Writing Every Day?

Learning to write involves writing every day!

Treasure

What we value is determined by how much we are willing to give or sacrifice. If we are willing to give all for something, then whatever we are desiring is of extreme worth. If we sacrifice everything, then ultimate value is assigned.

In Matthew 13, Jesus tells a parable concerning the value of the Kingdom of Heaven. He compares it to a man who found a great treasure in a field and then in his joy, went out and sold everything he had in order to purchase the field. Jesus also compares the Kingdom to a merchant who searched for a pearl of great worth. When found, the merchant sold everything in order to own such a pearl.

The two mentioned in these parables were willing to give everything for that which was of extreme worth to them. When they found that which was invaluable worth, it was not difficult for them to sell all in order purchase that which was beyond any treasure they currently possessed.

The Kingdom of Heaven is of extreme value! Jesus wants us to know that when one finds it, he or she should sell and sacrifice everything. Not that we can purchase the Kingdom as it is by grace we are saved. But our heart, soul, mind and strength should be overwhelmed at what we have inherited through Christ.

Think about it! We who were once aliens and enemies of God, have now, by the grace and mercy of God, have become His children. We have been forgiven. We have been accepted. We have been declared righteous. We have an inheritance that will never fade or rust. We have Christ! We have the Kingdom of Heaven!

Do we realize the value and the extreme worth of the Kingdom?

In Weakness...

This week for some reason has not been very easy! Feelings of inadequecy have seemed to wash over me quite incessantly for the past few days. My spirit has been plagued by an overwhelming sense of weakness. As I read Tim Challies blog today, as I usually do, I gathered some perspective and encouragement from a fellow struggler. In his blog he referred to 2 Corinthians 12 in which Paul boasted in his weakness and then quoted Kent Hughes who wrote:

Life is not as it appears to be. We are led by today's culture to imagine that God pitches his tent with the especially famous and powerful - those who can speak of ecstasies and miraculous power and who command large crowds as they jet from city to city and enjoy the spotlight of center stage - but it is not so.
Christ pitches his tent with the unknown, the suffering shut-in, the anonymous pastor and missionary, the godly, quiet servants in the home and in the marketplace.

These were such sweet and refreshing words to a soul that was weathered and parched. However, if not for my feeling of such weakness and helplessness this week, I might not have given heed to the strength that can only be found in God. I might have walked through this week in my own might not thinking twice about bending my knee in prayer. I would have continued to trust in my own abilities rather than in the one who is the cause of all things. To Him be the glory!

Conviction from Carl Trueman

We mediocrites struggle at a different level, hoping that our own petty contributions, irrelevant and ephemeral as they are, will be puffed and acknowledged by others; and in a sense, there is nothing we can do about that. I am a man divided against myself; I want to be the centre of attention because I am a fallen human being; I want others to know that I am the special one; and as long as the new me and the old me are bound together in a single, somatic unity, I will forever be at war with myself. What I can do, however, is have the decency to be ashamed of my drive to self-promotion and my craving for attention and for flattery and not indulge it as if it actually were a virtue or a true guide to my real merit. I am not humble, so I should not pretend to be so but rather confess it in private seeking forgiveness and sanctification. And, negatively, I must avoid doing certain things. I must not proudly announce my humility on the Internet so that all can gasp in wonder at my self-effacement. I must make sure I never refer to myself as a scholar. I must not tell people how wonderful I am. I must resist the temptation to laugh at my own jokes. I must not applaud my own speeches. I must deny myself the pleasure of posting other people's overblown flattery of me on my own website, let alone writing such about myself. I must never make myself big by clinging to the coat-tails of another. In short, I must never take myself too seriously.

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