Treasures

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Colossians 2.3-5 – My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.

Colossians 2.3 tells us that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I heard the story of an early British inventor who made many inventions solely by shutting himself away in his room, reading the Bible asking God for revelation!

I remember being a young kid. My family had gone out of their way to set up a treasure hunt in nearby woods. They’d carefully planned clues and the route. All the clues were laid down around the forest. The task of my friends and me was to follow each clue to the finish and find the reward. In a way, the clues that were set out around the woods are like the Word of God in a treasure hunt where we’re looking for Jesus. In our Christian life there can be, like the boy band, only One Direction. (I’m not suggesting heresy here…) 

Derek Prince says, “I made a decision that the Bible is the book with all the answers, and I resolved to find in it what God has hidden in Jesus Christ… We are complete in Him.” (‘Declaring God’s Word’, August 16)

John 1.1-5 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So how do we seek out these riches of wisdom and treasure? Well we find them in and by Jesus. Just as Jesus is the only way to the everlasting life and the Father (John 14.6), so the only way to the knowledge is through Jesus. John 1 gives us a clue how to do this – through the Word. We learn that the Word was God, is God. Jesus is the Word of God, the human ‘face’ if you like of God. The Bible is God’s written counsel (not the whole nature of God) but what we need to know. So to find Jesus, we read and explore the Word of God in faith, believing that every word is true and good for us (2 Tim 3.16). We should have a passion for Jesus and for the Word and seek this first.

Revelation 22.13 – I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Hebrews 12.2 – …fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…

J John tells the story of going to the woods with his three sons. One of them went off and was lost. Him and his wife spent a bit of time looking for him before deciding, ‘Oh well, you win some you lose some’ and decided to go home… Of course not. They searched and did everything they could until they found their son. Our search should be for Jesus in the same way through the Word of God.

Matthew 6.33 – But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Isaiah 40.9 (Amp) – The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Back to the treasure hunt… The thing was that when we started our treasure hunt, we found two teenage lads who’d been round deliberately removing the clues. They were caught by M and suffered the consequences of wrecking the treasure hunt and ruining the day of a group of young lads. 

In a way this is the work of the evil one. He will do anything to throw you away from the Bible, from your mission to seek Jesus. He will put interesting things in your way, tell you you’re tired, focus you away from the Bible and do other things to throw you off the scent, off the trail.

But we need to keep on seeking out the treasures of Christ, in Him and through the Bible. Keep on pressing through! 

Matthew 4.4 (quoting Deuteronomy 8.3) – Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Two amazing stories… (reported at godreports blog, accessed 17.8.12)

August 14 2012 – She faithfully reads her Bible every day and takes Jesus everywhere she goes. Her bold, faith-filled witness helped stop a would-be mugger in his tracks.
“Pauline Jacobi had just finished putting her groceries in her car at Wal Mart,” reported Nick Paranjape, with WMC TV Memphis.  Only seconds after Jacobi got in her car a man jumped into the front passenger seat.
“I have a gun and I’ll shoot if you don’t give me money,” the man said.
Jacobi firmly said “no” to the man three times, and then she started to talk to him about her faith. “If you kill me, I’ll go to heaven and you’ll go to hell,” she said. “Jesus is in this car and he goes with me everywhere I go.”
Something about her words penetrated the man’s soul. As he looked away from Jacobi, tears began to form in his eyes.
“Jacobi ministered to the man for 10 minutes inside her car,” according to WMC TV.
After a few moments of introspection, the man told Jacobi, “I think I’ll go home tonight and pray.
“You can pray anytime you want to,” Jacobi replied. She reached into her purse and voluntarily gave the man everything she had left — $10.
Tears rolled down the man’s cheeks as he reached out sheepishly and took her money.
“Don’t you spend it on whisky,” she told him.
The man thanked her and quickly leaned over and kissed Jacobi on the cheek. Then he walked away.

WGRZ News (news article and site no longer working, May 2019) reported that 22-year-old Army Private First Class Brendan Schweigart of Andover, N.Y. had his Bible tucked in a pocket beneath his bullet proof shield when he was shot with a high powered rifle while on a mission in Iraq. It saved his life by shielding the bullet from his heart. According to the report, Schweigart told his mother, Kim Scott, that he always carried a Bible into battle. The Bible he was carrying was one he got at boot camp. “He believes in God. And you know he went to church,” said Schweigart’s mother, Kim Scott. Reporter Jessica Weinstein, asked Scott if the bullet was still in the Bible, and the soldier’s mother replied: “It’s in the pages. It went through the pages of the Bible.” Schweigart, who received a Purple Heart, has been released from the hospital and is back on light duty.

Derek Prince says, “If you ever start to look outside Christ, you will find all sorts of interesting theories and stimulating presentations, but you will be feeding on husks when you could be living on the Father’s bread.” (‘Declaring God’s Word’, August 16)

Jeremiah 33.2-3 says – This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

There is an awesome promise. The Bible promises that as you call on the Lord, he will reveal great and impossible to know things you don’t and couldn’t know! This is true as you read the Bible. Many times you read something and then you get a completely new revelation, or realize you’d missed something. Or maybe you read a book on the Bible and something is revealed to you!

Out of interest… There are hidden treasures in the Bible. For example in Chinese (who apparently left the scene before the Tower of Babel), the language pictorially tells the story of Genesis up to the point of Babel (Genesis 1-11). So the Chinese word for create is made up of the pictures of mud, life and someone walking. The word for devil is made up of a man, a garden and secret. The word for boat is a container, mouth and eight (p75 of ‘Unlocking the Bible Omnibus’ by David Pawson). Then for example hidden behind the text in Genesis 1 and 2 in Hebrew are all the trees mentioned in Genesis. There’s so much rich treasure in the Bible in ways beyond this too! For example when Genesis said that after the Fall Adam and Eve could see themselves, the Hebrew points to the fact that they could have been transparent! Then when we look at the way the Tribes of Israel were told to camp, if we imagine looking down on them, the picture of them is that of a Cross. Read books like Cosmic Codes from Chuck Missler and Unlocking the Bible Omnibus from David Pawson. 

Psalm 110.11 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.

I had a friend who started listening to the Bible at work. One day I saw him and listened to him and he had completely changed. It was so obvious that he’d been listening to the Bible! Be someone who radiates Jesus and his Word!

Today let’s choose to fear the Lord, to honour him and put him in his rightful place. Let’s make our focus, our sole focus – Jesus and his Word.