You Can't Have Both Worlds.

     No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
                                        Matthew 6:24 NASB

     You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
                                            James 4:4 NASB

     We seem to have a form of Christianity today that allows us to partake of the best of both worlds. We are granted heaven and the blessings of God. We have Him to turn to for all of our wants and desires. We believe in a God who is there for us, to make us happy and prosperous. We believe in a God who takes us just as we are, in our sins, and leaves us there. We believe in a God who does not see, or care about how we live our lives. It is all about us, all about our plans, all about our happy little lives. We have accepted a Jesus who is there to be our servant, to give us our hearts desire and then take us safely home to heaven when this life is over.
     We have departed far from the truth of the gospel! It is not about us, it is about God and His glory! Jesus is not our servant, He is to be our Lord! We must submit to Him! He did not die to make us happy, He died and rose again to make us holy! By holy, I do not merely mean a positional holiness, but an actual transformation of character. Clean hands and pure hearts! Changed lives!
     We are fooling ourselves if we think that we can hang on to this world and still have enough of Jesus to save us. I am not talking about hanging on to obvious sinful habits and practices. I am talking about living in this world as if it were all that really mattered. That is the context of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6:19-34. He is talking about living for the temporal things of this physical world, as opposed to living for the kingdom of God. The world is eagerly seeking the temporal things of life, whether it is riches and possessions, or just the basic things of life. We as blood bought, born again followers of Christ are to make His business our utmost priority, and He will provide the things we need.
     We have to let go of one world, because we cannot hang on to both. As Christians we belong to a kingdom that is not of this world. Lets make the choice to live for the things that will matter in eternity. Lets make the choice to live wholeheartedly for Christ and His glory.
     It is one or the other, you can't have both worlds. You cannot live this life for yourself, and have Christ at the same time. There is a line in the sand so to speak. What side will you be on?