Tag Archives: treasure

Just stop spending (Luke 12:22-30) November 16, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 131-133

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 12:22-30
Jesus: (then, to His disciples) This is why I keep telling you not to worry about anything in life—about what you’ll eat, about how you’ll clothe your body. Life is more than food, and the body is more than fancy clothes. Think about those crows flying over there: do they plant and harvest crops? Do they own silos or barns? Look at them fly. It looks like God is taking pretty good care of them, doesn’t it? Remember that you are more precious to God than birds! Which one of you can add a single hour to your life or 18 inches to your height by worrying really hard? If worry can’t change anything, why do you do it so much?
Think about those beautiful wild lilies growing over there. They don’t work up a sweat toiling for needs or wants—they don’t worry about clothing. Yet the great King Solomon never had an outfit that was half as glorious as theirs!
Look at the grass growing over there. One day it’s thriving in the fields. The next day it’s being used as fuel. If God takes such good care of such transient things, how much more you can depend on God to care for you, weak in faith as you are. Don’t reduce your life to the pursuit of food and drink; don’t let your mind be filled with anxiety. People of the world who don’t know God pursue these things, but you have a Father caring for you, a Father who knows all your needs.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

We worry so much about material things in this country, don’t we? But we get caught up worrying about the wrong things. We worry about how to make car payments and house payments and how to pay for that next vacation or the one we had last year because we charged it on our credit cards. We worry about the debt we’ve accumulated because we wanted everything our parents had but we want it now so we bought it without the cash or the income to pay for it. Now we’re in terrible financial shape and worry how we will put food on the table.

The problem we have today is we spend $1.10 for every $1.00 we earn. Until we figure out that you can’t make ends meet until you spend less than you make, we’ll keep getting ourselves in trouble. That’s the problem with our government and has been for a lot of years. That’s why we have a $17 trillion deficit. Our elected officials don’t know how to stay within a budget. They keep spending more of our money than we give them. So my grandchildren have a government tax bill of $48,000 each.

So how do we get out of this state of worry that plagued the people around Jesus and drives so many of the people around us to ulcers and anti-depressants? It really is easy, you know. Two words fix the problem but it takes discipline that most of us in this generation just don’t have. We don’t like it because it doesn’t satisfy that selfish desire that eats at us and is the root of all sin. We want what we want and don’t want to listen to anything that doesn’t feed that selfish desire.

So what are those two words that fix the finance problem that most people have today? STOP SPENDING!

But how do we do that, you ask. I know, you still have to eat and clothe yourself and have a place to live. But let me ask you a few questions that you might not like.

Do you need the fast-food you eat three or four times a week or would a sandwich made from home and taken to work nourish you just as well if not better? You can buy a week’s worth of homemade sandwiches for the price of one fast-food meal. How about Starbucks or other specialty coffees? Do you frequent those places everyday or even once or twice a week? The average latte is $5. Even once a week is a car payment every year. And if you go every day, that’s a car payment a month spent on coffee.

Then where do you get your clothes? Did you know that many of the second hand stores have designer label clothes people donated or sold that have never been worn, that still have the tags on them with prices 10% or less of the original price? How would you like to get a $500 dress for $10? They are available if you look. And the last time I walk through Neiman-Marcus, the ‘in thing’ was for all the blue jeans and shirts to look like they had been worn-out and thrown in the trash then pulled out and put ridiculously high price tags on them anyway.

See, we get so hung up on fashion, cars, houses, just stuff, that we forget that God will take care of all that if we trust Him with ourselves. He never lets us down. We just have to get our eyes on the right prize. That doesn’t mean we can be frivolous and expect God to provide. I think He wants us to be good stewards of the things He provides including finances. Jesus talks about money five times as much as He talks about prayer. But He does so because we can become so enamored by the things of the world we can lose sight of what’s really important and it isn’t money. It isn’t stuff. The important thing is Him.

