Day Thirty Four

Matthew 6:19-24

¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,

²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,

²³ 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!

²⁴ “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.

         The ministry has been an amazing trip.

         She looked fifty, but she was just twenty five. She had three children, two girls and a boy, and they were live wires. Her husband had been able to scratch out a living of sorts doing odd jobs and such, but when I met them, he was dying of cancer and so couldn’t work. I was young and had never witnessed poverty like I witnessed with them. Their situation was hopeless. Being in the mountains of Tennessee in the mid 1970s, they were not the only folks like that. But these were people I knew.

         However, on Sunday morning, she and her little brood would come into the church. Always sat on the front pew. She always sang out. She always made those kids mind in church. Sunday night they would be back. Wednesday evening they were there. No matter the weather. Both this lady and her dying husband loved the Lord above all else. Yet, they had nothing. Life was bleak. They didn’t need tires for their car. They had no car. They didn’t fret over not having a variety of foods. They ate what the neighbors put out by their door. It is too easy to say that people like that should have plugged into government programs. In the hills of Tennessee at that time there was a pride that is not evident today. While the big television preachers will take verses out of Scripture, like you have not because you ask not, and tell you the Lord wants you to be rich, this family knew that the Bible was talking of Spiritual things.

         He was eighty five and looked sixty. The wealthiest man in town. By the time I met him, I was in my forties. He didn’t attend our church but at least once a week he would stride into my office, sit down on a sofa and proceed to tell me of his life’s successes. Finally, he told me that the church he went to was a miserable church with miserable people and a miserable preacher. They would never see a penny of his money, by golly! As near as I can remember, he is the only person I ever told to vacate my office. When he died the funeral was at the Methodist church. People were lined up outside to get in. I was walking by on my way to the coffee shop and I noticed one of the local ministers, a man who had been the target of the rich man's venom, was in line to get into the church. What a lovely gesture, I thought. I never figured Pastor Tom would be there. I stopped and shook hands with my colleague and told him that even after the way the old man had talked about him, there he was in line. I told him I was impressed. This preacher pulled me close and whispered in my ear, “Don’t be impressed. I’m just going to make sure he is in the casket.”

         Two people. One ridiculously wealthy, the other desperately poor. One felt like he was God’s gift to man, the other felt that Jesus was the greatest of all gifts to man. Since the poor lady had health issues, I imagine she is gone now. But she impressed upon her children the goodness and grace of Christ. The rich man died and his children sold the business as fast as they could and got out of town. The poor lady would have been honored to shine the rich man’s shoes and the rich man would never have wanted her anywhere near him.

         Verses nineteen, twenty and twenty one from above; “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.

         Stop everything. Think and be honest. What is the treasure of your heart? What is it that you want more than anything? What are you willing to work for? What do you feel would please you more than anything? If you are honest, can you say the greatest desire in your heart is to advance the Kingdom of God? If not, you are laying up treasure on earth rather than heaven. Don’t rationalize it by saying the Lord understands. This is Jesus and the sermon on the Mount.

         We are coming up to Resurrection. Here is a question to ponder. Jesus needed to fulfill prophesy and thus went to the Cross. If that had not been necessary, if the Old Testament prophets had never mentioned the sacrifice, do you think Jesus would have died for you anyway? He loves you and me beyond all else. Does He understand when we give him less than our sincere devotion?

         The prayer today is to really look where our treasure is and to move closer to the Lord.