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You will make great progress if you keep yourself free from all worldly cares, for to value anything that is worldly is a great mistake. Consider nothing great, nothing high, nothing pleasing, nothing acceptable, except God Himself or that which is of God.
–Thomas à Kempis

Of course, God did create the world and all that is in it, but what is meant here is the idea we find written in the Bible by John:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. These are the ways of the world: wanting to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, and being too proud of what we have. None of these come from the Father, but all of them come from the world. The world and everything that people want in it are passing away, but the person who does what God wants lives forever.

Instead of focusing on these three ways of the world: pleasing self, coveting the things we see, and pride; we should put our eyes and thoughts firmly on God and on the good things of His character, just as Paul said:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.

Ask God to help you today to keep your thoughts on the higher things – the things that please Him!

When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.
“To live is Christ; to die is gain.”
Fleeing from death is the shortest path to a wasted life.
–John Piper

For most of us, fleeing from death is a choice we make due to fear – the fear of dying. Self-preservation is one of our strongest instincts. And so, out of fear of death, we do all we can to preserve our lives. And yet, Jesus calls us to die – to die to self. But to do so requires us to fight every human urge and instinct within us. It is only when we are willing to die to ourselves – die to our goals, our plans, our dreams, our desires – and give all of them over to God that we will experience true life.

Jesus promises us abundant life, but the requirement to obtain it is to die to self and let Christ be the One who controls your every thoughts, every word, every attitude, every action. For most of the people in this world, we will be unwilling to follow Him that far… and that will result in us wasting our lives.

Don’t waste your life. Embrace self-death. Let Jesus take full control. You won’t be disappointed.

Why am I a Christian?
I sometimes ask myself, and to be perfectly honest the reasons reduce to two:
(1) the lack of good alternatives, and
(2) Jesus.

Jesus… Brilliant, untamed, tender, creative, slippery, irreducible, paradoxically humble…
Jesus stands up to scrutiny.
He is who I want my God to be.
–Philip Yancey

Amen.
Jesus is who I want my God to be too!

Have you ever felt that your life was a mess, perhaps even chaotic?
Have you ever felt that life was empty or dark?
A lot of us have felt these things at some point in life and have wanted to find someway to fix us.
In fact, a lot of people have spent a lot of time, energy, and money chasing after some fix for the problems, but winding up feeling just as lost at the end of their search.
Fortunately there is an answer:

The Word of God is quick and powerful.
In the beginning He spoke to nothing, and it became something.
Chaos heard it and became order;
darkness heard it and became light.
–A. W. Tozer

If God can call something into existence out of nothing, then He can certainly speak fullness into my empty life.
If God can create light out of darkness, then He can certainly speak joy into my darkness.
If God can take chaos and turn it into order, then He can certainly clean-up my messed-up life.
The Word of God is quick and powerful.
Use it to transform your difficult life.

God has a plan and a will for your life, and He has revealed it for us in His Word.
Live according to all that it says, and you will find your life transformed in an amazing way.

You and me, we have been blessed in some amazing ways. We live in a country with great freedoms. We have material wealth and financial resources that are unheard of in other countries.

As we hold this wealth, then, we must ask the next question:
    “Why has God so blessed His people in America?”
Again, the Word gives a clear answer:
    “God be merciful to us and bless us and cause Your face to shine upon us so that Your way may be known on earth and Your salvation among all nations” (Psalm 67:1-2).
God’s principle that His people are blessed to be a blessing is established in the covenant He made with Abraham ).
— Neal Pirolo

Pirolo makes the point that God has blessed you and me in so many ways for one reason – that we would now bless other people by making Him known throughout the other nations on earth – telling them about His great salvation. Are we using the wealth and resources and freedoms that God gave to us on ourselves?
Or Are we using them in a way that pleases Him – using the blessings He has given us to impact the nations for Christ?