| “Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth” (Luke 12:33). |
| In several of these meditations we have mentioned laying up treasure in heaven. What do we mean by this? In years gone by, pirates sometimes hid treasures of silver and gold in “treasure chests” which they buried in carefully hidden places. At some later date they intended to go and get it and live as rich men. But many times they never did go back and claim their treasure, and it remained buried where they had left it. Worse still, someone else found out where it was, and stole it from them. Even if they did eventually go and get it, it lasted only for this life; they could not take it with them when they died. |
| However, you and I as Christians have the privilege of using what we have down here in this world — our money, our various possessions, our time, and our energy, for the Lord. We do not have long in this world — only a few years, yet God tells us that we are to use that time to prepare for eternity. It is an awesome thought that the few short years we have in this world will affect us for all eternity! |
| People who lay up treasure in this world often spend a great deal of their time collecting it and making sure that it is secure. A man who lived across the road from us for many years once told me that he and his family had gone through a lot of effort to make very sure that they would inherit the property that surrounded their home. Yet he died before he ever got that property; now someone else has it. But if we use what we have for the Lord, He tells us that we can lay up treasure in heaven. No one will ever steal it, nor can anything spoil it. That treasure will be the reward the Lord gives us for using our time, money, and energy for Him down here. Naturally we all want the things of this world, but a Christian man by the name of Jim Elliot expressed it well when he said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot gave his life for the Lord as a martyr back in 1956, as he and some other young men were bringing the gospel to the Auca Indians in Ecuador. He did not try to get rich down here, but he will have treasure in heaven. |
