May the very words of Christ change us.

Luke 12:13-21 “Someone in the crowd said to him (Jesus), ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  But he said to him, ‘Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?’  And he said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your gaurd against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’  And he told them a parable saying, ‘The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’  And he said, ‘I will do this:  I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’  But God said to him, ‘Fool!  This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’  So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Proverbs 11:4 “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.”

Matthew 16:25-26 “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”

Revelation 3:18-19 “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.  I counsel you to buy from me gold refinded by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may bot be seen, and salve to annoint your eyes, so that you may see.”

Matthew 6:19-21,24 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in a nd steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do notbreak in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart (or passion) will be also… No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money.”

Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.  Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

Words of Paul in Philippians 3:8 “Indeed, I count EVERYTHING as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

Hebrews 10:34 “You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.”

It amazing me that this is only a fraction of the scriptures that adress the issue of whether we treasure Christ as our ultimate value in life, looking forward to heavenly and eternal things or whether we treasure the things of earth, and the fleeting pleasures of sin.  One ends in eternal life and one in eternal death.  The bible says you CAN’T serve both God and money.  My, does this probe my heart. 

What do you think?  What is the treasure in your heart today?  Is it Christ above all else?