Wednesday, August 20, 2008

derek today asked me what we mean when we say: seek the kingdom of God, store up treasure in heaven, be part of God's temple.

3 quite different things. i'll touch briefly on the first and third and elaborate more on the second one. i believe derek was reading from matthew 6 when he got these questions, so that is the bible reference.

here we go.

seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

the whole chapter is talking about how we should not be overly concerned with worldly wealth, acceptance from man and physical well being. so "all these things" refers to things that we need to live eg, food, money, clothes, etc. jesus is telling us, there is MORE to life than mere survival of the physical body, and ANYWAY, God will provide for you if you seek his kingdom and righteousness.

so what does it mean to seek his kingdom and righteousness?

seeking his kingdom means to have a mindset that loooks into the heavenly realms. see. firstly we must understand that our world is more than the physical. it is more than about surviving life, its more than getting past school, its even much more than getting someone to come to church! THERE IS MORE!

we must realise that there is something of greater importance to material gain. "what goood is it that a man should gain the world but lose his soul?"

as a result of this understanding, we live life in a different way. kingdom mindset. our lives are for a purpose(remember purpose driven life). worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism.

seeking his righteousness means to work towards being holy as god is holy.

be part of God's temple. i'll talk about this another time. not enough time now! i gotta get ready to set sail. haha. i and i just got distracted by this beautiful girl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4quJa3XzN_g
ive never seen a girl play like that in my life.


okay. treasure in heaven.

that does it mean to store up treasure in heaven?

1. what is treasure in heaven?

truth is I DONT KNOW. but some plausible answers are as such.

a) it is a physical wealth.
when the world comes to an end, we will not be living in heaven as spirits. the bible says that we will be living on a new earth in a NEW physical body which is perfect and imperishable(wont die). there will be work and people would be God's servants in ruling the universe. hence, it could be that God will reward us with "money" or "gold and silver" so that we can live even better, though things would already be perfect.

b) it could be that this treasure is simply the joy and privelegde of serving God. eg. when you see someone whom you've been praying for for very long recieve christ, there is great joy and thanksgiving to God.

okay but there is another question. are we having wrong motivations if we are just seeking for this treasure?

this one i dont know. i asked my dad, he said this. this is NOT a wrong motivation. it is not selfish motivation either. its kind of like a wife desiring her husbands love and attention. not to the point of possesiveness, but just to the point that is desirable. that desire is not wrong, its a good thing to desire. likewise, when we desire treasure in heaven, we desire a goodthing.

(from here onwards is mine, so dont quote my dad anymore haha) OF COURSE, we must not cause harm to others will pursuing this treasure.

2. how do we get treasure?

by serving the Lord sincerely and faithfully. without looking for man's approval though man's approval may come together with God's approval.

3. why do we need this treasure?

this one i dont know. but i think its a good thing from God and we should desire it. it is not necessary for salvation, but salvation should lead to us serving God which would lead to this treasure.

okay, i gotta go im runnning out of time.. and im falling ill. pray for me you guys. you are in my prayers too

see you 3 saturdays from now (:

God bless

ming.