There is a voice that speaks in the middle of the night or the early hours of the morning when the editor of the heart is not on duty to spin reality. It is a voice that is disturbing and not appreciated or desired. Samuel heard this voice three times during the night but he had Eli the high priest as his counsel. You are left with no such counsel or mentor. Reaching for the remote control until it goes away silences the voice. Or it is given a hobby to occupy it. Either way it has to leave you alone because it questions too much. You learn to maintain a distance between you and the voice in your heart like distancing yourself from people. But your heart is everything. To lose heart is to lose everything. The loss of heart describes too many people today.

The hearts response

She is longing for his presence and hungers for him. Not just anyone but 'him.' Not a surrogate or substitute. There is no question of who he is. Mary questioned the supposed gardener.

But like Simeon who took one look at the Christ child and knew exactly who he was. Or like Anna the prophetess widowed for 84 years one look and she knew who he was. When you were a child, life was lived from the heart. A rainbow was magical and mysterious until your science teacher told you it was no more than particles with dust and water caught in the suns rays. A sunset and a sunrise was explained it terms of astronomy that took away the brilliance of color. Now meaning is substituted by busyness, creativity by efficiency, love by functional relationships, mystery by management, hunger for God by activity for God. Now there are three steps to a good marriage, four steps to financial success and five steps to being successful. Everything can be managed with a response of principles and programs - except the voice in your heart. The Christian life is a passionate affair of the heart that cannot be sanitized by values and ethics. Christ made a passionate offer to whosoever.

If you are not aware how hungry your heart is for God then this passionate offer means nothing to you in the middle of the night or the early hours of the morning.

Are you hungry for him?

The desire of the hungry heart is not that he would come to you but that he would kiss you when he comes to you. It is not a seminary encounter your heart desires with graduating honors but to be covered with him. It was the father's first act when his prodigal son returned. It was the first act of David when Absalom returned. Christ wants to kiss the hungry heart. It is not the single kiss but the covering of his kiss. It is not the kiss of a prophet or pastor but of Christ himself.

Why should we hunger for him?

There is nothing more complimenting, intoxicating, provoking or stimulating than wine. His love is great.

But his love is 'more delightful than wine.' His love is not to be explained, taught, debated or discussed but tasted like wine.

Then why do people stop hungering for God?

But you cannot deny the arrows that wounded you have hit you. There are two things you will do: pour anesthesia on your heart or allow it to indulge in the world.

Anesthesia of the heart

Scripture memory, Bible study, manicured lawns, spotless homes, dinner parties that make Martha Stewart jealous, sports programs, extra curricula and anything else that will stop the heart hungering for God because to pant like a deer after streams of living water is to feel the pain of thirsting after God. It means taking a few arrows that wound and you know there is no religious formula or methodical steps. You cannot face the pains of hunger so you will stop the next generation from it by filling their lives that Solomon calls 'meaningless.' Stop and think that you will never be able to control the curse of God through career or vocation. You will never be able to control thorns and thistles through climbing the corporate ladder. No matter how hard a wife tries you cannot control the hunger of the heart that your desire is for your husband. At the end of the day a husband and wife retreat into the home with a peck on the cheek and a few pleasant words. That evening they may make love as long as neither one of them is actually pursing it. An evening watching television is far safer for the heart than allowing the risk of rejection. Sadness lingers that your children discern but cannot put into words. No one wants to risk a lover's quarrel especially in front of the children. But God often approached Israel like he approaches the church today. He wants a lovers quarrel in front of the children. But Israel heard through the prophets like a wife who felt her performance was being attacked so Israel withdrew from God accusing him of being cruel. When you fill your heart with anesthesia all you will hear in the night is an anger God instead of a lover who pursues you with passion. His love is more delightful than wine.

