A New Standard on Adultery

*This blog is actually  my sermon notes from two weeks ago.

Matthew 5:27-32 – “27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

• Brief Transitional Introduction
  • Review what has been covered on the Sermon on the Mount thus far.
    • The Character/Attitude change Jesus wanted from us in the Beatitudes
    • The Calling to be the Salt, the Light, and the City on a Hill
    • The Correction of Christ’s purpose with the Law – Not to abolish it but to fulfill it
      • He gives us a new way to see it.

A Different Standard

As a research scientist, one of the most important things I do is to make sure that the concentrations of all my reagents (the ingredients that I am working with) are correct before using them for an experiment.  It is critical that one calculates the right value, because it could be the difference of a successful or failed experiment.  Usually to make these calculations, we use something known as a standard curve.  Simply, it is a group of known concentrations of solutions that we can then use to infer what our sample’s concentration is.  These concentrations are plotted into a line, and we use that line to determine what the concentration is.  Here is an example of how important having the right standard curve is:

If a person measured a value of Absorbance of 6 when he was using some scientific equipment, if he used Line #1 as his standard, he would find the concentration to be 10; but if he used Line #2 as his standard, then his concentration would then be 2.  These are two completely different values; the value given by Line #1 is five times more than Line #2.  Now, let’s put it in a way that is more relatable and easier to understand.  Let’s say that you went to the bank and deposited $1000.  The bank has a new system now in which they will count how much money you deposit by running it through a machine and counting how many green spots they see.  Now, if they use Value Set #1, when they see six dots, they will determine that you have a total of $1000, which is exactly correct.  But if they use Value Set #2, when they see six dots, they will determine that you only deposited $1.  You just lost $999 without doing anything if you used the wrong set.  That just goes to show you how important it is to use the right standards.

The New Standard for Adultery

In our passage today, in Matthew 5:27-32, Jesus Christ basically explained to His disciples the right standard by which to judge from the Law.  If you look at vs. 27, you find that it is clearly a reiteration of the seventh commandment in the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”  From when the Law was given by Moses on Mt. Sinai up until this time, this commandment was simply seen as don’t commit adultery – 1)  If you are married do not sleep with another person who is not your spouse and 2)  If you aren’t married, don’t sleep with a person who is married.  That is simply how they interpreted it.  It went straight down to that, right down to those two basic simple points.  The problem was they never looked into any other parts.  They made sure that the physical act was not occurring but they definitely couldn’t check or examine the heart.  It was as if they were basically saying, “If you think about committing adultery, but you don’t physically do it, then it’s fine.  You didn’t do anything wrong.”  But even if we give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they were concerned about the heart situation, their interpretation of the law certainly did not cover what Jesus covered here in saying, “…Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  It didn’t even matter if you and the woman were not married yet, if you even had those bad thoughts, then you were committing adultery.  No wonder Jimmy Carter at one point stated, ““I’ve looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me.”  It was clear and simple, Jesus was setting a much higher standard than what was the current accepted norm but it was the correct standard.

Now, let’s look at our lives today and see how this statement affects us.  Where is our current standard for adultery and sexual immorality?  If you take the field of advertising today, what do you think is the number one rule?  Sex sells.  Is that not right?  Just the other day, my mom and I were watching a show on SyFy network called Heroes of Cosplay, one pair of people who were entering a costume competition simply told her partner, “Sex sells,” to try to convince her partner to design a more revealing costume.  It’s true.  In our society today, sexuality is treated as if it was a common bus token.  Almost every movie you see has some sort of sexuality in it.  Even TV shows today focus on these things, lifting up adultery as if it is something to be honored.  Just look at how high ratings used to be for Desperate Housewives a few years ago.  Now, we have copycat shows like Mistresses or Devious Maids.  It is all the same thing, in which, adultery and sexual immorality are treated as if they should be something pursued.  There is no sanctity for marriage any longer.

