What is it about us? Jesus says, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” and I think I can hear a number of people in my world who might raise their hands believing heartily that worry will be able to make a difference! Of course, they all eventually realize the truth that we simply can’t gain anything by worrying.

Worry is worthless!

Of course, the point Jesus is trying to make is that God himself will care for us and meet our needs if we are his children. If your needs are clothing or food, God can meet those needs.

Do you know what the most refreshing part of living life like this is? It’s not the lack of worry over where the next meal is coming from. It’s not the lack of concern over what clothes you have. The most refreshing part of living life this way is that we never have to determine our needs versus our wants. If we are his children, and if his promise is true that he will meet our needs, then whatever I have is something God thought I needed, but whatever I don’t have is something that I don’t need!

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: What you lack is something God thought you don’t need now. What do you think about that?

Jesus wants us to get a better perspective on life. Way too often, we think that life is about the gathering of money or the collection of items, but Jesus looks us square in the eye and says, “That’s wrong.” In fact, he gives four reasons why the focus on material wealth or even having a heart for material gain will destroy us.

1. Material wealth won’t last.
2. Your heart follows your treasure.
3. Generosity fills your life with light.
4. Either God or money will rule your life.

Each of these four statements gets progressively more challenging and enlightening, and even though the final statement is the strongest and most profound, the two in the middle deserve more attention than they are usually given. Without taking a great deal of time on them today, I just want us to reflect on them a little more deeply in the form of a question.

I need to explain #3 a little. Jesus’ actual words are about your eye being full of light or full of darkness and what that means for your whole body. It seems way out of context unless you understand that the Greek word Jesus uses for “good” in the line “If your eyes are good” is a word that has a double meaning. It can also mean “generous.” Likewise, the word used for “bad” can also mean “selfish.” In other words, Jesus’ point is that if you use your eyes to see how you can give, your life will be filled with light, but if you use your eyes to see what you can gain, your life will be increasingly dark. So here’s the question. Do your eyes prompt a desire to give or a desire to get?

Secondly, back to #2, the teaching is that if you put your treasure somewhere, your heart will follow. Therefore, if you want your heart to be with another person, you will invest your wealth in that person (give gifts, etc.). So the question for this is a two part one: Where do you want your heart to be? Where are you putting your treasure?

Of course, I won’t be shy about this. One way to have your heart be with God is to invest financially in a church that is focused on Him above all else. By giving your finances to God through a church (particularly through the commitment to regular, percentage-based giving), you can quickly see your heart turn more often to the things of God. But don’t stop there. It’s too easy to put 10% of the paycheck in a basket and then spend the other 90% willy nilly. Why not also consider how to use the 90% to invest in the work God is doing in a friend’s life? Why not use some finances to invite another family over for dinner just to get to know them and perhaps help them take a step closer to Jesus? Of course, I want people to tithe, because I know the church will benefit, but more than that, I want people to develop eyes of giving and use of treasure so their heart is drawn closer to God every day.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Does my use of money draw me closer to God?

How many times have you prayed the “Lord’s Prayer”? I have calculated that I have heard or prayed it on at least 1,196 Sundays in my life plus a few more hundred for other prayer routines. Yet, how easy it is to forget the previous words! Jesus says not to babble in prayer. Did Jesus give us the “Lord’s Prayer” for us to merely repeat it back to him?

There three parts to the prayer here in Matthew. In part one, we affirm God’s place in the world. He is holy, he is greater than what the earth can hold, and he rules the entire universe as King. He is in charge, not us.

Part two is brief and basic. We ask God for what we need. We affirm that we depend on God to survive, for our next breath, blink, and piece of bread.

In the third part, we ask for God’s help with our brokenness. While the second part affirms our status as dependent creatures, the third part acknowledges our status as fallen, selfish, and gullible to evil’s charms. We not only need bread but also need grace — We do not deserve the bread we just asked for! This part of the prayer, which Jesus explains, also asks for a holistic grace and not one that can be taken for granted. Why should God forgive me when I do not show that forgiveness is imprtant in my relations to others? God’s forgiveness is by grace through faith, and when we ask for forgiveness to save our hide rather than because of true remorse, God notices.

Take some time to pray through this passage and make it your own prayer. Do you set yourself in truthful perspective when you pray? Do you talk at God with a laundry list of requests, or do you ask for things knowing that you depend on God for everything, even the energy to ask? Do you regularly and honestly confess your sins to God, seek his help to live a more godly life, and then actually go out and try to do it? Is there someone you need to forgive or ask their forgiveness from today? Make sure that you start and end your time of prayer by praising God, rejoicing in his mercy, and affirming his lordship over your life.

BIG IDEA: Would I rather talk at God or be with God?

Bryan and Jeff were roommates in college. After that experience he fled to Egypt for refuge….

