2 Cor 4:7 ~ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
NKJV
So often we forget the special treasure we as believers in Jesus Christ have. So often we let the stuff of life get the better of us and we live defeated lives because we have distorted views on what the life lived for Christ should look like. Often times we (without saying it) look at Jesus as the cosmic bell-boy who should come and give us what we want, demand, and insist that we need and when He doesn’t perform we go into boo hoo mode! Feeling sorry for ourselves and getting all discouraged.
Recently in some of my readings I came across a story of a man who loved to collect rocks and special shaped stone. He would sell some of the special ones for people to collect or to use as jewelry. He never made much money doing it and was always struggling to make ends meet. He would take on odd jobs to get him through…but he continued to collect special stones. One day he came across a beautiful blue stone that was almost a pound in size. It was a beautiful stone to look at and even though he was offered $500 for it he would not sell it because it was so nice to have around. For twenty plus years he kept this stone in his closest and would occasionally look at it just for the fun of it. Finally one of his fellow stone collectors saw it and was amazed with what he saw. After some investigation they realized that it was a Safire stone that weighed almost an entire pound. It was one of the largest Safire stones ever found and soon received the name “The star of David” stone. The owner was really amazed when he was offered almost 3 million dollars for it! For over twenty years he had this treasure stored away in his closest…in the dark, stuffy, lonely space doing nothing while he basically lived as a beggar.
This is how so many believers in Jesus Christ live. We have this treasure within us that is at work at all times leading us and guiding us to new and greater heights in life and so often we live defeated lives wondering around purposeless and lonely. Let’s learn to understand the treasure that we have in Jesus Christ.
Hope to see you at First Baptist Church soon.
Pastor Wendell bishop
