Crowns

CROWNS!  That’s a believer’s treasure that I spoke about yesterday. Jesus told his followers to “lay up” treasures in heaven. The Apostle Paul said there was a crown of righteousness “laid up” for him. They both used the same phrase for laying up something for future use.

The Bible actually lists five possible crowns that a believer can have waiting for them when they get to heaven for their actions here on earth. These five crowns are not for our glory, but are for us to give back to the Savior. These crowns are conditional, future and temporal.

The first crown found in the Bible is the Incorruptible Crown in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. This crown is awarded for those that practice self-denial. The whole of chapter 9 deals with the topic of self-denial and liberty.

The second crown is the Crown of Rejoicing found in 1 Thessalonians 2:18-20. The Crown of Rejoicing is also called the soul-winner’s crown. It is a crown given to those who win souls for Christ. This seems to be a style of crown that you can win many of.

The third crown is the Crown of Righteousness found in 2 Timothy 4:6-8. This crown should be the easiest of all to receive and everyone should have this one on that day.  Everyone who loves the appearing of the Lord will receive this crown.

The fourth crown is the Crown of Life found in James 1:12. This crown is awarded to those who endure trials. Some endure more trials than others and this seems to be a crown that you can receive more than one of as well.

The final crown is the Crown of Glory found in 1 Peter 5:1-4. This crown is also called the Under-shepherd’s Crown. This is a crown given to anyone that is an elder or feeds the flock. It is not a crown only for pastors, but it is for anyone that carries out the great commission to make disciples.

“They cast their crowns before the throne” - Revelation 4:10. That is the purpose of our treasure: to give it back to the Lamb of God for what He has done for us. How many crowns will you have to give back to the One who died for you?  Kind of humbling when you stop to think about it.

Sorry Anthony And Jean, the answer was not Whitecastle burgers!

Have a great day and God bless.

Treasures in Heaven

Do you think there are safe deposit boxes in heaven?  I don’t know why I think of crazy questions like that but I do. I ask the question because Jesus told us to store up our treasures in heaven instead of here on earth and I just want to make sure my treasures are safe.

Jesus told His disciples not to worry about gaining a whole bunch of treasures here on earth because both moth and rust can destroy them and also because thieves can break in and steal your treasures. All three of these events have taken place in my life. I have taken out a suit to wear that I hadn’t worn in a long time and find little holes all in the jacket. My truck is rusting out because of bad design that doesn’t let the water drain correctly. And I have had items stolen out of my car before.

I wouldn’t really label any of those items real “treasures”, but they were my possessions that I had paid good money for and they would have ultimately been thrown away at some point anyway. Jesus said that we are not to live life to gain possessions just for that very reason; they are all temporary. He told us to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven that moth or rust or thieves can not get to. These things will be eternal.

But what are those treasures?  What do they look like?  How do we know what they are and that we actually have them waiting for us when we get there?  The Bible makes it pretty clear what treasures we can attain and make sure they are waiting for us in heaven when we arrive. No safe deposit box needed and we are going to give them away anyway.  We’ll look at what those treasures are tomorrow.

Have a great day and God bless.

Give it Away

“Give it away, give it away, give it away now!”, as the Red Hot Chili Peppers once sang. I don’t remember the song that well to tell you what they were requesting for you to give away, but it goes along with the idea of “treasure” I’ve been talking about the last two days.

In the gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus meets a young man asking what he needed to do to get into heaven. Jesus already knew this young man’s heart and what mattered most to him, but He answered his question. Jesus told the young man to follow the commandments of Moses which the young man replied that he had followed all of them to the letter since he was a child. That was a lie.

So Jesus continued straight to the heart of this young man, who was considerably wealthy, telling him to sell all of his possessions (treasures) and give the money to the poor. This task was just too hard for the young man to accomplish and he went away sorrowful because the Bible says, “he had great possessions” or treasures.

As Christians, we know that neither following the Ten Commandments or giving away your possessions will get you into heaven. We don’t get to Heaven by works but by grace. The point of the story was giving up the things of this life to surrender our lives to follow Christ just like His twelve disciples had done. This young man’s treasure was the stumbling block to the true treasure of knowing the Savior.

What is so important to you that you are unwilling to give it up in order to surrender everything to Christ?  Christ wants to know that, in your heart, you are willing to give it all up to be submissive to Him. Just like Abraham and the near sacrifice of his promised son, Isaac. He wants to know that we are willing to let go of what you think matters most. What are you willing to sacrifice to follow after Him?

Have a great day and God bless.

YOU Are Not the Treasure

YOU are not the treasure!  Yesterday’s post got me thinking on the word treasure and how many times it is found in the Bible. Let me tell you, it’s in there a lot. One place that really caught my eye was in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.

In the fourth chapter he tells the Corinthians that we have “this treasure” in jars of clay. “This treasure” that he is referring to is found at the end of the previous verse. The treasure is that God has shown a light into our hearts giving us the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. That, my brothers and sisters, is the treasure: Jesus Christ.

