Truth- take no thought for tomorrow

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

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.

Seek first.

If you are seeking something first then it stands to reason that you will seek something next, a second thing, a third thing, and so on.

Our Savior is teaching that we must SEEK FIRST the KINGDOM of GOD and GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS.

We've become consumed with seeking so many things before we seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. We let our lives become consumed by our worries and concerns. Just because we cannot fathom how we will be fed, or clothed, or even how we will drink doesn't mean God does not.  We come back to that very old sin that Satan instigated in heaven as he chose to sin- we want to be LIKE GOD! We want to know.   Satan tempted Eve seeding her thoughts with just this same thing.  Eat the forbidden fruit and you will know good and evil, you will be like God. 

Gen 3:4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Gen 3:5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

KNOWING. You will KNOW Eve, you will know all there is to know- LIKE GOD. 

Satan LIED.

We are not like gods, our eyes are not opened in any good way at all, and our knowledge of good and evil has NOT made us like gods.  

GOD knows our every need and here's the catch, the biggest,  the only catch - if you want to call it that- GOD knows our every need and our ONLY real need is SALVATION, and that salvation offers us the kingdom of God in eternity with Him and His Son, without SIN.  This is our ONLY real need.   We think it's all this other stuff, we get caught up in the cares of this life so much it excludes our only real need- salvation.

Right now you might be shaking your head vehemently and saying I can't let my children starve! My children have needs!  I can't stop needing to provide for my family!  But ask yourself this, PLEASE, ask yourself this…  do your children, does your family need salvation?  If we ALL need salvation first and foremost that includes our families. 

No, I'm NOT definitely NOT advocating that anyone stop providing or trying to provide for their families physical needs.  What I am saying is that all the providing in the world will NEVER get you or your children salvation, and this is what we NEED to seek FIRST, and all else after.

We've stopped seeking the kingdom of God first and regulated it to a different level that comes after we've done this, that, and the other thing.

We've decided at some point that if God really is caring for all our needs He'll do it THEN we'll know Him and THEN we'll follow Him and seek Him. 

Let's read these four verses through again:

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.

Take no thought for the morrow.

We've already talked about seeking first God's kingdom and this is Christ's TRUTH.

Does this mean we will NEVER say- "What are we going to eat?"   Of course it doesn't. Food doesn't magically appear and it didn't magically appear for Jesus. He went into others houses and was served food. SOMEONE had to have the forth thought to have that food available.  We go to the market, or stores (most of in the U.S.A. go to supermarkets) and we buy food not just for a day but for a few days, a week, or more. To buy such food we are thinking ahead to 'what are we going to eat.'  The same for drink and clothing, we make plans to drink and to buy clothes to wear.  There would be a lot of naked, hungry and very thirsty people around if we were all to just sit around do our jobs, get our pay, and yet never think about buying food, drink, or clothes.  We think about it, and we think about tomorrow, we make plans. Tomorrow I have to do this, tomorrow I have to do that. I have an appointment for tomorrow, etc. We think about these things and it's natural. Very few, if any, people can truly say they never think about what they're going to eat- the truth is they are thinking about it moments before doing it, right? Even if someone else prepared it and set it on a table, before you take that first bite you are thinking about that bite you are going to take.  Very few can say they live in the here and now because the moment they have a thought to do something- they are thinking ahead. You'd be completely immobile if you never thought about what you were going to do. This is taking Jesus' words to such an extreme the entire meaning is gone.

Seek FIRST.  Not SEEK ONLY.

All these thing shall be added unto you-  you will be provided for- YOUR ETERNAL LIFE, YOUR SEEKING ETERNAL LIFE will be provided for even if you are called to walk the walk of starving to death, dying of thirst, or perishing from exposure.  It's NOT our call to make, it's NOT our place to question God's ways.  We could say that God must really love those who are millionaires for supplying them with all they'll ever need in this life, and likewise God must really despise those who are dying of hunger, thirst, and exposure.  

Seek FIRST the kingdom of God and HIS righteousness and we will be provided for.

If we worry about tomorrow we are borrowing trouble. The worry, as we talked about a few days ago, steals our faith.

People have been taught to worry.  We teach our kids to worry.  We teach and have been taught that not worrying gives off the impression of NOT CARING, NOT BEING RESPONSIBLE, NOT TRYING, BEING LAZY, etc. 