Look at how we dress.  At one point in time, underwear was actually considered underwear (things that you wear under your clothes), but now, people strut around in that stuff.  It’s crazy.  Girls are wearing skirts and shorts that are too high and tops that are way too low.  Guys are walking around half-naked most of the time with no shirt on so that people can admire their abs or wearing their pants so low that you’re usually scared that they will trip and fall.  All of this to do what?  Most likely for the purpose of “being attractive” to another person.  If you get right down to it, whether you state it this way or not, when you dress that way you are trying to get another person to lust after you.  It’s awful, but that is literally what you are doing.  You are encouraging those thoughts and ideas to pop into a person’s head.  It’s completely wrong.  You are literally tempting your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to stumble.  That is why it is so important to dress appropriately.

Look at the statistics for pornography.  http://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/

• One in five mobile searches are for pornography.
• 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women say they are addicted to pornography.
• On average, Nine out of ten boys and six out of ten girls were exposed to pornography before the age of 18.
• 68% of young adult men and18% of women use porn at least once every week.

This is really sad, but this is our society today.  We don’t think that lust is wrong anymore.  But it is.

Clearly, if we look at our society today, we come nowhere close to Jesus’ standard.  We no longer consider thinking evil thoughts about another person as sin; instead, we only consider sin if the action is taken.  That is awful.  We need to get back to the way Christ has set the standard, especially, since we are Christians who should be the salt and light of this earth.

The New Standard for Divorce

Another thing Jesus corrects in standards is with the issue of divorce, which he closely tied to adultery in vs. 31-32, “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’  But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”  This saying found its origin in Deuteronomy 24:1, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house…”  Did you notice that the phrase used in society at Christ’s time left out the key phrase:  “Because he has found some indecency in her.”  The Old Testament gave a clear reason as to why divorce was allowed.  It did not say irreconcilable differences or because he no longer loves her.  Only in the case of indecency.  In addition, if you read the rest of the context of that passage in Deuteronomy, it didn’t suggest one to get a divorce, but it was stating that if you divorced someone, and then she married another, you can’t go back to her (Deut 24:1-4).

God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16).  In our passage today, Jesus basically equates divorce (outside the reason for sexual immorality) as committing adultery.  It is just as bad.  The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) just this year updated their statistics for marriage and divorce in the US – in the 44 reporting states and D.C., they found that the divorce rates were 3.6 per 1000 population.  They also reported that the marriage rate was 6.8 per 1000 population, meaning that if you had taken these two statistics and assumed they were from the same group, we have a 52.9% divorce rate for all marriages.  The only good thing I find is that the trend indicates that it is dropping.  (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/divorce.htm, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/marriage_divorce_tables.htm).  It is just sad to see that this is the commentary we have of our marriages today.

The Standard for Sin in General

Matthew 5:29-30 – “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.  For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

When we look at the issue of lust and sexual immorality or the issue of divorce, the answer for why we are in the condition we are in is simple – we have treated sin with nonchalance.  We don’t treat sin as the danger it really is.  I want you to think of the most disgusting thing that you could ever think of.  Would it be a moldy sandwich that has been lying under your son’s bed for that last five years?  Would it be a foot infected with fungus?  Now, also think of the most dangerous thing that you can ever think of.  Maybe a king cobra, which if it bites you could kill you in less than 15 minutes?  Maybe the E. bola virus?  Maybe a death trap set up by your favorite comic book villain?  Now combine the most disgusting thing and the most dangerous thing you can think of and put that together.  That is what sin should be like to us.  It should create in us the most utter disgust.  It should inspire in our hearts hatred towards anything that would lead us in that direction.  It should cause us to be cautious with what we do, never stepping close to a line that could cause us to fall.  The truth is we should never even be able to see that line.

Jesus Christ took sin seriously.  In this passage, He told them that if your eye would cause you to sin, to lust after another, to think evil thoughts, to become covetous, then pluck it out, so that you won’t be led to sin.  If your hand causes you to do what is wrong, like to click that mouse to go to a pornographic website, to hurt another person, to steal, then chop it off.  Why?  Because He took sin seriously.  He knew that sin’s eventual result was death, not only physical death but spiritual.  The end result of sin was punishment by death in the Lake of Fire.  It was a serious and awful offense.  God hates sin.  It is a disgust, disgrace, and outright abomination to Him.  That is why He had to punish it so dearly on the cross.

