buried the treasure? (part II)

The last point that jumped out at me from last week’s story is that true wealth is not something that is acquired by stealing or cheating. The measure of our wealth is always found in who we are, not what we have. If those people who were saved from their homeless condition could have seen all that took place to get to the point of helping them, the whole thing could have really taught them a good lesson about their wealth. History is a good teacher, and great new visions many times come from clear sighted people who look and learn from their past mistakes and successes. The following story illustrates how we sometimes are not willing to learn from those mistakes…and thus our attitude is soured.

A man and his ten-year-old son were on a fishing trip miles from home. At the boy's insistence, they decided to attend the Sunday worship service at a small rural church. As they walked back to their car after the service, the father was filled with complaints. "The service was too long," he lamented. "The sermon was boring and the singing was off key." Finally the boy said, "Daddy, I thought it was pretty good for a dime."

Last week’s story helps us realize that true wealth from God is not something we can keep to ourselves, if we truly realize what Christ did for us in acquiring that wealth. If we are always just dipping our toes in the pool of service, we will always think the water is just too cold. The end result will be a life that is giving God our leftovers. So the treasure remains buried and the wealth is not shared. Sounds selfish, doesn’t it? It is! When we live in this misery of having everything to give, but yet giving nothing we almost explode and we can’t understand why. So we complain, critique, and check out! We think, “Wow, I’m just not getting anything out of church.” When the reality is, we are not giving anything back either. Fatal formula! Doomed for failure. Now the treasure has almost no worth to us or anyone else because we have begun to qualify it, instead of just sharing it. Big mistake. Just give it away. Serve God and trust Him, the keeper of the treasure. He will bless you for it!

We need to remember we didn’t do anything to get our eternal inheritance. We received Christ and He gave us new life. New attitudes. New priorities. The power and the inheritance come through God’s power. We are the weakest part of this whole equation and the numbers will never add up for us to receive anything except what is given by God through Jesus Christ. We are the homeless and God has the home. He gives us this wealth called salvation freely. Not free for Him, but free for us. We must realize that we carry Him around in us. His life changing salvation starts a process that causes us to become more like Him, thus seeing the world as He sees it. We want to give because so much has been given to us. That attitude of wanting to give haunts us until we dig up the treasure and put it to good use. His use.

We know that this salvation is not something we should ever cover up or hide. It is something given to us so we can give it to others. That way they can experience it and live a life changed because of it. You have a treasure. If you have buried it, dig it up and share the wealth. The wealth of the world is eroding as I write this, but the wealth of Christ in your life is renewing every day and getting more and more powerful. Let the discovery of this treasure be something all can experience and receive. Don’t give God your leftovers. Give Him the first fruits of everything you are.

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren