YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU    

                                                     matthew-6-19-21

But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?” So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.  Luke 12:20-21

RECOMMENDED READING:  MATTHEW 6:19-21  ““19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also..”

COMMENTS: The world teaching us that success and security and happiness are only fulfilled by acquiring power and money and respect of others.   Acquiring a job that provides these are the hope most youth and young adults.  The respect and status of those who gained such success by their own abilities and work have the greatest level of respect – being called a “self-made” woman or man.  Those who inherit or marry into money have less respect of others but still have opportunity to make a name for themselves by using the resources at their disposal to build their own legacy and make a positive difference in lives of others and community and beyond.  Of course, there are those who gained wealth and influence only to squander that wealth and power by satisfying their own selfish interests and wants and needs without regard of impact and consequences either in their own life or in lives of others.  Likewise, not seeking God’s council and then following that council give opportunity of much folly and evil.

In contrast, maintaining a life of integrity, and seek and following God’s council first and consistently each day, reduces and minimizes risk of fall prey to temptations and distractions satan and his demons and his followers in the world.  A temptation to lie or cheat or gamble or steal become less appealing and luring when we focus on God’s Word and seek daily fellowship and council from God by His Holy Spirit thru prayer and reflection on His Word, and by fellowship with other believers.

God gives another motivation and purpose to exist and work toward goals and success.  God give us the end goal of living and worshipping and working only to praise our Creator and Lord and Savior.  Our purpose is to give Him honor and praise.  We do so by word and by action or conduct.  We do so through our actions and deeds.   We do so by the choices and motives we demonstrate.

Ten years ago, Bill and Melinda Gates partnered with Warren Buffett to commit to pledge half of their wealth and material assets and challenge 200 other equally wealthy individuals and couple to do likewise.  The result of their work was a commitment or pledge of $500 billion from those who made this pledge with the Gates and Warren Buffett.

The Bible is full of examples and value God places on those who work to gain material possessions instead of heavenly treasures.  Jesus verbalized God’s position very well through parables and brief stories and statements.  The parable of the rich man building bigger barns to store his abundance of crops. No regard was given to indicate rich man intended to tithe or give    away or share any of his harvest even though God was responsible for enabling that crop to yield a bountiful harvest.  A crop more abundant than the man or his family needed but sufficient to provide for them without any further labor for the rest of their lives.

Jesus warned that such selfish gratification and without gratitude or willingness to share with poor and needy.  Jesus also said “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be,” Matthew 6:21.

Proverbs 6:6-8 states that diligent saving is a wise habit but not for sole motive of self-security and contentment.  Instead, temporal and eternal hope and motive is in honoring and expressing hope in the Lord. (Psalm 146:5).

Instead, we are instructed to consider God as our employer, which means:

  1. Our job description and work assignments are to support His Goals and Objectives and Mission. To give Him praise and worship and support Christ’s Mission of redeeming the World and the people who populate it.
  2. The wage and income we receive directly by our earthly employer or by other means comes to us from God directly.
  3. We are accountable to God directly and solely above all else.
  4. The objectives and standards of conduct and work ethic and standard of integrity is far higher than standard our supervisor or world employer requires.
  5. Our motive to please God drives more passion and enthusiasm and energy and positive attitude than a company or human supervisor can inspire.
  6. The example Jesus mentored for us also provide a standard of conduct and ethic far above the best and most experienced mentor available.
  7. Our Employer was alive at creation and did the creating. He has also been involved sustaining and expanding that creation ever since.
  8. Our Employer has a long history of keeping His promises and exercising greater wisdom and intelligence and knowledge than any human who ever lived and offers and gives us access to that knowledge and intelligence and wisdom to complete work and objectives He gives us.
  9. Our Employer not only provides for our needs from His abundant resources while living on earth in our human bodies, but is preparing an eternal home and new eternal bodies for us when our life concluded on earth. Heaven will also be a wonderful – beautiful place that we will not only enjoy with our Lord and Savior, but with our friends and relatives who received His forgiveness too.  And, yes, also with even our enemies who received His forgiveness too.  But then again, they will no longer be our enemies.  AMEN! 
  10. Our Employer also gave His life in order to provide forgiveness and new opportunity to be in close relationship with Him and continue our employment even though we failed Him in past and are worthy of being judged and “fired” – “terminated”.
  11. No earthly employer can or will offer the benefits and retirement benefits God does. God even offers to help us satisfy goals of our earthly employer far better if we do so using His help and following His council and instruction.
  12. Look at how God has helped and blessed those before us who served and followed God’s lead and instruction.
  13. Our Employer not only provides and helps us be successful but also loves and cares for us like none other is willing or able to.
  14. Our Employer is eternal and has designed and created us to be eternal too. He also knows and controls the future so makes no mistakes and is more than prepared for the future.

“To forsake Christ for the world is to leave a treasure for a trifle.”     William Jenkyn

If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 538 blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present.

You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily.  My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to   explore and use my devotional blog materials.

My hope and prayer are, my blog and devotional materials will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.

Published by donsdevotions

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Don McDaniel - Who am I? Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever. Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me. I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private. However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool. Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry. He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 . I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine. I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward. Don & Arlene McDaniel In His Service, Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951 If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ ) You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials.

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