MULTTI-TASKING AND POLYGLOTISM!

HOW MANY BALLS CAN YOU JUGGLE?
I am always amazed at people who can multitask. Some college students seem to get straight A's - while starring on the school football team - while being president of a school club - while gardening as a hobby!

Richard Hudson, a professor of linguistics at University College London is said to have coined the term, "polyglot," a person who can master several languages.

Accounts differ but one man,  Ziad Fazah, is believed to hold the world record with 58 languages!

These are exceptions but the majority of us do not have the capacity to accomplish so much at once!

FOCUS!

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:21 

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Matthew 6:24

Another way of saying these things is to identify the main focus of your life!

What do I focus on, press toward, embrace and exercise the hardest to gain?

SEASONS!
There may be times in which we must focus almost entirely on one thing. Our job may be require us to be immersed in a project for a short period of time. There may be an illness or crisis in our family which must be addressed immediately.

There are seasons which pull us away from God as our main focus but they should be just that - seasons! If they become a lifestyle we will allow our treasure to be in something other than God.

Fo example, our job may distract us from our family from time to time. We may have to miss the occasional little league game or picnic with our family. Yet families have become dysfunctional and even been destroyed when that begins to happen too often!

Some of the busiest and most successful people in the world have been able to keep their focus on God first in their lives!

YOUR PERSONAL FOCUS!
What is the primary personal focus of your life?

7 ...exercise yourself toward godliness.
8 For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
1 Timothy 4:7b-8

Though they certainly have their place, many exalt exercise and eating right beyond their usefulness!

Paul wrote that exercise profits "a little" but godliness is profitable for ALL things!

What do we exercise ourselves toward - great body, lucrative career, personal happiness, power, success - or the things of God?

Godliness is profitable for ALL things!

THE LIFE THAT NOW IS!
Yes but isn't it hard to put off reward into the heavenly future? Read the last part of verse 8:

HAVING PROMISE OF THE LIFE THAT NOW IS AND OF THAT WHICH IS TO COME!

Godliness is more profitable than money, exercise, education, power and success!

Many of these things have their rightful place and can be a blessing if God is the focus and treasure of our lives. If things become the focus, they can indeed become a curse to us instead of a blessing!

Jesus put it another way:

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 
33 But SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED TO YOU.
Matthew 6:31-33

ADDITION OR SUBTRACTION?
If only we had time to seek God first but we would lose so much!

Would we?
We must trust that seeking God first will never subtract from our lives but will 
always ADD!

What will it add?
We won't have anything but spiritual blessings. Read the verses again! What we eat, drink and wear!

Our Heavenly Father knows that we need ALL THESE THINGS and promised that HE would give them to us if we seek Him first!


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GOD'S PROVISION!

MANNA!
God has wonderful ways of providing for us. When one source dries up, He has another in place!

Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.
JOSHUA 5:12

Most of us know the story. God delivered the children of Israel from the slavery of Egypt and was leading them to Canaan - "The Promised Land!"

On route to Cannan, God led them through the desert. It was designed by God to be a short journey, possibly as short as eleven days but wound up becoming a journey of over forty years because of sin and disobedience!

While in the desert, God caused manna to appear on the desert floor. It was a peculiar food and fell with the dew at night:

7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium*.
8 The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil.
9 And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.
Numbers 11:7-9
*(Bdellium is a gum-like resin which is similar in color and appearance to a clump of dates!)

Whatever this manna was, it was sufficient to feed a large number of people for many years and tasted like pastry!

The very day after they began eating the produce of the promised land, the manna ceased.

God always provides one source until the next is ready!

Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing;
you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
Leviticus 26:5

In other words, there will be not be a gap between the threshing time and the vintage (harvest) time and there will be enough harvest left until more can be grown!

ELIJAH
Elijah is another great example of how God provides a new source when the old dries up!

By God's authority, Elijah proclaimed a drought in Israel. During that time God provided Elijah's needs in a very unusual way:

5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.
6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.
1 Kings 17:5-6

The ravens brought him meat and bread to eat! Hello!

There came a time when that changed...

