What is your price?

May 6, 2009

The life of Jesus. Read Today: Parables explained and told in private Matthew 13:36-53

Matthew 13:44 ESV 

 44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 

What is more important to you, time at work or time in the Word.  I am not saying that you give up your job, but the pursuit of the things of the world are going to get you nowhere fast. In the end your relationship with God is what is important.  That is what God is saying here.  Are you willing to give up what appears to be important to get what is important.  I have a decision to make.  Reduce my income but be home nights, or keep the income and be gone 7 nights a week.  It is time for a change in my life.  What are you willing to give up. 

Read for tomorrow: Orders to cross the Sea of Galilee; Matthew 8:18; Mark 4:35; Luke 8:22

Lesson from a burried car

June 16, 2007

There was an interesting story on the local TV channel Friday night. While you can see the whole thing at http://www.kotv.com/e-clips/?id=6761, (warning video is 45 min. long), the basic story is this. 50 years ago, the people of Tulsa buried a time capsule. It was not any average one, nope Tulsa had to do it up big. They buried a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere . They even put in some gas and oil so that in our age of flying cars, we would know how to make it run. It was put into a vault that was built to withstand an atomic blast. Nothing was to leak in, nothing!

Unfortunately, water seeped in. and when it got in, it had no way to drain out easily. And even though the car was wrapped in a plastic to keep it covered, the water made it past that as well. The car was so rusted that the glove box which was supposed to contain the contents of an average woman's purse had diapered and the contents, what was left, were all over the floor. Though men had tried their best to lay up a treasure for the future, it was not there.

I think you know the scripture that I am going to with this...

Mat 6:19-21 AUV-NT
(19) “Do not store your valuables [here] on earth, where moths can eat them and where rust can corrode them, and where burglars can break in and steal [them].
(20) But [rather] store up your valuables in heaven [i.e., by investing your life in spiritual things], where neither moths can eat nor rust corrode, nor burglars break in and steal,
(21) for wherever [you store] your valuables, that is where your heart [i.e., your real concern] will be also.

The announcers during the show talk about how when they started the project 18 months ago, they all felt that a pristine car was coming out of the ground. We as humans can make plans for the future. We have to learn though, that our plans are not God's plans. Rust can happen. What once was perfect is no longer. Our treasures in heaven on the other hand can never be taken away from us. Where are your treasures today? Are they in a place that can rust them away like an old car, or in heaven?

--Translation Information
The New Testament: An Understandable Version,
© 1994 by William E. Paul,

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