Seriously, here are a few bullet points:

• Missionary to Sudanese refugees in Cairo Egypt for 2 years (1997-99) *Moved to Oregon, got married. worked in IT sector for 7 years while supporting his wife Lynn in grad school at the U of Oregon. Involved in various ministries including youth ministry and BSF. *Currently in 3rd year of seminary at TEDS.
• We praying about church planting back in the Northwest after graduation.
• Favorite color is green, roots for the Packers occasionally, finds KrispyKreme donuts irresistible, loves Chicago high rises and the outdoors, and plays the drums for fun.

Beyond those things, BK is just a really great guy with a deep passion for Christ.

Bryan Kane: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bryankane r.bryan.kane (AT) gmail.com

Many people say Christians are hypocrites — they flaunt their “faith in Jesus” while living a double life. We can all list off the problems with other people or TV preachers while thinking that we’re doing fairly well.

In the past Christian mentors have encouraged me to do well publicly in order to “be a good witness” for Jesus and fight against this reputation of hypocrisy. If people know that I give 20% of my income to the poor, always stay late at the prayer meetings, pick up litter when walking in my neighborhood, and volunteer at the public library, won’t they say “Wow, I can tell this person follows Jesus. I should consider Jesus too”?

Maybe.

Or maybe Jesus knows that my public life is nothing more than a hollow marketing campaign. What if I stopped our posturing and grandstanding, and just tried to honor God when no one is around? What if I quit relying on the fickle praise of my friends and only cared about what God thinks?

Some may respond, “But what about this “salt and light” business? Didn’t Jesus just tell us to be a “city on a hill”?” When we stand within sight of the Sears Tower in Chicago, does it need marketing? It’s just there, and we always know where it is. Certainly our lives should reflect the profound transformation that following Jesus brings. Our lives should match our words. But here, Jesus calls his audience to do privately what people laud publicly. His issue in these verses is not whether we do good works or not, but how we do them.

Ask yourself, “What is my ‘marketing campaign’?” What would happen if I did something amazing and no one noticed or found out?

The BIG IDEA: “live for an audience of one.”

Bryan and Jeff were roommates in college. After that experience he fled to Egypt for refuge….

Seriously, here are a few bullet points:

• Missionary to Sudanese refugees in Cairo Egypt for 2 years (1997-99) *Moved to Oregon, got married. worked in IT sector for 7 years while supporting his wife Lynn in grad school at the U of Oregon. Involved in various ministries including youth ministry and BSF. *Currently in 3rd year of seminary at TEDS.
• We praying about church planting back in the Northwest after graduation.
• Favorite color is green, roots for the Packers occasionally, finds KrispyKreme donuts irresistible, loves Chicago high rises and the outdoors, and plays the drums for fun.

Beyond those things, BK is just a really great guy with a deep passion for Christ.

Bryan Kane: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bryankane r.bryan.kane (AT) gmail.com

Have you ever been treated unfairly? Has anyone ever demanded more of you than you thought was right? Has anyone ever wronged you? If you are anything like I am, you’ve said “Yes” to all three! And if you are like I am, you have been tempted to get revenge.

Jesus was quoting Exodus 21:23-25, a command that God to the people of Israel as they were forming their identity as a nation. It was a law for society as a whole, but God never intended his people to take it as a license for vigilantist behavior. It’s quite tempting to take it as a personal license to “pay people back” for the things they have done to us, but Jesus tells us we can’t. Instead, he commands us to do a complete 180 from our natural desires.

They slap me, so I want to slap them, but instead of me doing the second slap, Jesus says to let them take it.

Listen, the second mile is where revenge is defeated. In the first mile, the bully thinks, “He’s not fighting back” but during the second mile, the bully realizes that “He’s not going to fight back.”

That’s a scary place to be. I don’t feel comfortable with it. If everyone in the world knew that I wouldn’t fight back, I’d get walked all over, and maybe even my family would be put at risk. This is a hard passage to apply to our lives, and I’m right there with everyone else who’s trying to live it out, but I think I have a few insights.

1. The decision to not fight back is a decision to leave room for God to work (Romans 12:19). The commands of “eye for eye” were laws for how society should defend the rights of the individual not how individuals should defend their own rights. God defends his own, we don’t defend ourselves.

2. The decision to love even enemies brings us closer to the heart of God than any other human activity. God loved the world so much that he would send his Son to suffer and die and rise again so that we might have an opportunity to have restored relationship with him. We were God’s enemies and he loved us anyway. When we love our enemies, it is the most godly thing we will ever do.

3. The decision to respond to others this way is a simple expression of humility. Jesus calls his followers to be perfect. That’s the standard. We have already broken it, so we aren’t any better off than anyone else no matter what they have done. We simply don’t have the right to judge any other person let alone exact judgment on them!

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: God’s children live by generosity and unconditional love.