Simplify

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The Lord has been speaking to my husband and I about true Sabbath rest. The time left for man to do works of righteousness is almost over and we need to be thinking about the Sabbath or Millennial kingdom. With more and more understanding of Sabbath we are also realizing that we need to get rid of the unnecessary material stuff and focus on the spiritual or eternal things. That means we are getting rid of material goods that keep us from real wealth.

Not long ago I had been meditating on "Love not the world, neither the things in the world", and began asking the Father why this was so important. He spoke to me that where a man's treasure was, there would his heart be as well. I realized that God had planned to clean out the world by purging it with fire. If men were in love with a town, a home, a building, furniture, art, stuff in general his heart would burn up with the cleansing fire. If on the other hand a man's treasure was in heaven, the cleansing fires would do their job and harm no one. Consider Lot's wife. She had been in the world so long that when it came time to leave it she loved it. The warning "don't look back" just didn't keep her from missing the things of this world. Everything we see with our natural eyes will one day burn in God's purging cleansing fire.

It doesn't take a college degree to make the message here clear. When a building is on fire, don't go back into it to save stuff because you'll lose your life. When the world is on fire, don't look back because you'll be turned to a pillar of salt. We've seen this before, will we heed it today? Let's hope so.

Here are some practical applications to begin in your efforts to simplify.

Have you used it in the last year? Sell it, give it or trash it.
Have you worn it in the last year? Give it away.
Can someone else make better use of it than you? Give it up.
Could the money it would bring help further the gospel? Sell it and find a missionary to give the money to.
Do you want your mansion in heaven furnished nicer than your home on earth? Liquidate the earthly asset and make it a spiritual asset. Find a missionary and bless him/her.
Is an eternity longer than 70 or 80 years? How long would you like to be without what you want or need? Sow for the eternal.
Purging is good. Living with less can be cathartic. It's much easier to dress when you don't have so many clothes you can't decide.
Preventive medicine. Find someone with nothing and when you're tempted to shop, shop for him/her. Shop for the child of someone else. Shop for a minister of the gospel. Shop for a missionary.
When you feel the need to shop why not fill up your local food bank or "store for the poor"?
Retail "therapy" as I've heard shopping to feel better termed lately is nothing more than paying homage to the god of materialism. Buying just to "feel better" is not good and like any out of control appetite needs to be checked.
We live in a time where things are distractions from the word of God and God's will. We find ourselves shopping, thinking about shopping and wishing we were shopping. We use buying things as entertainment. We have so much stuff we pay for storage buildings to store all the stuff we have. God is the only one who can honestly walk you out of the bondage of being ad addict to buying and hoarding stuff. It has been my prayer for all those in the body of Christ who suffer from this addiction. If you need help in this area don't hesitate to send your prayer need in so we can pray for you.
I will leave you with this final thought. Most people who claim to be believers say they trust God, but if you would look at their checkbooks you'd notice that He doesn't have access to their money. They claim to trust Him with their eternal souls, but don't believe Him enough to give Him what He asks for 1/10th of what He has blessed them with. If you're too wrapped up with loving stuff, perhaps you need to run to the throne room for a little mercy. Fall on your face and repent for liking the stuff too much. You really should love Him more than the stuff.

If this web has been a blessing, please sow into our lives. Jeff Welter P. O. Box 662, Gardendale, TX 79758. You reap where you have sown, we have sown our spiritual and ask you to sow of your natural. God blesses the bountiful sower.

Here are some practical applications to begin in your efforts to simplify.

Have you used it in the last year? Sell it, give it or trash it.

Have you worn it in the last year? Give it away.

Can someone else make better use of it than you? Give it up.

Could the money it would bring help further the gospel? Sell it and find a missionary to give the money to.

Do you want your mansion in heaven furnished nicer than your home on earth? Liquidate the earthly asset and make it a spiritual asset. Find a missionary and bless him/her.

Is an eternity longer than 70 or 80 years? How long would you like to be without what you want or need? Sow for the eternal.

Purging is good. Living with less can be cathartic. It's much easier to dress when you don't have so many clothes you can't decide.

Preventive medicine. Find someone with nothing and when you're tempted to shop, shop for him/her. Shop for the child of someone else. Shop for a minister of the gospel. Shop for a missionary.

When you feel the need to shop why not fill up your local food bank or "store for the poor"?

Retail "therapy" as I've heard shopping to feel better termed lately is nothing more than paying homage to the god of materialism. Buying just to "feel better" is not good and like any out of control appetite needs to be checked.