“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.”
There are a lot of things around us that keep us unfocused or distracted. A lot of times the main thing is in our hand. Yes. Our cell phones. With the internet, social media, unlimited data plans and WiFi it can be a set up for distraction. We can bee too focused on how many likes a picture gets, or who is commenting on our statuses or getting caught up in other people’s pics, posts and tweets. A lot has changed in society with the advances of the internet and social media. It’s not evil in and of itself. The people using it can have evil intentions and use it for evil things. We can get caught up in those things and be swayed from our purpose.
Just like man, these things can be redeemed and used for a godly purpose when you allow the Holy Spirit to come in the midst of it. The Facebook posts, Instagram pics and as of late we’ve definitely seen tweets be used for the wrong purpose. It is up to us to take responsibility of ourselves, guard our hearts and be careful what we allow into our eyes and ears and how we allow it to effect our thinking. It’s all a battle for our mind. We are constantly flooded with information and visuals all day long. It’s not like it once was where you had to wait until a certain time of day to watch the news or your favorite sports show to get info. Now it’s there at the tip of your fingers 24/7.
It’s not just information though. There are things being put in front of us trying to change our focus to temporary things and make them the main thing. Money, houses, cars, women or men as a sign of the status that we hold in life. We are made to think that having these things makes us better people. Nothing wrong with having nice things, but if you fall in love with them it alters your thinking. Now the things own you and you don’t own the things. The amount of money in your bank account dictates your value as a person. The car you drive and the house you live in determines your level of importance. And OMG!! The person who is hanging on your arm just screams, “LOOK WHAT I GOT!”
Nah. These things aren’t supposed to carry that much weight in your life. These things don’t determine your value in the eyes of the God who made you. He has put a price on you that is far above any jewels you could obtain. Nothing you can gain in this life compares to the glory that God wants to reveal through you. This is what Jesus was expressing in His talk with the rich young ruler. He felt like I’ve got all this stuff and oh I obey God too. He was fine as long as obeying God didn’t bother his stuff. Jesus told him to sell what he had and give to the poor. The rich man became sad. God started messing with his distractions and that’s where his heart, his love and his affection truly were. We’ve got to take our affections set them on things above. Kill the evil desires lurking around in hearts and use what we have for the cause of Christ. (Matthew 19:21-22 NLT)
That leads us to our Throwback Song of the Week. We’re heading to the Midwest to an artist from Milwaukee – Eric Cross. This is from his 2008 album “The Art of Composition.” The track is entitled “All They Talk About.” It focuses on how secular music causes us to focus on the temporal things of this world and not Christ. Tune into the Trackstarz show this Saturday. DJ Jeremaya is going to play this for the Throwback Song of the Day. Until next time…
Peace and blessings,
Damo
