In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus stated the obvious, yet not so obvious. “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the sōma; so then if your eye is clear, your whole sōma will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mamōna” Matt 6:24.
Mamōna refers to all possessions, earnings, and gains; a designation of temporal and material value. Sōma refers to the spiritual quality of a person.
If we combine mamona with the eye being the lamp to the sōma, or spiritual quality, then we need to tread carefully and pay close attention to the teaching of our Adonai, our divine Teacher.
How does this apply our lives as children of God?
Apart from using Facebook to remind me of the birthdays of friends, I have found myself becoming less likely to follow anything posted. Why? Because I’m finding it increasingly difficult to read anything filled with venom. When people publish nasties on Facebook, I stop reading them altogether. Nasty does not compute with God’s love, mercy, and grace.
On Monday night I was scrolling through Facebook. For once there were no nasties. Rather, my feed was filled with a plethora of lovelies in the form of “my favorite EGW quotes,” beautiful photos and film clips of birds and animals from Africa, and people celebrating their love for spouses and family.
I found myself wanting to be friends with everyone!
While I’m not sure of the reason for the change—I pray that it’s not an anomaly. Has the secular mood in America undergone a recent transformation? I ask this in that these days Christians tend to be impacted by the secular rather than to impact the secular.
Whatever the cause, I cannot help but celebrate what I pray will be a permanent change, at least among my Facebook family.
If we are at one moment chasing away holy angels by our messaging, how can we expect God to minister to the broken and downtrodden by offering them divine light the next?
May our focus on the good, in place of the negative, show the world where our treasure lies.
Keep looking up!
Pastor Michael.
PC: anncapictures on Pixabay