Day 3141 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Matthew 7:6 NKJV

As we sullenly drift through a life of only knowing peace in pieces, it's safe to say we need to reconsider where our priorities are being placed.

Because in all truth, odds are that they're being allowed to be swayed if not sullied by this society we've been taught to satiate. We've grown in a world where to belong demands a list of demands being met. And well, among those demands is usually found everything that makes us who we are, everything that's been given us to remain who we are in order to do what we're here to do.

But alas, those concerns find themselves too simple for the simple minded. Life can't be allowed to become so heavily one-sided, swerved entirely toward a life lived in the right out in His light. No, we've had this outlook impressed upon us that has us believing that we're here only to impress those around us.

And thus we spend our days throwing away what makes us uniquely us all so we can better blend into the mundial mundanity of a world gone deathly pale.

Yet even despite the clearly offered and quickly delivered prizes we've won that are given only to those who agree to sell their souls, there might come times along that road to nowhere where we catch a glimpse of life outside the confines of this communal commune in which we've long sought companionship. Yes, we might find ourselves either rarely or occasionally or even often wondering why the simplest of human necessities are so clearly lacking behind all the social trophies we're winning.

Why does peace seem so impossible when we're doing all we've been told to do in order to find it in all the places we've been promised it's found by those who proclaim the power to both define and dispense said peace?

Well, as we've been talking about for a couple of days now, truth is that peace is found in fullness in but one place, and well, this place made sure the message resounded clearly as to what they thought of His reminder of that fact. That peace is perfected in Christ alone is a message still altogether loathsome to those who think themselves able to perfect everything.

No, despite the many advancements in which we boast, I fear we find ourselves still in much the same mindset as that which thought it a good idea to despise peace and love so violently that they reached the point of feeling it necessary to sentence them to death.

Now many will cry otherwise. They'll say we've gotten better, that the world is a better place than the troublesome histories through which our ancestors trudged. They'll point to the advancements in a million different things as proof that we're far closer to perfect now than we've ever been before. But still, I contend that the simple building blocks of our existence have become so fully taken for granted that they're all but not considered necessary anymore.

I mean, how else could a world so lacking in love take such pride in all they do unto the crafting of a hollowed-out replica built upon and based within human arrogance and vanity? We've discussed that at length many times in these posts. Love has been butchered and botched to the point that it's left almost no meaning as it now means something different to everyone.

But the world's not only destroyed the fundamental idea of love. No, they destroy everything they can get their hands on, as well, that's all their lord knows to do. Yes, Scripture teaches us that those entrapped in the lies sold by the lord of this age have the many upon the wide living to serve a false god which exists in their stomachs. The entire world knows only to consume, to engorge, to gladly continue falling into gluttony.

And since this society is never one to agree to satiety, they'll forever be demanding more and more in hopes of filling the void they harbor inside. Even to the point of breaking down and leaving for dead those around them.

That's why we so frequently find so little peace in this place. Far too many are living a death that demands the death of all others so as to help them ignore the fact that they've not yet known life nor the meaning of it.

See, truth is that life isn't all that complicated. Some food, a bit of drink, sunlight to help things grow and a change of season here and there to keep it all interesting. It's not hard to enjoy life as that's what we were created to do. God didn't make us to remain miserable, and yet misery is about the only product people seem able to produce.

Everyone all around is so beaten down and broken within that the effects are now easy to see up on the surface. There's a visual lack of contentment, of happiness, of hope plastered all over the faces of nearly all the people in all the places. It's a palpable, a visceral realization that every heart in every nation is right on the brink of spiritual annihilation.

But again, why?

Well, we've given it all away, that's why. We've traded our hope for a measured promise promised us by those who can't possibly fulfill. We've let go the happiness found in the simplest of blessings as we've been sold and now begrudgingly bought this idea that we need more. Yes, we've let go the peace He placed inside because the world said that it wouldn't, that it couldn't be enough and that we shouldn't even consider relying upon it.

And like the sheep led to the slaughter, we've lined up and taken our place around the buffet of billowing blasphemes beheld by the eyes of those wishing only to remain blind.

Peace in pieces.

So much love lost that nobody thinks they can be found in a place of hope. So little hope that living a life trying to avoid our inevitable death seems a passable approach. Such a wayward approach that we know deep inside that we'll never find anything as we can clearly see that nobody else has or is either. No, appears as if life is just a few years spent waiting to die, not worrying about much along the way.

