Treasure Chest

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Matthew 6:21

Hello Christians,

This is a very humbling and convicting thing to ask oneself...

Where is your treasure?

Jesus said don't built treasure on earth, but build in up in heaven. (Mt 6:19-20)

He also said that you and I cannot serve 2 masters.
"You cannot serve both God and mammon." (Mt 6:24)

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

That verse is so simple,
Yet so powerful.


It's almost like an Instructions manual, or a How To Draw Close To God For Christians book
Or as in logic class, or geometry, an If-Then Statement...

If I want to give my heart to God,
Then I must build treasure in heaven and not earth.

As Christians, our treasures ought to be in heaven, obviously.
But locating and determining exactly what you treasure on earth and focus on is helpful to see where you are and where you need to be.

There are a lot ways that we can have treasure on this earth....
Whether it's material - clothes, shoes, cars, computers, games, toys,
or the need to be noticed when we do something good,
or the desire to be liked by people,
or the competition to be better than other people,
We need to just compare it to God's standard,
and be like Jesus.

Where is your treasure?

Verse of Encouragement:
Psalm 37:4 

"Delight thyself also in the Lord;

and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

Let's continue to seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.

Let's love God, love people, and pray as if this was our last day.

God bless you all with grace and peace!

Your brother in Christ,

Landon

Correct-O-Meter

“Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”

-Philippians 1:11

Hello followers of Christ,

Going along with this verse in Philippians (I like Philippians, if you haven't noticed),

I have a question we can ask ourselves:

Am I filled with the fruits of righteousness?

If we as children of God, are modeling after Jesus Christ,

then as this verse says, we should be filled with the fruits of righteousness.

Sometimes Christians even happen not look at Jesus,

and the result is literally a disaster.

If I don't pray and ask God to be filled with the fruits of righteousness,

And discipline myself to read from, and meditate on His Word,

then I am automatically filled with the fruits of Landon Thompson.

And that's a disaster!

Have you ever heard any of these phrases before?

“He started it!”

“It's mostly his fault.”

“I barely did anything wrong.”

“Well, she did it too.”

We tend to justify ourselves, based on the sins of other people.

Ray Comfort says this “You have to face God on judgment day.”

That made it a lot more personal when I realized I have to face God on judgment day.

Something that I just realized is this:

It's very easy to look good, when you don't look at God.

Another tendency is to even set our goodness bar, to the level of our parents.

It's like we have a little Correct-O-Meter

And however big or small our parents is,

ours is usually a little bit lower.

Whether we realize it or not, the natural tendency of humans is this:

When our parents, or people we look up to, commit a sin,

set a bad example,

or do something that's not completely as Christlike as possible,

We feel as if it's our right

to do those exact same things.

Examples...

Your mom forgets to do the dishes.

You say: “I don't need to do my chores!”

Your dad forgets to clean out his garbage from the car.

You say: “I don't need to pick up my shoes from the foyer!

Your Pastor eats 15 sweet rolls after church.

You say: “Well if he eats 15, I can eat at least 15!”

Now, don't get me wrong... I'm not saying don't honor your parents...

This is the first command from God with a promise ( long life on earth)

Here's what I'm saying:

Honor them, learn from them, love them,

But they should also want you to become more like Jesus

than you become like them.

So that's the goal.

Lesson God Taught Me:

No matter how good someone else is
He or she doing something wrong

Doesn't make you, doing that same wrong, right.

Set your standard to God's standard.

It starts right where I am.

Right where you are.

Whether at home or work

or school or church...

Whether your struggle is

honoring your parents,

having diligence for the mundane tasks,

or fear of sharing the gospel,

we gotta give it all to God.

Then pray to God without ceasing.

And obey God without ceasing.

So let's not be average, kinda-sorta-maybe, or just luke-warm.

Let's go the second mile for Jesus, and not just be the norm ,

Let's make an eternal impact, fighting for the truth of the Lord,

Let's show our family, friends and world, that through Christ we are not the same as before.

As always,

Love God first,

Love people second. 

<3 =D

 

Thanks for reading, God bless you all this week!

Landon

 Make 100 = Jesus!

Example of the Believers

“According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.”

-Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (Phil 1:20)

“Nothing” is a strong word, isn't it?

Don't Paul's words to the Philippians sound a little zealous, when you just hear it for the first time?

When I started reading Philippians, I was amazed to read how passionate this man was for Christ.

He literealy would do anything to magnify Jesus.

I'm not sure if you all have noticed this, or if it's just me, but... our passion for Christ in today's society is not quite like it used to be.

Why is that?

It should not be this way.

“Well,” you say, “I'm just a kid. That's why I won't do anything for Christ.”

