Stepping in the Light

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:19-21

It is often said that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. What one person would cast aside as useless, another would see great value in. The verb form of the word treasure could be simply defined: to value. Based on Christ’s teaching here, if you will show me what you value, what you treasure, then I will show you your heart.

Jesus said to lay up treasures in heaven. Our heart should be in heaven, not on earth. The things that we value should be heavenly things. He is not speaking here of pearly gates or streets of gold. He is speaking of finding out what is valuable to God and making it valuable to ourselves. Ultimately, we get to decide what is valuable to us. We decide what we treasure.

God treasures the souls of men and women. He treasures a pure heart. He treasures deeds of kindness. He treasures the truth of His Word. He treasures the love and devotion of His children. Are these things important to you? You can lay up treasure in heaven by telling others about Jesus Christ, by reading God’s Word, by spending time in prayer, by speaking words of kindness, and by helping those in need.

“Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” Matthew 6:8

When you pray, what are you thinking? Do you think that God hears you? Do you think that He is listening? Do you think that He cares about you? When we think about prayer, we tend to think of what we could potentially get out of prayer. We need something, so we ask God for it in hopes that we might receive it. Our focus tends to be on what we stand to gain. As Jesus taught His disciples about prayer in Matthew 6, one of the truths that He emphasized was pertaining to our attitude as we approach God. We are to think of God as our Father. We are to envision Him in heaven. We are to approach His throne with reverence and to honor His name. We are to pray for the advancement of His kingdom and for His will to be done. Then we may ask for our needs to be met. When we take the time to follow this process, we develop a deeper understanding of the power of God and the true meaning of our relationship with Him. Jesus prefaced these instructions by letting us know that God already knows what we need. He knows. We don’t go to prayer because God needs to be informed of our situation. He knows. That means that He does care. He does love us. He does hear us. He does want to meet our needs. This one thought has the potential to transform our attitude toward prayer. We must realize that if God already knows what we need, then prayer is more about a relationship with God than it is about receiving.

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:43-45

Love your enemies. We have heard this admonition time and time again. It is so easy to say, but it often seems so hard to do. These three little words that we teach to young children in Sunday school constitute an enormous challenge for grownups. They are usually heard without the rest of the sentence that Jesus spoke as He gave them. He continued to further define what it means to love your enemies, and then He gave a reason for this instruction. “…That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven….” We are to follow the example of our Heavenly Father. He makes the sun shine on those who hate Him just like it does on those who love Him. He sends rain and gives sustenance to the ones who despise Him just like he does for those who honor and serve Him.

How can you become more like God? When someone says something unkind about you, say something nice about them. Do a good deed for someone who openly hates you. Pray most for those who like you least. Love your enemies.

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6

Being blessed by God and receiving blessings from Him is something that Christians often take for granted. If you were to make a list of God’s blessings on your life, what would you include? Which blessings would come to mind first as you worked on your list? If you came back to prioritize your list, which ones would you place near the top?

For many of us, certain material blessings that God has given to us would be the first that we would think of, and some of those blessings would remain near the top of our list, even after we began to place our blessings in the order of their importance to us. Jesus certainly looked at life differently. He taught us in the text above that it was a blessing to have a desire to be righteous. And what is the reason that this desire for righteousness is a blessing? “…For they shall be filled.” In other words, those who desire to be righteous will be righteous, and being righteous is a blessing in and of itself.

Some foods are certainly more desirable than others. Dietitians encourage us to eat plenty of vegetables. If we find that vegetables are not very appealing, we can begin to develop a taste for them by including them in our diets.

Do you have a hunger for spiritual things? Jesus said that we need to work to develop a hunger and thirst for righteousness. We can do this by spending time in His Word.

“And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.” Genesis 7:1

Nowhere in the Bible is there a more tangible image of the wrath of God against sin than that of the world-wide flood. The concept of eternity in the lake of fire as the punishment for sin is a bit more difficult to wrap our minds around than the physical destruction we see in the wake of a ravaging flood.

God was so angry with the sin of mankind that He decided to destroy everything and start over. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). After receiving instructions for building the ark, a massive ship capable of housing Noah’s family and two of every kind of animal, Noah went right to work. When the ark was complete, God said to Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark.” Notice that God did not say, “Go into the ark,” He said, “Come into the ark.” This speaks to us of the fact that God is always with us. Noah did not know that he and his family would be in the ark for over a year (compare Genesis 7:11 with Genesis 8:13-14), but he knew that God was not sending him in there alone. Of course, he would have the company of his family, and they would be surrounded by thousands of animals; but God was letting Noah know that He would be there with him. In this epic story of God’s wrath, we also see His tender care. He wants you to know that He will be with you in the difficulties of life.