Now, Jesus Christ certainly did not mean that one should literally poke his eye out or cut off one of his members, but He was using it as a strong picture of how serious the issue of sin is.  For us to really understand this concept, let’s take an example from a recent summer blockbuster, World War Z.  In that movie, Brad Pitt was a soldier who was looking for a cure for a world-wide zombie infection.  Once a person was bitten by a zombie, the virus would spread and within seconds turn that person into another rabid, flesh-eating monster.  At one point in the movie, Brad Pitt was defending a portion of Jerusalem with a fellow soldier, when all of a sudden that person got bitten in the arm.  Immediately, Brad Pitt pulled out a knife and cut off that person’s arm, and to their surprise, she did not turn into a zombie, the virus did not have time to spread from the site of infection to the brain.  Just like with any infection, whether snake or zombie bite, the first step is to prevent the poison from spreading, so you must isolate the area, even if it requires amputation.  The loss of just one little thing could be the difference between life and death.

We need to treat sin in the same way, in that, when we see even an inkling of it showing up in our lives, we need to cut it off right at the source.  If you see pride starting to pick up, then kill it right then and there.  If you see anger, then go get it settled with your brother right away.  If you see lust coming up, then stop watching that television show, that movie, that website.  If you are prone to gossip, then stay away from gossipers.  It is that simple.  Cut it off.  Find out what sin you have in your life and cut it off.  The end result is death.  Maybe not hell for a Christian, but definitely spiritual degredation.  Maybe not everlasting fire, but a broken relationship with God.  Is your sin really worth that?  I think not.  We need to take sin seriously.  We would never let a little child run around with scissors or play in the street.  We would never have a person play Russian roulette right in front of us.  We would never even allow a person to prepare our food without gloves on.  So why would we take sin so lightly?  This dangerous thing as if it was something minute.

The Hope to Attain This New Standard

Looking at Christ’s standards for adultery, divorce, and sin, in general, can certainly overwhelm us and even weigh us down.  It could easily bring depression to us as we consider the various ways we would try to attain to this standard.  Christ requires our minds and hearts to be pure and not even think a lustful thought about another.  Christ requires us to sanctify marriage and not treat it so cheaply.  Christ requires us to treat sin as a deadly poison that needs to be cut off right at the tap.  How could we ever do such a thing?  How could we ever live up to that standard?

The truth is that we can’t.  There is no possible way in our own strength that we can be the people Christ called us to be.  We have already failed at this multiple times.  My own life is filled with the sin of lust and covetousness, so much so that if I had a thousand eyes, I would still be blind.  I have personally treated sin carelessly, acting as if it would be okay if I committed one “small” sin as long as I didn’t go overboard.  But the beautiful and glorious thing is that Christ has forgiven us.  He came to this earth, to not only create a standard of living that is much higher than anything we could imagine, but He came so that we could be made in a way where we can reach that standard.  When Christ died for us, He forgave us all our sins, no matter the ones in the past, the ones now, or the ones in the future.  All of them have been forgiven.  In addition, with His Resurrection, we as Christians were all also given new life in Him, in that, when we received Him as Lord and Savior, we became new creatures that are no longer enslaved by the rules of constant sin and struggle but are free to reject sin, live for Christ, and bring glory to God.  We as Christians need to abandon our old nature and our old standards and instead take on these new standards that Christ has set out for us.  These standards will set us apart from the world, making us the salt, the light, the city set on a hill that He has called us to be.  Let us treat sin as sin not as a puppy dog or a little doll, but as a deadly virus that can easily infect and destroy the Christian life.  To close, we must simply remember what Christ told the woman who was about to be stoned for adultery but was saved by Him in John 8, “Neither do I condemn you; and sin no more.” (NKJV)

The Dream – The Urgency to Share the Gospel

2 Corinthians 6:2 – “For He says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’  Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 

Last night, I had a very interesting dream.  Whether I was being spoken to by God directly through that dream or was just going through some type of dream cycle where my unsaid thoughts and emotions were being projected is unclear, but that dream has certainly made me rethink my attitude in sharing the Gospel.  My dream basically starred two of my close cousins – one who I know is currently growing in His relationship with Jesus Christ and one who either has backslidden or has never fully accepted Christ personally as his Lord and Savior although he surely knows that he should.  In that dream, both of the cousins had been dead for some time (they are currently alive; don’t worry), but they were brought back to life for a few days.  I saw both of them, and in that dream, I asked each of them an important question about what happens after death.