And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
1 Kings 17:7

When the brook dried up, God sent Elijah to a widow in Zarephath. She was suffering from the drought and had only a handful of flour and little oil in a jar. She was about to prepare it for herself and her son for one last meal before dying.

13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son.
14 For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’”
15 So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days.
16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.
1 Kings 17:15-16

God not only provided for Elijah but for this widow and her son!

When would the flour and oil run out? On "the day the Lord sends rain on the earth!"

"On the day!" God will keep one source going until the next source is ready!

THE NATURAL WAY!

The natural human way is to stay in one place and rely on the same source for a lifetime!

The children of Israel even wanted to return to Egypt at one point just so they could eat leeks and onions again!

God had a work for Elijah in another place. He may have adapted to being fed by the ravens and drinking from the Brook Cherith! It may have been a comfort zone for him.

Still another time, God provided for Elijah by giving him "heavenly cakes!"

God is not bound by what we see or the normal way things are done or even by our 401K's! In fact, He delights in shaking us out of our comfort zones so we can fulfill our callings and see him move in more miraculous ways!

Many Christians even fall into the trap of setting up their own resources to live on. They hold tightly to savings and to retirement accounts. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with these things but so often these become our source instead of Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our Provider!

Corrie ten Boom, a dutch woman who hid Jews from the Nazis in World War II, was quoted as saying:

"I've learned that we must hold everything loosely, because when I grip it tightly, it hurts when the   
  Father pries my fingers loose and takes it from me!"

Elijah spoke to the widow woman the often repeated command of God, DO NOT FEAR!"

We may plan and use wisdom in preparing for the future but we are never to fear letting go - of anything and everything that we are holding onto and relying on for provision.

Savings, retirements accounts, possessions and even the purest gold cannot be relied on to provide for us. They are all on sinking sand!

Only the provision of God through Christ cannot be taken from us!

Only in the center of God's will are we truly safe from any storm!

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TO LIVE FOR HIM!

JESUS DIED FOR US!

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died.

2 Corinthians 5:14

Most Christians are familiar with the glorious truth that Jesus died for our sins. Because He died in our place, the price has been paid for all past, present and future sins!

OUR DEATH WARRANT!

Many fewer are aware of what the second part of that verse teaches:

…if One died for all, then all died

2 Corinthians 5:14b

Who wouldn’t want to accept a deal which gives us total forgiveness and a place in heaven for all eternity?

But there is a catch! This is not a one-way contract which requires nothing from us. If we are to be genuinely born again, we must first die!

No this is not a program of discipline in which we try to contain our natural tendencies to sin until we are ready for Christ to live with in us. It is an act of God which follows repentance - a change of heart!

When we truly accept Christ, we are signing a contract with Him, not only to be partakers of all the benefits of His death on the cross, but also our own death warrant!

As with any contract, something is required of both parties. The fact that salvation is accomplished solely God’s power alone is often misinterpreted to mean that there are no terms on our side of the contract!

It does not take any of our own power to die - God will do it all but we must agree to it by faith!

Many want to skip this step and receive a “get out of jail free” card from God. They want to continue living their lives on their own terms and even expect God to help them with their own plans, desires and dreams! 

LIVING FOR JESUS!

Paul continues on, making it clear that that is not how entering into the salvation contract works:

…and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

2 Corinthians 5:15

What could be clearer? We are no longer to live for ourselves but for Him!

NOT living for ourselves and asking Him to be a part of our lives! NOT making our own plans and asking Him for His blessings! 

LIVING FOR HIM! 

Seeking His plans and following them! Searching out His commands and obeying

them - 100%. You might say “But no one can say they have achieved that but Jesus!” True - but that is still the goal and the standard for every Christian’s life!

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;

14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 

James 4:13-15

Have we laid down all of our own plans, hopes, dreams and desires on the altar in favor of God's?

The great news is that we never suffer loss by following God's plans! His plans are ALWAYS superior to our own and those who follow Him will learn that wonderful truth! 

There is a also a great sense of freedom and peace that will come when we let go of our ways and let God have His!

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