Ruth: Necessity or Luxury?

Are you content?

"And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." -Mark 4:18-19

"The crowd that followed Jesus to the lakeside was so large that He had to get into the boat on the lake, and as the gospel writer records, "There he sat, with the whole crowd on the beach right down to the water's edge!" Many in that crowd earned their livelihood by sowing and reaping, the so they could envision the parable.
What were the worldly cares and false glamour of wealth in that day, we wonder. Surely according to our standards, we would have considered them minimal. No indoor plumbing, no car (very few had even a donkey), no TV, no boat, and no snowmobile.
We need to take inventory of our possessions. Which are necessities? which luxuries? Next time we go shopping, we would do well to pause and hear the Lord say, "Do we really need that?"
Take inventory!

My home is filled with things I don't really need, Lord, and yet I go out and buy more. I haven't even cupboard space enough. Help me not to get caught up in that rash of compulsive buying. Weed out the thistles that would choke out the Word!
Amen.