Matt 6

Date: 11 January 2009

Bible (NT/OT): Matt 6:1-13

Giving to the Needy

6 "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2 "Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

The Lord's Prayer

5 "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:
"Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Fasting
16 "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

24 "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.

Do Not Be Anxious

25 "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Ps 7:17-8:1

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

Sun Tzu:

Building on our last thought: Therefore measure in terms of five things, use these assessments to make comparison, and thus find out what the conditions are. The five things:
1. The way (from yesterday): “inducing the people to have the same aim as the leadership, so that they will share death and share life, without fear of danger”
2. The weather (today): “the weather means the season…the rules of the ancient military state that operations should not be carried out in winter or summer, out of concern for the people. Don’t go into another’s territory at an unfavorable time.”
3. The Terrain: “The Terrain is to be assessed in terms of distance, difficulty or ease of travel , dimension, and safety. In any military operation it is important to know the lay of the land. When you know the distance to be traveled, then you can plan whether to proceed directly or by a circuitous route. When you know the difficulty or ease of travel, then you can determine the advantage of infantry or mounted troops. When you know the dimensions of the area, then you can assess how many troops you need, many or few. When you know the relative safety of the terrain, then you can discern whether to do battle or disperse.
4. The Leadership (1/12/09)
5. The discipline (1/13/09)

The Intellectual Devotion (Kidder, D. & Oppenheim N. The Intellectual Devotion, Rodale. NY, NY 2006):

The Limestone bust (shoulders and head) of Nefertiti was discovered in Egypt in 1912. Nefertiti was the most important queen of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (later Akhenaton) who ruled from 1353-1335 BC. During his rule, Akhenaton “one who serves the Sun God”- embraced a new, monotheistic religion that emphasized ethics. Nefertiti is believed to be the driving force behind his conversion. The bust was smuggled out of the country disguised as a piece of broken pottery. The bust now sits in the Altes Museum in Berlin.

Events: Yesterday I went over to the Gym for weights, best in a while (I’ve been rehabbing from a shoulder injury since September). After Weights Marla and I went to a Fitness Yoga class. I absolutely love Yoga and Palates these days and will sorely miss them in Iraq. While it is an incredible workout, it is the only workout that I have ever walked out of and felt healthier, more relaxed and more flexible. I always used to say that I liked working out because it made me feel good, but by good I actually meant bad. I used to “like” the sore feeling because it reminded me that I had done something good for myself. Well, after yoga and palates, I actually do feel good, great in fact. I would go everyday if I could and I’m not too manly to admit it. We then went up to Georgetown to look for houses. We looked at 5 or 6 but did not love any of them. Good thing I guess because we are still a couple months away from being in a position to buy. We love our realtor Darleen Buck (she has been incredibly understanding of both our situation and Marla’s particularity) and would highly recommend her to all moving to the Austin, Georgetown area. Got in bed early last night, no movies or TV.
Deployment update: looks like 11 Feb. I’ll be flying out of Fort Hood with about 20 others to include 2 other captains who I have become strong acquaintances to weak friends with. What a huge blessing, looking like I may be gone 5-6months instead of the 12-15 that I was anticipating. While I will miss Marla terribly, this is a very good thing as we need to get a deployment out of the way so that I am not first up at my next duty station. And 5-6months is a bargain on deployment these days!

Thoughts:

Bible:
1. V1 "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. This verse summarizes what’s to come. Continuing with the discourse on the Heart of sin as opposed to the action of sin, Christ examines the motives behind what may seem the most pious of actions. First Christ confronts giving, then prayer, then fasting. The promise is that if we are doing these “godly” things to be praised by the world for being generous, pious or devoted then we have received our reward in full as our motivation for such acts is simply worship of man and not worship of God. The discourse on prayer has changed my public prayer for years. I will rarely pray in front of people that I am not extremely comfortable with and many of you may have seen the uncomfortable situation of me denying to pray infront of a group. The reason that I will wave a prayer is that I know that what will come out of my mouth in these situations will be more focused on looking spiritual to my peers, sounding “good” in public than on the actual matters that need prayer. I call it “sabotaging” what may sound externally like a good prayer. I know my heart and one of my greatest struggles has always been vying for everyone’s approval. So as opposed to standing there and acting like a Pharisee, I decline.
2. 7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him This is one of the most encouraging verses to me. God the father knows what we need for spiritual growth and the Kingdom’s expansion even before we pray, and that’s what he is going to give us no matter what we pray. But what about my prayers for an X-Box even my prayers for ‘aunt betty’s’ recovery from cancer why aren’t they heard? Again, more than the physical body, God restores the Spirit. Occasionally these are in conflict. If my Aunt Betty’s Illness is driving many to Christ then what we need is that Illness, not whatever man-centered prayers that I throw up there. This verse also frees me to create less lofty, abstract prayers. The intimidation aspect that I spoke of earlier goes away. Joel, one of my closest friends who finishes up seminary this spring, once said that when asked to pray in the expectation of a wonderful, lofty seminarian prayer he would love to instead recite the Lord’s prayer, “our father who art in heaven…” and look at peoples expressions. What would people think? From this passage what should they think? I understand writing down a prayer so that we can remember all of the things that we want (obviously not need) to pray for but one of my biggest pet peeves is when people write down a prayer for the purpose of making it sound like the prayer is a literary giant, the next Shakespeare because these prayers are obviously a violation of the above concept. The sole purpose of such a prayer is the prayers glorification, not the glorification of the ruler of the universe from a humble servant.
3. "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. Tough balance between being a responsible steward of what God has given and holding too thightly to worldly wealth. I often stumble towards the irresponsible steward side. I tend to keep a very “loose grip” on money. Given the choice though this is the side that I will always fall to. God forbid we fall into the trap of the Rich Man supposedly kept all of the law but was not willing to give his worldly temporary possession away in order to inherit eternal life. Of whom jesus said “It is harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” This is not because as “Rich Men” we need to give in order to be saved, the problem again is where our heart is. We can not serve both God and Money. The Rich Young Ruler (and many today) have chosen the Idol of Money over love for Christ. When asked to abandon the former girlfriend (money) for an eternal marrage (heaven), an adulterous people choose to love their money over their God. This is why it is difficult for the rich man to enter heaven, not because there is some set amount we have to give. Further if we did try to give our way into heaven, blessing etc the attitude Christ would be, “your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God” (Acts 8:20). Money provides worldly comfort and is simply a diagnostic tool of where our heart lies.
4. Vs: 25-34: Live this verse and you will live a happy life. When I examine all of my former worries and what Christ has brought me through, I should no anxiety towards the future (not always the case but something to strive for). Come what may…deployments, injuries, illnesses, I know that I am far more valuable to my Father than I could ever imagine. The worst (and best) thing that could happen is my death and when I can look forward to that, what do I have to be anxious over? Daily in the ER I am confronted with people who live their lives terrified (anxious is too light a word) of pain, suffering and death. Their fear has controlled their lives to the point that they are not worth living. Granted some people truly are dying and proceed to die in front of me, but to those “frequent fliers” (I guess the technical term is Hypochondriacs) with minor ailments who rush to the ED petrified over the slightest cold; I try to emphasize that their anxiety of death will kill them far sooner their cold. As you would expect, I’ve been met with mixed reactions, but believe me this is far better than some of my colleagues techniques.
5. Psalms: I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High. The God that I serve (the God of the bible) is worthy of praise and respect.

Intellectual Devotion:

Our Queen’s can have an incredible impact on our spirituality (ask Solomon) for the better or the worse.