Mat 5:2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them,
saying…
Mat 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for
your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body,
what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment?
This is truth. We
worry we don't believe, we don't have faith, and we are told NOT to worry by
JESUS Himself. Yesterday we talked about this a tiny bit but it bears much more
consideration because our SAVIOR expounded on this, and if He expounded upon this
then WE need to LEARN THIS LESSON and learn it good. We can't just read this
haphazardly and dismiss it. We can't just study this and not LIVE it. We can't
comprehend this and NOT incorporate it into our lives in a REAL WAY. If we
learn this in a very superficial way as something to know but not do, then we
aren't learning at all. We are those who are getting the seed among the thorns,
not on good ground, and our SAVIOR tells us what happens when we receive seed
among the thorns.
Mat_13:22 He also that received seed among the thorns
is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness
of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
The CARE of THIS
WORLD, the DECEITFULNESS of RICHES- CHOKE the WORD!
If you're choking
something you're killing it, killing the words of our SAVIOR. When you kill the
word or are in the process of killing God's word you can gain NOTHING from the
Word you are killing.
The Word is not
allowed to live in you life and if you don't allow the Word to live you cannot
expect to have life, it just won't work.
How many REAL LIFE SPIRITUAL ZOMBIES exist today? Those who are living
but spiritually dead, those who believe they are living spiritually but are
really killing the Word of God. How many people are allowing the Word of God be
choked by the CARE of this WORLD and the DECEITFULNESS of RICHES? How many are so wound up in all the daily
worries about living and how much they all entail having enough money,
believing that if they only had the money (DECEPTION) that somehow all these
worries will disappear. Truthfully we
cannot let ourselves believe in temporary RICHES over eternal life with our SAVIOR- HIS WORDS!
We have to look at
our lives and ask ourselves whether or not we could be a spiritual zombie.
Does our HAPPINESS
here and now depend upon the things we possess? Are we depressed when we cannot
fathom a better future here and now? Do we allow our lives to be controlled by
the things of this temporary world?
People call other
people crazy when they talk like this, saying our world is just temporary to
eternity. Actually living a life with this as a real belief day in and day out
people overall believe you to be crazy, why? Because the world would cease to
function as it does if everyone chose to believe this way, and those people
can't imagine a world without our great financial institutions, without our
technology and advances. Most of us cannot imagine being happy without access
to our computers and other electronic devices.
Take away the electricity and people spend most of their time WANTING
that electricity back. I'm not advocating a dictatorship upon earth by ANY MAN.
When people are controlled by other people in any way there will always be
problems. Bottom line, this world as it is, is hopeless and it WILL NOT
continue indefinitely. How often I've brought up the Bible verse with Jesus
saying HE'S NOT OF THIS WORLD and WE ARE NOT TO BE OF THIS WORLD.
Joh 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world.
Jesus was ALL about
the kingdom of HEAVEN, not the kingdom of earth. And if HE, our SAVIOR was all about the
kingdom of HEAVEN then why are we so bent on being all about the kingdom of
earth?
Jesus taught--
Mat 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow
not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father
feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
A bird, a lowly
bird, a bird an animal we use as food all the time, a simple bird does not
plant any seed in the ground. A simple bird does not reap any seed they've sown
they've sown none. A simple bird does not store up the product of their sown
seed into barns for eating later on. A
simple bird does NONE of those things and yet they LIVE. Who provides for their
needs? God. And if God provides for birds which are
simple why can't we believe God will provide all we NEED for us who are the
superior beings- humans made in the likeness of God Himself.
The trouble comes
when we STOP trusting God to provide for all we need to be HIS in eternity. We
screw up our thinking and believe that God has to provide for all our needs to
live here in this temporary existence. Many
a martyr went to their deaths NOT
thinking God had stopped providing for them, but others might look upon them
and think that. Didn't Jesus Himself have to hear the taunts about His being
able to save others but not himself?
Salvation and life to the ungodly is all about living here and now and
NOT about the real life we can have in eternity. Those martyrs went to their deaths knowing
that God had provided EVERYTHING they ever needed for eternal life in JESUS
CHRIST. Even their own lives here and now were but temporary to eternity. And the fact that God allowed their path to
mean a path of deprivation and ultimately being murdered did not mean God
stopped caring for them in any way!
It's all in the
destination we choose- are we living for here and now and all we can get out of
it without any real hope for eternity, or are we living for eternity with
everything here and now holding very little sway over us?
Jesus taught--
Mat 6:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one
cubit unto his stature?
Can you make
yourself taller, or shorter? We might be
able to do a lot about our sizes weight wise but actually adding inches to
yourself or taking them away is impossible unless you want to undergo surgery
etc, but can your MERE though change your height in anyway? NO!
Jesus taught--
Mat 6:28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
Mat 6:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the
field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
If our mindset is on
eternity, our arraying ourselves in the finest of clothes means nothing, they
are in the end only clothes. The lily in
the field is more beautiful than ANYTHING anyone can ever create to wear.
Jesus taught--
Mat 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall
we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Mat 6:32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles
seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Mat 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for
the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof.
More on these four
verses tomorrow, all by the GRACE of GOD, all through HIS LOVE, HIS MERCY, HIS
RIGHTEOUSNESS!
Please LORD help us
not to be spiritual zombies going through the motions having the thorns ruin
the seed you've sown around us. Please LORD bless us and keep us from the
thorny ground SATAN has ensnared so many in.
ALL BY YOUR GRACE!