While talking to my cousin (who I am unsure is a Christian or not), I heard him mention the word hell.  That prompted me to ask whether after he died he was in heaven or hell.  There was a brief pause, in which, his countenance changed.  He was holding back the pain, the distress, and the tears in his eyes, as he told me, that he was in hell.  Although most people forget their dreams within the first few minutes of when they wake up, I can still see that raw emotion in my mind as I write this.  Just by his expression, I knew that hell was even worse than anyone could imagine.  I mentioned that maybe God allowed him to have his life again, so that he could accept him at that instant, to which he sadly replied, “It’s too late.”  That shattered my heart, and I am certain that the brokenness I felt after hearing those words was not just an emotion in my dream.

In my dream, I also talked to the other the cousin (who is currently growing in Christ) and asked him if heaven was really a true place.  Was there actually a place for us as believers or was this all just made up stuff?  He firmly replied that there certainly was and the way to get there was simple – to trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.  No works required, although it would definitely be good to apply them after salvation.  His words spoke comfort to me, reminding me of just how loving and merciful God was when He sent His Son to die for us, so that we could be in His presence without having to do anything on our part except trusting in Him.

That was the gist of my dream.  I woke up soon after, sitting on my bed and pondering what all of this meant.  Was this just some crazy dream?  Or was God trying to get my attention on something?  I believe that it was the latter.  This dream caused me to reflect on how apathetic I have become about sharing the Gospel.  I constantly convince myself that I should do it, because Jesus Christ commanded us to in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20); but I never do, instead I come up with some petty excuse as to why I can’t – “I can’t bother that person, he is too busy reading that book,” “Somebody else will do it,” “I don’t want to offend that person,” “I can tell that person about Christ another day, when it comes up in a conversation again.”  I just reason my way out of sharing the Gospel every time.  But to think that anyone I know, anyone I meet, could be just like my first cousin in that dream who said, “It’s too late,” convicts me of just how wrong I am.  At any moment that person I care about could die without ever hearing the Gospel message, without my ever telling them of the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  In reality, it would be partially my fault that they would be in hell, because the Lord had prompted me to share, but I refused for some second-rate excuse like “I have no time” or “I don’t want to strain that relationship.” (Read Ezekiel 33 and find out more).  Their blood would be on my hands, because I did not warn them.  The dream itself showed me how important it is to take the time I have now to share the Gospel with the people around me, whether it be family, friends, or the random strangers I meet.  The Bible says, “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).  There is no better time than the present for a person to receive Christ, which also means that there is no better time than now to share the Gospel.  I have it made it my goal to get an opportunity within the next few days at the latest to talk to my cousin about this.  And hopefully, you will also choose to commit to share the Gospel with those you know as soon as possible.  Trust me you don’t want to miss that opportunity.  Take it now, before “It’s too late.”

*Note:  If this short blog has caused you to think of someone you know who isn’t saved, then why don’t you call them now and share your faith today?

By the Grace of God We Can

Jeremiah 13:23 – “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?  Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.”

Rudyard Kipling wrote a short fictional story about how the leopard got his spots in his book Just So Stories.  In that story, he described how at one point in time, the leopard and his fellow Ethiopian friend would hunt zebra and giraffe together on the African plain.  At first, the leopard and Ethiopian were both light colored, blending into their surroundings on the open plain; that made it quite easy for them to catch their prey.  Eventually, the giraffe and zebra, sick and tired of becoming the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of these predators, moved from the plain into a forest, where over time, they developed spots and stripes to blend into their surroundings.  Realizing that they were out of food, both the Ethiopian and the leopard moved from the plain into the forest; but to their chagrin, they could smell zebra/giraffe, they could hear zebra/giraffe, but they could not see it, making it almost impossible for them to hunt their meal.  One day when they got lucky and caught something, they found out that what made it so difficult to capture a meal was that they were standing out like a sore thumb in this forest environment compared to their well-camouflaged prey; so the Ethiopian right at that point changed his skin color to black.  The leopard also decided to change his coat adding spots to it with the help of his Ethiopian friend.¹

