Mat
6:19-23 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. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body
shall be full of light. But if thine eye be
evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness, how great is
that darkness!
I will try in a round-about way to lay the
foundation of understanding the above scripture and would ask you the reader to
think more deeply about the above scripture. I will be limited in my
explanation because of the lengthy illustration I will give. I trust the Holy Spirit will do a better job
than I can in explaining the above. So here goes:
During my undergraduate days, I once gave a
book to a lady who attended the same Christian campus fellowship as I did. You
see I loved, and still love, reading Christian literature, so much so that if I
wanted to give a gift to someone, you would most likely get the latest book I
was reading, if such a book was or is a blessing to me. So I gave away a lot of
“Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill” to various people at varying times.
For me then, it was only natural to give
this Christian Lady the book I was currently reading that had been a blessing
to me. Well, after I gave her the book, she politely collected it but never
spoke to me again (Ok maybe she did speak to me but I guess our friendship was
not quite the same again after that).
Why? You may ask. Good question in my
opinion because I felt that I had given her a treasure.
Thinking about it now, I am almost smiling
and kicking myself at how stupid I was! The problem was actually obvious from
the very title of the book. I gave her a book titled (now don’t laugh)“HE CAME
TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE” written by Rebecca Brown. I hope you can at least
appreciate why she was upset with me.
Hey, don’t get me wrong, the book is a great book and I still have a
copy in my library today but I guess I should have thought about the
implications of giving her that book and how it could be perceived given the
title first of all.
Before you write me off completely, as a nut head who would give his
wife a toaster for a wedding anniversary gift (who does that? I wonder.), I would like to say in my
defense that I believe that when any one reads a Christian literature the
emphasis of the book, if it is of any use, speaks to you according to the
dealings of God in your life at that moment.
Many may have read the Book “He came to set the captives free” and
come away with a fear of demons and the very real depictions of our battle with
the spiritual realm but not me.
When I read that book (and when I still read it) what stood
out/stands out for me was/is not the encounters with demons. I found in the
pages of that book a moving story of an “ordinary” woman who though a medical
doctor was faithfully serving the Lord. As I read it, I found a woman who had a
very real and intimate relationship with God despite a very busy schedule of
medical practice with all the attendant odd hours on call duty. My heart was
stirred that a medical doctor, despite how busy her schedule was, could find
time to develop such a close relationship with God.
How God spoke to her heart while she worked and brought her attention
to errors she made at work. How that by living out her “ordinary” Christian
life in such a dark work environment, many were delivered from the captivity of
Satan. I cheered at the victory that God could bring to a place if just only one
of us could just walk with Him like she did. I came away with the understanding
that even the weakest of us could by partnership with a great God, be used to
bring about a great deliverance.
I read about the 3 months she spent seeking God for a more intimate
relationship and that set my desire for God on fire. While I cannot claim to
have achieved any of her results, because of my inconsistency, I still long for
such a close walk with Jesus. I also learnt a lot about deliverance.
My point is then that when I read the book, I believe I came away
with a different understanding than the lady. Thinking about it now, one reason I think that
happened (if she actually read that book and was still angry with me) could be
because of what I considered to be most important to me. I had a very different
focus and understanding because of the dealings of God in my life.
Friends, the perspective you hold in this life matters a lot.
Depending on your relationship with God, what you consider most
important in your life can be clearly seen. Many consider their careers in life
more important than a relationship with God, hence, they devote great amount of
time to further their careers and very little to the things of God. When they
sit in a church service, they are on a stop watch and can’t seem to get out
quickly enough.
What is most important to you? What have you given your life, time,
and energy to serve? What is most important to you based on your perspective?
In reading the bible too, if you make prosperity your priority, what
you might see in every page are things that feed that desire. Anyone can get
the scriptures to say anything based on their perspective but the one thing
that God wants us to focus on is Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let
your eye be singularly on Him!
Some do not believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God, this
perspective has made them merely tolerate and not treat it so seriously. They
study it to poke holes at what is said or to get good basis for philosophical arguments
from it but never to see how to develop a real relationship with the living personality
the Bible speaks about in all its books. The world has made the feminist Bible to
suit the need of women who may feel marginalized but the Bible was never about
us but about Him!
That is why Jesus could speak to people who studied the scriptures
diligently but still did not recognize who all the scriptures spoke about when
he stood before them. They were blind because he was not their focus in
searching the scriptures. They sought religious doctrines and not a living
relationship.
Friends, let your focus and desire be Jesus! If it is, then your
whole body will be full of light and you will never walk in darkness. Make
Christ your unique goal
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