Satan has done a number on our FAITH. Satan has hacked away at our faith and will continue to do so as much as he possibly can.

Letting go and letting God- has become something foreign to us in reality. We may mouth the words while we hold on to our secret anxiety, our hidden worry, only NOTHING is hid from our God, nothing.

Please LORD help us to TRUST YOU in ALL THINGS!

Please LORD help us not let worry steal our faith!

Please LORD teach us, open our hearts, our minds, our lives to learn all we need to learn to be YOURS wholly YOURS!

Forgive us because we are so far from being learned pupils.  Forgive us our refusal to learn to live Your word. Forgive us for NOT seeking FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness!  Help us! Save US!

In Your amazing LOVE!

Real life spiritual zombies

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!

Wasting the opportunity to trust

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?

How is it possible for us to take no thought for our lives when in truth isn't that mostly all we think about, our lives? How can we help but think of our lives? Our Savior doesn't want us to be overcome with the TEMPORARY to ETERNITY parts of our lives to the exclusion HIS will, loving others.

When He said take no thought for our lives He included the following-

Don't worry about what you're going to eat.

Don't worry about what you're going to drink.

Don't worry about what you're going to wear.

Life is MORE than eating and our bodies are mean more than what we are wearing.

Jesus KNEW the serious temptation that people fall into concerning food, drink, and clothing. He knew the DANGERS of us obsessing over those parts of our lives.  And we DO obsess over these things. We obsess over so incredibly much that we should never obsess over.

If our Father in heaven wants us to eat, drink, and wear clothes HE will provide a way for these things. That isn't to say we are to just sit about and wait for the stuff to fall out of the sky. In providing us these things He provides a way for us to get these things that won't have us obsessing, or sinning in any way.

He will provide the means.

He tells us NOT to WORRY.  We spend so much time WORRYING. 

The thing is, that old bottom line will forever read that whether you worry or not the situation remains the same, worrying will NOT change the situation. We have an opportunity towards FAITH that we squander on worry.  I'm so guilty of this, so incredibly guilty, Lord God please forgive me for wasting so many opportunities to trust You with my endless, my countless hours spent worrying - thinking about my life.

Please LORD help me to recognize the worry when it first creeps in and seek YOU in prayer, coming to YOU knowing YOU will provide whatever I truly need to fulfill YOUR will for me whatever that may be. Please LORD teach ME! Help me to LEARN LORD!

All through YOU, all through YOUR amazing LOVE!

>

Let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Two masters.

We've seen plenty of comedy shows take on the scenario of one person trying to tend to two sick people at the same time, or one worker trying to please two bosses, a child trying to please both parents. The comedic aspect comes in because the situations inevitably deteriorate to the point the one who is trying to please the others gives up in frustration, or everything falls apart and the one ends up pleasing no one. It's not until a decision is reached and the person is allowed to treat both those they were trying to please as one, or they choose one that the person has to please over the other, a chain of command is established, or a compromise is reached.  The point being all these scenarios reveal how having two 'masters' does not work out. And while they may be comedic fodder, there is a note of REAL truth in those scenarios.  The child trying to please both parents is necessary but not if the parents are giving conflicting tasks- that's when it becomes a situation that needs communication and understanding.  A person having two bosses, it does happen, but again when conflicting orders come from the bosses trouble arises. Having to tend to the need of two sick people when both are demanding attention above the other will bring about tremendous conflict and again an order of service has to be determined or the poor serving person will go insane.

We try to serve God and our flesh nature all the time. We try to mingle the two so that they get along. We call for many a compromise to make our flesh desires fit our God's commands, but it doesn't work.

When we serve our flesh we are choosing to serve our selves first over God and His command to serve others. The command to love others is just that a command to serve others, because love is the name we give the act of putting others first before ourselves, and boy do we have trouble doing that!

There are millions and millions of people who mouth the words of love to others but ask them to put others before themselves and serve the ones they are claiming to love and you get a whole other matter. 

When we say love we say as long as you meet the requirements of the sort of person I can love, I will love you. If you stop meeting those requirements my love for you just might stop too. If you dare to believe differently than I do then this will set up barrier between us and make it harder for me to love you. Yes, there are any number of conditions placed on love and our Savior simply said love as you would be loved.  Our Savior offered His love to all and then He offered a thing called forgiveness to those who didn't love at first. Endless opportunities to choose to love Him, until the point of death taking that opportunity away or the point of His return and all the choices having been made.

