datethewordtest

Tag: First

  • Verse to DATE the Word on June 24 (6/24) is Matthew 6:24

    “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and
    love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 
    You cannot serve God and money.” – Matthew 6:24
    CHOOSE THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE

    Jesus is preaching/teaching in Matthew 6.  The chapters of Matthew 5, 6, and 7 are called the Sermon on the Mount.  There will be several times in His sermon that He will bring the message to a decision point.  As we get to this portion of Matthew 6, He is headed to a call for each person to seek the kingdom of God FIRST.  (Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

    As Jesus preaches, He knows there is tremendous competition for our hearts.  We can easily be LOVING a lot of things, a lot of wrong things!  For Jesus, our relationship with God is to be preeminent – supreme – above everything else. Knowing that one of the greatest competitors of our hearts is money, Jesus gets really personal and direct.  He says we must know that money and things can control and even consume us.  The love of and the desire to have more and more money causes a person to have wrong priorities.  Rather than seeking God, this love for money will squeeze God and God’s desires out of one’s life.  

    Personal and direct Jesus says YOU CAN NOT SERVE TWO MASTERS! 

    So, which will it be?  Who will be first?  The Lord? or Your family? Your finances? Your personal needs?  Your personal freedom?  Your recreation? Your work?  And the list can go on and on, can it not?   As Elijah said in 1 Kings 18:21 “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”  WHO will be FIRST?

    Maybe today you need to realign your priorities as you cannot serve two masters!  FIRST THINGS MUST BE FIRST and if you are a believer then JESUS IS TO BE FIRST!  

    Verse to DATE the Word on June 24 (6/24) is Matthew 6:24. It says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” 

    What adjustments do you need to make based on the teaching from Matthew 6:24?

    Continue Strong seeking Jesus First,
    And remember to DATE the Word
    BTW – I hope you know that money makes a horrible master. 
     

  • Verse to DATE the Word on June 14 (6/14) is Galatians 6:14

    “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
    by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” – Galatians 6:14
    Keep First Things FIRST

    In keeping first things firsts and the main thing the main thing, the Apostle Paul reminds us that our focus is Jesus Christ and the work He did at the cross. We are to focus on the message of the cross because it is the only message that doubly changes lives!  It changes a person’s eternal destination, and it changes a person’s earthly desires.  No other message can do that. No wonder the Apostle Paul said he would only boast in the cross of Christ!

    When the gospel is accepted it changes a person’s eternal destination, and it changes a person’s earthly desires.

    To go along with Galatians 6:14 the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he had “determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”  (1 Corinthians 2:2)  Earlier he had written, “But we preach Christ crucified, .. (1 Cor. 1:23)  As he moves toward a conclusion with the Corinthians he writes,  Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2  by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you — unless you believed in vain. 3  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  4  and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,”  

    When the gospel is accepted it changes a person’s eternal destination, and it changes a person’s earthly desires.

    Note: Just a reminder that as we desire to see other people live and think differently it begins with regeneration and justification and adoption into the family of God. In other words, change happens when one gets saved!  One only changes when one accepts the gospel.  For that to happen there needs to be evangelization.  For us to see our neighbors, friends, relatives, and associates, as well as our neighborhoods, cities, country, and yes world changed, they need to hear the message of the CROSS – the GOSPEL!    Evangelization, sharing the GOSPEL – introducing people to Jesus – is the start.  Are you sharing the gospel?

    Verse to DATE the Word on June 14 (6/14) is Galatians 6:14.  It says, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

    As you boast let your boast be about JESUS and knowing Him and making Him known!
    “But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises loving devotion, justice, and righteousness on the earth–for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD”  (Jeremiah 9:24)

    Continue Strong with first things always being first
    And remember to DATE the Word