Indulgence of the heart

The heart looks for the divine but indulges in things that touch the need whose source is not divine. An affair, drugs, alcohol, pornography or obsession with sports. They all touch the heart. But it is not the woman, drug, drink or sport but what they represent that touches the heart. This is the power of addiction looking for God in all the wrong places. Once you drink from these man-made wells it is not easy to walk away from. One affair will not stop another one no matter how much counsel you receive. One drink leads to another even through AA. One drug leads to another no matter how rehabilitated you are. One gaze at one pornographic scene leads to a fixed gaze at a perverted scene no matter how much you have wept over it. One game on Sunday leads to a season of Sunday's. A greater lover has to set you free.

Christ is the anointed one with that perfumed fragrance.

With liquid myrrh, cinnamon, cane, cassia, olive oil, resin, onycha, galbanum and frankincense the sacred fragrance filled the temple.

His touch will not break even a bruised read. His words will touch you like no other. His actions are all good. This is the fragrance of a greater lover that sets the indulgent heart free. Whether the heart is covered with anesthesia or indulged it prevents it from responding to the voice than hungers after God.

Are you feeling hungry?

The maidens are virgin and they hunger for him. The church is often referred to as the virgin bride like Israel. Christ cannot be truly loved by anyone except the virgin heart that has no other lovers except him. A heart that loves God and hates sin is virgin.

God is saying, 'I love you yet you betray me at the drop of a hat. Can't you see that we were made for each other? A match made in heaven? Please come back to me.' And you reply, 'I love you but I love foreign gods as well. I cannot come back. It's no use. I'm no good. I have to go after them.' The living God cannot win the one he loves because she is captivated by her own addictions. You give up on a relationship of heroic proportions for lovers that will leave you. The erotic dancer, religious fanatic, alcoholic, adrenalin junkie, man with a prostitute and prostitute with a man, the eloquent preacher who seduces with words and woman in the office who seduces with her body are either indulging or pouring on the anesthesia. To carry on with these other lovers is to feed them with worship. But this kind of worship does not let you freely love. The maidens loved him because they hungered for him.

Beyond the kiss

She started with a kiss from his mouth then her hunger grows and she desires all of him. How many times do you stop short of worshipping him with all of your heart? There is a certain crossroads you will stand at hungering for God. Down one road your lovers will call with demands that you indulge. But down the other road Christ will extend his hand. He wants to hear from you 'take me away with you - let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers.' Both have rejection attached to them. Your lovers are sure to reject you. The arrows that have wounded you in the past will tell you that the king's chambers will reject you but this is where we put our trust in him that he will never leave us or forsake us. Will you mortgage your heart out to your lovers or hunger after God?

Why do fairytales transcend every generation? They do not have the latest high-tech graphics and superheroes but they have two transcendent things: A hero that will pursue relentlessly the one he loves and a woman of incredible beauty who is pursued. Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are all the same. They appear to common wenches fit for nothing when they are really princesses in waiting to be queen. The men are either a beast or a frog angry or pathetic. But they are waiting for true loves kiss to awaken a prince in waiting to be king. Good and evil are both veiled. The serpent in the Garden of Eden and Christ the Carpenters son are both veiled and not what they seem. Imagine if in the story of Cinderella the prince had married Grimheld the ugly sister. But this is how the Gospel is presented today. Christ is the good guy who marries the sinful ugly sister just to show how great he is that he would take a bride of such ugliness. This is not the true Gospel. Christ does not take ugliness but outstanding beauty.

You cannot start at the fall of man to understand who we are not in Christ. That would be like walking into the movie thirty minutes after it had started. The Gospel has to be explained in terms of 'Once upon a time….' If a boy comes home with a grazed knee from falling off his bike it does not make headlines but if a skydiver's parachute does not open it makes the news. The higher the original state 'Once upon a time…' the bigger the fall. No one is surprised when a neighbor's dog runs away and plays the mongrel sowing a few wild oats to other dogs and is found muzzling through the garbage for food. But what if that was the First Lady? You are not what you were meant to be and you know it. You pass a stranger in the mall and will not have eye contact yet millions travel as tourists to view the ancient and fallen buildings from Pyramids to temples. Abused, neglected, fallen and vandalized yet fearfully and wonderfully made. Every woman is either searching for or running from her beauty and every man avoids his masculinity. It is hard to look at your life ruined with sin but it is harder to look before that when man walked with God. We all long to be noticed.

