But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and His righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you. Take therefore no
thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself.
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Matthew 6:33-34
Traveling to Los Angeles to be at my Aunt's funeral (she was 88 years old and had a stroke) gave me time to think as I drive alone thinking about life, about Authentic Christianity. The one takeaway from the funeral was that my Aunt was faithful, was a loving person, and loved Jesus Christ: it showed, not necessarily by words but by action, that is, she lived a quiet and peaceful life enjoying life, and speaking evil of no one. My aunt followed the words of Jesus in the opening verses.
A true mark of an Authentic Christian is that they do not follow after this world, rather they continue to seed the kingdom of God. A mark of a cultural or liberal Christian is just the opposite, they seek what they world has to offer. The truth: is that Authentic Christians have their character rooted in a spiritual foundation. It is easy to get caught up saying: "I must live;" and "I must make so much money;" and "I need clothed;" and "I must be fed." This means, if this is the case, that you are not spiritually minded. God is not of great concern, rather you are concerned for yourself. Yes, we must live, we must have money, we must be clothed, and be fed, there is no denying that fact. The question is: what is your great concern? God or you? Do you believe that God is concerned for His children and will add the things necessary for you? Oh! Let us get this one thing straight: God will not give to you what you want! God will give to you what you need! The problem is that we have the wrong understanding of want and need.
A problem that can overcome an Authentic Christian and one that has overcome a cultural or liberal Christian: They place themselves above all things, they become the center of their universe and they think only of themselves while at the same time giving either lip service or doing service for what seems to be about God, or doing things that will bring to them praise. Jesus stated: "Therefor I say unto you. Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" (Matthew 5:25). Jesus is here saying to us that it is utterly unreasonable from His standpoint of being anxious over the means of living. We are not to be foolish and take thought of nothing, this is not what Jesus is advocating. What Jesus is teaching us is that we are make our relationship to God the domination concentration of our lives. We are as Authentic Christians to be carefully careless about everything in comparison to that dominating concentration on Him, on God and our relationship. In other words, we are not to make the cares of this world to be the ruling faction of our lives.
It is easy to see that far too may people are careless, are those who worry about food, clothing, how they are perceived, things which they have no business to be careless about. We are as Authentic Christians to be respectful, to dress respectfully, to take care of ourselves, to eat well, to live well, to be ethical, as God will hold us accountable for our lives and how we care for them, and whether or not we are seeking His kingdom. We are to be living in harmony with His Scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into this harmony.
Better is the poor that walketh
in his integrity, than he that
is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
Proverbs 19:1
Concentrate on your relationship with God
Richard L. Crumb
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