How did we get here? How did we lose all understanding of hope and the simplicity of its being placed within an unbreakable promise? When did we agree to take all that's been given to us and just give it away to a people in a place that doesn't care to seek life? Why did we give away all He gave to a place run by a mindset that refuses to accept the gift of eternal life for anyone, least of all us strangers passing by a people hopelessly lost inside themselves?

Friends, we're casting our pearls before swine. We're rendering our riches unto the wretched. We're selling away our souls to those soulless selfishly enslaved to sinfulness. And yet we wonder why we often feel as if we've nothing good left nor left to look forward to.

We gave it all away in exchange for the chance to find what the world told us it had to offer. And now that the world is showing its true colors and we see such a clear lack of compassion within the incessant decimation of all who are different, we likely find ourselves wrestling with that age old horror, "what have I done?"

Yes, what have we done? What have we lost? What has this world asked for that we agreed to give away? Peace. Contentment. Hope, Happiness. Excitement. Love. Mercy. Compassion. It's all grown cold, just as He said it would should we allow our gaze to remain shifting among only the places it never should have been to begin with.

But how much more we give away is now up to us as we've now no reason to claim we didn't know better.

This verse here in Matthew is there to stand as a stern warning if not a strict rebuke. It's a reminder that we've something inside of us that this world wants but won't seek for themselves. As we talked about yesterday, our Savior came to this earth not only to clear our debt through the dying of our death, something He did that no Christian should deny, but with that event in mind, He also came to leave.

He knew He'd die, chose the way in fact. Chose that way to pave the way to a place where we've a place where peace isn't hard to find. That's what He came to accomplish, not merely the forgiving of sins, but the promise of an everlasting reward waiting for all those who forsake their sins and fight to remain in the freedom He achieved for them.

That's our calling here. To stop giving away all that He's given to us. To hold fast the promise we've been promised, even though we've been asked to wait for the fullness of it. To cling to the peace He's placed inside us by no longer looking for a replacement offered us by those around us in this place we've been promised isn't our home. To stop trying to make a home among the swine who choose to wallow in their favorite filths.

Friends, I know that this world offers us all kinds of really exciting things. Fame and fortune, a following and a chance to become a favorite. We're walking in this time wherein everyone is famous and any who aren't aren't welcome anymore. And that pressure to find a way to be at peace in a place that doesn't know peace and therefore can't offer peace, it's hard to refuse. Because we look around and see everyone else just giving up and giving in and accepting the breadcrumbs.

But look closer and you'll see they're not okay. They're not happy. People are so disgruntled anymore, and the only real reason for that, the only true way that that's even possible is because they've given away so much of what they've been given that all they have left is lost. Humanity is just lost, all because they insist upon remaining in a way of life that doesn't have room for life in the Way.

We're watching a world cast their final few pearls as if pennies in a wishing well, hoping that one more will be the one that brings them all the world claims can be found down here. But where your treasure is, there your heart will be. If you believe there's treasure in this time, in this world, then here you'll be. And if given unto that pursuit long enough, here you'll stay.

But here isn't a place any of us should want to be because this place is to the point of tearing one another to pieces. Not the place to seek our peace.

In case you've never known or have long since forgotten that at one time you did, all we need is found in Jesus. The love, the hope, the healing, the mercy and kindness and acknowledgment and acceptance. He proved them all upon the cross when He hung in our place with us on His mind. He did all that for us. And so for us to continue to fail to find peace or purpose or a place in which we finally feel we belong is only our failure to finally find Him.

It's not hard, just seems that way because the world insists on staying in the way so that nobody ever gets anywhere. Settle for that if you want, but I just don't know why you would.

Look, as I mentioned yesterday, this world will gladly take whatever we're willing to give. But at some point, preferably sooner as opposed to later, we really need to stop and ask ourselves what exactly we're giving away and what all we're getting in return. Because I think the answers to those might finally be enough to shake us awake.

We're all free to look wherever we want for whatever we want. But just keep in mind that we've each only so much to lose before all we are is just lost. Let us begin to be a bit more careful as to where we place ourselves, our hope, our priorities. Just too easy in this place for them all to get all sorts of out of sorts.

If we could only let ourselves go back to the simplicity of the foundational basics of life's necessities I think we'd finally find that we've never needed to find them. Because He already found us. And well, if we think we need more than the cross, don't know, seems that's only possible when we cross a line we shouldn't venture beyond.

Because the grass isn't always greener. Especially when pigs are involved.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold