Where are our Hearts?

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 neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What in the world did Jesus mean by these words? Be careful, you who are militant about literal inerrancy; you who strain at the homosexual verses but have no problem dismissing these words. You may notice Jesus did not say to make sure your heart does belong to the treasures you store up for yourself. No, Jesus says that your heart will be where your treasure is, and if you store up money upon this earth your heart will definitely be in that treasure.
Go ahead and listen to preachers who reject the prosperity message but are only too content to explain away these words from the Master they profess to believe. Have we not been consumed by this Babylonian culture and in so doing we by necessity need to soften and even change the open and literal meaning of the words of Jesus? What if it was revealed one day that if all the money saved up in western bank accounts of believers could have been used to spread the gospel many more souls might have heard the gospel message? What if that money could have been used to feed starving children and help brothers and sisters in Christ in need around the world?
What if was revealed that if we had let loose of this earth’s treasures that our hearts could have been so much closer to Christ and so much less stressed and worried? And what if the billions upon billions of dollars that were paid to secular institutions through church mortgage interest payments would have been used to help the poor, widows, and orphans? Who can righteously come forth and say that the God of the Scriptures would choose buildings over orphans? And who could argue that God is hoodwinked by our token humanitarian efforts which never even mean a sacrifice that requires us to endure something like these:
· Less food
· Less dining out
· Less pets
· Less movies
· Less clothes
· No air conditioning
· No vacation
What kind of God approves of money that could buy food for people who starve being saved up for some future self expenditure? What lesson was the Master teaching in the story of the rich man and Lazarus? And the same people who change the words of Jesus to mean “lay up for yourselves treasures on earth as long as those treasures do not have you” are the very same people who castigate gay people who change God’s Word to accommodate their lifestyle. One group modifies God’s Word to accommodate a sexual lifestyle while the other modifies God’s Word to accommodate a hedonistic lifestyle.
Please tell me how God separates one hypocrisy from another. I realize that in order for us to actually entertain the notion that we have altered the Christian faith and practice we must unravel and repent of decades of heretical teachings that have taken place in orthodox pulpits. We would have to read the New Testament again and afresh with a passion to reject everything we may have learned that is not in concert with the teachings of Christ and the epistles.
It is so much easier to elevate the sins of the emergent church and the gay community and the liberal theologians because it keeps us from pausing with a polished mirror to see ourselves in the context of the New Testament teachings and the very life of Jesus Himself. We do not need to tweek this system we espouse within the community of faith. We need to scrap the entire thing, fall on our faces before God, and beg God to fill us with a passion to seek Him whatever the cost.

Or we could just go on as we have been doing.

I’m sure God will continue to be impressed and pleased.