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--- jn_en_2017_09_07 [2017/09/07 07:53] – created potthast
+++ jn_en_2017_09_07 [2017/09/07 08:11] (current) – potthast
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 ====== Seek first ... ======
-Thursday, Sept 7, 2017.
+Thursday, Sept 7, 2017. As humans we first need to make sure that our primary needs are met. This
+is about water, about food, about clothing, about shelter. Then, we need company. And further, we
+need purpose. All these are primary needs, you cannot live without it.
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 **  Our Concerns ...**
+Clearly, we need to be concerned about our primary needs. It is first for ourselves, for our own
+person. Then it is for our family, for dependents and partners. And it is for whatever environment
+we live in and we are responsible for. This can be our company, our institution, even our church.
+Is all going well? Can we pay the bills? Do we have someone to talk to? Do we know, what we live
+for?
+Jesus is taking up our concern for primary needs in his famous speech on the mount (Matthew 5-7). Let
+us read and think about this, it is important to listen:
 <color #aa0000>
-“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?7 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
+“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?7 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
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- (from Matthew 6, 5-6)
+<color #aa0000>
+But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
+</color>
+ (from Matthew 6)
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-**  ...**
+** A different Game ...**
+Jesus is opening a different game for those who believe in God, in his father. He makes a difference between
+the Gentiles - those who do not know God -, and the believers. He talks about a caring father. This is how
+he sees God. God cares for us, who got to know him. And he will provide to us what we need!
+What is it that Jesus is giving as security to us? What is his promise based on? It is just based
+on the love and the character of God. Nothing else is needed. He is not pointing to the values which the
+disciples own. He is pointing to nature, to flowers. Flowers do not own anything. Birds do not own
+anything. Jesus wants to change our perspective: from our sorrows and our view towards our own problems
+to a view looking at a caring father. He provides.
+Can we let go? Can we give our trust to God, and let him do? Can we put his kingdom, his love, his
+justice, his truth, into the center of our life? Can we become free in his presence and his light? Then,
+we will experience that all these promises are true, that he is there, that he is, indeed, a caring
+father, and that he helps us in fantastic ways!
 (Roland Potthast)
 [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_ix|... more texts]]
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