Master part 1
"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). Ok. Before I get into this I want to make something clear: God is ALL powerful. And that doesn't mean He has the MOST power, it means He has ALL of the power. So when we're talking about these two "masters" we need to realize that only one of them is real, and true. See, there's the appearance realm, the world, external forces or circumstanes--mammon. And there's the invisible realm, the Kingdom, the inner man, or hidden man of the heart--God. One is real and the other isn't. One is true and the other is a lie. But you can believe a lie if you want to. And you can really believe a lie if you've never heard the truth. So to me, this idea of "serving a master," isn't about someone telling us to do something and we have to do it or else. That's religion. That's performance based works and labor. And that's NOT what God is all about. Jesus said, "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). So this idea of "Jesus is my boss," or whatever we think "serving" God is all about... He didn't come so we could serve Him. He came to serve us. He came to free us from bondage, not put us in bondage. So to me, "serving God" is about seeing and believing. What you believe is what you do. If you believe God loves you... you love people with that same love. It's not external. It's not, "God ordered me to love and I have to obey or else." It's, "God loves me so I love you." So I CAN love you! That mandate we have to present our bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) simply means that we should let God do whatever He wants to do in us and through us and as us. THAT'S how we "serve" Him. Not by trying to be Him, but by letting Him be Himself in us! And that's why we can't "serve" Him and "serve" mammon at the same time. Because while the world is screaming for our attention, trying to force it's way in from the outside, God is speaking in a still small voice from inside. And whoever you listen to... THAT'S your master. Romans 6:16 says it like this, "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?" Sin (unbelief) or obedience (believing the Word of God). Death or righteousness. The lie or the truth. Deuteronomy 30:19 is a fitting end to today's Rant: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore chose life, that both thou and thy seed may life." That's the choice that we have been given. Who to serve. What to believe. And in believing... doing. We don't do in order to be. We do what we be. We do what we believe. We ARE what we believe...