When we love we serve, when we serve we are given an opportunity to love.

If we love ourselves and our selfish desires we serve them.  If we love our God and His desires then we serve Him.

We have to ask ourselves who we are serving in all we do.  Yes, in all we do.

Sounds crazy doesn't it, expecting someone to ask themselves who they are serving when they wash the dishes, take out the garbage, brush their teeth, wash their face, etc.   The point here is to ask whether what they are doing is serving a SELFISH purpose.  Are they washing the dishes to impress someone, or simply because it's their duty to wash them?  Are they brushing their teeth to impress others or doing so because it keeps them healthy? What is the motive behind the actions, are they able to serve God better by taking the action, or is there a selfish motive behind it.  Most people would instantly say no way is it selfish to wash your own face- but what about the person who is obsessed with their own beauty and their washing routine goes far beyond a simple cleansing for health and well being? We can take actions that are considered perfect normal and pervert them, it happens all the time.

1Co_10:31  Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

1Pe 1:24  For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.

When we choose to serve our self in such away that we are doing so because we believe we are the most important thing in our own life and deserving of all we can give ourselves, we are choosing to serve something very temporary, something that will fade away, something that will wither away, something that will turn to dust taking absolutely nothing with them to the grave. All the beauty they ever possessed will be gone, all the wealth will be gone, all their selfishness gone, everything will be gone.  The only thing that is left is any treasure we've laid up in HEAVEN, and the only treasures we can lay up in heaven are SPIRITUAL and those that are SERVING GOD and GOD'S WILL ALONE.

If we try to serve our selfishness we truly will end up hating God, the TRUTH of God and all that He really is, not the manufactured God people have created to pacify themselves as they sin.

We simply cannot serve our selfishness and God, it's impossible.

We make the choice and we make it daily over and over in many, many ways choosing who we will serve. When we die daily, it's a death to self and selfishness we are dying to.

Mar 8:34  And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Take up his cross, and what is that cross for? It the instrument of death.

Luk_9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Daily this cross is taken up.

Every day we are to carry the instrument of death upon ourselves, and the death is one of self denial.

If we try to serve our selfishness and God we will ultimately fail and very miserably so.  If you find yourself very comfortable in your life and religion make sure you ask yourself if you've made any compromises with God's truth, seriously examine yourself.

2Co_13:5  Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

We have to examine ourselves, not simply accept that everything is peachy because we want to serve our self and God both.

If we aren't daily taking up the cross of self denial, we better be asking ourselves why not, and searching for that answer.  And remember the answer could be as simple our selfishness, as simple as our choosing to serve self over God. We have to acknowledge that we cannot serve our selfishness and God both. 

Mat 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Please Lord help us to choose YOU over our own selfishness in whatever form that takes. Satan has so many tricks and deceptions for us to get caught up in. Preserve us in YOU, protect us in YOU, let us live for YOU and only YOU, not for Satan and his pleasure.  Save us LORD, from ourselves and our inclination to self. 

All through YOUR love, YOUR righteousness, YOUR mercy and YOUR grace!

In You CHRIST, all in YOU!

Light that is darkness...

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

If our treasures are in heaven so is our heart, we just learned that, right?

If our mind is focused on Christ, on Christ in heaven, on heavenly things then we are single minded and our life is fill with the light of Christ.

If our mind is focused on evil then our entire life is filled with evil.

Light and darkness.

Joh_8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Joh_3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Joh_3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

Joh_3:21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Joh_1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Joh_1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Satan wants us to train our thoughts on anything but heavenly things. Satan will do everything he possibly can to keep our mind focused on things that are NOT ETERNAL. Satan wants our light to be darkness, he wants our understanding to be of dark things, he wants our focus on HIS false light. If we exist in a world that keeps God out, that keeps the heavenly eternal existence at bay then we are caught up in darkness and we are blind to true life. So many want us to just focus on here and now, as long as we are kept from focusing on Christ and His eternity, because you cannot be single minded for Christ without being focused on eternity, then we are focused on a very dark end. If you truly do not believe in an eternal life in Christ then your existence is cut off, you start to imagine all sorts of possible life after death scenarios that are all lies. Every single life after death scenario is shrouded in darkness because it's filled with deception perpetrated by the evil on himself.