Focus on Him. Be disciplined in your approach to life. Read Proverbs and let the principles of life that Solomon and the Wise men who wrote those principles laid out for us soak into your life and live by them. If you do, you’ll find that life works so much better. You’ll find that you don’t need to worry about the stuff that most people worry about every day because you’ll know God will put the important things in place for you. You can focus on what’s really important and that is worshiping and serving Him and working through His plan for your life in service to those around you.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Where is your treasure? (Matthew 19:23-24) May 4, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 51-53

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 19:23-24
Jesus: This is the truth: it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

We’re taught our whole life to become self-sufficient. Learn how to take care of yourself. You don’t need anyone. Don’t depend on anyone else because they’ll let you don’t. Learn to do everything yourself so you don’t need anyone else. Get everything you can because someone will try to take everything you have. Be careful of everyone; they’re all shysters after your treasure.If they have it you don’t, so go after it.

We hear a lot of stuff.

We even hear that the wealthy are happy. They’re the ones that have it made. But if that’s so, why is the suicide rate highest among those above the average income mark? Why is it that it’s the rich that spend the most time in with the gastroenterologist because of ulcers due to stress? Why is it the wealthy that never seem to have enough? Rockefeller put it best when one day a reporter asked him how much more money he really needed. He answered, just one more dollar. Think about that answer just a second if it didn’t strike you on the head the first time.

See the rich can find themselves thinking they don’t need anything else. They can get food by spending money for it. They can get medical care by spending money. They can get clothing and a nice home with their treasure. They can even get more treasure with their treasure. Interest on investments is really fascinating. If you put $1,000 in a good fund when you child is born and leave it there. Good funds will average about 12% a year return over the long haul. So by the time your child goes to college at 18, that $1,000 is worth $8,578. Now that doesn’t sound like much, but remember, you haven’t done anything but put that thousand dollars in an account and left it there, right. But watch what happens if you leave it there until your child retires in another 50 years at age 68. That $1,000 just became $3,359,239.80. Remember, you didn’t do anything to it except leave it alone.

That’s why insurance companies are so happy to sell you life insurance when you’re young. You buy a $500,000 policy for $25 or $30 a month, they bet you live a long time. They invest the money into good stocks and bonds and when they pay your estate the $500,000, they keep the rest. Sometimes they have to pay early and lose money, but their actuary tables are pretty good. That’s why there are a lot of insurance companies and a lot of the CEOs drive big cars and have big houses.

So lots of companies make more money from their investments than they do their products. And many of their senior executives get the idea they don’t need anything or anyone. They have it made with their yatchs and servants and multiple houses and jets and what they think is everything. But most can’t say they are happy because they don’t have the most important thing. Like Solomon, they try it all. They try everything under the sun and find it all vanity, useless, meaningless.

The rich young man who came to Jesus found that true when Jesus told him he still lacked one thing. He kept six of the ten commandments, but failed to keep the first four because his wealth had become more important to him than the Almighty. The young man put his confidence in the things he could touch instead of the God he could only believe. The consequence? The verse before today’s said he went away sad because he was very wealthy.

Jesus says it’s hard for the wealthy to find their way to heaven because they find it hard to let go. They forget the material things of life are meaningless. The world tells us they are so important. We work so hard and at some point we have enough to retire and enjoy the remainder of life in some semblance of rest. But it doesn’t work. We can’t take any of it with us. And when our health runs out near the end of life, what good are all those things? Solomon talks about those days when sounds are muffled and sight is dimmed. Life drags on until we take our last breath. It happens to the poor and it happens to the rich.

The rich think they can prolong life by searching out the right doctor, the right medicines, the right elixir, the right cure. They can’t. Only God knows the day or the time your last breath will come and nothing you can do can change that. Your riches or your poverty cannot change the number of your days. God gives us those days and He can take them away. He allows us to be stewards of His property. He can also take that away just as quickly as well. Ask the executives at Enron. They thought they were invincible. It took just a few words in the right place and their empire came crashing down.

It’s all His, give it to Him, He lets us enjoy it while we’re here, but don’t hang on too tightly. You might begin to think like the young man who went away sad. He thought he was wealthy. But was he really? Where is your treasure?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Take care of the children (Matthew 19:14) May 1, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 2 Corinthians 4-5

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 19:14
Jesus: Let the little children come to Me; do not get in their way. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to children like these.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

A few days ago I talked about the characteristics of children that we should observe and emulate. The things that Jesus saw in them that make them ripe for the kingdom of heaven. Characteristics like happy, trustworthy, inquisitive, and knowing where to go when they are hurt. Jesus saw in the children around Him the innocence God wants to see in us but we seem to run away from far too quickly.

