Matthew 7:7-12

Tells us that if we ask we will receive, if we seek we will find, and if we knock it shall be opened to us. Therefore whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them. In other words, if you have a need and you have $2.00 but need $20.00 then find someone that needs $2.00 and give it to them, and see what God will do for you.

 

i am around a lot of people Christians and non-Christians, people who go to church and those who don’t, one thing i have noticed about people and money, is that the Christian and even the non-Christian who goes to church spend more time talking about how little money they have.

 

Money seems to be an obsession for most, always talking about how little they have, one example: a family of four say they are Christians every visits with them the husband and wife both will bring up how they can’t do something because they just don’t have the money. Four month ago he received a $20.00 dolor an hour raise he works for a large company and is a key figure in the company, they let it slip that he now makes over $160.00 an hour and get an average of 6 hours of overtime a week plus benefits. That’s over 347,000 a year without the overtime, and about 24% more them my wife and i get each month (didn’t realize just how broke i was, that’s sarcasm) And they still bring up that they are pore and don’t have enough. (They are pore for they have not given their lives and money over to the Lord and. They have all the toys, he is an avid hunter, she has her hair dune every week, the kids get just about everything they want the cost; they are always going on trips. Just last month were complaining because they weren’t going to have the money to go see someone they knew 164 miles from their home, but then called and were talking about driving 220 miles to have some work dune on their car, oil change new belts and hoses, and they stayed in a motel for two night wall it was being dune.

 

Another guy every conversation eventually comes around to how little he has and can’t afford to do anything but about every six week is making a 850 mile trip to see friends he is in church every Sunday, talks the talk but does not walk the walk.

 

i get so tired of hearing this from Christians especially, it shows such a lake of faith in Christ and a total unbelief in the word of Christ in the bible, cant imagen how disturbing this must be to the Lord

 

On Sunday; Ho Lord we love you we trust you we believe your word Monday through Saturday; I need, I need, I want, I want, I just don’t have enough wow is me I’m a victim.

 

Sickening Contentment, being satisfied comes from knowing who Christ is and who you are in Him. If you truly know these two things your life is never in want or need of anything other than His love, protection and provision.

 

So all you who are out there who call your selves Christians but don’t think you have enough all i can say is go find the Lord He is waiting for you with open arms.

 

i do have one friend who truly hold no value on worldly things, i found that his total income in an average month is $650.00, he is always dressed nice, he is always clean, won’t hesitate to help anyone who is really in need, without payback. He will not invite you to his home, and he never talks of money, have never seen him down, and his wife is a real butte, and always has a real smile on her face. They grow and can their own food, their cellar is almost as big as their home the home is a total of 220 square feet and she has if fixed up nicer than some 3,000 foot houses i have been in, they use an composting toilet, and shower in a leanto he built on the side of their home which started out as a tool shed and storage.

They hall there water in every week in gallon jugs around 200 gallons a week.

 

i found this out when i showed up to help put some roofing on that I heard had gotten blow off, I have never heard either one of them compline about anything, but rather they both thank the Lord for what they do have. Rejoicing in all things

 

so quiet complaining, quiet acting like a victim find out who Christ really is and who you are in Him, and ask for the tings of the Lord not the things of this world. No one can do it for you, you have to make that choice on your own and then move forward.

i have seen and know a lot of people, well actually most of the people i know are discontent, complainers always in need of something, always wanting something more and never content with what they have.

 

i woke this morning thinking about this. Most are that way in their relationships with others, never satisfied with the relationship but not willing to step out and truly partake in the relationship, most everything is superficial.

 

It reminds me of a lady my mon use to know we would go and pick apples to make apple souse and apple butter and apple pies with seemed that when we would do this she would always show up and would pick out what she thought were the most perfect apple to take home, a month or two later when we were dune with most of the canning for the year we would always take her a few jars of food.

The apple that she spent so much time trying to find, that perfect apple would be setting on a plate on her table and every time it would have sins of rot and decay.

 

Relationships are like that apple if you do not take the time to enjoy it wall you have it, chances are it will rot away, become stagnate and you will become bored with it and discard it.

 

Stop trying to make everything perfect in your life so you can enjoy it, and enjoy life so it can be made perfectin the sense of joy.

For when you are content with what you have, are not trying to change it or make it better, or trying to accomplish that one more thing so that you can be happy,

Be content with what you have and use it to the best of your ability, in relationships give all you have, invest your time and energy, be willing to give and not take.

 

Ever seen the movie UP!, it is the most heart breaking movie, here’s a guy who finds true love lives his life with His love and she dies, he has great regrets for the adventures they or he never did and sets out to do them.

Towards the end he is looking at the photo album his love had had sense before they met, looked through the photos and came to the page that said My Adventures, when they met she had told Him of the adventures she wanted to go on and He promised to take her,

He is depressed because he never took her on any of them wall she was alive.

 

Then he notices a corner of a photo sticking out from behind the page, turns the page and she has added photos of their adventures through life and then tell him to go have his own new adventure.

 

It is sad because most people live their lives that same way always looking for the adventure never realizing or relishing the fact that they are living it now.

 

Like someone who likes milk, buys a cow and never milks it.

Like someone who buys the latest camping gear but never steps foot in the wilderness,

Like that person who sets around with the love of their life and never touches or talk with them beyon the superficial.

 

Life is an adventure every day and only those who are content and thankful can truly enjoy it or see it.

Matthew 7:1-5

We are not to judge others, for by the standard and measures we use to judge others they will be used to judge us.

But we must first look at ourselves and ask God to take the sin out of our lives before we can help a brother get rid of his by directing him to the Lord rather then looking at him through darkened eye's, eye's filtering things through sin.

 

We should all realize and keep telling ourselves that the sin in my life is bigger then the sin in a brothers life; because it is in me.

 

Matthew 7: 6

Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

 

i understand grace and mercy but i also understand this scripture to be saying that we as Christians need to be cautious about what and to whom we share things with.

i have seen a lot of us giving away the holy things the Father has given us and then be torn down, the Lord gives you a vision of what He has for you, or wants you to do, this is a holy gift from God, and we turn around and tell someone, and then they discourage you by telling you either how hard or impossible or impractical you are being, and are allowed to steal the holy blessing the Father has planned for us.

i have seen this both in and out of the church.

And there are those that we share the Lord with and they then use your words to draw the life out of you; like people that do come to church and bible studies. They use the Christian language to suck up to you to get favor with a Christian or Christian group, they use the holy words of God to consume the time of the Christian and wear them down spiritually, and in turn this tears down the holiness God has placed in us.

i don't quite know how to say what i seem to know deep down inside, but i have seen Christians torn down and completely worn out by people. then , (they call it witness to them) to the point they don't have the energy to do the things the Lord has given them to do.

When the Lord gives someone to you to witness to i believe it is not only a joy to the one doing the witnessing but refreshing and up lifting to our souls, not a tearing down of the one doing the witnessing.

 

life and the way you live it out is the best witness to an unbelieving world, when they see you respomding to things in peace and joy in your life they will want to know why, because they know their life is a mess.

Living the witness is way more effective then flapping the jaw so people know what you think you know,

lead by example.

We are not to store up treasures for ourselves on earth,

we are not to get and hold on to a lot of stuff,

We are to store up treasures in heaven,

by doing as the Lord has instructed us to do,

loving others and doing for them.

 

We are not to serve this world we are to serve God we cannot serve both!

 

Matthew 6:24 says " No one can serve two masters, and if you try you will love one and hate the other or you will hold to one and despise the other.

You can not serve God and mammon.

 

Then 25 says "For this reason" for the reason of serving God instead of man or trying to serve both, if you just serve God then there is no reason to become anxious about any thing,

for God will take care of your life, food, drink and clothing, because God knows we need all of these things".

 

33 and 34 go on to says "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for it's self.

Each day has enough trouble of it's own.

 

So then if i seek the kingdom and righteousness of God He will take care of all my needs. But if i become anxious and start worrying about things then i will strive after them and will not be trusting in God but instead be serving mammon, man.

 

i do not struggle with the stuff and things but over the last couple years have found myself in want, a want to the past and the way things were, i know they will probably never be as they were but the longing and desire are there.

Reading this i realize this is as much of a problem as the stuff and things, for Father God knows my wants needs and desires, and i need to trust that He knows best and that He will fulill each and every one of them for the best for me, in His timing and His will to see me succeed in all things.

 

so the goal is to surrender and trust in the Lord in and for all things both physical or other wise. 

Taught from James 1:21-25

Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your soul.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man that looks at his face in a mirror, and once he looks away he forgets what kind of a man he was.

But the one that look intently into the perfect law (Matthew 5:21-47) the law of liberty and lives by it doing as we are commanded not just hearing it and then forgetting it, that person will be blessed in what he does.

 

At the same time we should not practice our righteousness before men to be noticed; otherwise we will have no reward with Father God who is in heaven. No one needs to know how much or how little we give, or hear us when we pray that is all known by the Father.

 

And we should live our lives to please the Father not man,

 

i don’t want to sound like i have it all together “i don’t” but i don’t care what others think of me or what i do, for i have learned what man thinks if of little to no value as to who i am.

 

No man on this earth can save me from hell, and no man on this earth can get me in to heaven.

And the Lords ways are not man’s ways, the word of God says there is a way that seems right to man but the end there of, is death.

 

When coming to the Lord it was clear to me that my life was a mess and that i had gotten there by following the ways of men, so changed my way of looking at things, and started asking the Lord for direction,

a lot of times seeming to make rather childish and foolish choices, but those childish and foolish choices turned out to be more profitable to my life then what man said were the responsible and logical choices to make.

 

God’s ways are not man’s ways, but i want my ways to follow after God’s ways, not men For God is my provider and my provision, and in Him will i trust.

you cannot serve two masters so chose, either God or man, the real choice you are making is between heaven or hell you will end up in one or the other, you can't go to both.