Tuesday, February 28, 2017

treasured in the ashes Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Jesus' words often catch me. Especially when His words so clean and clear.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21
In these words about heart and treasure Jesus invites you and me to be brave and vulnerable. He knows that you and I are made from dust. He knows that you and I wrestle with sin. And he invites us into a full and honest--a treasured relationship with God who knows who we are and who knows what matters above all else.

What is less than your greatest treasure? Someday it will all just be dust again. Everything you work for today: the car, the boat, the house, the meal at a great restaurant, the great diploma, all the honors you can accumulate, someday it will just be dust.
Even you—your body will someday just be dust again.

A few years ago I was at a presentation that used a great question to help get people thinking and talking about what really matters.
If you had to leave your home in five minutes and never return what would you take?
Imagine you have just five minutes.
Most people don't get this much warning before a tornado hits or a fire consumes their house.

But I've talked to people who've been through hurricanes who left home with just a few minutes warning before they hit the road never sure if they would ever return again to see the house they'd called home for decades.

Jesus invited his first followers to see their greatest treasure. It's not something that can be stolen or lost in a fire. Your true treasure can't be destroyed by moth, rust, or decay.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Every day we believers are invited to live awake and alert to our greatest treasures—and as Christian I believe we have two great treasures
  1. We are invited to live awake and alert to our neighbors.
  2. We are invited to live awake and alert to the constant loving presence of God the Father who made us, who is the same God who redeems us through the cross of Jesus Christ, and who breaths life, hope, and faith into us today through the work of the Holy Spirit.
May the peace of Christ dwell in year heart. AMEN
Peace and thanks for reading, John

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