Let’s go back and look at the scene and see what we learn from it. Some parents wanted Jesus to bless their children. So they began to push through the crowd with holding on to their toddlers’ hands or tightly holding their precious bundles in their arms. But as Jesus’ disciples, those wanting to be like Him remember, saw these parents dragging their kids toward Him, they assumed He wouldn’t want to be bothered a bunch of little rug rats that throw up on your shoulder and ask a thousand questions and run around your feet wanting to play, never listening to what you have to say (or so it seems).

Things haven’t changed much in society today. Take a look around the world and see what happens with children in almost every society. Children and the elderly are the throw-aways of society. In poverty stricken areas, it is the children who starve. In areas rampant with disease, it is the children who die in droves. In areas with the most evil crimes, children become the target of kidnapping and sex slavery.

Societies at large have little regard for children and the elderly. But Jesus turns the tables on His disciples who, like many around them, want to push them aside and pretend they just don’t exist. They are the ones who die of starvation in famine raked countries. They are the ones denied scarce medicines in disease ridden sections. They are the ones left on doorsteps or locked in homes to fend for themselves while those who should be caregivers selfishly go party.

Because children and the elderly are non-productive members of our societies, we push them to the curb and forget about them when things get tough. We often talk a good game and tell ourselves we have great programs to help. But when it really comes down to it, thousands of kids, even in our country are left alone, left in the cold, forgotten because they are just kids. They are the invisible human beings of our society.

But not to Jesus. He says, “Let them come to Me.” Jesus wants the children by His side. He knows that they make up the kingdom of heaven. Jesus know s that unless we become like them, our character keeps us from reaching the promised land just like the adults that left Egypt never made it to the promised land. Those grown-ups couldn’t get past their old ways and old beliefs and died in the wilderness.

Jesus says even more about children, though. He says, “Don’t even get in their way!” Don’t become a stumbling block to them. Don’t put obstacles in their path that would keep them from reaching Him. Don’t do anything that would hinder them from finding and coming to Him. In other places, He says it would be better to have a millstone put around your neck and be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little one to lose their way to heaven.

Do you think Jesus cares about children? There is no doubt in my mind He does. When He talks the way He did to His disciples and the crowd around Him, I know they held a special place in His heart. In fact, I think His wish is that all of us would emulate them. He wants us to understand how important they are. He wants us to care for them and love them as much as He does. He wants us to realize they are not disposable, but rather they are vital to our future. When we treat them as insignificant, disposable pieces of our society, we are in danger of destroying ourselves from within. Children are not our future, they are our present. The way we treat our children reflects our love of God and our love of each other because as Jesus said, “Such as these make up the kingdom of heaven.”

Don’t be one of those that push the children away. Remember they make up the kingdom of heaven. Learn from them. Be like them. Teach them God’s way. Children are loved by God. Be careful how you treat His loved ones. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Heaven is a treasure (Matthew 13:44) March 29, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 1 Samuel 11-15

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 13:44
Jesus: The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that is hidden in a field. A crafty man found the treasure buried there and buried it again so no one would know where it was. Thrilled, he went off and sold everything he had, and then he came back and bought the field with the hidden treasure part of the bargain.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Jesus used some interesting metaphors to explain Himself to His listeners – farmers, seeds, weeds, coins, sheep, fields, and now a hidden treasure. All the things He used were familiar to those around Him. They understood far better than we probably do in our city bound service-age with all our technology. We don’t understand much about sheep or farming or plowing fields or pulling weeds. We don’t know much about seeds and planting and harvesting. Many of the nuances of Jesus’ parables probably pass us by because of our distance from the agrarian society in which He and His listeners lived. But that doesn’t keep us from learning from Him or finding out all we can about the culture of His day or the meaning behind His messages.

So what would you do if you happened upon something so valuable it was almost impossible to fathom its worth hidden in some obscure place? What if you were like the man in Jesus’ story? Would you gamble everything you had on that one treasure? Would you sell everything you had to obtain that treasure that you knew would make you one of the richest people in all the world? Would you plot to get the secret of its location and do anything you could to get that field or building or container that held the treasure?

I think if you’re like most of us, you would do exactly like the man in Jesus’ story. We would all like to be wealthy enough not to worry about where money will come from to pay tomorrow’s bills. We would like to have enough money to get the things we want. We would like to know our retirement is secure without worrying about what the stock market will do or whether Social Security will be solvent when it’s time to use it. Probably very few of us would just ignore the treasure if we found it.