The Bible is very clear on the grand scheme of things in our lives if we choose to listen to it.

Christ is our Savior from this world, He came preaching the kingdom of heaven, this was His mission, to bring the good news of eternal life in Him. His entire life was single minded and focused on heaven where the Heavenly Father resides, and wanting us to be there with Him in eternity.

Everything Christ did was focused on heaven and eternity, everything.  And He is our example. As our example we are to be single mindedly focused on the heaven and eternity He revealed for us and made possible to us. Our lives need to revolve around eternity with Him.

In today's world living heaven centered is very rare. 

The cares of this life take over our very existence as Christ foretold.

Luk_21:34  And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

How easy it is for us to be caught up in the cares of this life, how easy it is to lose the single minded focus and let darkness into our lives.

Luk_9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Deny himself.

Take up his cross DAILY.

Follow me.

Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

How incredibly great is the darkness that overcomes us when we are not filled with the singleness of our light in Christ.

Isa 5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Isa 5:21  Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

There is so much of this today, so incredibly much of this! 

God please help our eyes be single and full of the light of Christ!

Help us Lord.

Satan would have us wrapped up so tightly in his darkness, in his deceptions that we never see any light at all, but only the false light he uses to deceive.

Please LORD save us! Be our all in all!

All in YOU!

All in YOUR LOVE! YOUR AMAZING LOVE ALWAYS!

Our hearts set on heaven

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Do you have a single treasure here on earth right now? A single treasure.  We pity those who have no possessions, we call them poor, we call them destitute, we call them sad and miserable, lowly and unworthy. We call them bums, homeless, and we pity those who have nothing.

Yet we read this-

Lay NOT up for yourselves treasures upon earth.

Treasures- possessions- things that moths can destroy, things rust can ruin, things thieves can steal..

What sort of things are those? In truth, almost all things, right?

If you've ever had your home broken into by a thief you know the damage that can be done to your possessions.  That prized collection of silverware, the costly clothes and shoes, the jewelry you cherish, the electronics you love, they are gone, all gone.  And if all our treasured possessions are gone we mourn them, why, because our HEART is with those possessions.

How much do you cherish your eternal life? Seriously, do you find joy in the heavenly treasure you can possess? Or is heaven treasure so vague and surreal, so very intangible that you seldom think about it, let alone love it, putting your heart with it.

Jesus doesn't want us to TREASURE the things of earth.

Jesus wants us to put our TREASURE in heaven.

You most assuredly cannot put a shoe collection in heaven, in fact you cannot put anything material in heaven so what does that say? We are NOT to treasure material things, not a single one.  Does that mean we can't love our family heirlooms passed down over the years and beloved by great grandmothers, grandmothers, and mothers? That we can't love that hand print in clay that your baby made years ago? That we can't love the pictures of cherished memories of people long gone now?

Truthfully none of those things should fill our hearts as much as God, nothing should.  Enjoy them all, yet, but they shouldn't have our HEARTS to the exclusion of our GOD and heavenly treasure. You know that none of those things can go to heaven with you when you are called by Christ at His coming. You will NOT take a single thing with you, not one. 

We need to think about that a little bit because just how often do we sin over THINGS that ultimately have NO meaning at all, in the ETERNAL scheme of things?

I don't think we ask ourselves nearly enough if this or that matters in the eternal scheme of things. There is so much as I've said many times before that is TEMPORARY to ETERNITY.  We need to define and make all those things real as being TEMPORARY to ETERNITY so they aren't holding the importance that only Heaven should hold for us.

May God help us to put our HEARTS in heaven with HIM, and not here on anything earthly.

Our love for others is a HEAVENLY treasure as long as it is love that come from our SAVIOR, a real love, a godly love.

ALL IN OUR SAVIOR BY HIS MERCY, BY HIS LOVE, BY HIS GRACE!

Secret Fasting

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 6:16  Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

Mat 6:17  But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;

Mat 6:18  That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Disfiguring your face so you appear to fast.

How many people out there are 'dressing' the part, but not 'living' the part?

Do  you dress the part without living it?

Is there an air of 'holier than thou' about you that is manufactured?

Are you one of those outward sheep but inward wolves?

