“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
~ Matthew 6:33
Hi James and Ellen,
If you are giving a kid friend a gift, do you want to have your other kid friends watching you doing it or would you rather give a kid friend a gift with none of your other kid friends watching you do it? If you are giving a poor or needy kid some food and/or money, do you want to have other kids watching you do it or would you rather give a poor or needy kid some food and/or money with no other kids watching you do it? When you are talking with your Father God, do you want to have other kids watching you doing it or would you rather that as you are talking with your Father God that there are no kids watching you do it? If you are fasting – which means that you will not eat anything for a period of time so that you can use that period of time just to talk with your Father God, do you want to have other kids noticing that you are fasting or would you rather that other kids do not notice that you are doing it. Do you know what God says about a guy, gal or kid who gives a gift to another guy, gal or kid in front of other guys, gals and kids hoping that he or she will receive kudos from the other guys, gals and kids who see what he or she has done? God’s answer to this question is found in Matthew 6. God – as God the Spirit, explains through the words that He breathed on Matthew to write in the book that is now known as the Matthew Book how a guy, gal or kid is to give food and/or money to a poor or needy kid, talk with God and fast. God tells guys, gals and kids not to do ‘acts of righteousness’ in front of other guys, gals and kids because He will not give any guy, gal or kid a reward for doing so. God tells guys, gals and kids not to let their right hand know what their left hand is doing as He will not give them a reward for doing so. God tells guys, gals and kids not to talk hypocritically with Him. Hypocrites are guys who stand on street corners to publically leave an impression that they are talking with God when they really are not as God will not give them a reward for doing so. God tells guys not to fast like the guys who put on somber, serious, sad faces who want to make sure that other guys notice that they are fasting as God will not give them a reward for doing so.
When your grandmaa and grandpaa were administrating the rural, resident leadership training program that they initiated in Bolivia – in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez, and when your grandpaa was the field leader for the South America Mission field missionary team that was in Bolivia, your grandpaa scheduled periods of time to fast. Shortly before the end of a classroom year at the rural, resident leadership training center – which Bolivian guys and gals called El Centro de Capacitación, and the graduation of a class of Centro de Capacitación students, your grandpaa would schedule a time of fasting. The last time that your grandpaa scheduled a time of fasting at the rural, resident training center in Concepcion, your grandpaa programmed a thirty-six hour fast. Your grandpaa during the thirty-six hours of fasting had the Centro de Capacitación students, their spouses, your grandmaa and grandpaa talking with God through one hour blocks of time. Your grandpaa chose two locations where he would have a Centro de Capacitación student and/or a student’s spouse and/or your grandmaa and/or grandpaa talking in pairs with God through their scheduled one hour block of time. Your grandpaa staggered the one hour blocks of time in the two locations so that a pair would begin talking with God on the hour in one place and in the other place on the half hour. Your grandpaa would cut up into small slips paper that had the names of the Centro de Capacitación students, their spouses, your grandmaa and grandpaa on them. Your grandpaa would then put all these small slips of paper in a small wooden bowl. As your grandpaa took out these small slips of paper out of the small wooden bowl was the order and with whom each Centro de Capacitación student, a spouse of a student, your grandmaa and grandpaa would talk with God together. At the end of each fast at the rural, resident leadership training center, the Centro de Capacitación students, their spouses, your grandmaa and grandpaa would all celebrated communion together. Your grandpaa would buy a piglet each year at the start of the first thirteen week trimester of classes at the Centro de Capacitación. The piglet would be after eleven months a big, fat pig after having been fed food scraps from the kitchen that was on the Centro de Capacitación property. The pig would be killed near the end of the fast. The pig’s meat would be marinated in papaya milk along with some spices and then baked in the beehive oven and eaten during a feast that would end the fast at the Centro de Capacitación. The meat was really tender and tasty. During the time that your grandpaa was the field leader for the South American Mission field missionary team that was in Bolivia, your grandpaa scheduled a twenty-four hour fast at which time he had pairs of field team missionary guys and gals meet together at the field mission base that is in Santa Cruz for an hour to talk with God together.
What Matthew wrote regarding giving to others, praying and fasting are from a roundtable or a question and answer time that Jesus had with a large group of His followers as He sat on the side of a mountain in the state of Galilee. This roundtable or question and answer time became known as the Sermon of the Mount. Jesus wanted the guys, gals and kids who were following Him to live lives that were centered on Him and not centered on themselves. It was very important to Jesus that the guys, gals and kids who were following Him do what verse 33 says for them to do, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Jesus also helped His followers at this time to learn a prayer – the Lord’s Prayer, that guys, gals and kids use today as a prayer.
Matthew 6 (379)