Daily Bible Verses for 5/1/2016

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

Reading Notes
God blesses us for a purpose, which includes not only providing for ourselves and our family; but also to bless those around us who are in need. God also blesses us so we can help further the message of the Gospel which is salvation in Christ alone, through faith alone. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with wealth, but what does matter to God is how we accumulate our wealth and what we do with it after we accumulate it. In God’s kingdom economy, wealth has a purpose just like our talents. Wealth gained with honesty and integrity is part of the blessings given to us by the Lord. Therefore, the purpose of wealth is to share the blessings that God has given us, in order to help a fallen and lost world which is at enmity with God. There is no better way to display the Gospel of Christ to the world around us than when we use our time, talents and resources to help those in need. As followers of Christ, we are called to help those who can in no way pay us back for what we gave them.

We are called to be a blessing to others and to help those who do not have the ability to help or provide for themselves. And there is no greater joy than when we give out of our love for Christ to those in need. In addition, there is no greater sense of reward than when we share the Gospel message and the story of God’s love for us to those who are lost in this fallen world. Matthew is explaining to his readers that all of us will someday give an account for what we did with what God gave us. In other words, our actions great or small have eternal consequences, this includes missed opportunities. Missed opportunities are those times when God opened a door for us, to help others and we failed to do so. And by consequences we’re not talking about punishment; but in reward, both those gained and those we missed. Jesus took our punishment and returned salvation in its place. When we stand before Christ it will be before the Bema Seat when our race here is finished. And it’s there we will receive rewards for what we did with what God gave us. What Matthew is asking us is, “what have we done with those blessings God has given us?”