must be consumed in moderation. Eating real food excessively will still create heath issues.
The opposite is true for our spiritual health. Any imitation is harmful and everything that is true is good for our lives. Excess of things that are true in our lives is even better! Too often we settle for ersatz beliefs, ersatz love and ersatz relationships. Jesus is the real deal and settling for anything else is an artificial, inferior substitution.
A king named, Solomon, had the position and ability to choose the real or the ersatz. He chose ersatz and his spiritual heart became clogged.
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.
11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Jesus answered a woman who wanted the real, but did not know how to get it.
John 4: 13-14 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
His invitation to this woman extends to us today to take Him, the One who is fully real and completely true. Take Him into our lives not in moderation, but Excessively.
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