No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24).
Choose
this day
whom
you
will
serve.
It is, perhaps, the toughest choice you will ever have to make.
And yet it is no choice at all.
Happy Friday, Beloved.
The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)
I used to have this cool flashlight. It had several modes to it. It could throw red light, it could throw green light, it could strobe, it could even flash SOS signals. You know, the only thing it didn’t do well was throw normal, clear, steady light.
Which, of course, was the only thing I really needed it to do.
Yeah…I got rid of that flashlight.
In the last several verses, Jesus has been telling his people to be the real deal. He calls us to forgive truly, to serve honestly, and to spend our strength on real treasure. In order to do that, we need to see things for what they are. We need the pure light of Christ pouring into us, filling us and showing us what is right and good and true and godly.
If our eyes are good–if we are seeing things as God sees them–the Light of the World will shine in us and through us and from us. If our eyes are bad–if we are seeing things as the World sees them–well, our Enemy masquerades as an angel of light, does he not?
But his light is not light at all. It is darkness.
I wonder, if Jesus were speaking this lesson today, if he might have used the analogy of a window instead of a lamp. His audience did not have glass windows to let in light, but we do. If the glass is clean and clear, the light can shine in full and bright. If the glass is covered with dirt and grime, the light is diminished and the view is distorted. Just a thought.
Light your lamp. Clean your windows. Let the Light in today.
Happy Thursday, Beloved.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-21).
You have limited resources.
Your time, your strength, your money, your energy, your talent, your skill, your stuff–-these are finite assets. How are you using them?
Invest wisely today, Beloved.
When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matthew 6:16-18).
Yesterday I mentioned that God has little room for hypocricy.
Well, he’s not much into posing, either.
Let your time with him be with him, Beloved.
Not him and the crowd.
Because, in the end, there’s only one person in the audience who matters.
Happy Tuesday, Beloved
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew 6:14-15).
I keep waiting for some pastor or teacher to explain how this verse doesn’t mean what it seems to mean. You know, how there are 72 Greek words translated forgive, and how our position in Christ has absolutely nothing to do with the way we treat our fellow man.
I think I’ll be waiting a long time.
This verse means…what it means.
Our Father has little room in his kingdom for hypocrisy.
Does God call you to be a doormat? No, Beloved. Some relationships are toxic, and should not continue. But that does not mean that you let bitterness and anger and frustration and betrayal and vengeance fill your heart and rule your life. You have to let God sweep that junk out, and forgiveness is the broom.
What? You’re not strong enough to forgive what they did? You need help?
No problem, Beloved. I know a guy…
Happy Monday
…always giving thanks to God the Father for everything. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20).
Are you still thankful today, Beloved? Or has the Christmas to-do list already kicked aside your “Things I am thankful for” list? Look, I’m not judging; I know you’ve got a lot to do. Myself, I’m looking at a garage that needs to be cleaned–I’ve been putting it off for eight months now–just so I can get to the Christmas lights, most of which are broken, if I remember correctly. I have a vague memory of an entire string of lights falling from the roof last January, resulting in a string of mini-explosions and a decision that I would replace all the lights “Next year,” when finances would undoubtedly be better, except they’re not. So I’ve probably gotta buy lights, and garland, and maybe a lawn elf–but no inflatables, I’m passionately against inflatables–before I can even start decorating, and the neighbors are pretty much done already…
Yeah, so I get it.
But, for those of us in Christ, the One we were thankful for yesterday is the same One we celebrate at Christmas. It’s pretty much the same holiday; you just have to swap funny hats.
Of course, you know that already…you’re a bright one.
So, take time during the craziness–like today, like right now–to stop and breathe and give thanks.
For him
For you and him
Happy Friday, Beloved.
I thank God every time I remember you (Philippians 1:3).
As I think over all the ways God has blessed me and has filled my life with his love and his grace, my heart comes to you. You, who enter my digital den and read my ramblings. For some of you it’s a One-a-Day; for others it’s a Once-in-a-While. Still, you come, and you read, and you allow me to share the bits and bobs that rattle around inside me. Look, your time is important. You could go anywhere in cyberspace and read any of thousands of devotions written by people wiser and better trained than I. But you spend a few moments here, with me. You do me great honor.
So, as you give thanks today, please know that there is someone clacking away at his Chromebook who is very thankful for…you.
Happy Thanksgiving, Beloved.
…give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
in
Not “for”
but
“in.”
Beloved, there are things that occur in our lives that only a deranged person would be happy about.
Hey, I can’t pay my mortgage and I’m about to be homeless. Thanks, God!!
Wow, I just lost seven of my toes in a tragic rollerblading accident. Thanks, God!!
Gee, the dog just vomited up half of Kentucky on the carpet. Thanks, God!!
Feel free to add to the list.
Point is, trying to be thankful for the horrible nastiness of life is something best left to the truly psychotic,
which you are not.
I hope.
But God is not calling you to be thankful for these circumstances.
Only in them
See, being thankful in all circumstances is an acknowledgement that your circumstances do not define you, that they are not the end goal of your existence. No matter what awful, dyspeptic, 2020ish events overtake us, our lives and selves remain rooted with Christ in God.
Uncrushable
Unsinkable
Un2020able
Whatever this world rolls your way, you can be thankful that God remains God, and you remain his, and that remains everything.
So, be thankful, Beloved.
Happy Wednesday
For he (God) chose us in him (Jesus) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight (Ephesians 1:4).
So, as we move through Thanksgiving week, here’s a little something else to be thankful for:
You are the chosen one.
Well, maybe not the chosen one, but certainly a chosen one.
Consider this: before he made the world, God had you in mind.
Yeah, you.
He knew who you would be, how you would be. He saw your “We are the Champions” moments, your happy times,
your foolish choices
your many sins
your epic, seemingly endless failures.
And he loved you.
And he chose you.
Wow.
Now consider this: God is not bound by time, right? Past, present, future—it’s all kind of now to him. So when he looks at you he sees you not only as you are, but as you will be.
Holy
Blameless
Complete
His
Now, if only you could learn to see yourself as he sees you, hmm?
In the meantime, color yourself thankful and go forth in joy.
Happy Tuesday, Beloved.
TIme for a week of Thankfulness–even if it is 2020!
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever (Psalm 107:1).
God is good.
He doesn’t have to be.
He chooses to be.
God loves us.
He doesn’t have to.
He chooses to.
Look, we can get into a theotechnical debate about whether God is bound by his own nature to be what he is, or whether he possesses self-determinative power
and that would be fun
but until you convince me otherwise, I’m gonna go with the fact that God is…you know…God, and he could have done it any way he wanted to.
There is an image that comes to my mind as I write these words.
It’s Calvin and Hobbes.
Not the theologian and the sociopolitical philosopher, although…
No, I’m talking about the kid and the tiger.
If you aren’t familiar with the famous comic strip by Bill Watterson, I weep for your ignorance and encourage you to avail yourself of the great riches to be found before you continue here. For the enlightened among you, I’m thinking of the strip in which Calvin imagines himself as God, “but Calvin is no kind and loving god…and the puny inhabitants of Earth displease him!”
What follows is destruction on ohsomany levels.
Beloved, we need never ever even for a moment fear that God will decide to stop being good, or stop loving us, or restructure the foundation of the Universe to reflect darkness rather than light.
He has chosen to be good, and it is so.
He chose to be kind and loving and giving and gracious and merciful.
And it is so.
Forever.
Give thanks, Beloved.
Happy Monday