The Pearl


Hello friends :)

Long time no sharing. Past 2 weeks have had good sermons. So here goes.

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it." Matthew 13:44-46

This struck me:

The "pearl" is the most expensive thing in the world BUT
Everyone can afford it BECAUSE
It simply costs everything the buyer has SO
Whether rich or poor, everyone can afford it.

So, therefore, there is no excuse. Rich or poor in terms of money, time, friends, family - everyone can afford to buy the pearl. The issue, as always, is DO WE WANT TO. And the more we have in this world, the harder it is to give up. Sigh.

Another amazing thing is, after we hand over everything to God, He turns around and says "Here, take it all back, I'm lending it to you for a while". Then what do we do with it? Bury it in the ground? Use it for ourselves? No, our duty is to grow these resources (money, time, relationships etc), as in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-28. The point is, none of it is ours any more. We bought the pearl remember?

Another point - I always thought that if we managed these resources well, God would be very happy with us and hooray, we will receive a big reward. But after yesterday's sermon (yes I know it was on Colossians, but it's a similar idea), I now have a slightly different spin on things.

Look what it says in Matthew 25:21,23. It's true that God will commend us "well done, good and faithful servant". But also "you have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things." It's not "you have been faithful with a few things, here's a million dollars and a happy family, enjoy yourself!" Rather, it is "Ah ha! A good worker. I will put this guy in charge of even more things - not for him, but for the kingdom" - for which multiplication of returns is again expected!

So what should our response be? Are we happy with $3 worth of God, just enough to make us feel warm and fuzzy, and not enough to actually make a difference? No, let's pay the whole price and then, earn returns on the price. Isn't He worth it?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bullying? Stand up!

Image
When I was a kid, I remember being bullied a fair bit.  I was small for my age, bespectacled, shy.    The teachers didn't help by putting a target on my back by making me Vice Head Prefect.  I would get my stuff just taken away from me by bigger kids, dragged out into the field to be tickled until I collapsed (much less fun than it sounds), and pushed into the storm drains.  Not all the kids were full-blown bullies of course.  But I remember some of them standing by, and politely holding my spectacles (so they wouldn't be broken) while the bullies did their work on me. Most of this stopped when I got to secondary school, where a much larger proportion of my fellow students were now just as nerdy!  And of course I grew up too.  I don't really look back on those days with any kind of animosity, because I think it never occurred to me that it was unusual.  But I do think my experience made me a bit more sympathetic about people around me who...
Read more

Life as a pie chart

Image
Someone told me recently about a "life exercise" in which one compiles all the stuff that makes up your life, and puts it in a pie chart.  So let's say for me, something like this. The idea is to visually demonstrate to myself that, in the event I lose one of these things, then I can see that, hey life is not so bad, that wasn't such a big deal.  Say for example, if I suffered a blown ACL, and couldn't run or play basketball any more, like this: At first blush - I'd say, hey, I still have my wife, children, parents, career, church life - so, chin up, things are not so bad.  Pretty good life visualisation tool to bring some optimism back into play! ... But what if, a month later, something happens at work, and boom, career gets sidetracked, I lose my job, or get put in cold storage somewhere, like this: Oops, now only half my life is left!  With only half of life's meaning left to me, what do I do? And what if something happens to...
Read more

Family AND Team

Image
I heard an interesting viewpoint this weekend. A family is not inherently a team. Hmm.  Sometimes at work, often in church, and most of the time at home, you hear people say to each other that we are family. And often, we really are. We care for each other above and beyond transactional matters.  It matters to me when my colleagues and cell group members (and of course my actual family members) go through illnesses or family issues or work challenges. I root for their success at presentations and projects and relationships. I care about what they care about, even if it has little direct impact on my own life. In a way, a family is sort of an amalgam of people who support each other in pursuit of each member's personal goals. For example, as a father, I support my children in their academic, career and ministry goals. But where they go to school, the grades they get, and the careers and ministries they build - they're really their goals, not mine.  Ditto for my role as a c...
Read more