FROM THE DAWGHOUSE…
One Master Only
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Matthew 6:24
My friend Joe was listening to the FORGE talk this week. Well, he does every week, but listen to what he wrote me after it was done.
Pete
Great to see you today.
I thought a lot about today’s topic…
Everyone was so chatty at our table this morning, which is awesome, so didn’t get a chance to chime. Not that I have to, for sure, but today’s topic is so important.
Interestingly, most of the talk at the table (in my opinion) was centered on self – which is natural, and of course the problem when you think about it. Nobody (just an observation, not a judgement), really mentioned Jesus, our Master, in their comments.
As well, nobody seemed to know how to tackle the issue at hand, and I sensed that was because everyone wants a solution that will solve the problem once and for all – poof, in a second, we now perfectly serve Jesus our Master. It didn’t appear anyone wanted to consider the hard work. Heaven knows, it is not easy. I am testament.
In a strange analogy, if we tried to live our lives like the movie Groundhog Day, we might actually get our arms around a Jesus-focused life. Bill Murray gets to live each day over but learns from mistakes and gets better and better and better about life.
I like this analogy, because indeed God promises us one day – today. That’s it. Which means, we just need to focus on Jesus being our Master for one day – not a month, a year, twenty years, fifty years. One day! If we did that, then this task that seems so insurmountable, would become much more manageable.
One day…
- Begin with your daily appointment with God (DAWG) – hmmm, wonder who taught us to do that?
- That alone should set us up for one day of “success.”
- Think about it; if we just have to be “successful” today – with God…with work…with co-workers…with family…with whatever comes our way – that seems doable, right?
- And when we lay our head on our pillow at night, hopefully our Savior says, job well done my child.
And if we are blessed enough to get another ONE DAY, we repeat the steps, but better (like Groundhog Day).
If we could truly transform ourselves into a ONE-DAY church, we’d have so much more success in turning our lives over to Jesus daily.
So often in my life, as a recovering alcoholic, I refer back to the 12-steps of AA (the church should adopt them to be honest). I have outlined an adapted version below that years ago I wrote for myself – words changed to apply to my “sober” life today.
- Admit daily that I am powerless over life – that it is unmanageable on my own. (DAWG)
- Remind myself that there is a Power greater than myself – Jesus – that can and will keep me grounded, and focused. (DAWG).
- Make a conscious decision to turn my will and life over to the care of Jesus. (DAWG).
- Continually make a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself. (DAWG)
- Daily confess the exact nature of my wrongs. (DAWG)
- Be willing to humbly accept God’s forgiveness, as He removes my defects of character.
- To humbly ask Jesus to remove my shortcomings (DAWG).
- Daily make a list of anyone I may have harmed and became willing to make amends to them.
- Seek through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with Jesus, praying only for knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry that out. (DAWG)
- Each day, try to carry the message of the Gospel to those who may need it, and to practice these principles in all my affairs.
Simple! OK, not so much. But not complicated.
Listen, we are not alone in our struggles…
- Jesus called Matthew from the tax collector’s booth. Matthew obeyed and walked away from extravagant wealth and dirty deals. Do you think he ever had second thoughts, or struggled with his decision to follow Jesus?
- Jesus called Peter, James, and John from the fishing docks. To obey Jesus’ call meant that they had to leave behind everything they knew, everything they’d worked for. Do you think they ever had second thoughts?
- Jesus called Paul, a successful Pharisee, with the words, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name”. As a marketing guy, I can assure you those words would never make it into a mass-market ad campaign for Christianity – but maybe they should, because that’s what it means to follow Jesus. We must forsake everything else, no matter the cost.
The Lord describes Himself as a “jealous God.” This means He guards what is rightfully His. He is righteously jealous for our affections because we were created to know and love Him. He is not jealous for His own sake; He needs nothing. He is jealous for us because we need Him. When we serve another master such as money or power or lust or whatever, we rob ourselves of all we were created to be, and we rob God of His rightful adoration.
The elephant in the room is that when we follow Christ, we must die to everything else, or we won’t make it. We will be like some of the seeds in Jesus’ parable – only a portion of those seeds actually bore fruit. Some sprouted at first but then withered and died. They were not deeply rooted in good soil. If we attempt to serve two masters, we will have divided loyalties, and, when the difficulties of discipleship clash with the lure of fleshly pleasure, the magnetic pull of wealth and worldly success will draw us away from Christ.
The call to godliness goes against our sinful nature. Only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we remain devoted to one Master.
Have an awesome week.
Joe
I will have an awesome week, because Jesus is my Master who I choose to follow today.
I’ll start tomorrow with the same goal. But that’s tomorrow.
Strength and Courage my brothers!
Pete
