Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope to share my story with you so that it might bless you in the same way it blessed me. This post shares my background, my faith question that kept me from accepting Jesus as my Lord and how He reached me with answers that convinced me.

I grew up attending a small town Methodist Church with my father. He was faithful to serve and encouraged me to do the same. I was baptized as a baby, attended Sunday school, and was confirmed in the Methodist Church. I thank my father for leading me, although I wasn’t thankful at the time. I guess I was the typical kid who resented the precious weekend time I had to spend in boring church services listening to sermons I didn’t understand. However, I’m sure that some truth sank in whether I wanted it or not.

My mother was not a Christian, following other gods and pursuing a very different path from my father. I remember my mother taking me to the home of the Methodist Church pastor and challenging whether I should be confirmed. She worried that confirmation would prevent me from pursuing my own path to whatever faith I wanted. She felt that I was too young to make an informed decision and was being coerced into a faith that I really didn’t understand or believe. She wasn’t wrong. As I entered High School, I began to question Christianity and approached my mother for alternatives.

In college, I abandoned my faith walk and declared myself an agnostic. Now I realize that was a cop-out, but then it felt like I was taking a higher intellectual journey. College life encouraged me to pursue my engineering degree, school friendships, and activities with no time for faith or religion. That changed when I met my current wife. She was a faithful catholic and, to spend as much time with her as possible, I attended church with her. That’s when God began to touch my heart and encourage me to explore my faith.

A few years later, we were married and my sweet wife encouraged me to explore my faith walk. We attended church regularly as I continued to resist the full call to Jesus. I continued to attend church in order to be with my new wife but held back a full commitment because I had two major questions:

1. Why did Jesus need to suffer such a horrible death?
2. What have I done in my life that required such an extreme sacrifice?

As I seriously began to explore the life of Jesus, I became more and more convinced that He was unique. His teachings were compelling and inconsistent with any other philosophy I had studied. He lived a life that was blessed with wisdom, compassion, healing, and truth. Nothing he did seemed to justify the terrible death he suffered. Worse yet, the church taught that his death was God’s plan so that I could be saved. It seemed all too extreme. If God planned for Jesus to die, and in that horrible way, what kind of God is He? Certainly, nothing I had ever done justifies such a terrible sacrifice. These are the key questions that nagged me. Also, even as a small boy, I worried about “giving my life to Jesus” because I didn’t trust what He would do with it. What if He sent me to the middle of nowhere to be a missionary to tribesmen or something? That was not my idea of a good time.

My wife and I continued attending new churches whenever we would move for my new jobs. Each new city brought us new churches and new experiences but those key questions still nagged me and made me continue to hold back full commitment. Then came a visiting pastor.

We were attending a Baptist church for a number of years, with me still holding back, but continuing to serve and openly learn more about Christ and God. Then came a service from a visiting pastor. I had never seen this pastor before, but occasionally, our church would serve as host to traveling pastors who would be given the pulpit as an opportunity for the congregation to support that pastor’s mission. This pastor was sent to this church on this day just for me. He was a young man, wearing the obligatory grey suit, holding a bible that he waved and referenced during his sermon and walking from side to side of the altar; largely ignoring the pulpit. He started with Adam and Eve. He explained that God created the perfect place for Adam and Eve to live with Him in the Garden of Eden. They had all they needed and lived in harmony with the rest of creation. God had only one rule — don’t eat the fruit from the tree of good and evil (Gen 2:16-17). Everything else was theirs to enjoy. Adam and Eve were God’s first creation of mankind and they communed with Him every day. Then, they sinned and everything changed for them. What I never before realized was that everything changed for me, too.

After they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they committed the first sin. Scripture says that, with the first sin, they discovered that they were naked and were ashamed. To cover them, God carried out the first sacrifice for their sin; He clothed them with the skin of an animal. God expelled Adam and Eve and cursed them and the land for their sin. Then, Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve’s children, committed the next sin. Cain and Abel each offered their sacrifice to God. However, Cain decided to offer fruit of his hands (grain) rather than the fruit of God’s creation (blood of an animal). God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s. In jealousy, Cain killed Abel (Gen 4:3-10). This sets the clear requirement for sin; the blood of an innocent to atone for sin.

