It’s Friday . . . Our Treasures Never End

I accepted the call to join a beautiful flock in Florida, to serve and serve alongside them as their Pastor. This is going to be a glorious experience. But this new adventure required my wife and I to literally relocate everything we own across the country. Making the laborious decision on which items to dispose of and which to ship, has not been a fun experience. The exercise reminded me of what is truly temporal and eternal.

As you know, we live in a physical world. We have material bodies that we feed with material nourishment in order to sustain ourselves to do material work, from which we earn material money and buy material possessions. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s unavoidable; this is the dimension God has placed us in. But we were designed to function in other dimensions too, and when we come into His Kingdom, we regain that capacity. When we think thoughts led by The Spirit of God, He influences both spiritual and material realms, and we begin to see life not as “sacred” and “secular” but as all-encompassing under our King. And we have the ability to invest in eternity.

How is that possible? When we become citizens of The Kingdom of God, our abilities and possessions become Kingdom property. We can leverage the very visible things of this world for spiritual purposes. We can transform temporary blessings into lasting investments. We can take the substance of one realm and leverage it for the benefit of the other. We can sow seeds that will never stop bearing fruit. Jesus Himself encouraged,

“Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:33-34)

Over the past several weeks, I’ve literally had to think about this. In this age, we marvel at how early investments in our 20s can multiply into substantial benefits in our 70s and 80s. But our investments in God’s Kingdom never cease to multiply throughout eternity. It is fruit upon fruit upon fruit, in this age and in the age to come. That’s why Jesus tries to shift our priorities. The investment we normally make are subject to damage, theft, and a wavering market. The investments we make in the Kingdom are safe, secure, and forever increasing. Whatever we invest in our hearts, our treasures will follow. And if our hearts are rooted in eternal realities, Our Treasures Never End. Never. That is a very long, long time.

Have a memorable weekend. And as we remember those men and women who have given their all, literally, so that we may have the freedom to enjoy those things which are both  temporal and eternal, celebrate them. And don’t forget to worship and celebrate The King who owns everything with those who know this truth very well.

All For Jesus – Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else.

“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, The King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15b-16)