One who truly follows Christ knows that they can hide NOTHING from Him, nothing.  They comprehend that they can put on garments they perceive are proper, but inwardly be far from proper.

HYPOCRITES play at being God's. HYPOCRITES put on a show of being a CHRISTIAN. HYPOCRITES want others to note their 'goodness', their 'godliness'. 

Fasting.

Why did/do people fast at all?

Fasting is abstaining from food.

When we eat we are replenishing our bodies.  We know that if we stop eating, or are kept from eating that our bodies will grow weaker and weaker until finally we die.  Food is a necessity to us. However food is also a pleasure to us. We enjoy eating. And while we must eat to live, we can eat too much we can in fact live to eat- abusing food, abusing our bodies with food.

Food being a necessity as well as something we enjoy, when we voluntarily choose to stop eating we are choosing to stop doing something that will keep our bodies at their best as well as something we enjoy. We are giving up something that ultimately decides whether we live or die.  Symbolically when we choose to fast aren't we choosing to die unless God sees fit to sustain us through the fast?  What message are we sending to God when we fast?

Hasn't God called people to fast?

Jesus was called to fast for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness.

David chose to fast when his first son by Bathsheba lay dying.  He fast for this reason--

2Sa 12:21  Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.

2Sa 12:22  And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?

He fasted and wept hoping God would look upon him and spare his son's life. 

His fast was a denial of sustenance hoping his sacrifice of that sustenance would have God look favorably upon him.

And Jesus said this--

Mat 17:18  And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

Mat 17:19  Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?

Mat 17:20  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Mat 17:21  Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

Causing this particular sort of devil to depart from the afflicted wasn't possible unless those trying to cast out this sort of evil prayed and fasted.

Fasting - denying self sustenance while calling upon God, entreating God to intervene and rid someone of the evil spirit inside them. 

Fasting seems to be symbolic of giving up part of our life for God.

Yet people go on fasts all the time for various reasons.

Some are told to fast before medical tests. Others fast to rid their body of what they believe are unwanted toxins. Still others fast to entreat gods other than the One and Only Great I AM. There are fasts for dieting purposes as people try to lose weight in fact I recently read about a man who uses fasting throughout the week on various days as a means to limiting his caloric intake so he can use those calories later when he really wants to splurge, this keeping him from gaining weight by mingling fasting with splurging. 

So fasting isn't restricted to serving God.

Jesus however is referring to those who try to appear godly by putting on a show of their sacrificing their sustenance, wanting everyone to recognize that they are doing this sacrificial act and that makes THEM somehow closer to God than others.

Whenever we try to APPEAR Godly for the sake of APPEARING Godly then it is a false representation, it's a lie and God abhors a lie!

Can you genuinely look perhaps gaunt from an extended fast, that goes beyond a person purposely making themselves look bad as they fast? Yes. God is against us putting on a show, because the truth is hidden and a lie is born.   If fasting is going to cause you to change outwardly it has to be a natural, not a manufactured change. 

Jesus tells us we are to NOT to appear as if we are fasting at all, why? Because the fast is a personal connection between God and the one fasting, not a public show. God doesn't want the public show He wants the genuine heart involved in fasting. 

It makes you wonder how many stopped fasting when they couldn't put on that show. Seriously. If they weren't reaping the reward of acknowledgement from other people of their supposed piety then why bother at all. They truly were NOT fasting in the way God intended.

Fasting can be an offering we make to God, a giving up of self, a self sacrifice.  Just because we fast does not mean we will automatically get any petitions we are asking of God, it's not a magic lamp effect.  David did not receive what he was desiring by his fasting, yet others fast and do receive their petitions.  It is ultimately all the WILL of God.  We must want the WILL of GOD no matter what we are seeking. It must be HIS WILL and our faith in HIS WILL over our very finite comprehension of all things.

Again Jesus says this--

Mat 6:18  ... unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Our Father sees us in all our supposedly secret acts. We don't need others to see us because that draws attention more to ourselves than to God. There is a grave danger in drawing attention to ourselves, a danger Satan loves to encourage. We are to do these things in secret so we are NOT tempted to draw attention towards ourselves taking it from God who deserves all the GLORY, all the PRAISE, all the HONOR!

In HIS amazing LOVE ALWAYS! By HIS GRACE and MERCY!