Clear Vision

The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, 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 that is 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 one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth.  Matthew 6:22-24

 Clear vision sees through the deception of worldly things and into the true worship of God.  Through our eyes we take in the world around us, beholding and processing overwhelming amounts of input.  If we see clearly, we filter all input through the Biblical grid, purifying it for truth and applicability to our lives.  But, if the world and its greed and lusts have clouded our vision and clogged the filter, we see only an increasing darkness and are filled with increasing darkness.  A dark filter will only increase the internal darkness.

This isn’t literally and only about our actual eyes; it is about how we perceive and exist in this world.  As Jesus concludes this thought, He returns to the notion of money and draws us back to His theme of worship.  As we process life through the truth of God’s word we find this amazing truth;

AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. Mark 12:30

In other words, we live for, serve, and worship one God and we then engage all other aspects of life as an outflow of that.  Money is a dangerous tempter of our affections and allegiance.  We can’t serve two masters, so with all diligence let us pursue serving God and we will enjoy the blessings He gives us so much more.  Only One is God and only One is worthy of worship. 

The counsel of the LORD

 This verse was very timely for me this week.  I often struggle to reconcile my hopes and ambitions with the timing and plan God has for me.  Yet, throughout my walk of faith with Christ, God has always known and done what is best.

Many plans are in a man’s heart,
         But the counsel of the LORD will stand.  Proverbs 19:21

Today, how does this verse speak to your heart?  What should you and I be trusting God for that we are trying to make happen on our own? 

Too easily pleased….

The opening video from the Desiring God 2010 Pastor’s Conference.  Good stuff.

“He casts none away” -Ray Ortlund

How sweet it is to remember the patient grace of Christ.  Pastor Ray Ortlund posts this great thought from John 20:27; “He casts none away“.

Here is the summarizing thought:

Our Lord has many weak children in his family, many dull pupils in his school, many raw soldiers in his army, many lame sheep in his flock.  Yet he bears with them all and casts none away.”

Children are a beautiful gift

This is amazing!  As a relatively new father, with a 15 month old son, I just sat at my desk with a smile on my face as I watched this movie trailer for BABIES.  Children are a gift of the Lord!  Thanks to Mere Orthodoxy for posting this.

2010 Desiring God Pastor’s Conference

Pastor or not, these messages are powerful and appropriate for anyone who loves God and desires a life that reflects Jesus Christ our Savior.

The Pastor, the People, and the Pursuit of Joy

I am new to all of these teachers except for Piper, and am experiencing great nourishment from God’s word from them all.  Enjoy and grow.

Hearts and Treasure

Funny how so little changes from era to era.  That’s one of many things that makes the Bible so transcendant across time; it deals with an unchanging and holy God and with a fallen creation that struggles with the same heart-idols no matter what time period we live in.  To that end, Jesus’ next point in the Sermon on the Mount should have penetrating impact on all of us.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:19-21

Earlier in this discourse Jesus exhorted us to give so freely that one hand does not even know what the other is doing (Matthew 6:3).  But notice how he qualified that statement by saying that our giving to the poor (the ministry of the gospel) should look this way.  Our great idol of money (greed) is so blinding to us that we tend to give our money quite freely to our own desires, lusts, and temporal pleasures.  We can’t see that we are giving our hearts away at the same time.

Money is an object, given by God, a gift of His grace.  Some have much and some have little, but all can make it an object of worship in place of God Himself.  To hold our money so loosely that we give it freely to those in need is to invest it in eternal things; the work of the gospel by loving people through physical means.  This kind of investment is the only kind that will last.  We are warned that our heart follows our treasure.  This is profound because it seems backwards.  Most of us would believe that our money will flow to where our heart is.  That’s the blindness of greed.  We should all pause and look at where we are spending the money God has given us, because it is a revealing window into what we really think is important in life.  We need the gospel to change us.

The gospel is our hope.  As we gaze upon the cross we see that God loves us so much that He promised to take care of us by crucifying His Son in our place.  Let money be a tool for the gospel and not a replacement for it in our hearts, because our true security and rest comes at the cross, not the check book.

What’s next?

I am already starting to think through what might be the next series for the devotionals/meditations once the Sermon on the Mount is complete.  Still a long way to go, but never too early to start planning what may be next.  I am looking for any input out there?  Topical?  Study a book of the Bible together?

Here are a couple of early thoughts I have…..

• Proverbs
• 2 Timothy
• Ephesians

What does everyone think?  I want to serve everyone who reads them as best I can.

your brother,

Adam

In Praise of His Glorious Name

This past Sunday evening at our regular evening worship time, my church gathered to cap off our annual week of prayer with a night to rejoice in and lift praise to our amazing Lord.  When all is said and done, it is times like this that we will stand upon, because truth, conviction, faith, and the work of God in our lives becomes startling reality.  I can say all this just from hearing the audio of the service and hearing a couple of reports from the evening.  I wasn’t able to be at the service, but have been so deeply moved by it.

What I hear is those who are hurting, those who are ministering, and those who are deeply doing life every day giving praise to God.  How glorious He is indeed.  Enjoy:  A Night of Prayer and Praise

The object of worship

Be it giving, be it praying, be it fasting, or whatever it may be, it is for worship and our hearts will reveal through our actions who exactly we are worshipping.

Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting.  Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.  “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.  Matthew 6:16-18

I am under the impression that many Christians, especially those of us in the western evangelical church, don’t practice fasting as part of our worship.  Whether we do or do not is not truly my point, nor is it Christ’s in this passage.  Rather, it is yet another examination of our hearts and a call to a purity of worship not often found among God’s followers.  Do we worship for God’s glory, or for our own?  Remember Christ’s words to open this chapter:

Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.  Matthew 6:1

From our hearts will flow worship; whether of ourselves or of God.  Make certain it is worship of God.  If you fast as part of that worship, no one else need know.  Humility is vital to right worship of the Lord.  How good it is to have a God worthy of worship in all ways, through all means available to us.  A careful examination of our hearts will lead us closer to Him through our acts of obedience and worship and closeness to God is all the reward we should ever need.