"Stuff"

This week I have been at our house in MO, packing up and supervising the loading of much of our "stuff" to be put into storage until such time as we move into another house. I mentioned earlier, that we may rent a house, but this has not panned out. Once I viewed the house in person, I came to the conclusion that it would not serve our needs any better than the apartment that we are already in, and would cost us more money, thus it would take longer for us to buy our own home again. I have come to the realization that I have too much stuff...and much of it is worth almost nothing. I need to go through much of what is on that trailer and figure out what I do and do not want/need. I suppose after some time without any of it, it will make it more clear that which I will use and that which would be better utilized by someone else. The thing is, I am generally more conscience of my spending than many people. I will do research on items on the Internet and look at items in the store several times before I buy, making sure that my money is being well spent. Most of the time, my eye is towards value. Sometimes that means that I will buy a high quality item for a higher cost, for an item that will be used often; other times that will mean that I will buy a lower quality item for a lower cost, for items that I will use less often.

Americans are known for their insistence on value. What does that mean for American Christians? I heard one person say that once they had "accepted Christ" they were "safe" and could do whatever they pleased. After all, the more sin that was covered by Christ's blood, the more "value" there was to His suffering. To me, that is ridiculous! There are so many things wrong with that statement, that I would not be surprised if my jaw dropped when I heard it. First and foremost, if you have truly accepted Christ, you will want to obey Him, thus your general attitude should be one that is trying NOT to sin, not one that you can do whatever you want. Secondly, if you profess to be a Christian, but do not act, or even attempt to act, like Christ, then that is a misnomer, the early church were called "Christians" by outsiders, not by themselves. You are not going to win anyone to Christ if you act this way. The value, then, of Christ's suffering is lost, because the true value of Christ's suffering is NOT found in the number of sins forgiven, but in the number of souls saved. So let us value Christ's suffering for us, by the way that we live this life, so that we will see those who we have influenced for Christ one day in Heaven and along the way the "stuff" will become less and less important to us.