May 24, 2019

May 24

Running with Jesus

Luke 16:13-15 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.  And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.  And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

     God knows the heart! Our thoughts and desires are not disclosed for us to see but God sees and knows every thought and intent.  America and sadly the church have developed a Pharisee mentality. If you run through these last few chapters of Luke, Jesus keeps revealing the condition of their hearts. He preaches one sermon after another dealing with all the Ten Commandments. In this chapter he deals with covetousness, cheating, adultery, jealousy and putting love of money above God. They had the first commandment out of place and fell into disobedience in all the other areas. So it is with us we cannot serve God and mammon (wealth regarded as an evil influence or false object of worship and devotion), we love one and hate the other.

     This is true when we dive off into sin we begin to make excuses over and over and justify our actions but God is seeing and knows when we justify we walk out into self-righteousness and we fall short of His glory! We begin to move further from God. Our country has moved so far away! The body of Christ has moved so far away it looks like the world.

 Father, keep our hearts in line with Your Word and help us live by Your principles and guide lines. There is none righteous but Jesus. We surrender our hearts, mind, and thoughts to You this morning.  We declare we are Your child and surrender to walk in obedience to You!

      Making a daily declaration helps keep our souls in Christ! 

Tomorrow: The rich man and Lazarus!

Judy Hollaway

Originally penned 2015