Where is my service going?

[Dovegiven]

Recently I came across a verse that made me question how I spend the time God gives me. Who do I serve? What do you guys think about this verse?

The verse is "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Matthew 6:24

So after reading this I wanted to find out what serving God meant and what serving money meant. I think that serving God is giving all your time to him, putting him first over everything. Also looking at the things Jesus/God said and doing them. I think that serving money is almost the same thing. You serve money by giving all your time working for it, then you rely on that money for your basic needs, food and clothing.

Let me know how you guys see this. I would love a conversation.

Back to this OP#1 part B. There's another way to look at a proper serving of God.
2 Timothy 2:1-7 (KJV)
1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
5 And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.
6 The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.
7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

When I showed up for Boot Camp for the US Navy, I quickly discovered I was apparently still a boy that was going to have to grow up quickly. I was taught in a matter of hours it didn't matter how I felt about getting up at daybreak, standing in line in my skivvies at attention, absorbing the order of the day. Life, awake or asleep, was about the military. I was a GI, a government issue, and would serve that master with all my being. If I pleased those in charge, advancement and some privilege was available. They got my attention, and foolishness totally vanished from my life. There was no calling in sick. Anyone getting too sick to get up was carried to the clinic. It had better result in a significant diagnosis. There were brief timeouts (hand laundering at scrub boards) to relax and get to know each other, but there was no time to read a novel other than the required publications like The Bluejacket's Manual, which I still have, printed Feb 1966.

When assigned a duty base the basic rules still applied. There, that same master was expecting every GI to please, not to be distracted. We were at war in Vietnam, and the long Cold War. Soon I got into conversations about the Boot Camp experiences we all went through. That was the first time I had engaged in religious talk. It turned out we all were challenged about God things. That was mysterious to me, being shouted down by a CPO wanting to know if I would "serve God first or behind him". I didn't want to answer him because I didn't want to make God mad somehow, so I answered "Alongside, Sir". "Well said, give me 25 (pushups)". Their concept was that a sailor must obey all who have authority over him, simultaneously, so that suggested President down to a ranking non-commissioned officer equally, as though for God himself. So it was we gave our all on the as yet mysterious standard of serving God and a human master equally.

The main issue with making a fully equipped GI was to put out any "entanglement", that word in verse 4, that might interfere with the orders of the day. Having a wife wanting you to take off early to go out to eat was no good request to make.

Folks mostly believe every believer in Christ will pretty much have the same outcome in eternity. One might spend his day playing video games all day, confident he has met the minimum, believing. The other might drop all vanities, pray, fast, study the Word, go witness, make disciples, loving neighbors, be a practicing overcomer, a good soldier for Christ, a workman that need not be ashamed.

The Navy prepared me to begin considering that by their standard, which seeded God's standard in me. But its a certainty that first fellow will not be allowed to pick the Elijah or Paul seat around the heavenly throne, nor should expect heaps of rewards from the Lord. Those seats will most certainly be marked Reserved, with angels attending the seating. I wouldn't dare tap Enoch's shoulder for a sitting time, but hope to preserve eligibility for wonderful reward from Jesus when He comes back. Those intended for us can be neglected and withdrawn if we withdraw eligibility. The people sitting closest will be the ones who paid the greatest price of serving God by this standard:
Mark 12:29-31 (KJV)
29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.