Is Our Love Big Enough
Brrr! How does one get warm in cold weather like this? People feel guilty about putting the heaters on, because of the high cost of electricity. I become very worried when I see elderly people not using lights because they fear the amount on their next electricity bill. It certainly makes one concerned for the well-being of those struggling daily to make ends meet. However I do pray that you are trusting in Jesus and experiencing His love and joy.
Heard this story the other day: "A mother was just driving down the road when her precocious five-year-old piped up from the back seat and said, ‘Mummy, didn't you say that Jesus was building a beautiful home for us in heaven?' She assured him that's exactly what Jesus is doing. ‘Well, Mommy, we've got our house here, and then we've got the holiday house. That seems like too many houses. Shouldn't we give one of them away?'" I wonder how you would answer a question like that.
This story highlights a problem Jesus has with many of us. He's entrusted His assets to us. Everything we have is from Him, and He expects that we'll be investing His assets in the interests of His kingdom. Unfortunately in many cases, His assets are frozen, and we are the ones who freeze them.
The temptation is to tie up most (if not all) of Christ's resources into our own kingdom- to use all we have been given for our own selfish purposes. It's that kind of thing that caused God to ask in Malachi 3:8, "Will a man rob God?" Well, unfortunately, yes. So it's time to take the kind of inventory that the five-year-old boy was suggesting, to see if we are hanging onto anything that Jesus wants to use in the work He died for.
The economics of Jesus are pretty much summed up in Matthew 6:19-21: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." In other words, what the world calls "security" is all so "loseable".
Then Jesus says, "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." In other words, what you give to the Lord - when you use what He has entrusted to you in the work of His kingdom - this is what will last, this is the only thing which will count when it comes to eternity.
And then comes Jesus' sobering bottom line: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." He didn't say your treasure will go where your heart is. He said your heart will go where your treasure is.
The great missionary leader, Hudson Taylor, really convicts us with his reflections on Jesus' coming back. Here's what he said: "The effect of this blessed hope was a thoroughly practical one. It led me to look carefully through my little library to see if there were any books there that were not needed or likely to be of no further service, and to examine my small wardrobe to be quite sure that it contained nothing that I should be sorry to give an account of should the Master come at once."
Hudson Taylor continued, "we are all in danger of accumulating...things which would be useful to others, while not needed by ourselves and the retention of which entails loss of blessing. If the whole resources of the Church of God were well utilized, how much more might be accomplished! How many poor might be fed and naked clothed, and to how many of, those yet unreached by the Gospel might be saved?"
You know, I think it's time that all of us take a walk through our house, our stuff and through our bank accounts and look at it all through the eyes of Jesus. He gave it to us not to keep for ourselves, but to use for His glory, for the extension of His kingdom. There's nothing more exciting than releasing what you have to help finish the work Jesus came to do. There's nothing more unsettling than to imagine Jesus returning, looking at all you have, and asking, "What are you doing sitting on all of that?"
And what is our motivation for this - why should we give sacrificially to the Lord's work? The answer is one name - Jesus! Jesus gave His ALL - He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. He gave His ALL to save us - to give us the assurance of sins forgiven, and the wonderful promise of everlasting life. Surely then, we cannot give Him less than our ALL! To give - so that people will hear the Gospel and be saved. To give - so that people will see the love of Christ in action. To give - so that the poor, the needy, the unloved, the forgotten and rejected ones in our society will feel the love and the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace...