Treasure Secrets

Secrets by OneRepublic

I need another story
Something to get off my chest
My life gets kind of boring
Need something that i can confess

Till all my sleeves are stained red
From all the truth that I've said
Come by it honestly I swear
Thought you saw me wink, no, I've been on the brink, so

Tell me what you want to hear
Something that'll like those ears
Sick of all the insincere
So I'm gonna give all my secrets away
This time Don't need another perfect lie
Don't care if critics never jump in line
I'm Gonna give all my secrets away

My God, amazing how we got this far
It's like were chasing all those stars
Who's driving shiny big black cars

And everyday I see the news
All the problems we could solve
And when a situation rises
Just write it into an album
Seen it straight to go
I don't really like my flow, no, so

Tell me what you want to hear
Something that'll like those ears
Sick of all the insincere
So I'm gonna give all my secrets away
This time Don't need another perfect lie
Don't care if critics never jump in line
I'm Gonna give all my secrets away

Got no reason, Got no shame, Got no family, I can blame
Just don't let me disappear
I'mma tell you everything

Tell me what you want to hear
Something that'll like those ears
Sick of all the insincere
So I'm gonna give all my secrets away
This time Don't need another perfect lie
Don't care if critics never jump in line
I'm Gonna give all my secrets away

Tell me what you want to hear
Something that'll like those ears
Sick of all the insincere
So I'm gonna give all my secrets away
This time, Don't need another perfect lie
Don't care if critics never jump in line
I'm Gonna give all my secrets away

All my secrets away, All my secrets away

*****
Matthew 6:16-24

"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

*****

Treasure in Heaven... it is referenced in Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:21, Luke 12:33, Luke 18:22. What is a treasure in heaven? It sounds like a BIG deal and yet it is only mentioned in the NIV five times.

Guard Your Heart

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Proverbs 4:23 (New Living Translation)

*****
How many times have I seen this passage.

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." is the NIV translation, so determining the course of your life, your heart guides the way. It should be noted that in Old Testament times, the heart was considered to be in the abdomen. It was thought that when you got nervous, it would have an affect upon your heart, thus you would get 'butterflies' in your stomach, your heart was uneasy.

Just knowing where the heart was considered to be in that day and age, it really changes how being nervous affects a relationship with God. It also shows that if you are doing something wrong and don't feel nervous, how far gone you've delved into a sin. One other thing, if you 

Love

"Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading to its hope. It can really outlast anything." 1 Corinthians 13:7 (Phillips)

(The Entire Chapter - The Message)
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

*****

I don't know, but I think Jesus was the first hippie. Seriously, God is love and if love is the best thing, it is saying God is the best thing, and you can't argue with that. Well, I guess you could, but it wouldn't change my opinion. I guess I should point out that right now, I am not a Christian or a disciple of Christ, but I still believe that Jesus is the son of God. I struggle right now in following him, though. Mainly, I struggle with attitudes... why this and why that. Love doesn't die. That is a POWERFUL statement. Think about that. Maybe I have the attitudes because I care... because if I didn't care, then I wouldn't bother having an attitude in the first place.

Metanoia

Metanoia

• Part of Speech: noun
• Definition: spiritual conversion or awakening; fundamental change of character
• Etymology: Greek 'change one's mind, repent'

Metanoia (noun)

• a profound, usually spiritual, transformation; conversion.

Metanoia

• 1873, "penitence, spiritual conversion," from Gk. metanoia "afterthought, repentance," from metanoein "to change one's mind or purpose."

Paranoia

• 
  
  "mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions," 1891 (earlier paranoea 1811), from Gk. paranoia "mental derangement, madness," from paranoos "mentally ill, insane," from para- "beside, beyond" + noos "mind."

Metabolic

• 
  
  1845, from Ger. metabolisch (1839), from Gk. metabolikos "changeable," from metabole "a change, changing," related to metaballein "to change" (see metabolism).

Conversion

• A converting or being converted; specif., such as a change from lack of faith to religious belief; adoption of a religion or a change from one belief, religion, doctrine, opinion, etc. to another
• To change from one form or use to another; transform.

Self-Discipline

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:7 (New Living Translation)

2 Timothy 1:3-12

I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

*****
Self-discipline is a trust issue. It is trusting in God's plan and not my plan. That's really all I have right now, as my brain is fuzzy.