May 19 - Treasures

May 19 - Treasures - 1 Timothy 6:17-21

Diane says:
I can imagine Paul writing frenetically as he tries to get the last thoughts out to Timothy in this letter. He's already spoken about those who have no money, yet desire it. Now he speaks to those who actually have wealth. Paul reminds them that arrogance and placing their hope and faith in that wealth is uncertain. God is our provider and gives us what we need. Look at the words that finish 1 Timothy 6:17. He provides not only our needs, but he provides for our enjoyment.

The wealthy should use what they have to further God's kingdom, to be generous and willing to share. This life will fade away, but the life that is truly life is found in Jesus Christ.

Paul has entrusted much to Timothy and urges him to guard it, to beware of subtle things that will lead to opposing ideas. Paul has come full circle to the concerns he presented in 1 Timothy 1:3-6. False teachers were prevalent everywhere, Gnosticism was a growing heresy and Paul had a limited amount of time to ensure that the teaching God had entrusted to him was being shared throughout the churches.

Rebecca says:
These are Paul’s last thoughts to Timothy, a reiteration of what he has already said. I think it is easy for someone like me who has little money, and no prospects of a vast inheritance or random lottery winn to bypass this 'wealthy' part of the verse. That section only for the chosen few, right? But just for kicks and giggles I decided to look at the King James version of this passage and there was a particular stance that just kind stuck with me like sticky rice on the ribs after some Chinese takeout.

"That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;" When I read that particular portion of this verse I realized that in some big or small way each of us can relate to riches. Yes some are actually rich but if there is anything I've learned in a life filled with thrift store shopping and hand me down clothes it would be that being rich isn’t always about a bank account.

I have a sister that is filled with vast amounts of patience and love. She raises three young children and at the end of the day she still talks kindly to them and is not prone to Velcro harnesses on a wall.

I have a friend that is an absolute goof. He has a way of making you forget you were upset and can make you smile and laugh even in the midst of pain.

There is Emily who is always good for a word of encouragement, Donna who loves deeply, Richie who can praise and worship to such a delicious degree that it is contagious, and Diane who has honed her research skills to such an art she really should have her own website!

My father was a gifted carpenter, my brother a terrific cook, my son is amazingly creative, and Mr. Twinkly Eyes has a knack for numbers that makes me think he has a microchip in his brain somewhere.

The world is filled with artists; people with gifts of hospitality that make you feel welcome even when you’re a stranger. There are neighbors walking around us that can garden better than Martha Stewart, and cook better then Paula Deen. And the irony is that very few of any of those I have mentioned would ever say they were rich because this human mind of ours always attributes wealth to a number followed by a bunch of zeros.

We all have something we know we are good at. Even the most humble of us deep down knows the one thing that they can do better than most, even if they are unwilling to brag about it. In some ways even that kind of wealth can cause us to be a bit high-minded, it can create in us a certain security that we can rely on instead of God, the same way the wealthy sometimes rely on the money for their own little leaning post of assurance.

Paul reminds Timothy that all those riches are given by God alone and be it wealth or otherwise, in any place in our life we have abundance or lack, it is created or left empty by God for a purpose. If we are filled with patience, or brilliance, or goofiness, or love to the point of overflowing, if those areas of our life are abundant and we taste of wealth in them than we should be ready to distribute them and at the very least communicate them to those around us.

Can you imagine what this world would be like if each of us shared just a tenth of each area we excel in? If those that could love deeply shared that love with a stranger, and those that could cook made a few extra meals for the mom who is not blessed with patience and love at the end of a very long day. What if the Martha Stewarts gave just a tenth of that gardening time up to teach us less than green thumbed plant killers how to at least keep a cactus alive?

My bank account is weak, but I am a wealthy wealthy girl in many ways, most of them intangible. I pick and choose those areas to distribute and share or communicate those gifts but not as much as I should, and not always where God would have me. I rarely take the time to ask God where he would like this overflow He has given me to be dispersed but instead set it in little buckets to share at some convenient time or date. This verse has encouraged me to reach out a little bit more and invest it in the only secure option that is available to me which is God himself.

In Isaiah 54:11 it is written: "O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires."

Those sapphires are the gems hidden in us, the mines of wealth he has stored in us and as we take our little picks and axes and mine them out of the caves and share them with the world, He takes them and lays our foundation just as Paul said. I guess it’s time for me to go deep into the mines and start distributing and communicating a little bit more because it would be a shame to keep such a beautiful gem buried deep in a cave for it’s entire existence! Don’t you think?