BBD 08.27.08 Cleaning Up the Mess
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
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08.27.08
Cleaning Up the Mess
The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole
body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be
full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how
great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will
hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and
despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (deceitful riches, money,
possessions, or whatever is trusted in - The Amplified Bible). - Matthew
6:22-24.
"Mackerel in the Moonlight" is the title of a book written about ten years
ago. I heard about the book while I was watching a news program at the time
and the newscasters were wondering why it was called that - the weatherman
said it sounded better than, "Flounder in the Floodlight!" The statement
"Mackerel in the Moonlight" was once used by a politician in describing
corruption. He used it that way because a Mackerel laying on the shore in
the moonlight would appear to be glimmering and shiny but upon closer
examination you would find that it was rotting and smelled.
We look around at this world we live in, and we can see many of those
Mackerels in the Moonlight. There are a vast number of those Mackerels in
the political world with so many politicians willing say anything and do
anything to be elected without any intention of actually doing what they
have promised. However, it is not just the political world that abounds with
Mackerels because nearly every area of life from business to personal has a
share of Mackerels in the Moonlight.
One psychological study I read about claimed that living in the American
society caused mental illness. It was based upon studying people who moved
from Mexico to the United States. Our way of life in the United States
appears to be great but there are some of the Mackerels lying around. There
is so much of the material world that is available for purchase. To keep up
with your neighbors you need to have a new car or two. The clothes need to
look nice, and it may be that you will need a new house to keep up with your
friends. The pressure is on! You need to make more and more to buy more and
more. And if you can't make more and more then you feel worse and worse.
Jesus brings this to a very personal level when He says, "But if your eye is
bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that
is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" If your conscience goes
bad you will become like a rotting, stinking fish. Because when our master
is "mammon" we continually choose whatever it takes to get more of what the
world has to offer. As a result our "light" grows dimmer and dimmer until we
become like that proverbial, "Mackerel in the Moonlight." You may look good
on the outside to your friends and neighbors but inside if your master is
"mammon" you will become a rotten, stinking mess.
If you read this and know that God is speaking to you about your life, the
good news is that it is not too late to change. Your "light" has not become
too dim to be convicted of your need for a new master and now is the time to
change. Put God first (Matthew 6:33) in your life and make Him your master
in every area of your life because that is the only way to clean up the
mess. It is also the only way for a country with a mackerel problem to be
cleaned up.
Copyright © 2008. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
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