Matthew 6:24-34

²⁴“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Do Not Worry

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Speaking of Jesus of Nazareth, which was originally a TV mini-series in 1977, it was my first significant introduction to the person of Jesus. I now have a copy on DVD, and will occasionally re-watch at least a portion of it. I did not grow up religiously, but this particular rendition of the New Testament, caught my attention. As did Jesus, His actions, and His teachings. He was so contrary to what I had been taught by our American culture, I began to think there might be something to this. However, it was over a decade later when I allowed my search for the Truth to enter into a relationship with Jesus. And it was close to another decade before I surrendered my whole life to Him. I have never regretted it.

The triple combination of Matthew 6:24-34 in the Bible, Charles Sheldon's In His Steps book, Peace Pilgrim materials from the Friends of Peace Pilgrim non-profit, along with my decade earlier introduction to Jesus after watching the movie Jesus of Nazareth as a TV mini-series, is why there is a Teaching & Sharing Centers non-profit today. I am certain now it was through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but I took each of these tangible influences seriously enough to leave a twenty year career in 1994 to serve God in the capacity I now, after 30 years, refer to as being a "domestic missionary." — william