The World Sends

Snow, cold, kinda makes one think of Christmas this morning. The world sends weather; we think of good. The world sends tribulation; we think of Christ. The world sends fame, wealth, and power; we think of the great and mighty me? Too true that the things desired by the world can cause us to turn away from our Lord. Many in the world will tell of how he/she worked very hard to get what the world has given them, as though that makes the person deserving of all they have. The world of course responds by making that person even more famous and wealthy. What the world sends is not a good measure of how we are doing in Christ. Your wealth or lack thereof does not necessarily say how well you are doing in faith. You may be a good steward of resources Christ has entrusted you with, but then you also may be experiencing what our Lord called a tribulation.

Matthew gave up the steady and wealthy (and thoroughly despised) income of a tax collector to follow Christ. Other disciples may have never eaten so well as when they came to follow Christ. Faith is not so much where we came from, as where we are going to. Jesus held the plowman who looks back as unworthy to follow Him. Paul had to set aside some awful things from his past to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ. The world may well have sent you or I some things in our past that cause us shame, regret, pain or grief, but still we look to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. We labor in the valley of death's shadow, but that will never prevent the dawning of the day of our Lord Jesus.

Blessed be the name of our Lord!
Bucky