Although Mr. Kipling wrote a fun and interesting take on how the leopard got its spots, it is simply fictional.  Surprisingly though, a few years ago some scientists actually discovered that there was a bit of truth to his story, in that, cats (whether lions, tigers, or leopards) actually had different coats based on the environments they were in.  Since leopards lived in a denser forest environment, they had spots, while things that lived on the plains like lions did not.²  Each cat species had adapted a coat that would be best fit for them to hunt in their environment.  In a way, Mr. Kipling was right.

But in both cases, the truth of the matter is, a leopard cannot change its spots once it has developed its coat, neither can a human being change the color of his skin (It is true that you can become a lot darker/lighter through various processes, like tanning, but you still are what you are).  This idiom that is part of our everyday language is usually used to remind people that they can’t change who they are.  It actually originated from this verse in the Bible that we find in our passage today.  In the context, the LORD was basically speaking to the people of Israel, rebuking them and letting them know that they are a group of sinners that cannot change their ways.  To say if the leopard could change his spots or the Ethiopian his skin, then you could do good, was basically a way of telling them that there was no way that they could ever do good, they were just so accustomed to doing evil already.  This verse is a sad commentary on how far Israel had fallen into their sin of idolatry and disobedience against God.

The same commentary could actually be said about all of mankind – we are so inclined to do evil that we can almost never do good, especially in God’s sight.  Two verses in Romans 3 attest to that – Romans 3:23 (“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”) and Romans 3:12 (“All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one”).  And if we even managed to do good, Isaiah states that our righteousness is but filthy rags in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6).  We are like the people of Israel – so accustomed to our evil ways that we cannot do good, we cannot be good.  It just isn’t in our nature.  Now, we could all easily take this fact and live lives of utter degradation, because we can’t help it.  But the beautiful thing is that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died to change that.  He died to give us a way to be righteous, to be holy, to be able to do good in God’s sight.  Our natural state after the Fall (After Adam ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden) is to sin, but Christ when He died on that cross opened up a way for us to change who we are completely to become new creatures, new creations in Him.  2 Corinthians 5:17 states it best – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold the new has come.”  We aren’t like Kipling’s leopard who just painted on his spots, but we are completely changed from the inside out.  It is like a caterpillar that emerges as a butterfly.  Once it has undergone metamorphosis, it is a completely different creature; it can never go back.  In the same manner, we as Christians have been changed from this state of complete corruption to a righteousness in God’s eyes.  This all came by His grace alone – “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and not of yourselves it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Jesus Christ is the only Reason we can be seen as righteous before God that we can be and do good, because He is our Righteousness, Redemption, and Sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30).  Although the commentary of our passage today indicates that mankind can never do good, by the grace of God through the salvation He provided in His Son, we, as redeemed disciples of Jesus Christ, can.  So let’s do that. Let us live out our lives by being and doing good, bringing glory to our Savior and doing what is impossible for the world to do.

Note:

If you want to receive Christ, follow these easy steps:

A – Admit you are a sinner and in need of Christ.

B – Believe that He has died for your sins and His death on the cross has saved you from sin (from the penalty of sin (death), the power of sin (the inability to do good), and the presence of sin (from hell and into heaven)

C – Commit your life to Him trusting Him as Lord and Savior

¹http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/leopard.htm

²http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/eb4f6f88-e169-11df-90b7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2bdekRiHW

No Trade is Worth God

Jeremiah 2:5 – “Thus says the LORD: ‘What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?’”