So knowing all of us have this part of us that is somewhat like that man in Jesus’ story, why would he compare heaven to that hidden treasure? Let’s think about a few reasons. First and most obvious, heaven is a treasure. Heaven is worth more than we could ever afford. Even though the man in the story sold everything he had, he could never afford such a treasure. The only way he obtained it was because by selling everything, he was able to afford the field in which the treasure was hidden. The treasure’s value was beyond measure. So is heaven. There is absolutely nothing to which we could compare God’s home.

Second, heaven is hidden from the view of humankind. We can find it, but we must search for it. Heaven isn’t just given to us. God says, “Seek Me with all your heart.” He says, “Seek Me and you will find Me” God doesn’t make it difficult to find Him, but He wants to know we are interested in finding Him, too. He wants us to put out a little effort in getting to His kingdom. He doesn’t want our relationship with Him to be one-sided. He’s already died for us, we ought to be able to search a little to find Him.

Third, although we commonly use the word crafty as an adjective to describe someone with cunning, sometimes to the point of using evil schemes to get their aims, Merriam-Webster’s first definition is still skillful; clever. Continually and consistently in God’s word we find that wise men seek God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is found searching for and finding God. So the clever, skillful person is the one who seeks after God and meditates on His word to know Him better.

So here we are twenty centuries later listening to Jesus’ parables. What can we learn from them? We can still learn a lot if we pay attention. Heaven is worth more than we can imagine. It is worth giving up everything to obtain it, even yourself. Give yourself and everything you have to His Lordship. God wants us to find Him, but He also wants us to expend a little effort on our part. Anything worth having is worth working for. So get busy and do some searching in His word and you will find Him pretty quickly. Finally, it is the wise who understand just how precious and valuable heaven is and will expend the effort to get there. Will you show yourself wise by following God’s commands and letting Him be Lord of your life? Once again, it’s your choice. Make the right one. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Protect your treasures (Matthew 7:6) January 29, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Isaiah 23-28

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 7:6
Jesus: Don’t give precious things to dogs. Don’t cast your pearls before swine. If you do, the pigs will trample the pearls with their little pigs’ feet, and then they will turn back and attack you.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

We have a tendency to break up Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount by the convenient chapters and verses given to us in our current Bibles, but few today realize those chapters and verses didn’t exist until the publication of the Geneva Bible in 1560. Until then, each book ran from beginning to end as a single narrative or collection of poems, stories, etc. Just like an editor today uses page numbers and line numbers to help his staff find specific passages for his writing team, the translators of the Geneva Bible inserted chapters and verses to assist their translators, then left them there as an aid to all readers.

The problem with the chapters and verses is that sometimes they break thoughts and concepts in the wrong places. So it is with the Sermon on the Mount. Start in Chapter 5 and read through Chapter 7 to get the full effect of Jesus’ message. Here we are at Matthew 7:6, but it really references all those things Jesus has said up to this point. He has given his audience so important information about what’s really important in life and now he adds this tiny proverb into the middle of his sermon.

Don’t give precious things to dogs. Don’t cast your pearls before swine. They don’t understand the value of those things and they’ll just trample them into the ground. What does He mean putting this parable into His sermon at this point? I’ve taken it out to talk about it as a single verse today and we can use it as a stand-alone proverb. But taken together with everything He has said about attitudes, the law, offerings, thoughts and actions, real love and relationship with God and man, prayer, fasting, forgiveness, heavenly treasures, I think we can begin to see a much richer, deeper thought as Jesus shares this proverb with those on the mountain that day.

He shared a lot of illustrations with them to help them understand what’s really important to God in His relationship with us. He wants us to enjoy our life, but enjoyment doesn’t come with the collection of stuff. Enjoyment comes in the company of friends and family. Jesus talks about the family of God and the relationship we have with Him. The actions and the heart change, the attitude change that means real joy for the individual and the community as a whole when as a society we honor God as God instead of trying to put ourselves in His rightful place.

You say, “I would never take God’s place.” You’re right, you can’t. Ever. But we try. We try to put everything else in His place. Sometimes good legitimate things. But they are not God. And when we put any created thing above Him we practice idolatry. Idolatry doesn’t have to entail bowing to a gold or silver statue. It is any failure to honor and respect God as God and remember we are not. That’s the crux of the message Jesus has here. We so often put insignificant things in front of God and lose sight of what’s important.

