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Where Do You Store Your Treasure? |
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Prayer-Soldier writes "
I had the pleasure of having dinner with cousins I had not seen in years. Beth and Bryan recently started a journey that brought them to my state for a brief time, but soon they will be off with their children to become a missionary family in Costa Rica. As they shared their story, I listened with interest about the life change upon which they were all about to embark.
The story of their decision started several years ago when they decided to go on a parent child missionary trip to Central America. The event had a strong impact upon the family and they decided to go again when another opportunity presented. When they came back to the United States, Bryan and Beth often spoke about their experiences and would occasionally make a comment about what it might be like to become missionaries, but, then, they would laugh the subject off.
As time progressed from their mission trips, they asked themselves about what type of people they wanted to be, what legacy they wanted to leave, what type of parents they wanted to be for their children. During one service at their Methodist Church, the sermon asked the question, “Do you store your treasure in things or in people?”
Beth and Bryan listened and eventually asked this question of themselves. In the answer, they saw God's plan for them and what they could do to fulfill His will. They shared their thoughts with each other and the decision was made, they would become house parents for the First Methodist Children's home in Coronado, Costa Rica.
In making the decision, they sold most of their possessions and prepared for a life where they would take care of their triplets, age 13, and 12 orphan children. As we conversed that evening, they talked about the challenges they would face and the change of culture to which they must adapt. There was clear excitement in them about the life to which they were about to commit. Their wonderful children seemed equally excited, although they knew they were leaving many of the comforts behind in which they had grown up.
Perhaps the words they spoke that impacted me the most was the question to which they had listened, “Do you store your treasure in things or in people?” We are reminded that when we pass from this world, we cannot take with us the material things we have accumulated during the course of our lives.
Jesus said to us, "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions." Then he told them a parable. "There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, 'What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?' And he said, 'This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, "Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!" But God said to him, 'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?' Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God." He said to (his) disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.” Luke 20:15-23
Not all are called as Bryan and Beth, but we are all called in some fashion to fulfill God's commandments. How do we respond to His call? Do we respond to build our treasure in each other, or do we seek to build our treasure in things? What we build in love will be with us in heaven.
“And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'” Matthew 25:40
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Posted on Monday, July 20 @ 21:10:28 MDT by drbonebrake
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