Happy day of love to all! Happy Valentine's Day!
There's still time to get to the church and get your loved one some chocolate covered strawberries! At 6:25 I got mine!
We continue to lift up prayers for those on our prayer list. An update from my dad, the doctors believe, based on test results that it was not a stroke but a weakness setting in from the first stroke. My dad told me he hadn't felt like eating in a couple of days and that certainly had something to do with it. He has food but he sometimes doesn't want to get to it. It's coming up on my mom's second anniversary of having been gone and I know that's weighing heavily on his heart. Pray for all who are feeling loneliness on this day.
Our sermon yesterday concluded our study on Jesus' Sermon on The Mount, focusing on Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus' words about possessions.
Here is that passage: 19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
Monday: Re-read the passage from yesterday. What do you believe Jesus is commanding us to do? Can you think back to the first time you came to possess the thing you wanted most in your life? Where is that thing now? Is it still bringing you the happiness you thought it would? Think back to the time Jesus’ words became real for you and you began to seek the heavenly treasures. What have you added to your treasure in heaven in recent days? Weeks?
We've all gone through phases of wanting and trying to acquire material things we wanted. A bicycle, a car, a particular toy, etc. And as I shared yesterday in the sermon those things soon either got lost, broken, stolen or disappeared. That's what Jesus was saying. What thing could possibly last as long as eternity? My dream car was that 1990 Chevy Suburban that died by the side of the road. As the Psalmist related and adjusted to this situation, "By the side of the road, we sat and wept." I don't know where that vehicle is today. It could be a salad bar in some strange restaurant or it could have been rebuilt and sold to benefit the American Cancer Society, who received the truck as a gift from us.
But to be honest, having bought that vehicle didn't bless me the way other important days and events in my life. My marriage, the birth of my children, preaching sermons that have helped people find the love of the Lord, etc. Jesus warns us from being possessed by possessions. We should seek to belong to God and live our lives in ways that reflect that. It becomes too easy to get caught up in so many pressures from society today, but if we focus on God through worship, prayers, and devotions, we can be free to live as the children of God.
PRAYER: Forgive us O God, for those times we've given ourselves over to things and not to You. Free us to be Yours in all things. Let us seek to be as Your Son, Jesus, wanted us to be. Let me through this time add a treasure in heaven. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Have a great day!
Blessings!
e.v.
