Just a brief thought. It's a little late for me tonight, but I wanted to get this out of my system. [And a day of crises kept me from finding out the details of Jim and Brenda's fates. That almost guarantees they will not be up until Sunday. :-(]
I have always wondered what treasures I should be storing up in heaven? What are the talents that I should be multiplying? What are the fruits that I should be bearing?
I've always looked at context and come up with either good works, or souls led to Christ. Which makes me a complete zero. And that is depressing in a number of ways, but that's not what this post is about.
It occurs to me that the treasures might be moments of love.
The moments in which we have truly given love, God's love, love from that place in us that only God could have created.
As I rolled that around on my tongue, it occured to me that treasures are things we are going to want back some day. A treasure is not just a cipher somewhere, but a thing that we deposit for later withdrawal.
And so it might be with acts of love. We deposit love into someone, and love is there paying back to us for all eternity. That would be a treasure in heaven. And that gets me away from seeing God as the Great Arbitrator of reward and withholding. That makes it more like planting seeds to grow and bear fruit forever than trying to stay above some eternal performance metric to receive my end-of-year bonus. That love would pay in love is just, what's the word I want? Whole.
Just thinking.
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14 comments:
yes...love is the only treasure.
Treasures in Heaven. A good topic sir.
Seeds planted.
If you tossed wild flower seeds out of your car window on your way to work every day you might assume the some of those seeds would end up sprouting, you wouldn’t be sure. If you smile at a flustered cashier when you are checking out you might have helped her to have a better day, you won’t be sure because you’re in your car when she thinks of how nice that was. If you post about God and someone looking for p**n ends up here, you don’t know that they won’t come back looking for more of the word.
Good works
You listen to friends when they need it.
You love your children and you take care of them
You love your friends and you take care of them
You help at church
Love is a good work we need to be loved.
I think you’ll have a lot of treasure when the time comes.
Like that Millyism? Tossing seeds.
;-}
And a day of crises kept me from finding out the details of Jim and Brenda's fates. That almost guarantees they will not be up until Sunday. :-(]
I hope the crises wasn't a big bad thing! Huh duh a CRISES Milly! ?:-(
And you are making me wait! As they say at work when I call for the twenty hundreth tenth time "You're Killing Me!"
Jim and Brenda can wait (for a little while!)--this is a treasure in itself to be stored in the heart.
Crises. Yes, it's plural, but it still only takes one God to overcome them all.
Love is the only treasure.
You'd think that wouldn't be so hard to figure out ... over ... over ... over.
Hoooooouuuuummmmmmph.
Ya'll plant plenty of seeds over here, and I thank you deeply. Love ya'll. Thank you!
I like the simplicity of this notion. Now, let's see. Can we take that simple concept--love--and turn it on its side, then flip it over, then start taking it apart, all to see if we can define it a little better so that people can start to understand what they "have to do" to get those treasures to heaven? Hmmmm. Maybe the treasures are meant to be a mysterious item. After all, if we could really figure out what they are, then we'd lose no time drawing up the law demanding that they be readily on display in every Christian life. The mystery of it leads me back to relaxing in his arms. What a treasure! Tom
I don't know, I dare not think about it. I imagine that heaven will have no place for anything not good, so maybe a big huge part of me will cease to exist? Scary thought.
Pearlie!
Wow!
What a perspective that puts on things. I'm eating it up, and it does not taste yummy. :-)
OK. That was my reaction shot. Now here's the fruit of thought.
Imagine a man with a conjoined evil twin that loved beans. The twin loves the beans, but both of them get the gas (In the west, beans are typically associated with flatulence.) In heaven, the man is finally separated from his evil twin.
OK. That was a stretch. ;-)
Anyway, all the stuff we lose when we get to heaven is our old man. We won't miss him for one second. I think there's more of the new man in us than we know, and that will all be there. We will know ourselves, and those who love us will know us well, because the new life in us is stronger than we assume.
Such is my guess.
In the west, beans are typically associated with flatulence.
Here too -- hehe.
all the stuff we lose when we get to heaven is our old man. We won't miss him for one second
I am with you on that but what I am getting at is this: what if even though I am a believer and I get to heaven but a shallow one at that. I have only very little goodness in me but by God's grace I am saved and redeemed. So with only the little good in me, will I be almost nothing in heaven? That to me is the scary part.
Ah, now I follow you, Pearlie.
So with only the little good in me, will I be almost nothing in heaven? That to me is the scary part.
Yes, this is exactly what scares me, too. And what drives me to keep asking this same question over and over.
I live in the decadent West, in the heart of the wealth of this world, America. I give away only the tiniest fraction of my wealth. I have been instrumental in almost nothing relating to the kingdom of God. And yet, I don't feel a specific leading of the Spirit to do much different from what I am doing.
It's terrifying.
I would feel so much safer if I could point to some kind of horrors that the Lord were allowing into my life, but all I have are problems I've brought on myself.
But if the only measure is love, well maybe I have loved just a little sometimes. I just want to be sure the little I have is enough that it's not taken away. I want to figure out how to invest it. I don't know what it takes to be one of the "hundred-fold" people, but I just want to know what it is I have that I should be investing? Is it doctrine? Is it works? Is it worship? Evangelism?
Love.
Hey, you know, that's not even unpleasant. :-)
You reminded me of 1 Cor 13. Verse 1-3 say it best.
1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Notice "I am nothing", "I gain nothing"? If I see it eschatologically, wow ... you are right, we will truly be nothing without love.
That's what I call, "upping the ante."
Wow is right.
CP,
Amen brother. Love is a wonderful treasure. I never thought of it like this. Brilliant!
God Bless
Doug
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