Materialism or God?

My eagle friend: Do you remember the blog about that eagle; the one who commands the bay that I wrote about in an earlier blog?

You should go to the archives for September 24, 2006 and read it before you read any more of this current entry…I’ll wait……….

Read it already? Good. I hope you enjoyed it. Now back to this one.

A few days ago I saw that eagle. We were staying overnight with our friends in that coastal village I was talking about,; the tide was out and Sheila (the lady of the house and our hostess) said “look there on the ledge is the eagle. You may notice that there are no sea gulls around.” They all take off when Mr Eagle (or it could be Mrs. Eagle ) goes fishing. Then she handed me the binoculars. Just then the eagle took off flying, so I got him in view and followed his flight pattern (something like a space shuttle launch.) It was then that I saw that all of the seagulls had not left while Mr.Eagle was fishing for one had stayed around and had caught a fish. It however had not escaped the eagle’s attention. Remember the blog with the eagle facts…he has excellent peripheral vision; he can see sideways and frontal all the same time and he saw that ol’ seagull when he dove and caught said fish and he got real greedy and thought he had outsmarted that big eagle. Wrong!

That seagull tried to outfly the eagle by turning 90 degrees to the east thinking probably that the eagle couldn’t turn so quick. Wrong again! Now that seagull isn’t so stupid either because he realized that discretion is the better part of valor so guess what he did? Dropped that fish and guess what the eagle did? He left off chasing that gull and swooped down and got that fish just as it hit the water. It was really quite entertaining. And educational also. I’m sure that seagull learned something; “Will you set your eyes on things that are not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, They fly away like an eagle towards heaven” Proverbs 23:5

That old seagull though he was rich for a minute or two but he lived to see his treasure fly away literally. At least he was still alive.

That’s the way it is when we seek to lay up treasures for ourselves and are not rich toward God. The Bible tells us to consider the poor and needy many times over. In the 23^rd chapter of Proverbs that I quoted from, it says in verse 4 “Do not overwork to get rich.”

Jesus said in Matthew 6:23-34, “ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Have things become more important to you than your relationship with God? You need to heed the words of Jesus and seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.