“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Genesis 5:24

Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam. His father’s name was Jared and he had a son named Methuselah who lived to be 969 years old, the oldest person recorded in scripture. Not much else is known about Enoch, but he was surely unique in human history.

Enoch walked with God. We understand this to mean that Enoch lived his life with a constant awareness of God. He was always conscious of his Creator and made his daily decisions based upon his knowledge of God’s character and his understanding of God’s desires for mankind. Enoch must have understood the value of prayer, and he evidently spent a great portion of his time talking with God.

Enoch’s attitude and lifestyle attracted God’s attention, and God did something very special for Enoch. Hebrews 11:5 says that, “…Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and…before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Enoch’s faith in God was extraordinary and God rewarded his faith by allowing him to pass from this life to the next without having to experience death.

Sometimes it seems difficult for us to measure our own devotional life, but we can see from this story that God is certainly measuring it. How aware are you of God’s presence in your life? How much do you pray? Enoch’s example should encourage us to walk closer with the Lord today.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1

God created everything. He is the Creator of all things. He is creative in His very nature. In His creation, there was perfection. Everything was meticulously designed, and He created everything in the perfect order. He did not make the birds before He made the atmosphere (firmament) for them to fly in, nor the cows before He gave them grass to eat. It was all within His perfect plan.

It was Satan’s desire to ruin God’s paradise on earth. He understood that mankind was God’s purpose for everything that He had created, so Satan attacked Adam and Eve. He did not have any other reason to try to destroy the human race except that we were the object of God’s love.

Adam and Eve made a choice. They could have rejected the temptation of the evil one and obeyed God’s one command, not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But instead, they listened to Satan’s lie and in taking of the fruit of the tree, they plunged the human race into the bondage of iniquity and brought the entire creation under the curse of sin.

As we begin a new year, how would you categorize yourself? Are you creative or destructive in your nature and actions? Are you more like God, or more like Adam and Eve? What could you begin in your life this year that would bring glory to God?

“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17

When God extends the invitation for salvation, He opens His offer to everyone; but people are generally not that way. We like to have special clubs that require a membership and exclusive societies with secret codes of conduct. If you are not from a certain cultural background or if you have not obtained a certain social status, you can never truly fit in with some groups. In their minds, you must live in a certain neighborhood, go to a certain school, or drive a certain kind of car in order to be important. Businesses thrive on exclusivity. You need to have a certain amount of money in the bank, have a certain number of frequent flyer miles, or buy a certain volume of merchandise in order to receive the benefits reserved for those with elite status. However, God’s program is completely different from man’s program. He has the greatest gift in the world, eternal life in heaven, and He is offering it to whosoever. Whosoever means anybody. Whosoever includes the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the famous and the obscure. Whosoever includes you, and it includes me. Have you put your faith in Christ? If not, He is waiting to save you. Exercise your free will and trust Him today! If you have already accepted Jesus as your Saviour, go and tell someone about His free gift of salvation that He offers to all!

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4

When we think of heaven, we think of the streets of gold and gates of pearl, but much of what we know about heaven is understood in terms of what will not be there. In the passage above, we see that there will be no tears, no death, no sorrow, no crying, and no pain in heaven because the former things are passed away. In the course of our lives, we are subjected to a wide array of negative experiences. The loss of a loved one brings unspeakable grief. Financial reversal, the loss of a job, the betrayal of a friend, or a wayward child can bring sorrow, grief, pain, and tears. In heaven, none of those things will happen. The longer we live, the more burdens we have to bear. Eventually, our bodies begin to give out, and we suffer with a growing list of ailments and are unable to do the things that we enjoyed most in life. If heaven is so wonderful and God wants all of the saved to go there, then why doesn’t He take us to heaven immediately after we are saved? Our journey here includes dealing with all of these difficult things, but it gives us the opportunity to help others and to be a testimony and a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. Along the way, when the pain becomes unbearable or the tears begin to flow because sorrow has overwhelmed our hearts, we can remember that one day in heaven our sorrow and pain will all be over.

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:11-15

God created life, and He gives life to every person who comes into this world. Obviously then, life is very important to Him. God is so interested in our lives that He records our names in a special book called the Book of Life. In comparing the scriptures that refer to this book, it seems that God records our names in the Book of Life when we are born. Apparently, if a person dies rejecting Christ, that person’s name is blotted out of the book (Revelation 3:5). God is patiently waiting for every person to be saved. God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9). Those of us who are saved are His witnesses, and He is waiting for us to tell the lost about what Jesus did for them on the cross. Have you shared the good news of salvation with someone lately?