We in essence throw the important to dogs. We throw pearls before swine. And after they trample our “precious treasures”, they turn around and attack us. They destroy and devour us without any thought whatsoever.

On the other hand, we can take the precious treasures God gives us, the relationships nurtured and grown with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and throw them away with the kinds of attitudes, unjust judgments, blind criticisms, and wrongs Jesus shared with His listeners. We can forget all the things He has said and just live the way we want with self on the throne of our heart and do what we want. When we do, we will lose the relationships we worked so hard to build. It takes little to destroy relationships, but years to develop them. Just like it takes little to toss your treasures at the feet of dogs and swine. How hard is to recover them from those beasts once done, though? Not so easy is it?

Recognize the treasure you hold in your hand as a child of God. Share it, but don’t throw it away. Listen to Jesus’ words and meditate on them today. What are you doing with your treasure? 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Put your treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21) January 23, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Matthew 8-10

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 6:19-21
Jesus: Some people store up treasures in their homes here on earth. This is a shortsighted practice—don’t undertake it. Moths and rust will eat up any treasure you may store here. Thieves may break into your homes and steal your precious trinkets. Instead, put up your treasures in heaven where moths do not attack, where rust does not corrode, and where thieves are barred at the door. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Well, to see if Jesus words hold true, I took a look at the stock markets from a year ago today. Google is up from a year ago. That’s good news if you have stock in Google. Almost everything else is down from a year ago today. Over the last couple of weeks, everything has taken a nose dive. It’s only a drop of five or six percent, but that represents trillions of dollars of investments for people who planned their retirements or some big windfall on the continuing rise of the stock market. So much for storing up your treasures in stocks. In the long run, it just doesn’t work. It finally runs out and you can’t take it with you.

How about gold and silver and precious gems? Well, it sounds good, but someone has to buy it, right? So if you have a few pounds of gold sitting around your house it sounds like a great investment. But what happens if the economy really crashes? Do you think your local grocer will accept a hunk of gold for your groceries? He might, but probably not. I doubt if he wants to worry about figuring out the purity of the gold, weighing it, storing it, figuring out how much it’s worth, and providing security for it. Gold is really a pain to have on hand in any quantity. Ask Fort Knox!

When the economy goes kapluey, who’s going to buy your gold, anyway? Who can afford it? What will it be worth? You’re stuck with a lump of gold that you’d happily give away for a scrap of food if someone would give it to you. But ask the Argentinians who a few years ago went through run away inflation what gold was worth to them. Those things will be meaningless to you.

So if gold and silver and stocks and priceless jewels and all those earthly treasures are meaningless, what are we to store up? What treasures can Jesus be talking about when He says to store them in heaven?

If we back up to the beginning of His discourse on the mountain, I think we begin to understand His meaning. Jesus has talked about attitudes being right. He’s talked about thoughts set on goodness and love. He’s talked about keeping your mind out of the gutter and instead offering simple meaningful praise to God. He’s talked about giving to others generously without fanfare. He’s talked about faithfulness to spouses, friends, even enemies. Jesus talked about a new lifestyle from that seen in most circles of society.

From the previous sixty verses Jesus has already laid out a kind of living that turned the general thinking of the religious community upside-down. He has already said enough to cause the Pharisees to hate Him and want His blood. Jesus has already declared their practices shallow, vain, and worthless. He tells those who will listen to His sermon that God has a better plan for them. God has ushered in a new covenant with all humankind. Salvation has arrived, not from doing good deeds. It didn’t come from obeying all the rules. Salvation didn’t come from being religious.

Salvation comes from a change in attitude. It comes from our relationship with God and particularly our relationship with His Son, Jesus the Christ. Through these sixty verses, Jesus has talked about things that affect our relationship with God and others. God wants a vibrant, living relationship with us. He wants our attention. Just like your spouse or your best friend wants your attention to keep your relationship strong, so does God. He wants to talk to you through His word and He wants you to talk to Him through prayer. God wants to communicate with you so you learn of Him, not just about Him.

