Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And which of you, by being anxious, can add one cubit to his span of life?
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin; yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, oh men of little faith?
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For the goyim do all these things; and your Father knows you need them all.
But seek first His kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be yours as well.
Do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow will be anxious about itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.
July 17, 2015
July 06, 2015
Matthew 6.24
No one can serve two masters; for either he will neglect the one and love the other; or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and Mammon.
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This is clear enough; but you'd need to be pretty poor to actually like it!
I don't think it's saying that you need to starve in a hovel to love God, or that starving in a hovel would do the job, either. It can't be something one "balances," because there's no natural balance point. On another hand, God probably doesn't to object to people having 'enough,' whatever that might be. But one has to watch that step between 'need' and 'want'; it can be a big one!
You cannot serve God and Mammon.
=============================
This is clear enough; but you'd need to be pretty poor to actually like it!
I don't think it's saying that you need to starve in a hovel to love God, or that starving in a hovel would do the job, either. It can't be something one "balances," because there's no natural balance point. On another hand, God probably doesn't to object to people having 'enough,' whatever that might be. But one has to watch that step between 'need' and 'want'; it can be a big one!
July 03, 2015
Matthew 6.22-23
The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness.
If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
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That is: If the light in you could be darkness, how dark that would make things!
If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
===============================
That is: If the light in you could be darkness, how dark that would make things!
June 29, 2015
Matthew 6.19-21
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on Earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
==============================
This is not about saving the goodies for 'an afterlife' ala ancient Egyptian practices (though there's nothing more mysterious about an afterlife than there is about the fact that we're experiencing this life!)
It can't be about 'Racking Up Points With The Old Man,' because as we're told, God already loves us as a father, and gives us what we need.
We don't want to need suffering, except that evidently we sometimes do. But that -- Consider the story of Job -- isn't necessarily a matter of having 'Sinned' or being somehow 'Bad.'
So what is this telling us?
==============================
This is not about saving the goodies for 'an afterlife' ala ancient Egyptian practices (though there's nothing more mysterious about an afterlife than there is about the fact that we're experiencing this life!)
It can't be about 'Racking Up Points With The Old Man,' because as we're told, God already loves us as a father, and gives us what we need.
We don't want to need suffering, except that evidently we sometimes do. But that -- Consider the story of Job -- isn't necessarily a matter of having 'Sinned' or being somehow 'Bad.'
So what is this telling us?
June 24, 2015
Matthew 6.9-18
Pray like this:
[It's often a useful challenge to try to rephrase this, not that I could do it 'better' but that then I need to look more closely and strive to understand better.]
Our Father in the Spiritual Realm,
may we recognize your power and worth.
May your rule be manifest
and your intentions be realized
here on Earth as in Heaven.
Give us what we need
and forgive our failings
as you've taught us to forgive
everyone who angers us.
Please do not test our endurance
but rather, spare us from harm
for you are the source of any virtue
or any success we might claim.
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[emphasising the need for us to forgive, and echoing previous verses]:
If you forgive people what they owe you, your Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive what you're owed, neither will your Father forgive what you owe.
And when you fast, don't look dismal about it, like the hypocrites, who disfigure their faces to make their fasting visible. Truly I say, that's the only reward they can expect. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so your fasting will only be known to your secret Father, and the Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
==================
Isn't this what we truly need -- and truly want, so far as we recognize that?
[It's often a useful challenge to try to rephrase this, not that I could do it 'better' but that then I need to look more closely and strive to understand better.]
Our Father in the Spiritual Realm,
may we recognize your power and worth.
May your rule be manifest
and your intentions be realized
here on Earth as in Heaven.
Give us what we need
and forgive our failings
as you've taught us to forgive
everyone who angers us.
Please do not test our endurance
but rather, spare us from harm
for you are the source of any virtue
or any success we might claim.
----------
[emphasising the need for us to forgive, and echoing previous verses]:
If you forgive people what they owe you, your Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive what you're owed, neither will your Father forgive what you owe.
And when you fast, don't look dismal about it, like the hypocrites, who disfigure their faces to make their fasting visible. Truly I say, that's the only reward they can expect. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so your fasting will only be known to your secret Father, and the Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
==================
Isn't this what we truly need -- and truly want, so far as we recognize that?
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