Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
A certain Muslim lived on a cottage on a hill. Every week he rode his camel to a little stream, And, every week as the camel stopped to drink, it nosed up the pebbles in order to make a deeper place for drinking. Again and again, the Muslim picked up the bright stones the animal uncovered and took them home with him.
One day a traveler told the Muslim of the easy comfort and riches that certain men in the city enjoyed; the traveler filled the Muslim’s eyes and heart with discontent. So, he sold his cottage and wandered the earth looking for money and such treasures. Finally, he died in rags and poverty, and was buried. The man who bought the cottage found the stones and preserved them.
One day a merchant came to his home and discovered the well-preserved stones were diamonds. The owner of the diamonds immediately became a millionaire. Note, the first man unknowingly possessed great wealth, but being ignorant of it, sold it and traveled the world looking for it. The second owner of the cottage simply made use of what he had.
BOTTOM LINE:
All people have eternal life at their disposal. Some people respond to this treasure like the first man, some like the second.
A few minutes ago dailylightdevotional.org guided me to Hebrews 2:17-18 for a rooted perspective to the above parable. I’ve included Chapter 3. Try KJV or NIV as well. Reflect on the gift to us beyond mere pebbles…
Hebrews 3:1-19 (MSG)
- 1. So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of everything we believe,
2. faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful,
3. but Jesus gets far more honor. A builder is more valuable than a building any day.
4. Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God.
5. Moses did a good job in God’s house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come.
6. Christ as Son is in charge of the house. Now, if we can only keep a firm grip on this bold confidence, we’re the house!
7. That’s why the Holy Spirit says, Today, please listen;
8. don’t turn a deaf ear as in “the bitter uprising,” that time of wilderness testing!
9. Even though they watched me at work for forty years, your ancestors refused to let me do it my way; over and over they tried my patience.
10. And I was provoked, oh, so provoked! I said, “They’ll never keep their minds on God; they refuse to walk down my road.”
11. Exasperated, I vowed, “They’ll never get where they’re going, never be able to sit down and rest.”
12. So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God.
13. For as long as it’s still God’s Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn’t slow down your reflexes.
14. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul.
15. These words keep ringing in our ears: Today, please listen; don’t turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.
16. For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren’t they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt?
17. And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn’t it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness?
18. And when he swore that they’d never get where they were going, wasn’t he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear?
19. They never got there because they never listened, never believed.
PS: The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that we worship the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to us. Oswald Chambers The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L
NEXT UP: Perhaps GRACE is not so much an “if-then” kind of statement, but rather, a “because-therefore pronouncement & unconditional promise.