Tuesday, March 21, 2006
March 22nd Matthew 13
Go ahead and look first at Matthew 13 . See how God speaks to you individually. Then come back, if you wish, and see what God has put in my mind/heart.
Key Verse(s): Matthew 13:44
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Title: Closing Shop, Selling Out….With Joy
Observation: A chapter of parables. About how God is going to allow those to follow for a while and then whither away, that He will allow imposters, that we will live in a messy world both inside His church and in the world in which we live. And a challenge about what we are rooted in and what we are about.
But what caught my eye was the idea of selling all that I had in order to buy the field with hidden treasure. The hidden treasure is relationship with Jesus and the Spirit indwelling we receive and the guarantee of an eternal inheritance. The man then went and sold all that he had in order to have enough to buy the field.
The word that struck me was Joy. In the economics of eternity it certainly makes sense to give up what you can’t keep in order to gain what you can’t lose. But I fall into the trap of my generation, where I am tempted to believe that who I am is made up of my experiences, not God’s eternal breath of life and soul he has placed in me. While I might be willing to let go of that old identity for the new one in Christ I am not sure that I do it with joy.
Part of the problem is that I’m proud of part of my life. Ashamed of some of it too, but certainly want the accolades of my modest success rather than to say that it is all worthless in the face of the overwhelming value of the treasure of knowing Jesus. I have to lay down my pride and ego, but not my personhood, in order to take up Christ. Because my individual person-ness is a divine gift to be celebrated. My meager trophy case is not. Once again my ego comes into play and I must face the fact that Jesus is calling me into deeper discipleship, where I like Paul, might boast of Christ and nothing else. The deeper waters of Christ require ever deepening commitment.
Application: I need to let go of what I held onto in order to be held more closely to the One who made me. In losing my life I will find new life. And I need not to mourn about what I left behind, but to peer forward so that I might experience the joy of the companionship of Jesus, and the glory set before me as a co-heir of Christ.
Prayer: Lord God, help me to trust that you are enough. Help me to believe that your love is what will sustain me, not the applause of others. Help me to lay down my life so that I might pick up my cross. Help me to find my way closer into deeper waters of who you have called me to be.
In Jesus Name,
Amen.
Key Verse(s): Matthew 13:44
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Title: Closing Shop, Selling Out….With Joy
Observation: A chapter of parables. About how God is going to allow those to follow for a while and then whither away, that He will allow imposters, that we will live in a messy world both inside His church and in the world in which we live. And a challenge about what we are rooted in and what we are about.
But what caught my eye was the idea of selling all that I had in order to buy the field with hidden treasure. The hidden treasure is relationship with Jesus and the Spirit indwelling we receive and the guarantee of an eternal inheritance. The man then went and sold all that he had in order to have enough to buy the field.
The word that struck me was Joy. In the economics of eternity it certainly makes sense to give up what you can’t keep in order to gain what you can’t lose. But I fall into the trap of my generation, where I am tempted to believe that who I am is made up of my experiences, not God’s eternal breath of life and soul he has placed in me. While I might be willing to let go of that old identity for the new one in Christ I am not sure that I do it with joy.
Part of the problem is that I’m proud of part of my life. Ashamed of some of it too, but certainly want the accolades of my modest success rather than to say that it is all worthless in the face of the overwhelming value of the treasure of knowing Jesus. I have to lay down my pride and ego, but not my personhood, in order to take up Christ. Because my individual person-ness is a divine gift to be celebrated. My meager trophy case is not. Once again my ego comes into play and I must face the fact that Jesus is calling me into deeper discipleship, where I like Paul, might boast of Christ and nothing else. The deeper waters of Christ require ever deepening commitment.
Application: I need to let go of what I held onto in order to be held more closely to the One who made me. In losing my life I will find new life. And I need not to mourn about what I left behind, but to peer forward so that I might experience the joy of the companionship of Jesus, and the glory set before me as a co-heir of Christ.
Prayer: Lord God, help me to trust that you are enough. Help me to believe that your love is what will sustain me, not the applause of others. Help me to lay down my life so that I might pick up my cross. Help me to find my way closer into deeper waters of who you have called me to be.
In Jesus Name,
Amen.
