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Treasure In Heaven?
"Lay not up 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." Mt.6:19-21
As you read this passage above, I want you to picture in your mind all those magnificent Church buildings around the country and then the Vatican at Rome.
They will, of course, say something like: "All this belongs to the Lord!" As if the Lord of heaven needs or wants all this stuff. I ask you, do you really think Jesus would live like that? He certainly didn't when he was on earth! And he set the example for us to follow, as did Paul.
"So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." Lk.14:33
In order to make the scriptures say what they want them to say, religious people will add "Be willing to" to the passage. Something the Bible says not to do. "Jesus didn't mean you actually had to forsake all. Just be willing to forsake all.", they say.
This is the same line of reasoning that the Serpent laid on Eve. "God didn't mean you will actually die if you eat that!"
Forsaking all that you have is easy enough to understand, but how do you lay up treasures in heaven?
One time, Jesus was speaking to the Church of the Laodiceans when he said:
"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich." Rev.3:18
The gold Jesus is talking about here is obviously not the yellow metal that we value so much on earth. Gold has so little value in heaven that it is used to pave the streets! Here, it simply is a word used to represent something of great value - treasure. Something of the Spirit. I would consider the ability to heal the sick a great treasure, wouldn't you? prom dresses for petite figures
Preachers in the Church today don't tell the people that they must buy anything from the Lord. Everything is a free gift! Yet Jesus said:
"the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which, when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he hath, and bought it." Mt.13:44-46
Some would have you believe that the man here is Jesus, but it is not. It applies to all the children of God, including Jesus.
Keep in mind that there is a great difference between "heaven" and "the kingdom of heaven". When Jesus and Paul went preaching and healing the sick, casting out devils, and raising the dead, they said: "the kingdom of heaven is at hand".
They did not say: "heaven is at hand"
Heaven is a place. The kingdom of heaven is a government, just like the kingdom of Israel is a government and Israel is a place.
The government of heaven is God ruling over all. The power of God is what we are talking about here. Like when Jesus said: "If I, with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come unto you." Lk.11:20
So when Jesus and Paul said "the kingdom of heaven is at hand", they were talking about the power of God and demontrating it by their miracles.
So I repeat. How do you buy this "gold"; this pearl of great price; this treasure?
To show just how reprobate the modern day Church is, they quote a verse here in Rev.3:20 as referring to a lost man, but Jesus is here speaking it to the Church!
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me."
Because the modern day Church is constantly "claiming by faith" all the blessings of God and attributing all the nice things to themselves and none of the curses for disobedience, what I am saying here makes no sense to them. They are EXACTLY like the Church of the Laodiceans who said:
"I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." Rev.3:17
"Jesus has done it all for us!" they say today. "He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places."
"and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked."
Todays Church is so blind that they cannot see what everyone else sees, that they are a bunch of hypocrites. It is their own doctrines that make them hypocrites, though. Their leaders have "shut up the kingdom of heaven" with their false teachings.
Alan MacDonald