The next sacrifice example that the pastor explained was Abraham and Isaac. God told Abraham to sacrifice his son as a test of Abraham’s faith. Isaac and Abraham started on their journey to Mt. Moriah and Isaac without an animal to sacrifice. Isaac thought that was strange and asked Abraham “father, where is the sacrifice?” (Gen 22:7) Abraham answered “God will provide the sacrifice.” (Gen 22:8) When they arrived, Abraham took out the knife to slay his only son and God stopped him (Gen 22:10-12). God said that it was clear that Abraham was faithful but that God would provide the sacrifice with a nearby Ram that was caught in a thicket (Gen 22:13). This Ram served as a sacrifice that would bless Abraham and all his people (Gen 22:16-18). This sacrifice continued with the Jewish people as they wandered through the desert and after they entered the promised land. The sacrifice was two fold on Yom Kippur. First, an unblemished lamb was slain and the blood from the lamb is sprinkled on the ark of the covenant by the high priest. Second, a priest lays hands on the head of a scapegoat to transfer the sins of all the people onto the lamb which is then taken outside the city and abandoned; thereby removing the sins from the people (Lev 16:7,11,15-16,21-22).

The next sacrifice story that the guest pastor shared was Jesus. Scripture refers to the Messiah (Jesus) as the lamb who was slain (Rev 13:8), and who takes away the sin of the world. This sacrifice is meant to atone for the sins of the whole world (John 1:29), not just an individual, or a family, or a people, but all the sin of the whole world. Jesus served as the scapegoat (Isaiah 53:6) since he was crucified outside the city and as the lamb who was slain – fulfilling both requirements for sacrifice. Not just that, but He is the son of God; a most perfect sacrifice to remove all sin for all time from the world. Scripture states that His sacrifice is once and for all and completes the requirement for sacrifice forever (2 Cor 5:21).

Adam and Eve are the progenitors of Cain, Abel and the rest of mankind. With the line of Adam comes the line of sin against God. All decedents of Adam must atone for their sin to reconcile themselves with God. This first happened for Adam and Eve, then for their family (Cain and Abel), then for the whole community of Jews (Abraham) and finally for the whole world when God sacrificed his only son for us all.

That visiting pastor explained that Jesus sacrifice wasn’t just about the sins that I committed but rather that He was the only perfect sacrifice that could take me out of my family line of sinners (Adam). Jesus is both of the family of man (through Mary) and the family of God (immaculate conception). He is the only one with the perfect sinless lineage that joins to our lineage of sin who is able to be a sacrifice once, for all, so that we can be reconciled with our creator. He was born of man and yet never sinned; the perfect, spotless lamb of God (Hebrews 9:11-14).

Now I had my answers. God’s plan, from the Garden of Eden, was to reconcile his creation with Himself through Jesus (1 Pet 1:19-21). He knew what would happen with his creation before they sinned and He knew that His plan for forgiveness of sin would be perfect. It also isn’t just about my sins that Jesus gave his life but it was about transporting me from the family of sin in Adam to the family of God through Jesus. When I accept Jesus as my savior, I become Jesus’ brother and a child of God; the only way that I can be reconciled with God (John 1:12). It all made sense and that’s why I believe that guest pastor was sent on that day, just for me.

If you ever attended a Baptist Church, you know that they reliably hold an altar call; the time at the end of the service when people can come to the altar and give their lives to Jesus if they haven’t already. I can tell you that I sprung to my feet and walked all the way from the back of the large church pews all the way down to that altar on that day. I couldn’t help myself because I was simply responding to what God had done for me. My mother was right that I needed to find my way to understand my faith. I’ve never been the same.

During this “pride” month that celebrates sexual immorality and leads our young people to accept and adopt the same, I felt led to share important words from the Bible.

First is the nature of the sin of pride:

Proverbs 8:13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. 

Isn’t it interesting that the attempt to be inclusive and support diversity is exactly what scripture warns against – pride. Isn’t it also interesting that the advocates of sexual immorality label their movement as pride.

Second, I think it is interesting that the pride movement chose the symbol of a rainbow for their banner? God gave the rainbow as a promise to us all that He will not again make the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

Genesis 9:8-17 NIV

Finally, do you remember why God send the flood to wipe out mankind? Here is the explanation in His own words.

5: The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6: The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7: So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

Genesis 5-7 (NIV)

Note that the word “regretted” used twice in these verses can also be translated as “be grieved“.

