Throwing it all away

Hebrews 12: 15-17 5See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.


Are we like Esau? For those that do not know, (Genesis 25) To quickly sum it up, Esau was the eldest son of Isaac. Esau had a younger brother named Jacob. One day Esau had been out hunting and came home hungry, his brother Jacob was cooking and Esau bartered his birthright as first-born for a plate of food from Jacob. He gave everything promised for his future away for a plate of food.

In today’s fast paced world of instant gratification it is hard sometimes not to lose sight of the finish line. When anything you want is no further than the click of a mouse it becomes very easy to give up our birthright for right now.

Worse yet, we sit by and watch as people we know do the same thing. I have been as guilty as anyone about this. Paul specifically calls us all out in verse 15 "see that no one misses the grace of God, and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." Today this world moves so fast that even if we are minding our birthright, we are far too busy to stop, look over and check on our neighbor. We have created a society with a mentality of "as long as it does not hurt me" it's ok. As a result the weeds of bitterroot are growing between you and the house of your neighbor. It is time to do some weeding! We have to slow our lives down, does that mean that we might not get the brightest shiniest thing right when we want it? You can almost bet that you wont, but we have to remind each other that is not the reason we are here. The one who dies with the most toys does not win the game!

We have to pay more attention to what is going on around us, and just exactly what we are giving up in our quest for earthly satisfaction. Our birthright, is not worth a plate of food, Christ did not die for us, just to have us turn our backs on him for quick fill to quiet a hunger pain. Along with that we have to remember to go and check on that neighbor, are they OK? What can we do to help them? Keep the "garden weeded" The bitter roots run deep, and once they take hold they are hard to pull out. We should do everything we can to pull them while they are small. Don't throw your future away for something "right now"


Peace,
Rev. T