Nov 21-22 - Matthew 6:24

Jesus said,

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.

Matthew 6:24

What does your eye focus on and desire?

That was our yesterday's theme as we looked at Jesus' preceding verse in the Sermon on the Mount.

It's today's theme too, as Jesus' thought progresses.

What does your eye focus on? What does your heart desire? Is it God (and the things of heaven) or money (and more accurately the things of earth)?

In other words, are you looking up or down?

In our current world, money is a necessity. It's how we put a roof over our head and food on our table. Americans are absolutely rich according to world standards and historical standards. But I'll bet there doesn't seem like enough money to go around, does there?

When my first son, Paul, went off to college, it seemed like most all of the parents (our peers), were talking about paying for their kids college. It was the American middle-class dream.

Then the economy crashed.

By the time our son Jay went to college, it seemed like all of our peers were talking about loans.

Whether it's cars or houses or college tuition or Christmas presents, debt (rather than giving or savings) is the new upside-down way that the American middle class tries to maintain our sense of lifestyle entitlement. And if we're honest, most of us are mortgaging our future to finance today's short-term desires.

In the rush to fund today's "needs" and the anxiety over tomorrow's inevitable short-falls, we keep looking down rather than up. Jesus says, "no one can serve two masters."

So how do you get off the treadmill? (You know the answer, but until you and I are ready to change, we're chained to this world and we lack the peace and joy of the kingdom.)

In Christ's Love,

a punk rocker

(at least that's what

all these chains

make me look like)