Treasure part 4
At this point in my life I'm not super interested in "good vs evil." I've Ranted and preached about this idea quite a bit. How the tree of knowledge of good and evil (the tree of death) had both of them on the same tree. About how we would swing like monkeys from one branch to the other, doing good for a while and then slipping and then trying again. About how it's not turning over a new leaf, but getting onto an entirely new tree. The Tree of Life. Which is Jesus. And only eating the fruit of that tree. Which is the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. Now. I said all that to say this: "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things" (Matthew 12:15). And, without focusing on the "good and evil" part, what we're left with is... "the treasure of the heart." Look. You can't give what you don't have, right? And you can only give what you do have. So you have to know what you have. What you really have. That's about as far as I want to go with the "evil man" deal. Hurting people hurt people. What's in your heart--or, more accurately, what you believe is in your heart--is what comes out. It has to. The heart is not a container. The heart is a funnel. God pours into us and then we fill ourselves to overflowing with what He has filled us with and it comes out. We are the spout where the glory comes out, as one preacher puts it. Where our treasure is, that's where our heart will be. Because it is the treasure of the heart. It isn't necessarily money (though that's how most people think of it). It's people. Relationships. Connections. The thing that is truly valuable to us. Truly precious to us. The book of Proverbs has a lot of sayings like this, "Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich" (Proverbs 28:6). Which is to say, while money is important, to a degree, there are things that much much more important. If your heart is only full of money, and the pursuit of money (mammon), you'll never be satisfied. It will never be enough. You'll keep trying harder and harder to get more and more. That's no way to live. But if you have your priorities, you'll be able to be more like Paul, "I know both how to be abased, adn I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:12-13). In other words, no matter what's going on around you... as long as you know what's going on in you you'll be ok. Christ in you the hope of glory. As long you have love (and we always do, nothing can separate us from the love of God) you have what you need. That's your treasure. The treasure of the heart. And out of that good treasure comes good things. How could it not? Apple trees don't produce oranges. They produce apples. Love inside produces love outside. Giving what you've got. Receiving and releasing the love of God. That's the Divine Order of things. That's how life is supposed to work. That's the only way life CAN work. Living Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by letting HIM live it in you, and through you, and as you. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing it's in there!