Every person matters to the body of Christ, whether young or old.

in fact, Paul encourages a young man named Timothy in his letter saying:

"Let NO man despise thy youth; But BE thou an example of the believers,

In word,

in conversation,

in charity,

in spirit,

in faith,

in purity."

(Tim 4:12)

Did you catch that?

Paul is telling Timothy, a young man, to not “let” others despise his youth, and to be an example to... who?

The believers.

Paul even goes on to list multiple different ways that we can do that. :)

Something that God has been teaching me is this:

Just becuase your parents, your pastors, elders, teachers, mentors, coaches,

or peers, friends and siblings

may not expect you to do great things for God's glory,

doesn't mean that you can't

or shouldn't.

Basically, just because the Christian society has standards and expectations as low as the floor of how we should be living for God,

Doesn't mean that we should lower ours.

God kind of burned those words into my mind in Timothy,

and I realized that I should not be operating with such low expectations like our society.

And now after reading Paul, who basically said “My hope and purpose is that Christ is magnified through my body, whether I live or die to do it,”

I'm realizing that while it's good to not have low expectations and standards,

I need to have God's standards,

and while it's good and biblical to have godly inspirations

I need to choose Jesus as my #1 inspiration.

God bless you all,

Your brother in Christ,

Landon

Recommendation:

Alex and Brett Harris' book, Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are

http://www.therebelution.com/

(Just listened to it.... amazingly inspiring and encouraging! Hundreds of stories of young people doing hard thing s for God's Glory)

Challenge: Read Philippians 1:12-30 and picture yourself saying and doing that.

Light In A Dark World

Hebrews 10:24-25
"24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is;
but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."


It's amazing how much can be learned from just a few of God's words!

There are 3 Lessons that I have been pondering from just these 2 verses.
1. "Hardcore" Love
2. Fellowship
3. Encouragement



1) The first verse at the top (Heb 10:24), which talks about provoking, or stirring, one another to love and to good works, is one thing that I know I can work at.
 It's basically like having a little truth session to shake each other up and say:
"Hi friend, are you doing antything for God now?"
If not, "Why not?"
That's hardcore love.
It may be a bit awkward, but the goal is to help each other serve God better!
"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." (Prv 27:17)


2) Christian Conversation
Heb 10:25a (Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves...)
Why is it that some people can go on missions trips, and be on fire for Jesus, proclaiming His name unashamed, explaining His law, His love, His justice, His death and Resurrection, and His power to save, and heal and then come back to church and then never talk about Jesus?
 Doesn't that seem weird that we would proclaim Jesus as our awesome Lord and Savior to the unsaved,
and hope and pray that they come to know the Lord,
but then go back to the same group of saved friends,
or even our families,
and then never acknowlege through our conversation that Jesus even existed?

I know that on the missions trips I have attended, several people have explain how fired up, and excited they are to go back home and evangelize.
But something happens along the way from the mission field back to your home town.
Or maybe it's just been an inspirational and convicting message at your Sunday Church service,
and something happens to you when you go back to your house.
And then for some reason... you are not quite as motivated.
It is truly amazing how being with a group of believers with a common purpose and focus to serve God has the potential to shake and shock the world!
It should be like that at our churches and homes all the time!

3) Encouragement
The second verse, Heb 10:25 says to be exhorting one another.
What does that mean?
Define: exhorting: to strongly urge, or to strongly encourage someone to do something.

So we need to be strongly urging and strongly encouraging each other.
That brings us to the questio: when exactly are we supposed to encourage?

A quote by Pastor Gary Fraley answers that pretty well:
"Do you know how to check if someone needs encouragement?
Check to see if they're breathing."



Perspective: As brothers and sisters in Christ, I know for a fact that too often we lose our vision of the bigger picture of the world. Imagine...

You are able to zoom out (kind of like on Google Maps)
except you can also see the world as a sphere,
rotating round and round at 1 rotation per day.
For every saved person there is a little spot of light,
And the more on fire a person is for Jesus the brighter they are.
Now watch this... 
You decide to zoom in and see what it actually looks like on a closer view,
and you find two Christians a few miles apart.
Their lights are both moderately bright,
and as they go to the same events, work, and a church activity each week,
for some reason instead of talking about Jesus, the One who unites us believers,
they actually find things of no eternal value which they disagree on,
and tear each other down,
and discourage one another.
Instead of growing brighter as they come together,
Their lights actually start dimming.

Well, God sees that bigger picture.
Let's not disappoint Him!
It's already a dark world as it is,
so let's be as lights shining in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation! (Philippians)


It really is sad when believers waste the few seconds that we have on this earth,
when we could be using them to make an eternal impact for God's glory!
Let us edify the body of Christ now,
and until we see Him in heaven!

God bless you all!
Your bro in Christ,
Landon