Godly treasures.

I am such a disappointment to myself today. The hardest things that I have done all day are sleep, give myself a French tip manicure, eat, and watch television. This is an A-typical procrastination type of behavior of the worse kind. Of course, I enjoyed every single minute of today!

My son walked two buildings down to work, and my daughter kept busy practicing on her presentation of a cake for Valentine’s Day that they will be doing at school. She has a fake cake shell that she uses. Once she is finished she cleans off the shell and reuses the fondant again and again. Being a female in a pure French culinary school is not easy. In their culture, it is very rare for women to be chef’s or worse even a pastry chef. They are taught to strive for the “perfection” of the creation. Everything produced has to be perfect. I can see after looking at the finished work of my children why the sometimes feel a little pressured and stress over their creations. The French believe that food production and consumption is an art. I sort of agree with that concept.

I feel the same way about my studies, research, and writing. The finished product should be aesthetically pleasing in one way or another. The outcome I try to reach is: what did the reader learn, did the reader understand, and did the reader walk away thinking in a deeper sense about those secret inner working recesses of the soul?

Last semester in one of the classes I took, I read that society can become too complacent when the economy is good. The same analogy holds true for Christianity. Can Christians become too complacent when all is good in their lives? We definitely live in a society of materialism. Christians do associate materialism as blessings and that all is good. FALSE!

God and Jesus are not concerned about your house, your boat, your car or your job. Why aren’t they? They allowed you to have it? No they didn’t. You can have anything material on earth you want; there are two things that concern God and Jesus and they are (a) your needs and (b) your soul.

“And my God will supply every need of your according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

“He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.” (Romans 2:6-8)

When we were created we were not created symmetrical but we were created unique. We are the rendered work of a great artist. We cannot begin to understand how he worked or all the materials used other than dust. Each microscopic piece is intricately designed to perfection. Man has just about destroyed the infinite wisdom of that creation because of the material aspects in our world.

Materialism (like money) is not necessarily evil; but, it depends on how it is used. We should never put it before the saving grace that can infiltrate our soul and calm our very existence like a simple running stream clear and free to flow in the spring.

“And he said to them, take care, and be on you guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consists in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15)

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

Think of it this way: there is a hard freeze and in some cases a lot of snow every winter. The freezing temperature kills all the germs, and allows enough stimulation for the roots to grow strong in the spring.

God and Jesus kill all the ugliness in our hearts and souls; they allow us to be clearly stimulated for new growth in our life that is “germ free.”

This is just my opinion. Please respect it as I will respect yours.

Pray for each other.

God bless you all and keep you safe.