a Christian Question
My mornings begin, when done right, with a soothing cup of coffee and a longstanding engagement of getting to know God. Sometimes, I walk away from the encounter bolstered and excited about what’s next; and sometimes I walk away questioning my very nature and state of understanding. A few mornings ago, I felt like I was handed a question. I have been chewing on this question since it was asked, so I have decided to share it with you.
Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a treasure hidden in a field; which when a man finds it, he conceals, and for the joy of finding it, goes and sells everything that he has, and buys the field. (1) Or, like a precious pearl, with again, selling everything to buy it. (2)
The question I was asked, “What did you sell?” ”What was everything to you before you met Me?”
Often in church we camp out on losing our life to Christ or denying ourselves to follow, which is in Scripture; but how often do we nail down what that loss was to us? How often are we vulnerable enough to confess what we sold for that precious pearl? And even more vulnerable – how many of us are pawning off parts of that great field we bought to buy back some of what we’ve sold?
If you have not bought the field, well, this question is not directed at you; but for those of us who had that moment when we sold it all…well, let’s really nail down what we sold to make sure we aren’t trying to buy it back.
Jesus could have said that the kingdom of heaven was like a big ol’ gift of a pearl given to you from your Daddy, but he didn’t. He said, “..what shall a man give in exchange for his life?” (3)
We all know that there is nothing we own that could buy this kind of love and life, but maybe it is time to survey the cost.
(1) Matthew 13:44
(2) Matthew 13:46
(3) Matthew 16:26
sean are discussing. 
sean 4:58 pm on February 27, 2012 Permalink |
Huge.
Steve Wulfeck 12:06 pm on February 29, 2012 Permalink |
Great thoughts! The thing about sin or following our worldly desires is that as humans we think and reason so much with our natural understanding (which is why Jesus spoke with analogies or parables) that our old carnal thinking becomes convinced that if we go there or do that..whatever it is..we really believe that we will gain something from it. The thought of Adam and Eve come to mind.
We become convinced that our life will somehow be better when in reality we have just guaranteed that our lives will in fact be worse off. What we fail to do so often is to not connect the dots when things are lost or stolen from our lives. Whether it be peace, joy, contentment, health, finances, friendships or relationships, favor etc. The dots are connectable but many times we don’t break out the pencil and connect them. A+B lead to C. It just doesn’t happen overnight so we lie to ourselves or play dumb so we can continue to look ourselves in the mirror everyday and say…I’m ok, I not that bad.
Our warfare which began in the mind has to be won in our minds. We must live with the belief that God’s ways always turn out better for us in the long run. If we ever allow ourselves to lose that thought battle we will behave badly. God wants us to live free and experience all he has for us. We can but we have to win the battle in our thought life.
Practically I like to make my faith confessions and stir up the power of God through His word coming out of my mouth. Number 1 it stirs up my faith….Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word…number 2, it arrests my mind and forces it to come into agreement with God’s word. You cannot think about something else when you are saying something. You speech locks your mind into conforming to whatever you are saying. So say the Word and win the battle over your mind and thinking and you will automatically win the battle with any carnal desires or distractions. Reality is that
our lives always move in the direction of our words. Let’s make our words God’s Words and we will have God results.