Everything Jesus tells us to this point leads us toward building our treasure in heaven. It’s not brownie points of doing good, but rather it’s loving God with your all your strength, mind, soul, and spirit. It’s loving your neighbor as yourself. It’s building relationships with others. It’s sharing God’s love with everyone you meet. It’s telling others what God does in your life, witnessing to His amazing grace. That’s your real treasure. Everyone of those people you introduce to God’s kingdom, those are the real treasures you put away in heaven. Eternal friends and family. Those relationships will go on forever.

So, like Jesus says, “Instead, put up your treasures in heaven where moths do not attack, where rust does not corrode, and where thieves are barred at the door. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Knowing God is enough (Philippians 3:1-11), June 13, 2015

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Philippians 3:1-11
Set – 1 Kings 14; Philippians 3
Go! – 1 Kings 13-14; 2 Chronicles 12; Philippians 3

Philippians 3:1-11
1 It is time that I wrap up these thoughts to you, my brothers and sisters. Rejoice in the Lord! (I don’t mind writing these things over and over to you, as I know it keeps you safe.)

2 Watch out for the dogs—wicked workers who run in packs looking for someone to maul with their false circumcision.

3 We are the true circumcision—those who worship God in Spirit and make our boast in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King—so we do not rely on what we have accomplished in the flesh.

4 If any try to throw around their pedigrees to you, remember my résumé—which is more impressive than theirs. 5 I was circumcised on the eighth day—as the law prescribes—born of the nation of Israel, descended from the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew born of Hebrews; I have observed the law according to the strict piety of the Pharisees, separate from those embracing a less rigorous kind of Judaism. 6 Zealous? Yes. I ruthlessly pursued and persecuted the church. And when it comes to the righteousness required by the law, my record is spotless.

7 But whatever I used to count as my greatest accomplishments, I’ve written them off as a loss because of the Anointed One. 8 And more so, I now realize that all I gained and thought was important was nothing but yesterday’s garbage compared to knowing the Anointed Jesus my Lord. For Him I have thrown everything aside—it’s nothing but a pile of waste—so that I may gain Him. 9 When it counts, I want to be found belonging to Him, not clinging to my own righteousness based on law, but actively relying on the faithfulness of the Anointed One. This is true righteousness, supplied by God, acquired by faith. 10 I want to know Him inside and out. I want to experience the power of His resurrection and join in His suffering, shaped by His death, 11 so that I may arrive safely at the resurrection from the dead.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Have you gotten to the point Paul discovered? Paul realized that all he gained and thought important was nothing but yesterday’s garbage compared to knowing Me. Have you developed a relationship like that with Me yet? What’s really important to you right now?

There was a time when Paul thought the Temple and the law were the most important things in his life. He prided himself on keeping the law and enforcing it upon others. He wanted all who associated with the Jewish faith or called on My name to understand that he studied under one of the most rigorous rabbis.

Gamaliel took few disciples and fewer still could stand up under the rigor of his training, but Paul did. He worked feverishly to keep the Pharisaical traditions pure and stop the radical teaching of My disciples. Paul applauded the arrest and imprisonment of those who disrupted the activities of the Temple. He hunted down those who declared Jesus the Messiah. Paul even held the coats of those who stoned to death Stephen, the gentle servant caring for the children and orphans who claimed allegiance to My kingdom.

Paul did all he could to persecute My church. That is until I met him on the road to Damascus. Then everything changed. When he saw Me, he saw the mistake he made in not believing My disciples’ word. He understood the truth of their message. Paul recognized the wrongs he committed in unjustly punishing those who lived as I instructed them.

As I opened his eyes to the scriptures Gamaliel taught him, Paul saw in them everything I told the crowds on the Judaean hillsides. He recognized the fallacies of the traditions he had tried to uphold and the necessity of love reaching out to overcome the failures of trying to keep the law.

Paul found in Me the hope he tried to find in his religion without success. He felt the forgiveness that lifted the burden of guilt sin placed upon his life and knew the stories he heard from My followers about My grace and mercy were true. Paul understood the transforming power of My Spirit and gave himself fully to Me.

Paul died to himself. He gave up everything for Me. Paul recognized the mission I wanted him to complete and eagerly accepted it. He saw the eternal ramifications of his decision and the temporary nature of all else around him. Paul could say without any doubt that everything he gained to that point in his life truly appeared as garbage compared to knowing Me.

Why? Because I am the Eternal God…and that’s enough.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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