It is quiet in our neck of the woods, weather is starting to change to early Spring.  It is hard to believe it is only a couple of weeks away. 

However, some of our family members are having health problems, and that always concerns us.  As Mom used to say, “you are still my child, no matter your age.”

We don’t hear from them, or when we do they are suffering one way or another and I end up worrying about them.  Can’t help it, it is inbred and something I inherited from my Mom.

Fortunately, I know that God is in control, loves them and is watching over them and He often assures me of that fact.

As we know, we can’t live their lives for them, we have to raise them the best we can, instill values into them and trust that those values will guide them throughout their life and any decisions they must make.  Knowing that they know God’s truths and love really is a comforting thought.

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“Money itself not evil, for it is possible to be wealthy and serve God. However, it is all too easy for us to think we are serving God when we are really serving the “stuff” of this world. The Lord gives us possessions to enjoy, but the first and best of all that we own belongs to Him. Make sure that you are offering up the first and best of all you have and not giving unto God only after you have first blessed yourself. “ editorial comment on RC Sproul teaching.

Mathew 6:19-24  KJV  “ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

²⁰ But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

²¹ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

²² The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

²³ But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

²⁴ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

It is so easy in America today to think we need ‘things’ to live.  We covet the newest technology to the point where we are hooked up to the world 24 hours a day, we never get away from it.

There was a time when letters took days and even weeks to get to their destination and weeks even months before the sender gets and answer.

Today if we don’t get an immediate response from a text or phone call we get upset.

But those devices along with our “necessary living expenses” can drive a deep wedge between us and God.  We become so enamored with having to buy the latest, having to spend more and more time and money to acquire them that we forget about our contacts with God.

What are we spending our ‘emotional and spiritual’ wealth on – getting more ‘things’ or spending time with God and then doing what He wants of us.

Technology, like money, is not necessarily a bad thing, but when we misuse it or spend all of our time on it without considering God, we are abusing the blessing He has given us.

Instead of laying up treasures in heaven, we lay up worldly treasures “where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:”

We must ask ourselves where our heart really is, is it with God or not? 

Psalm 129:23-24  KJV  “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

²⁴ And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

That is still a good prayer for us to remember, sometimes we blind ourselves with the desires of the flesh without realizing we have done so – the Holy Spirit with help us see and correct any wicked way in our heart.

While we may need to work to feed, shelter and clothe our families; while we may need to use modern technology to do our job and to keep in contact with others, we cannot let those things usurp our obligation, time and responsibility to God.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

²⁴ And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Later, Art (-: