aSacredRebel

Treasure heart…

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. “But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” (Luke 12:32-40, NRSV)

Sell your possessions and give the money to the poor. Sell everything you own and give the money away…

How many of us find this possible? I know of only one person who actually did this. Mother Teresa Is the one I know of. I am sure there are more, but when we think of selling our possessions, for me she comes to mind. Now one would think this would bring us closer to God, but there were many years that Mother Teresa felt very disconnected from God…

But what is this verse telling us? It says do not be afraid, sell all your stuff, give the money away and then be prepared for when ever the Lord comes. And how many of us are going to do that?

We know that we do not give tithes and offerings until we get our lives right with God. Every knows it is impossible for someone who is not following the commandments and has their life in order to give to God and those in need.

If this is really the case why when Mother Teresa gave everything away and served the poor did she feel furthest from God? Plus that isn’t what Jesus said. He did not say where your heart is there your treasure will be. It is not get your life right and then tithing and giving will follow. It is where your treasure is there your heart will be also. If you really want to know where your heart is look at your check book and see where your treasure goes…. It might just be eye opening. Jesus tells us that if our treasure is somewhere that is where our heart will be. We will not put 100% into something we do not already have our treasure in.

So where is your treasure? And are you ready to give it to God so He can use you and our gifts in His ministry?

What’s so uncool about cool churches?

the gospel side

Unintended Consequences: How the “relevant” church and segregating youth is killing Christianity.

I recently spent six-months doing a rotation as a hospital chaplain. One day I received a page (Yes, hospitals actually still use pagers). Chaplains are generally called to the rooms of people who look ill: People gray with kidney disease, or yellow with liver failure, discouraged amputees, nervous cancer patients. In this room, however, was a strikingly attractive 23 year-old young lady sitting up cheerfully in the hospital bed, holding her infant daughter and chatting with family and friends.

Confused, I stepped outside and asked her nurse, “Why did I get paged to her room?”

“Oh, she looks fabulous. She also feels great and is asking to go home,” the nurse said.

“…And you are calling me because?” I asked in confusion.

The nurse looked me directly in the eye and said: “Because we will be…

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Treasure

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money. (Matthew 6:19-24 ESV)

How many of us are tithing? And we could spend a good bit of time talking about that. You see in the Hebrew scriptures tithing was the portion of your income or estate that kept the temple functioning and giving was over and above that. So if we are not giving more than10% we are not following what the bible says about giving…

But what does it mean for me to give? We have all thought about it and pondered it. We have thought or heard someone say, “I’m not ready to give yet, my heart just isn’t there.” Or “I’m not ready for that yet because I’ve only been following for a while and not sure this is something I want to stick with…”

But what does Jesus actually say? Where my heart is there my treasure will be? If we had to get our heart right to completely understand and do giving the way Jesus did, none of us would get it because we only think of ourselves. Jesus did not say where my heart is there my treasure will be. He said where your treasure is here your heart will be also. We have to give up our god of money and wealth and status and give it over to God. We need to place our treasure in His hand, because that is where it came from in the first place.

So stop trying to get your heart in the right place before you give, give now and see how much more enlightened your heart becomes on who God is and what He has done for you.

Decrees or…

Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. (Isaiah 10:1-4 ESV)

How many of us have rules for how someone should act in a given situation? And then what happens when they don’t act that way?

We oppress people when we say they have to conform to our way of living and our way of thinking. We keep the widows and orphans in places where we can hoard our power over them. We can not hide from the wrath that is to come when we do not treat God’s people as our equals.

So we need to drop our preconceived notions and understanding for how every one should live and live as God’s light and show people the way to God and allow Him to make the world and people as He has designed them to be.

False hope

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. (Psalm 33:12-22 ESV)

How many times do we put our trust in our armies and the methods we have for war?

We trust in things that ultimately can not give us hope. The psalmist tells us a warrior is not delivered by his strength and a king is not saved by his great army. The war horse is the false hope of salvation. We can not hope in ourselves or the methods we use to beat someone on war for our salvation.

We can only find hope in God for He is our help and our shield. We can trust in Him and he is our hope!

Lilies…

He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you — you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. (Luke 12:22-31, NRSV)

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and it’s righteousness and all these things will be added unto you…

So goes the first line of a well loved hymn Seek Ye First.