We are not the treasure. We are the vessel that holds that treasure. We are the jars of clay. Jars, in Paul’s day, were used for one of three things: as a toilet, to hold documents and to hide valuables, like a safe. Paul was inferring the third meaning when he said we were jars of clays. We are the vessel that contains the valuable things of God.

Being that these jars were made of clay, and not metal, meant that they were disposable. They were meant to be broken when the valuables inside were needed. The value was not in the jar, just like the value is not in ourselves. Jesus Christ is the value and we are the conduit that holds that valuable resource. The Holy Spirit resides in us so that we can transport the glory of God to others.

You, my friend, are an important part of bringing the message of the glory of God to others. But you are not the treasure. That belongs to God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.

Have a great day and God bless.

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Mine!  Mine!  Mine!  If you have kids or grandkids you have probably seen the seagulls from the movie Finding Nemo. This was the only thing they said in the movie every time they saw something that they could possibly eat. We get that way some times too when we see things that we either feel we have to have or that belong to us.  We especially see it in children when they are young and they believe everything belongs to them and will not share with other kids.

It reminded me of a lesson I did a few weeks ago from 2 Kings chapter 7. There was a group of lepers that were on the verge of starvation because of the famine in Israel. They felt their only hope was to seek refuge in the attacking Syrian camp outside the city. When they arrived they realized it had been abandoned with all the treasures of the army still in the camp.

They started to eat the food in the first tent they came to and they took the silver and gold and hid it outside the camp to use later. As they were doing the same thing in the second tent they came to, one of the lepers said that what they were doing wasn’t right by keeping all these treasures to themselves as others were suffering from the famine. So they went back to the city to inform the king of the great news and the whole camp was seized thus ending the famine.

Do we as Christians do the same thing that the lepers started out doing?  Do we keep this great treasure of salvation to ourselves instead of sharing it with those that are in a great spiritual famine?  We need to have that moment like the leper did and tell ourselves “this isn’t right” and share the Good News of Jesus Christ with those that are perishing. Salvation is not for us to hoard up with the idea that it’s “mine, mine, mine”; but we should be willing to go and share the life changing treasure that has been give to us by God.

Have a great day and God bless.

Fake News

FAKE NEWS!  I don’t know what the word of 2018 was, but I would have to say that the phrase “fake news” has to be up there among the top choices. It’s been used so often that it’s hard to know what is true anymore and what is a lie. The phrase has become a punchline among everyday conversation to let the speaker know you don’t believe them.

It’s nothing new though, we are warned about this “fake news” in the Bible.  Jesus even warned His followers not to be alarmed because at the end of the age their will be wars and rumors of wars. But I think the apostle that hit the nail right on the head was Peter. In his second letter he wrote that in the end will come scoffers, those that make fun of what we believe, and they will ask, “where is the promise of His coming?”  They will say that they have heard for years that Christ will be returning but they will scoff that it hasn’t happened yet and never will.

But Peter promises us that it will happen, that Christ will return as promised. We are instructed to be patient because a day with the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. Peter says that the reason for His delay is that He is long suffering and that He doesn’t want anyone to perish but for all to come to repentance.

If you believe in Christ, take heart, His return is closer today than it was yesterday. If you haven’t repented of your sins and accepted Christ as your Savior, He’s waiting for you with all His patience because He is long suffering. Today is the day of salvation because He could return tomorrow. Don’t believe the fake news that He’s not coming back.

Have a great day and God bless.

Lukewarm

If you were to be described as water, what would that definition look like?  Would you be hot, cold or just lukewarm?  The Christian artist, Lecrae, sings about this in one of his songs. He sings, “with hot water we cook, cold water we drink, but lukewarm does nothing, it just sits and it looks.”  The Apostle John records similar words spoken by Jesus in the book of Revelation to the church at Laodicea, “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

We fall into one of these three categories as well, not just as a church, but as individuals. We are either hot for the things of God and people notice that right away or we fall into one of the other two categories. We either having that shock of stepping into a shower where the water is too hot to stand under and we jump and twist trying to reach the faucet handle to cool it down or we don’t. Hot Christians give off that feeling of a fire on a cold winter’s day that draws others to them to feel the warmth of Christ that radiates from them.

Cold Christians are just that; cold. Their attitude towards their faith pushes people away from wanting to know the love and grace of Christ. Others say, “if that’s what it means to be a Christian, I don’t want anything to do with that.” These are the people that outsiders to Christianity would call hypocrites. Cold Christians do nothing with their salvation to win others to Christ.

But the most dangerous of Christians are those that Jesus called “lukewarm”.  These are the Christians that if their friends ever found out they went to church they would be totally shocked.  How they live Monday through Saturday doesn’t match up with the fact that they spend their Sundays at church. They live like the rest of the world does during the week. How they walk and talk at work or at school doesn’t match how they walk and talk at church. Jesus would rather have us be either hot or cold than lukewarm. A lukewarm Christian does the most damage to the kingdom of God because he/she portrays Jesus as One who doesn’t care how we live our lives in view of the unsaved world.

So, how would you describe your Christian life: hot, cold or lukewarm?  If it’s not hot, you still have time to turn up the heat and draw others to the love of Christ.

Have a great day and God bless.