Where is your Treasure?

I am praying to You because I know You will answer, O God. Psalm 17:6

In my daily reading there is so often a challenging verse that just does not let go. Matthew 6:19-21 is a case in point, and set off a train of thought that went beyond where I would have expected!

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What worries me is if you still cling to your treasure on earth, what then lies ahead? If things in life are more important than eternity, eternity will be more frightening than anything that imagination can envision.

When my reading sets me to wondering, I set off on a journey, step by step, and as I go, I stop on occasion to dig, and I am reminded of  days gone by, lessons learnt, and information, or evidence, stored. Perhaps it is that old police background that recalls the plodding through mounds of material to reach the crucial evidence that nails a case for court.

We can say Christianity is a crutch.

We can say hell is figurative.

We can say Jesus was just a good man, or a prophet, or we can say He was a liar.

We can say that Satan does not exist, or that he cannot influence our lives.

We can say that “hopefully” we will get to heaven, (if we believe such a place exists) because we have led relatively good lives, so a good God could not possibly condemn us.

We can say the moon is blue cheese, but it doesn’t make it true.

How many condemned prisoners started out by saying “It wasn’t me. I am innocent.”? Evidence proved them wrong, and circumstantial evidence is often crucial.

Looking at the more successful constitutions of the world, they are based on Biblical precepts. Perhaps that is a wide assumption, but everywhere in the world there are “religions” where men give some recognition to a power beyond themselves. Within every person is a need for a belief that they can cling to, even though it is not always thoroughly thought through! Strong relationship with the Bible can be found in many of the secular teachings, and certainly major cults use Biblical roots which are corrupted to suit their perceptions.  Even the Koran is Bible based but an historically doctored derivative. My concern is that unless one’s belief is based on a strong understanding of faith, the mind can be influenced by whatever strange ideas are current in society.

It is so much easier and more comfortable to believe that the way we live our lives will not impact on the way we die our death. With death a mere cessation of life, then life can be lived to the full with no worries about consequences. Attractive to some is the idea that life is a mere stepping stone to another chapter, or instalment, as in reincarnation, which actually leads to the utter contempt of human values. Another pleasant consideration is that we have no control over our lives; what will be, will be, and so why worry? Life happens, and life ceases. There may be a horned, red-suited goblin playing around as a threat for childish minds, but no danger to the intelligent elite.

Oh, the dangers of uninformed thinking.

In his introduction to the book “The Screwtape Letters” - a fictional account of demonic activity and starkly challenging – C S Lewis says, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

So where am I going with all of these thoughts?

Where is your treasure? What is your belief? How sure are you of the facts at your disposal? Who is your teacher?

In the Bible, Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus compares humanity to sheep and goats, and speaks of two possibilities after death of the body.

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.

Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world….’

Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels ….’

Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

In the foreword of Val Waldeck’s book, “Hell,The Unspoken Truth,” Charles Spurgeon is quoted – “You may knock at 1000 doors, you may cry and groan and agonise and sweat, even great drops of blood, but there is only one door to heaven, and that door is faith in Jesus Christ. If you do not enter by that Door, God Himself will not open another.”

Where is your treasure? Is it safe?