Helen of Troy is the story of two kingdoms Greece and the Trojans. Helen was married to the king of Greece but was stolen away by Prince Paris of Troy. Her face set sail a thousand ships from Greece to war with Troy. Thousands of men gave their life for her beauty. One woman's beauty caused the Trojan wars. Many have never felt pursued like this or even noticed. You were born with a longing to be noticed by at least one person. If you are pursued you must be something but if you are not then there must be something wrong with you. So you learn to play out a roll complete with costume and pre-written script that gets adapted every decade of your life. David is a smart kid so 'smart' is his roll who will help you in the library with your homework. Sharon is abused so her roll is 'victim' complete with script. She has a good chance of heading up women's ministry as an efficient woman who serves well but is never noticed by a single man in the church because her roll is 'victim.' Karen is overweight so her roll is 'librarian' when she wants to be a cheerleader. Chad is an athlete and his roll is to pick on those who are not. Paul is not an athlete and his roll is to be the victim of Chad. Your roll is chosen for you for all the right reasons or all the wrong reasons. People fear not being noticed and at the same time carry the burden of performing a role and maintaining to be noticed. But everyone has a unique identity.

'Dark' is not the identity of this woman. She had spent most of her life exposed in the desert sun tending flocks and vineyards. 'Lovely' is her identity. She is walking through the king's court hungering for the one she loves.

Other women all look the same with their delicate exteriors and uniform of culture. Although this woman lives in a body of sin she knows her identity is 'lovely.'

Not afraid in the kings court. Olivia loves the trampoline. She will call out 'watch me' as I am busy in the back yard. She is looking for praise, admiration, applause and even glory. Why would she want anything else? She was created by love, in love for love. This is how God works in you. The Father Son and Holy Spirit are who they are because of each other. God would not be Father without the Son. We would call him 'God, Lord, Almighty but not Abba Father without the Son. Like Olivia he called out to his Father.

He wanted the disciples to 'watch him' with applause, praise, admiration and glory. The woman walked through the king's court without fear of people watching her because this is how she was made - by love, for love in love - to be noticed. This kind of identity does not fall on but is bestowed on us.

(1 John 3:1) "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God…"

Upon your death you do not want to be replaced by a pet, possession or another person because you are unique. You draw identity from outside yourself into yourself. But what or who is that? Helen of Troy, but why Troy and not Greece? She was married to the Greek king. Troy gave Helen identity as the center of international crisis and she knew it. So her identity for all time is associated with Troy not Greece. We created a universal crisis and we know it. We were stolen from our first love and have been with many lovers since. But Christ launched a campaign to win us back and lay siege to the kingdom of sin and death through beauty and affliction. His face did not set sail a thousand ships but redemptive love. We are told by some that God wants obedience, sacrifice and adherence to doctrine. Others say he wants us happy and content. But before all of this he wants us - our heart.

True identity is not drawn from the outside into yourself but from inside to the outside. This woman was dark on the outside because of the life she had lived under the scorching sun yet she was lovely. She would not conform to the ladies in waiting all dressed up but with nowhere to go. She is not prepared to linger and wait her turn but she hungers for him by dropping her veil risking insult and even injury. Christ warned his disciples that they would 'fall away on account of him' but you must risk the insult and injury of worshipping with all your heart and is fully devoted to him.

Can you consider what people will say about you as nothing in hungering after God?

If you would like to see previous transcripts or hear audio available you can find them here.:

• American Idol & Are You Hungry? Introduction
• Be Afraid - Tom Trimble & Unveiled Faces - Rick Stone
• Live Now! - Rick Stone & What Do You Burn For? - Daniel Livengood
• The Lion the Witch and You! Series
• Promise Land to Promise Life Series
  
• Discovery.God Series