OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WORLD AROUND US
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
Our world is filled with difficulty and problems that affect our lives every day. This turmoil exists between us as individuals in the society we live in particularly when it comes to trying to live the Christian life. Jesus continued to teach in his sermon on the Mount about these difficulties and problems by dealing with the emotional stress it causes when we concentrate too hard by ourselves to come up with answers.
In Matthew 6: 19- 24 Jesus begins to address the issue of what we consider to be treasurer in our lives. From the beginning Jesus did not say that the treasures that we cleaned to so much is necessarily money or riches, but he did say that these treasures were what became the center of our lives, and the most important assets to us. He started out by saying do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. The reason for saying that in God's own mind is that Earth is a very temporary place, and it is not a secure location for anything that we consider to be of great value to us. I believe that God holds those things that we love in this life in high esteem just as he does who we are on a spiritual basis. God knows that this world is held in bondage by the fact that everything that man creates will eventually be eaten away by Moss and harassed, and is subject to being stolen by thieves who have absolutely no regard for personal ownership. This world has an unspoken rule that says possession is 99% ownership, and in our lifetime we have seen that type of ownership change hands quite a bit.
Jesus tells us very truthfully that where our treasure is will be where our heart is as well, and so it becomes important for us to be careful about what we are persuaded by this world to love or to put our trust in. The world around us will show us many different things, most of them will appear eye-catching; by being bright and shiny, new or different. Most of these things are used by the enemy of God to entrap us, and tie us even more closely to the physical world around us. Jesus tells us that what we see; or what it is we allow to influence us will actually change the kind of witness that we give to those around us. Jesus says the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body is full of light. If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! I believe that it is time for Christians to begin to understand the influence that STUFF has on us as people. The things that we possess often become the things that enslave us to this world. If we can keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and upon God the father our hearts will remain filled with guns light and truth, but if we allow the things of this world to be placed before our love of God then the influence of our heart will become dark. That darkness will be mostly do to the fact that we have been distracted by the things of this world, and we have allowed them to be more important to us than our relationship with God.
In verse 24 Jesus says "no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." I believe that we can take that statement even further to say that we cannot serve both God and self. Already in life we have quite a bit to worry about from day-to-day. When we get caught up in the worries of what might come or what might be, we begin to destroy any vision that God might be able to give us of our future success. I want to discuss with you more about the idea of worry that Jesus shared with those who he spoke to that day at the sermon on the mount. There are so many different traps that this world has set for us that we need to be aware of, and the tramp of things like possessions, positions, power, and wealth are the beginning of the tools of destruction that Satan uses to distract us from God. If we look up from the world long enough we can begin to see the truth about the deceit that this world uses to put a spin on what is real. It is not only about making money or acquiring things, but after we make the money and acquire the things it also becomes about how do we keep them from being taken from us, being destroyed in some way, or just plain being talked out of them? God's answer is simple; if we concentrate on him, and our relationship with him we will find that he will and to us all things that we need. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Our world is filled with difficulty and problems that affect our lives every day. This turmoil exists between us as individuals in the society we live in particularly when it comes to trying to live the Christian life. Jesus continued to teach in his sermon on the Mount about these difficulties and problems by dealing with the emotional stress it causes when we concentrate too hard by ourselves to come up with answers.
In Matthew 6: 19- 24 Jesus begins to address the issue of what we consider to be treasurer in our lives. From the beginning Jesus did not say that the treasures that we cleaned to so much is necessarily money or riches, but he did say that these treasures were what became the center of our lives, and the most important assets to us. He started out by saying do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. The reason for saying that in God's own mind is that Earth is a very temporary place, and it is not a secure location for anything that we consider to be of great value to us. I believe that God holds those things that we love in this life in high esteem just as he does who we are on a spiritual basis. God knows that this world is held in bondage by the fact that everything that man creates will eventually be eaten away by Moss and harassed, and is subject to being stolen by thieves who have absolutely no regard for personal ownership. This world has an unspoken rule that says possession is 99% ownership, and in our lifetime we have seen that type of ownership change hands quite a bit.
Jesus tells us very truthfully that where our treasure is will be where our heart is as well, and so it becomes important for us to be careful about what we are persuaded by this world to love or to put our trust in. The world around us will show us many different things, most of them will appear eye-catching; by being bright and shiny, new or different. Most of these things are used by the enemy of God to entrap us, and tie us even more closely to the physical world around us. Jesus tells us that what we see; or what it is we allow to influence us will actually change the kind of witness that we give to those around us. Jesus says the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body is full of light. If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! I believe that it is time for Christians to begin to understand the influence that STUFF has on us as people. The things that we possess often become the things that enslave us to this world. If we can keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and upon God the father our hearts will remain filled with guns light and truth, but if we allow the things of this world to be placed before our love of God then the influence of our heart will become dark. That darkness will be mostly do to the fact that we have been distracted by the things of this world, and we have allowed them to be more important to us than our relationship with God.
In verse 24 Jesus says "no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." I believe that we can take that statement even further to say that we cannot serve both God and self. Already in life we have quite a bit to worry about from day-to-day. When we get caught up in the worries of what might come or what might be, we begin to destroy any vision that God might be able to give us of our future success. I want to discuss with you more about the idea of worry that Jesus shared with those who he spoke to that day at the sermon on the mount. There are so many different traps that this world has set for us that we need to be aware of, and the tramp of things like possessions, positions, power, and wealth are the beginning of the tools of destruction that Satan uses to distract us from God. If we look up from the world long enough we can begin to see the truth about the deceit that this world uses to put a spin on what is real. It is not only about making money or acquiring things, but after we make the money and acquire the things it also becomes about how do we keep them from being taken from us, being destroyed in some way, or just plain being talked out of them? God's answer is simple; if we concentrate on him, and our relationship with him we will find that he will and to us all things that we need. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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