"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! "No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money."
I've been challenged this week to read Scripture not the way our culture tends to read it, but how a God-glorifying life should read it. Many in our current culture read scripture this way:
1) Read the Bible that looks good to me.
2) Decide what I think about what it says.
3) Figure out how to apply it to my life.
But don't we see how these three steps are not focused on God or the Bible and what it says, but rather on "me, I, and my".
Instead, I want to challenge myself and all of you to read scripture this way:
1) Read the Bible.
2) Obey it.
We don't need to read into it, figure out what we think about what it says, and then figure out if we want to apply it to our lives. We just need to OBEY it. And we can obey it in confidence because we know that God's plans are for our GOOD. His boundaries are for our benefit!
So let's take a look at what today's passage says:
We are not to store or 'lay up' treasures here. That's hard to do in a very materialistic and self-centered society. And it doesn't have to be material treasure always -- it can be the praise of man or the approval of a certain person that we're after. It could be a job, a relationship, or...a material possession that we treasure. But we are not to store those up here! They will be gone in the blink of an eye. Just ask the man I met today who lost his ability to walk 30 years ago in a car accident. I was asked to go visit him, and I was told beforehand that he was a paraplegic. Not knowing him, I braced myself for someone who was maybe pretty down because here he was in a hospital with really bad bed sores and infections BECAUSE of his inability to walk.
But instead, I opened the door to a voice that sounded upbeat! I saw him lying in his bed, and he smiled at me from across the room as I walked in. He was such a joy to talk to -- and until 5 minutes ago, we were complete strangers! After about 30 minutes of visiting with him, I asked him what it was like for him to learn that he'd never walk again. He said that within two weeks of receiving that news he learned two things: 1) He was still the same person -- same personality, same intellect, same sense of humor -- but he just couldn't walk anymore. Then he added with a smile, "Walking is over-rated anyway." And 2) He said his friends didn't leave him. People weren't going to abandon him just because he couldn't walk anymore. He said the nurse working with him 30 years ago would get angry because his friends stayed well past "lights out" and she would have to kick them out because they were all just having to much fun and it was time for them to go!
I was flabbergasted. I cannot imagine losing my ability to walk...and do you know why? I've been treasuring my ability to walk a little too much. I was believing the lie that if I couldn't walk, life would probably be miserable. But ask my new friend from today, and he'll tell you that walking is over-rated! Why can he say that? Because he's stored up treasures that are worth more and will last longer than these feeble legs of ours. He has invested in his relationship with Jesus, so he KNOWS who he is...even without his legs. And he has invested in his relationships with people, so he KNOWS how to love people and life...even without his legs.
It was a joy to be with him today. An absolute joy. As always, I went to serve him, but he really served me and taught me where my treasure should be. Honestly, God could take away my ability to walk tomorrow, He really could, and from my new friends example, I know I would be okay because I have let go of the "treasure" label when I think about walking. Instead, I want to TREASURE my time with the Lord every morning, and I want to TREASURE the people in my life whom I love and desire to do life with as well as the strangers I encounter in a day!
The last line of this passage is "You can't serve God and money," and I would say that maybe money is not your treasure...maybe it's your ability to walk. But whatever it is, we must give it up. What do you really want to TREASURE? Let me challenge us to start taking the steps toward that treasure instead...because really, whatever your "treasure" is, it's over-rated anyway. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment