01/18/09

This may seem like an odd thing to photograph... an old truck that has been overgrown with a tree and vines. There are four views of this truck throughout this post.


I felt these pictures fitting for what I was thinking of writing today. It involves what my pastor spoke on this morning.
That truck was once quite useful. It was once brand new. Now it sits beside an abandoned house, as it is also abandoned, and weeds/trees/vines have crept all through it until there is nothing useful in the capacity for which it was made.

Our lives are like that truck.

When we are born again through Christ we are a new creature. We can (and should!) be useful to this world for what the Lord wants. Unfortunately, we can let the cares of this world creep in and overwhelm us /take us away from what the Lord wants and we become just like that truck. It is still a truck... but it is sitting there swallowed up in the vines. We can be a Christian but just sitting there doing nothing for the Lord.

Colossians 3:1-3

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection (mind) on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ.

We need to seek the Lord daily so that we do not become burdened with the cares of this world, like the example of that truck. This world will pass away one day, but our God will stand forever. Our thoughts should not remain on what is in this world, for we, as Christians, are just passing through. Our home is in Heaven.

Matthew 6:19,20
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

However, we can't be so earthly minded that we are no heavenly good... as well as, we cannot be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good. While we live in this world we have to constantly remember that everything on this earth will one day pass away. The most important thing we can do is choose Christ and His will for our lives.

That isn't always easy because we love things in this world. I'll be the first to admit there are so many things for which I am thankful and truly can't imagine living without. I fully believe the Lord understands that! It is when we put them above what God wants and our desire to love the Lord that they become the problem.

We have to daily renew ourselves to seeking out the Lord and laying up "treasures in Heaven."