God's Word is Your Greatest Treasure!

We watched an episode of Buried Treasure. Leigh and Leslie Keno, the twin brothers who are often on Antiques Roadshow, travel to different homes to investigate items of interest using cutting-edge technology to determine authenticity, condition and—ultimately—worth. Not every hunt yields a pot of gold. Some people will have treasures, while others will have trash.  The participants are often in need of cash and so episodes share their emotional journeys as well.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. And sometimes people literally have a goldmine in their homes and don’t even know it. As in the episode we watched, once authenticated the items of interest often turn out to be worth millions.

While Danny and I probably don’t have a million dollar painting in our home, we do have something that is a real treasure, a goldmine of rarest quality. It is the Word of God. Authenticated by the Holy Spirit, it is full of treasures beyond belief. Often buried in the bookshelf in many homes, it is actually a treasure that is meant to be handled and read and touched and taken in.  

Unlike physical treasures that can be ruined or proven not really worth anything, the Word of God is full of amazing information that will transform your life. Inside the binding you will find answers to marital problems, financial woes, relationship issues, and more. There is treasure for church matters and fellowship information. Reading on you will find everything you need for life and godliness. How to love people, how to appreciate God in the hard times, how to be a success in life and more.  There is hope for the hopeless, help for the helpless, relief for the grieving and forgiveness for the sinner. There is direction for the lost, inspiration for the downtrodden and purpose for everyone who is looking. Inside the pages you will find the way to get real wisdom, find true love and how to get to heaven. Most of all you will find everything you need to know about God, including His names and His essence. It is indeed an authenticated treasure beyond worth when measured against anything this world has to offer. It is genuine, true and perfect for everything anyone will ever need.

Oh beloved, pull out your buried treasure this morning, dust off the cover and read! God is speaking to your heart about your situation and He already prepared the Word for you before the foundation of the world. He knew what you’d be going through and His treasure will tell you what you need to know. God’s Word shows you how to live, how to worship and how to praise Him. It also shows how much He loves you and how wonderful His care for you is.

You may have been considered someone’s trash, but beloved, you are God’s rarest treasure! He has authenticated your worth before you were even formed in your mother’s womb. Christ knew you were in need of a way to find your true worth so He went to the cross, suffered the shame, carried your burdens and sins all the way to Calvary. Then He stepped into the grave and three days later rose from the dead so that you too could rise to newness of life! No man can put a price on you for you are priceless. No one can say you are worthless because you have been set aside to show forth the praises of God, who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. God’s plans for you are wonderful and blessed and you are treasured always. You, beloved, are chosen and redeemed and a beautiful object, precious to your heavenly Father in Christ.

Read your greatest treasure, God’s Word, find your message and believe it! You can go to the bank on what God says about you and on what His plans are for you.  Amazingly you can share this treasure trove with others and still have all you will ever need.

God loves you and He’s for you and that’s worth more than any treasure this world has to offer as you live in the light of His Word.

Psalm 139:17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

Isaiah 33:6 And He will be the stability of your times, A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; The fear of the Lord is his treasure.

Job 23:12 I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action), so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Matthew 6:21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.

Looking for True Strength and Real Freedom?

Zoos have always held a lot of enjoyment for us.  One time we were watching small monkeys and one of them had their hand caught in the cage. It seems the little animal had wanted something that was outside the cage. After grasping the item, their paw was then a fist. That fist wouldn’t fit back through the cage. Try as he might, the arm was not budging. No amount of squealing, jumping or pulling was going to achieve a thing. Only when he let go of the object he had so wanted was he able to pull his arm back inside the cage was he able to free himself from entanglement.

Traveling through the airports now, it’s a big deal to go through the checkpoint to get on the plane. You empty your pockets and get every little thing checked. There are simply some things you cannot take on board with you. If you insist on taking things that they don’t allow, you will be barred from your flight. Fight them, argue with them, demand your rights – it all turns out the same. You will not be carrying anything on the plane they consider unfit. The only way to be free to travel is to learn how to pack.

There is a freedom God desires for you to walk in that will require you to let go of what is entangling you. It may be something you desperately want to keep or have desired for some time. It could be a person, place or thing.  You want to be free, but you keep hanging on. If you will let go you will find the freedom that is best for a child of God. He doesn’t want your stuff, but He does want your heart. And it’s amazing how much stuff and hearts are intertwined.

There are places  God wants to take you that will require you to unpack some things that you’ve carried around with you as well.  You simply cannot travel the heights with the Lord while hanging onto baggage. You’ll need to drop that unforgiveness. Lose the fear. Toss out the worry. Empty the guilt. While you’re at it, get rid of the lies: you know - the things you’ve believed about yourself that are so untrue for a child of the Most High God. 

Just as we are embarking on a New Year, you are embarking on a new day with the Lord. You may have heard His call but you’ve been living with a knotted fist and insisting on your rights to carry the junk with you everywhere you go. You think a new day would be great, but what about your stuff?

God speaks to our hearts doesn’t He?  Where you are today is not where I want to take you. I have wonderful plans for your life and for your new year. If you are willing you will walk in My freedom and your load will be light. But you’ll have to trust Me to prepare you for the trip.  Don’t look at what you are losing, look instead at what you are gaining. It’s no accident that you find yourself in a quandary between your desires and My plans.  A new year will come whether you want it or not. 2013 is quickly becoming a vapor. My plans are for now. My plans are for your good. My desires for you are better than your desires for yourself. Don’t walk away from the terminal of decision and count it too much to lose. Remember that I desire freedom for my children and that freedom is found only in relinquishing your life into My loving care. You don’t have the strength to break the bars of your own entanglements. You don’t have enough weaponry of flesh to insist to carry junk you don’t need with you. It’s not about fleshly or secular strength. It’s about becoming obedient to Me that you find true strength and real freedom.

Oh beloved, what wondrous love is this, that God won’t leave us as we are. He never quits planning our lives for His glory. Our best travel and our greatest freedom is when God is in charge of everything.  Let Him take you to the next level as you lay aside the things that want to keep you earthbound. Relinquish every entanglement and watch as you learn to enjoy freedom in Christ. Oh how He loves us! So much that He refuses to leave us as we are! A better life is ahead for you as you live in the light of His Word!

John 14:1 Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me.

Ephesians 4:21-23 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from Him,  throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.  Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Matthew 6:21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

2 Corinthians 3:17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Philippians 4:19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.