Please take a moment to review and mediate on the verses listed here at the OpenBible on the topic of immorality. This is what we should be reading and praying on during the month of June. The study below is what will bring peace and salvation to those struggling with their identities and will serve as a weapon against the power of social media to drag them into a social contagion. I pray they touch your heart and strengthen your walk.

https://www.openbible.info/topics/immorality

Allah is not same God as Christian God

1.Christians believe that Jesus is God, while Muslims don’t. Jesus being God is a basic doctrine of Christianity, (we are Christ followers and thus the name Christians) and it does not agree with Islamic teaching. For Christians, Jesus is God, and for Muslims Jesus is not God. Jesus says he is God in the Bible John 10:30 “I and the Father are One.” He also said “I am the way, the Truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Hebrews 1:3 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory & the exact representation of his being.” Quran (Surah) 5:75 says “The Messiah, son of Mary, was no other than a messenger. Jesus is just a messenger to them and a prophet.

Muslims may believe Jesus is a great prophet. But if they believe that, and Jesus says he is God, then Jesus is a liar or he’s crazy. So why would they think he’s a great man? Why not label him a fraud? InKoran 5:51 it says “O ye who believe take not Christians or Jews for friends…He who taketh one for a friend is one of them. Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.” Muslims claim God has no Son. Because the Muslims reject God as the Father of Jesus, than Allah cannot be the same as the God of the bible. According to Islam, worshiping the Christian God is not just wrong; it sends you to Hell.

2.Christians believe God is our Father and Muslims don’t. Jesus taught us to say “Our Father who art in Heaven. The Muslim God is more impersonal and distant. Our God is personal. He cares for us andloves us and wants us to do the same for others.

3.Christianity embraces the doctrine of the Trinity, of having one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Islam doesn’t. They don’t believe Jesus is the son of God and there is no Trinity. They believe the doctrine of the Trinity is blasphemous. Jesus teaches in the bible Matthew 28:19 to make disciples of all nations and to baptize them “in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

4.God made salvation available by sacrificing his Son and promises salvation by grace to those who believe. Allah sacrificed nothing and only saves if sufficient works are done Surah 2:25 “believe and work righteousness– But my question is how many works are enough? When do you know you’ve done enough? This may be the reason you see so many suicide bombers and terrorists. They fight for Allah so their salvation is secure and they don’t have to worry if they are getting into paradise or if their works are sufficient to please Allah. Christians rest secure in the work of Christ. Man alone can never be good enough because as Jesus said there is only one who does good—God alone. This is why he came to die for us. Christians believe our works will never be enough and works alone cannot save us. Only Jesus can. We are still called to love and do good works but it doesn’t earn us heaven.

5.We believe Chris resurrected from the dead—Muslims don’t believe Jesus was crucified or resurrected.

6.There is no marriage in paradise in Christian faith.(see Matt 22:30) Our joy will be God himself. We are the Bride of Christ. But faithful muslim MEN get many virgins in Allah’s paradise. Surah 56:35-38

7. Jesus treated women with love and compassion and as equals. Muslim men have permission to beat women and are created above them. .Quran (Surah) 4:34 Men are in charge of woman because Allah has made one to excel the other….so good women are obedient…Those whom (the husband) fears are rebellious, admonish them, send them to a bed apart and beat (scourge) them. Jesus treats women differently. He kept an adulterous woman from being stoned to death (Luke 7). When Jewish men wouldn’t speak to women, Jesus did. He called a woman “daughter of Abraham” when only men were¸¸

allowed to be referred to as “sons of Abraham.”

8..We are told by our love we will make disciples. Muslims are told to fight.(too many verses to quote all but here are a few) 

Surah (Quran) 9:29 Fight against those (Christians/Jews) who have been given the Scripture as believe NOT in Allah Jews say, “Ezra is the son of Allah, Christians say Messiah is the son of Allah…Allah fighteth against them. How perverse are they. 9:123 O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty unto him.”

8:65 “Exhort the believers to fight..If there be of you 100 steadfast they shall overcome 1,000 of those who disbelieve. 5:93 Fight them until persecution is no more and religion is for Allah 4:89 choose no friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; If they turn back to enmity then take and kill them wherever you find them, and choose no friend or helper from among them. 9:5 Slay the idolaters wherever you find them.

I do believe many muslims believe Islam is a religion of peace but their Quran, which is to them like the Bible is to a Christian) teaches differently. So they either don’t read it fully or don’t follow it just like some Christians don’t read Bible or follow it.

Rather than told to fight unbelievers, we are told to love. John 13: 35 A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”1 John 4:7-21 Let us love one another for love is from God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.: Rom. 5:8 “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Not once in the Quron does it say Allah is a god of love. But in Quron “ The worst of beasts in Allah’s sight are the ungrateful who will not believe.” But the Christian God does not want anyone to perish. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

9. Christians & Jews recognize Abraham’s son Isaac as heir of God’s promise of offsping that would make a great nation and be blessed by God. But Muslims believe it is Ismael-not Isaac that will be blessed by Allah. (Ismael was Abraham’s illigitimate son from an Egyptian woman)
Jews may not believe in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God, but Christians worship the God of Israel- the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. The Christian line is from the legitimate son of Abraham. The bible says Christians have been “grafted” from the same branch as the Jews and that’s why Christians have a closeness with the Jews and should stand by them. The bible also says no nation should turn Jews away or go against them because the God of Israel (the Christian’s God & Israel’s God) protects them.Allah wants his people to fight Jews & Christians. God revealed himself to Christians through the Jewish people. The Jews believe the Messiah is to come. Christians believe he came already and will come again at the end.

Romans 11:1-36 Paul is speaking. He is a former Jew who persecuted Christians. He is saying God will not reject his chosen people, the Jews. “I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.”

Epesians 3:6 “This mystery is that the Gentiles (Christians) are fellow heirs (with Jews), members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”We are a brotherhood with Jewish people and the Muslim’s god “Allah” is against Jews and Christians. If we had the same God why would he come against himself? In Mark 3:25 Jesus said, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

In the last month, we have seen great tragedy. I pray for those who lost friends, students, teachers, fathers, sons and daughters in these horrible acts of violence.

In Gilroy, California, 19 year old suspect Santino William Legan, murdered three — Stephen Romero (6), Keyla Salazar (13) and Trevor Deon Irby (25) — and wounded 13 when he opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on July 28.

On the morning of Aug. 3, 21-year-old suspect Patrick Crusius walked into an El Paso, Texas, Walmart and murdered 22 people: Javier Rodriguez (15), Andre Anchondo (23), Jordan Anchondo (24), Leonard Cipeda Campos (41), Ivan Hilierto Manzano (46), Maribel Hernandez (56), Elsa Libera Marquez (57), María Eugenia Legarreta Rothe (58), Arturo Benavides (60), Jorge Calvillo García (61), Gloria Irma Marquez (61), Margie Reckard (63), David Alvah Johnson (63), Alexander Gerhard Hoffman (66), Sara Esther Regalado (66), Adolfo Cerros Hernandez (68), Raul Flores (77), Maria Flores (77), Juan Velázquez (77), Teresa Sánchez de Freitas (82), Angelina Englisbee (86) and Luis Alfonzo Juarez (90). Twenty-four others were injured in the attack.

In Dayton, Ohio, in the early morning hours of Aug. 4, suspect 24 year old Connor Betts opened fire outside the entrance to Ned Peppers Bar in the Oregon Historic District, murdering nine — sister Megan Betts (22), Nicholas Cumer (25), Thomas McNichols (25), Lois Oglesby (27), Logan Turner (30), Beatrice Warren-Curtis (36), Saeed Saleh (38), Monica Brickhouse (39) and Derrick Fudge (57) — and injuring 27 others (14 from gunfire). 

The first questions we all ask might be, why? What would make someone wake up one morning, load their weapons, get in their car and drive to a public gathering and open fire on innocent people; intending to murder as many as possible?

The perpetrators made a choice that most of us can’t even imagine. They seem to have followed a chain of thinking that glorifies darkness, hate, or revenge for some perceived wrong and decided that the best course of action is to enter a public place and randomly murder. People are shopping for “back to school” items, they are celebrating outdoor festivals; events that have happened countless times over generations. Events that have occurred peacefully for generations within the protection of less restrictive weapons laws. But these assassins have come to a personally motivating conclusion that these sweet and innocent people must die.

This thinking is so foreign and dangerous to civil society, that we must find a way to keep it from happening again. There must be some rational reason for this violence. Perhaps outside influences like TV, movies or video games; because no young man would come to these choices on their own. Perhaps the guns are to blame. Yes! That’s it, since we can’t imagine how these young men could carry out these heinous acts, it must be the guns. Let’s pour all our outrage against guns because we don’t know what else to do and this cannot happen again.

I understand why many would want to blame guns. It’s an easy answer. If we can deal with this one problem and we can prevent such horrible things won’t happen again. The slightly more cynical among us might suggest that blaming such a tragedy on a failure or perceived weakness in your opponent might give an advantage for those seeking election. I prefer to hope that we are all sincerely trying to keep this horror from happening again by using the tools we think are most likely to succeed.