How hard is it though to not worry about your life? We toil everyday over how we will pay this bill. Or that thing that needs to get done and there isn’t enough time. We worry about having the right look and the right phone and the right car. We worry about how everyone will look upon us. It is not easy to not worry about your life and all the things that go along with it.

But Jesus says to the disciples, consider the ravens. Now imagine if you will, Jesus and the disciples standing outside, and the disciples are worried about their ripped robes and where their next meal is coming from and then a raven flies over head. Jesus says, consider the raven… The imagery is powerful. Now every time the disciples see a raven they will think of this message. It is a helpful thing to think about the flowers and the animals who can not toil or work for things, yetGod provides for them. How much more will He provide for us!

So seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will fall into place. If we can follow Him and do Is will. Be Hos hands and feet, He will take care of us, like the ravens and the lilies of the field!

Pray

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:2-6 ESV)

Here the author of Colossians is reminding them to pray and to be watchful after they pray, being thankful for what they ae provided.

How many of us are thankful for what we have? Yesterday in a bible study I was reminded of the question, “what if you woke up tomorrow morning only with the things you thanked God for today?” What would we have? And would we truly be thankful. We sometime get upset when God doesn’t work like a cosmic vending machine and give us what we ask for, what we want. We are remiss to not thank Him for what He has given us, what we need.

We also need to pray for others, that God would work in and thought their lives, that God’s word might be made known through them.

So pray! And be thankful for what you have received from Him who watches over your needs and pray for others that God’s will is done in and through them.

do for who…

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. (Colossians 3:18-25 ESV)

This is an interesting text that has been used many wrong ways.

We have the tendency to use the Bible for our own need to get what we want. However I believe this text is not about keeping people down or in their place it is about what we have been gifted to do for the betterment of society.

You see Luther told us that we were all ordained to do something for the betterment of society. We have been given a gift that we are to use in the world. We need to use our gifts for the world and serve the world though our talents and time and wonders that God gave us. This text is not saying that wives need to know their place or that anyone should undergo anything because of who they are or aren’t or what their sexual identity might be. This text is telling us to live in the gift of life that God has given you living out the love He has shown you and given you over flowing with mercy and grace and serve the world as if everything we do is done unto the Lord who is then least of these!

Saving…

Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ” What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops? ” And he said, ” I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. ” But God said to him, ” Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? ” So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. (Luke 12:13-21 ESV)

Man who made me the judge over you? Why does this man want Jesus to be the arbitrator for the estate of these brothers? Jesus is not concerned with money. (for not being concerned with it He sure talks about it a lot!)

He tells a parable about a man…

Which brings me to a question. Is it wrong for us to save money and plan for the future? If this is the case as it seems Jesus is making here, how many of us are in the wrong? Now I will say I am glad my wife and I save money. If we had not the past 18 moths I have been on leave from call would have been much harder than it was. But that is not what Jesus is saying. He is not telling us not to save and prepare for the future.

To see what He is saying we have to look deeper in the story. Jesus makes a comment on the focus of the man, read the conversation the man has with himself again. “I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” He is doing all of this stuff for himself with no thought of any one else. There is no spouse, no children, no talk of neighbors in need. He is focused only on himself and how this will effect him. He is a steward of all of these crops and needs to use his wealth and good fortune for the benefit of others. Jesus is not telling Him to not prepare and store some, that is Joseph’s story from the Hebrew Scripture. But Jesus wants us to be focused on others and not only our own needs.

It is not about saving and having wealth, it is about our focus and how we think of others before ourselves.

Who

Hear this, all you peoples; give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp. Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me, those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches? Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life, there is no price one can give to God for it. For the ransom of life is costly, and can never suffice that one should live on forever and never see the grave. When we look at the wise, they die; fool and dolt perish together and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they named lands their own. Mortals cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish (Psalm 49:1-12, NRSV)

We have all heard the saying, “You can’t take it with you.” We can not take anything we have here with us to beyond the grave except the gift given to us by God for which there is no price we can give to God.

We need to look out for the lowly, the needy, the last, the lost, the little, and the least. Those who think because they have they can get what they want have made their grave and it is their wealth the psalmist tells us. We need to be in God and allow Him to work in and through us. We can not buy our way into His graces and the things we have here should be used for others not our own elevation.

Use what God has given you wisely and be there for others and always remember that you can’t take it with you.