Saturday, January 21, 2012

Junk In The Trunk

Matthew 6: 19-34 contains some very revealing and convicting words from Jesus. The Word is a mirror. Jesus talks about treasure. We all have a metaphorical treasure box that we daily place things in. Jesus ask me what treasure is in my trunk? I'm in a bad place lately where I've been pursuing the wrong treasure for the wrong person and the wrong kingdom.

Paul Tripp's comments on the passage:

"Christ's words alert us to the fact that either we are living for the physical treasures of the created world, which have a very short shelf-life, or we are living for the eternal satisfaction that can only be found in the treasures of God's Kingdom. This is why we cannot afford to live mindlessly, oblivious to the war of desire that rages in our hearts. God's accepting grace and transforming love are eternal treasures that will never pass away. They really are the only things in life worth living for. (Do I believe that?) When you live for the Kingdom of God, when God's purposes on earth become more precious and important to you than your purposes, you live for something that will never end. . . You see life always involves worship. Our lives revolve around the thing that has captured our attention and desire. We make continual offerings to it, sacrifices of time and energy and focus and resources, celebrating and holding up this thing to which we have ascribed such life-dominating value. This is true no matter what it is we worship: career (check) or wealth or comfort (check) or entertainment or reputation (check) or relationships or self-protection . . . or Christ (downcheck) . Whatever it is,we celebrate it."

20 comments:

  1. Yep, yep, and yep. It's an easy trap for us all to fall into. Reminds me of a sermon my pastor back in Virginia gave in which he gave me a new spin / new perspective on "idolatry." He suggested that an "idol" is anything that comes between you and God or detracts from your commitment of time and effort toward your relationship with God. In that sense, he said anything that you commit your time to such as career or wealth or entertainment is essentially an "idol" that we in a sense "worship" and detract from our commitment and our relationship to God.

    BT BT

    Totally unrelated topic. I have to tell you I'm perplexed by the choice of the word "bright" as one of the options to label your posts. There is a group of people out there who try to promote "bright" as the term to describe enlightened athiests who consider themselves superior because of their intellectual certainty that there is no God. I don't know that the concept has really caught on much though. Still, knowing there are some people who call themselves "brights" by virtue of their athiesm, it's a little odd to read it as a choice for labeling your posts for a devout Christian. :-)

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  2. Good insight on idolatry. Actually provided me some ideas that I will put down as soon as I am done writing this!

    WRT the "bright" option - I haven't heard about the word being used in that way, so I can assure you it has nothing to do with some atheistic intellectual virtue (what a contradiction of terms, huh). So, context is everything - I'm a Naval Officer, the kind that goes to sea on warships. That being said I have done some time as an engineer and whenever we take a sample of fuel or lube oil we evaluate it as clear (free of sediment) and bright (free of water) or unsat (unsatisfactory). So, I was just playing off of those words - a kind of metaphor for readers to evaluate the posting as clear (free of "garbage"/lies/untruths, etc.), bright (free of excessive, detracting, or diluting material), or unsat (the entire thing is no good). Hope that clears it up. Thanks for commenting - conversing with others is a big reason for why I blog!

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