However, I wonder if there could be other contributing factors. Contributing factors that might point out or own cultural decay. Maybe the problem is in our own philosophy?

Our contemporary society, in a proud arrogance, has attempted to replace God. We are worshiping gods of modernism, relativism, inclusion, climate change, progressive and enlightened thinking, secular humanism, and science. How long has it been since young people:

• have been discouraged from premarital sexual relations
• prayed in school
• have seen homosexuality as undesirable
• have had faithful leadership that they saw as heroes or worthy of imitating
• learned that America was founded on a belief in morality and religious virtue based on Judeo-Christian principles
• learned that freedom of religion doesn’t mean freedom from religion
• learned about Christianity in school
• learned that there are God-given laws that carry consequences if violated and blessings if followed

In short, as recent generations come up, they have received confusing and complex teaching. Rather than adopting boundaries based on biblical principles (external, immutable boundaries), today’s psychologists classify boundaries as relative.

“Boundaries are essentially about understanding and respecting our own needs, and being respectful and understanding of the needs of others,” explains Stephanie Dowd, a clinical psychologist, “and for that to work, we need to be putting a big emphasis on helping kids develop greater empathy and self-awareness.”

https://childmind.org/article/teaching-kids-boundaries-empathy/

If boundaries are dynamic constraints based on our own and others evolving needs, they aren’t boundaries any more. In fact, they are confusing and unpredictable. Where is an external moral compass or plumb-line that we can all rely on? Instead, we have to dynamically determine within the current context of interpersonal relationships, local customs and evolving laws, what is and is not appropriate behavior. Then, even when crossing well-established relativistic social boundaries such as theft and assault, adolescent children don’t suffer consequences. Rather, their records are sealed and no history of their adolescent criminal behavior is visible. We treat sin like it didn’t even happen with no consequences.

So, if you grow up in an environment where you are nurtured and not corrected, where your behavior is based on relativism, what path do you choose? When you grow up in a culture where God’s laws are regularly ignored or intentionally violated, what do you know of consequences to your actions? In light of our new enlightened philosophy, I suggest that young people make a choice that seems right to them at the moment, irrespective of what others believe. What choice can they make since there is no way to know what others believe; there is no external absolute truth any more.

As I consider our social decline over recent generations, I’m reminded of the analogy about a piano tuner. The story says that a good piano tuner tunes against a true note generated by a pitch fork or by a finely calibrated tone generator. That sets the tune of the piano to a known correct pitch. However, if you tune 5 pianos thusly; the first to a perfect pitch generator, the second to the first, the third to the second, the fourth to the third and the fifth to the fourth, the fifth piano is hopelessly out of tune. So it goes with relativistic morals.

¹⁶ And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” ¹⁷ And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” ¹⁸ Then he *said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; ¹⁹ Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Matthew 19:16-19 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+19&version=NASB

While watching birds eating at my birdfeeder, I realized something about myself. The birds were jockying with each other to get the food they liked. Cardinals, Finches, Redwing Blackbirds, all vying for the same perch to get the tasty sunflower seeds. Each bird chasing the other away as they tried to get their meal. Bluebirds pounced on finches, finches crowded each other off the perch all desperate to get seed as if the seed were scarce and going to disappear. At no point did they understand that I provided the seed and that I would always replenish the feeders so they would all be satisfied.

That’s when I realized I treated the many blessings from God the same way. I struggle in life to get my fair share and even occasionally seek to put myself before another so I get the recognition or gifts I think I deserve. Rarely do I recognize the source of all these gifts. All I have I owe to God. I gather all I can as if His gifts were scarce. In truth, God’s blessings couldn’t be further from that.

God gives me gifts of skills, abilities and resources. When I use those gifts for His glory, He blesses me even more with joy and peace. God’s economy is not of scarcity but of abundance. Just like the birds, I focus on getting my fair share but don’t spend proper time blessing the giver.

I don’t expect the birds to come to the window and bow to me in thanks, but I think I, made in God’s image, should acknowledge the true giver of gifts and offer my thanks. Thank you, Lord.

https://www.biblehub.com/nasb/luke/12.htm

Luke 12:24“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! 25“And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span? 26“If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters? 27“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 28“But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith! 29“And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. 30“For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. 31“But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. 32“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.