Measuring the Reality - Tracing the Path<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
"They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." Titus 1:16
Want to find out if you are truly following Jesus? Is it important to you to receive an accurate reading on your actual, real-time spiritual state? Do you realize that your eternity hinges on whom you serve?
"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Romans 6:16
Jesus said "I must be about my Father's business." (Lk. 2:49) Let us ask ourselves just whose business we are about?
•   Where is my time spent?
•   Where is my money spent?
•   Where are my energies spent?
•   What do I pursue?
•   What is it that the affections of my heart are set upon?
•   Is the passion of my heart Christ the soon returning King, or something else?
•   Do I spend my resources seeking to further His kingdom?
The Heart Follows the Placing of our Treasures
The answers to these questions will clearly reveal the current state of the heart.
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Matthew 6:21
Here our Master tells us that where our treasure is, we can locate the state of our hearts (Matt. <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />6:21). If our time and money are spent on the things of this world and not the things of God, so into the world our hearts will follow and the love the Father is not in us (1 Jn. 2:15). There should be no longer a mystery. Jesus solved it with this statement in Matthew 6:21. The heart follows a distinct path. The One who made the human heart - which became depraved after the first man sinned - tells us here that the affections of it will follow the spending of the money and abilities He has placed in our care. The affections of our hearts are attached and anchored according as we direct our lives, namely in the spending of the resources placed under our stewardship. Simply put -  Wherever we place the monies in our possession, our hearts follow. May the LORD bless us to be hilarious givers, pouring treasure into His kingdom work, sending forth blessings that will forever give back in Heaven (Lk. 16:9).
This truth we have received in Matthew 6:21 is the reason it is so vitally important to our spiritual health to prayerfully and biblically search out true, New Testament ministries and rejoice to help fund them financially (2 Cor. 9:6-10). It is more vital and "more blessed" to the giver than it is the receiver (Acts 20:35). We do ourselves a favor (not the recipient) when we give to authentic Christ-centered ministries. Beloved, remember that the kingdom of God has nothing to do with a physical building. "Ye are God's building" (1 Cor. 3:9). So, be not deceived concerning so many who occupy physical buildings and yet refuse to walk in obedience to the full-counsel of the LORD's Word and whose organizations do not reflect true biblical Christianity. Don't wait till Sunday, fuel godly people who do ministry today! Bring them sustenance so they can be sustained in the most important work in the earth – the work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
"No man 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." Matthew 6:24
What do we aggrandize? What do we value? What are we pursuing? The answers to these questions can be seen in who we serve – God or mammon.
What would you think of the "Christian" person who spends $50 monthly to pipe all forms of moral corruption into his home via cable TV, and yet gave an average of $25 monthly to the work of the Gospel? According to God's Word, where would you say that person's heart is?  Where are his priorities seen to be? Inevitably that person's heart is following the spending of his money into the world system which is ruled over by Satan and at enmity with God (2 Cor. 4:4; James 4:4). He is backslidden whether he realizes it or not. His excuse for not giving to Christ's work is lack of funds yet he doesn't claim lack of funds to pay his monthly cable bill.
The world and the things in it, the lust of the flesh and eyes, and the pride of life are at enmity with the LORD, and all who love this world are His enemies – regardless of their verbal and outward profession (Tit. 1:16; James 4:4; 1 Jn. 2:15-17).
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."1 John 2:15-17
 
Beloved, let us instantly forsake the things of this fleeting world and begin a new obedience to fund the authentic work of Christ. Find a faithful servant of Jesus and bless him today (1 Cor. 9:1-14; 1 Tim. 5:17-18).
 
Ready or Not – Jesus is Coming,
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