Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you —Matthew 6:33
When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. "...seek first the kingdom of God..." Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, "But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed." The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.
"...do not worry about your life..." ( Matthew 6:25 ). Our Lord pointed out that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for anything in his life is blessed—-no, that person is a fool. But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, "Don’t make food and drink the controlling factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God." Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, having no business looking the way they do; they are careless with their earthly matters, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the greatest concern of life is to place our relationship with God first, and everything else second.
It is one of the most difficult, yet critical, disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.
--from My Utmost For His Highest
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Angry at the Blab
I’m frustrated.
No, frustrated’s not the right word.
I’m pissed, hot and streaming.
Jessica goes to a women’s meeting on Monday afternoons at four. I’m all for such things: connection, reflection and discussions are good things.
But it drives me crazy that the meetings last three or four hours, cause her to miss dinner with the rest of us, and leave me without ten measly minutes to shower or even slam out a mean-spirited post to my blog because I have to make dinner, do dishes, bathe children, take out the garbage, and pick up three days’ worth of their mess, which is strewn everywhere I look. All after rushing frenetically through nine hours of heavy lifting for Pepsi (since five a.m.), limping around with a deep gash in my foot, looking forward with great anticipation to the time when I get home, so I can “rest.”
I lead a men’s meeting on Wednesday nights. We meet at seven, and I told the men up front that the meetings would be over by nine or thereabouts, barring some emergency situation (such as Jesus appears in bodily form to say something, or for some inexplicable reason--probably severe mental illness--I suddenly feel like droning on for four hours...pray for me, brothers). Most of us have very demanding schedules, and are trying to juggle families, careers, ministry, relationships and personal devotion. Everyone nodded in agreement at the time limit. Two or three were visibly relieved. Eight to ten guys usually show up, and I make sure everyone shares something related to the topic (bringing them back if they go down rabbit trails), we pray, it’s real, dudes feel blessed and challenged, and guess what? We get done around nine.
Women’s meeting: four or five women. One for each hour.
It’s now 7:45 and if my wife were here RIGHT NOW to watch the kids I’d have time to shower, shave, brush my teeth, and read for ten minutes before going to bed.
I express my anger about this nearly every week, but I guess she doesn’t care enough to make any boundaries. Boundaries, you understand, are only for men.
In other news, I just filled out an online application for admission to Regent University. I want to learn some things.
No, frustrated’s not the right word.
I’m pissed, hot and streaming.
Jessica goes to a women’s meeting on Monday afternoons at four. I’m all for such things: connection, reflection and discussions are good things.
But it drives me crazy that the meetings last three or four hours, cause her to miss dinner with the rest of us, and leave me without ten measly minutes to shower or even slam out a mean-spirited post to my blog because I have to make dinner, do dishes, bathe children, take out the garbage, and pick up three days’ worth of their mess, which is strewn everywhere I look. All after rushing frenetically through nine hours of heavy lifting for Pepsi (since five a.m.), limping around with a deep gash in my foot, looking forward with great anticipation to the time when I get home, so I can “rest.”
I lead a men’s meeting on Wednesday nights. We meet at seven, and I told the men up front that the meetings would be over by nine or thereabouts, barring some emergency situation (such as Jesus appears in bodily form to say something, or for some inexplicable reason--probably severe mental illness--I suddenly feel like droning on for four hours...pray for me, brothers). Most of us have very demanding schedules, and are trying to juggle families, careers, ministry, relationships and personal devotion. Everyone nodded in agreement at the time limit. Two or three were visibly relieved. Eight to ten guys usually show up, and I make sure everyone shares something related to the topic (bringing them back if they go down rabbit trails), we pray, it’s real, dudes feel blessed and challenged, and guess what? We get done around nine.
Women’s meeting: four or five women. One for each hour.
It’s now 7:45 and if my wife were here RIGHT NOW to watch the kids I’d have time to shower, shave, brush my teeth, and read for ten minutes before going to bed.
I express my anger about this nearly every week, but I guess she doesn’t care enough to make any boundaries. Boundaries, you understand, are only for men.
In other news, I just filled out an online application for admission to Regent University. I want to learn some things.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Cool Site
I discovered this site yesterday. It's obviously received some media interest from the major news outlets and places like Playboy magazine, but I--as always--am a little behind.
www.XXXChurch.com
www.XXXChurch.com
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