In the ancient past, although currency was used in some cultures, most people followed the bartering system.  In the bartering system, a person would trade something that he had for something that he wanted or needed.  For example, if I were a farmer of potatoes and my neighbor a cattle rancher, I would trade him a few sacks of potatoes for a cut of his meat.  This type of trading would go on quite often, whether it was with food or goods.  Nowadays, we do not see bartering happen as much unless your part of a collectible gaming community or watch a ton of Pawn Stars.  I personally am a huge fan of collectible card and figurine games, so I barter (or what we call trade) a lot.  The most important rule in trading though is that you receive the same if not more value for what you trade off.  So if I owned something that is worth $10, I would not trade it for anything less than that value.  Unfortunately, there are times when you make mistakes on the value you give to something, pricing it a lot lower than its actual value; at those times, you feel like the seller at a garage sale, accidentally selling a Monet or Picasso for a measly $5.  For those who are fans of Pawn Stars, you see this happen almost all the time – a person comes in with something worth thousands of dollars like a signed letter by George Washington, and instead of sticking to their guns and pushing for more cash, they sell it off for only 30-50% of its value.  They make bad deals.

In our passage today, God directed an important question about the deal that Israel constantly made when they turned from worshipping Him to idols, “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?”  He was basically asking them to evaluate whether they made a good deal or not – whether trading Him for something of less value, something in the scope of eternity was useless was a good deal?  In the book of Jeremiah, God pronounced judgment on the people of Israel for their constant idolatry.  Over and over again, God constantly blessed Israel, but in return, they would turn from Him and toward idols of other nations.  Just look at the book of Judges, and you can see the cycle of sin that Israel went through – idolatry then punishment then sorrow and crying out to God then merciful deliverance from God and back again.  The Israelites failed to realize the great gift that was right in front of them, the gift of having God be their own personal God.  They refused to acknowledge the precious love of God for them, the God who delivered them from slavery in Egypt, who provided for them in the desert, who conquered the land of Canaan for them.  Instead, they would rather have gold, silver, precious stones, and things that would not last.  They would rather worship the creature than the Creator.  They did not treasure their greatest gift; they traded Him for false gods.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must be alert that our hearts are not like that of the Israelites who traded God for something worthless.  So often, we get caught up in the things and activities of this world that we allow it to distract our devotion from Christ and onto objects of the earth.  We become like the soil in which the seed of the Word of God was choked upon by the thorns of the cares of this world, which in the end yielded little fruit (Matthew 13).  We can trade God for anything.  It needn’t be the common pitfalls of money, houses, or cars; we could be trading our Lord for something good like love or family or even ministry.  Instead of devoting our lives and times to building His kingdom and our personal relationship with Him, we seek to just fill our lives with activities.  That is the wrong attitude.  That is us trading God for something worthless in the end.  That is us trading Him for treasures on earth which can easily be devoured by moths or stolen by thieves.  We trade Him every time we choose to watch TV instead of spending time in His Word?  We trade Him every time we choose to sleep in instead of worshipping Him at church.  We trade Him whenever we are more concerned about what people think of us than sharing the Gospel with them.  We as disciples must instead treasure our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him.  We must lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot corrupt and where thieves cannot break in and steal.  We must have our hearts fully devoted to loving and serving Christ, never ever trading Him.

Our God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us.  He loved us so much that He called us to a personal relationship with Him.  He loves us so much that He calls us to come boldly to His throne of grace.  If we truly understand, the treasure that we have in this opportunity to have a personal growing relationship with the God of the universe, how can we not but keep our eyes on something that worthwhile?  How can we trade Him for anything else?  Nothing compares to God.  Nothing can even come close to His worth.  Examine your life today.  See if you are trading God for something worthless?  Are you trading your time with Him to pursue something in this world?  If your answer was “Yes,” then stop immediately and return to God again.  No trade is worth God.

For those of you, who like to meditate and think on song, please look over these lyrics by Rhea Miller, she definitely nailed it in the hymn, “I’d rather have Jesus” http://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Id_Rather_Have_Jesus/:

1. I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
   I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
   I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
   I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand

• Refrain:
  Than to be the king of a vast domain
  And be held in sin’s dread sway;
  I’d rather have Jesus than anything
  This world affords today.

1. I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
   I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
   I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;
   I’d rather be true to His holy name
2. He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
   He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb;
   He’s all that my hungering spirit needs;
   I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead

You Could also hear George Beverly Shea, sing it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk9f8zhTwIg