serving two masters

The summer of 2008, I came across a thirteen year old Mexican boy who used an Apple Bee’s patio umbrella and a tarp as his home. He lived on top of a hill that was made of the city’s waste. Home in Kansas weeks later, I found myself watching a most shocking show on MTV. Celebrities were showing off their glorified homes, numerous cars, and personal swimming pools. In short, those homes were extremely extravagant and largely luxurious compared to the little umbrella our friend in Mexico had. They had enough resources to care for an entire small village. At what point can we look at the two scenarios and realize there is something to be said? Do we have to wait until their situations get extreme before an authoritative or influential voice must intervene? How much wealth is too much wealth anyway? I have an idea, but note that I want to strive for answers not because what I have seen with my own eyes, but what I have seen through Jesus Christ’s example straight out of the word of God and His perfect example.By definition wealth can mean two things: a great quantity or store of money, valuable possessions, property, and other riches or it can mean just property that has economic utility, a monetary value or an exchange value. I have often found it difficult to fathom that we need anything at all, after seeing kids in Mexico or Guatemala or China with little to nothing yet surviving- and appear to have joy in every day. Confession: I often want to factor out the fact that we find ourselves as being. yep we are most unquestionablycompletely human beings. We have a spirit yes, but our physical bodies are in use as the temple of the Holy Ghost. Through Him lives are changed. Jesus Christ even joined us in this state for awhile. We all learned early on in elementary education that in order to survive the body needs things. So as simple as it sounds to rely on Christ to survive, by the laws of physics and anatomy: we must have food, we must have warmth, and we must have water. So maybe the question should be how can we live our lives completely Heaven focused as we accept that there are somethings we must all have. In that light, the second definition must come into contact with must be ok-as long as it is used to satisfy physical and spiritual 'needs', but not necissarily 'wants' for they too often entangle us.[1]God clearly commands us to not store up our treasures on earth.[2] The first wealth definition given encourages us to disobey the command. Hoarding money is unbelievably selfish. One has too much wealth when they are able to spill it over to the next generation. Even though inheritances are Biblical; we see them cause great problems on numerous occasions: Jacob and Esau, the classic prodigal son, etc. The prodigal son, in particular, prior to his road of rebellion, did not learn the lessons of hard work or diligence. As Christians addressing salvation, we must choose to lie down our desires and strive to be like Christ. For us, too must wealth would be anything that causes us to look like the world. We are called to be set apart to show Christ. Why would the rest of the world want to follow Christ if we don’t look or act any different than they do? Let’s not hide our Light behind expensive baskets. Ensuring nonbelievers their comfort is not a good motivational approach. We know God spits out the lukewarm, so lets be honest with those we are leading to Christ: He has called us to live of surrender in every aspect. No one said the rich would easily be saved, [3] but of course, it is still possible. We all know Christ came humbly and lived simply and relied on His Father to take care of His daily needs. I don’t think we should look at Christian leaders who say otherwise. Why look at the moon when we can look at the the sun. The sun is the Son of God, who came as humbly as simply as could be, and the moon is those "great Christian leaders" who try to follow Christ, but have not set the standard high enough. We cannot pretend that we are not accountable to help the hungry when He has given us the technology to see them, and the resources to care for them. And we should absolutely not use resources if they are causing the counteraction of wealth to others. If one has such a problem with that, they must rethink the reason they are on this earth. Do we seriously think it’s only to experience comforts or gratification? Let’s not store up our treasures here on Earth. We are to love people and use things when there is a need, not love things and use people to get them. Anyways after all jumbled thoughts, I'd like to share an awesome conclusion a close friend and I had the monday about this topic. We were talking about the verse that says: You can't serve two masters. After years of reading we realized it means you can't serve two masters. See the difference?? Once God really really is in your life...you don't even want to pretend to look like you are serving two masters. This may be on the key tests to see if Christ is in your life. For reals. I dont want to judge to harshly now.. but lets just agreee to think about it.. It makes since. We can not because of the freedom in knowing the Truth, who he is, We are all His! Its exciting thrilling and wow do we have a lot of work to do. I am never ever peaked at being amazed as to what my friends come up with. I am constantly in awe of the things we are learning together. Anyways lets encourage eachother to not leave out the key factor in our lives...

Physically, emotionall, LITERALLY... We just can not serve two masters!
wahooo!!!

[1][1] Hebrews 11[2] Ecclesiastes 5:10-16[3] Matthew 19:16-26[4]1 Timothy 1:6[5] Ecclesiastes 5:19