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Friday, May 28, 2010

Should I boast of what I have?


When you read my blogs, please know that I am no better and speak of myself as well.

Of what should I boast? Let me not boast to you of any possession that I have or of any deed that I have done or of any prayer that I have prayed or of any soul that I have saved, for I am nothing. If there is any good you find in my life or your own, then please, let the credit be given to the producer of all good things. Give glory where glory is due. When you receive blessings in life, do not show them to the world, then take credit, and then hoard them. If you have ten rooms in your home, you have been blessed in material possessions. Do not boast of the great home you provide. Instead fill those rooms with those in need of shelter. Praise God for His grace on you and on them who can receive. Share His blessings and give Him all the credit and all the Glory due His name. There is none other that will be found to whom the credit is due. Be warned that your material blessing is not your possession, lest it become an idol of mammon. If you say, “but I worked hard to get where I am”, well, who made you capable to work? “But I ate well and attended the best collages money could buy and I alone have managed my finances so well.”, you say. Who provided for you the food? Which of your family brought you your good health and provided you the vessel that is your body that you may stand? Who provided you longevity and guided your steps that you not faulter from the plan they laid before you? Who in their own perfection molded your characteristics by the exact chemistry of support around you through your entire life and measured to you the exact weight of hardships to grow through? Name Him that provided your life and you have named Him to which you should give all glory. Do not conceal your possessions. They are not yours to bury deep as a talon unprofitable for our master. They are being given temporarily into your hand for stuartship. You will be tested. Are you wise enough to take proper care of His blessings and multiply them to those that are in need. If you were blessed with a gift in humor and choose to never help people to laugh, then you have sinned and have shown God by example that you do not value His gifts to you. If you have been given food abundantly and yet pass by those that beg for food, then you have told God that you do not value His gifts to you. Just because you pray a quick prayer of thankfulness before eating your meal, doesn’t mean you are thankfull. But, it is by what you do with this life and how you do it that you will show God you are thankful. The Bible speaks of the eye and of the heart. Let not your eye be of your own gain lest it show where your heart is.

If I am thankful that He has saved me from an eternity in hell, will I only lift my hands in church on Sunday? If I have seen what He has done and if I have felt His love and come to understand what grace really is, then if I am thankfull for this I will share it with the world. I will tell and show others His love. If I understand that I am nothing apart from Christ and that all I have is without value should it not be used to His glory, then is it not fitting that everything I am and all that I have should be shared and reflect the life of Christ that He may receive the glory and that others may see and choose to partake in this life. Am I not salt? I do not want to loose my flavor and become trampled uselessly under foot. If I am salt, then I am to salt the oats to cause hunger in others. How then do I cause hunger by closing my doors and buying new things for myself that I may live more comfortably in my home? Do we not have a world of people that do not know Christ and yet do this very same thing? What is the result of that action? Jelousy? Envy? Hate? Theft/crime? What if we instead open our doors and share all that is given to us with the world? What if we use those extra seats in the blessing of a car to pick up persons and transport them all the way to their destination? That’s time to witness of His great love. What if we open the fridge and set a few more places at the dinner table for a few people we don’t know that could use the food? That’s time to witness. What if we have compassion beyond the few dollars in our pocket, and we choose to offer a bed for that person in need? That’s time to witness; to show by example what life in Christ is. Why hand these people a bible track and then walk away? That is not causing a desire to know where this great joy you have is coming from. Salt the oats. Let them take part in the blessings the Lord provided you. Let them see that you’ll not hoard it for yourself; that you trust in God with good cause. Let them see that you smile at being able to be used for the service of the Most High. Let them hear you give glory to God for all of it. Don’t do these things to receive thanks or more blessings. Simply do them because both in the text of the Word of God as well as in your heart, you know that this is what Jesus would do. Give of your selves and of your blessings because it brings joy to someone, just as it brought joy to you to receive undeserving. There is no question to it. Jesus shared all that He had and gave thanks to God. He didn’t store up treasures and lock a door. He didn’t leave message on someone’s door step telling them that He loved them. No. He showed them that He loved them. He showed them that God is good. He showed them how to live. And because Jesus showed them, people converted. People were saved. It is because Jesus lived the example that you are saved today. He is our example and we are to be like Him. How then do you intend to reach all nations with the message of the nessecity of salvation when you have not reflected Christ in your own city? We constantly pass them by. They are everywhere. The unsaved scream from their hearts, “Give me a reason to believe!” and we see it and keep walking. Signs saying, “please, help me”. And we hand them a $20 bill. What?!! $20 will not save them. $20 will not cause them to desire the salvation of Christ. $20 will not provide them a bed, or ride to church every week or to Bible study or to fellowship with those who are living the example that is to cause a desire to seek Christ. What is there to fear that we as Christians disengage with the unsaved that are dying around us. Have we forgotten that this life isn’t about us but about Christ? Have we forgotten our primary purpose? I see these actions and can’t help but to feel like Christians are just paying the rest of the world off, to not persecute us. Don’t you see it? You have been blessed with a home and with food and with money and with love and with joy and with characteristics and with clothing and with knowledge and with wisdom and with blankets and with pillows and with electronics and with a career and so much more that is lacking in others lives and it is your duty given on the authority of God himself, that you share it with the world. You are blessed. I am blessed. If you are thankful, then share it, for it doesn’t belong to you. The blessings are God’s for you to share. If you have an extra seat in your car than it should be filled when you are going to church. Your trash cans should not have that old pair of shoes you never wore in them. There is someone walking on blisters without shoes or even socks. Such waste in this world today. Don’t waste God’s blessings. Please, please family, share what He has given you. Do not boast of what you have earned, for apart from Christ, you have earned nothing. It is Him that has granted you life and it is for Him that your life should be lived. If you truly trust in Him and are truly thankful, then give of all that you have and all that you are and trust Him to multiply your efforts that others may see Him in you. Trust Him to provide for you. You will not loose blessings in what you give. You will however, loose in what you keep.