"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." (NKJV)
Thoughts
Jesus was addressing an age-old heart problem:
- Divided loyalty.
- Dual worship.
- Double-mindedness.
James 1:8 reminds us, "He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways," (NKJV).
In modern terms, we call it syncretism. Merriam-Webster defines it as "the combination of different forms of belief or practice; the fusion of two or more originally different inflectional forms." Some South American countries have religious groups that merge Catholicism with voodooism, practicing parts of both.
Back in II Kings 17:33-34, the writer says that things were so bad at the beginning of the Assyrian captivity, that "They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods-according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away. To this day they continue practicing the former rituals; they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel. (NKJV). "So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images; also their children and their children's children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day," II Kings
17:41(NKJV).
(Fred B)
Action Point
Pictured above is a tiny hut resembling an old hunting cabin, home to 8 to 10 Filipino squatters who farm the nearby fields. They displayed fetishes, hung alongside the symbol of the cross, maybe to cover all their bases?
Just like the pickup truck that I saw parked at a restaurant, with one window decal WWJD? (What would Jesus do?) and another with profanity beside it. I left a note on his windshield. It read, "Make your choice--scrape off one of the decals! You can't have it both ways!" (Signed my name).
King Hezekiah was a man who served one Master. "And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses," II Kings 18:3-6 (NKJV).
May we be focused, single-minded men and women, like Hezekiah.
Sportsmen's Tip Of The Day
When using binoculars with glasses, like I always have to do, the following will improve your singular focus:
- Roll back the rubber eyecups.
- Focus the eyepiece that has an adjustment dial.
- Then focus both with the middle focus dial.
- In heavy brush, adjust the focus and it will give you a clear view beyond the brush.
