From the desk of the Tiger Lily.
Just a quick note to those friends via the e-venues, who may seem to be forgotten but are not. I still remember you and think of you and pray for you often. It has been one of those situations where in a long winter full of illness, injury, death, and sorrow, that I keep meaning to write something for you on the blog, and yet events continue to crop up, so I keep putting it off until it seems like it's too late even though there is really no such thing.
I remember the deaths in your own families that you wrote of this past year, and we do grieve with you, whether they were a Beloved Saint or a precious furry/feathered piece of your heart taken to Be with Jesus (and in a few cases, both). Life after death is not easy to bear for those of us who are left, yet your love for all creatures great and small is never wasted, as the love is all any of us ever take when we finally get to leave this earthly plain. It is simply a venue for laying up treasure in Heaven. When you feel like a piece of your heart is missing as you miss those who have gone before, it is a good sign, as that piece of your heart is carefully kept and safeguarded for you until you can claim it again. I like to think of the loss as being similar to when you move, especially if you don't rent a moving van-- it's a slow transportation of parts of your heart to your new Home in Heaven, made several times as you go throughout your life, and thankfully it is forever, for when you finally come Home, your heart becomes eternally whole, the pain fades away to not even a memory, and you will never have to "move" again.
Some of you have been experiencing one of the greatest losses we can ever know, the loss of the one great love of your life. For many, death has taken their Love (and a huge part of their heart) to be with Jesus, and for others, God has mercifully Removed from your life the tool of satan sent to destroy you. For me, it was the latter. It would be presumptuous to say I know what you are going through, as who of us has actually traveled a mile in each other's shoes? All I can tell you is, at one point in my life I was praying to die as I'd had enough of being forced to live as a shell of my former self. It was like I was only half of a person, as the other half of me- all the good parts- had been given to someone who took all my hopes and dreams (which I'd finally experienced for the first time in my life) and my heart, and anything and everything else I had to give, tore it all into a pile of tiny pieces, lit the pile on fire, tossed the ashes in the toilet, pissed on the ashes, and flushed. To say I was a broken person is putting it mildly. It wasn't until, many years and disappointments later, by what can only be described as Divine Intervention, I had the privilege and highest honor of meeting the finest human being I have ever known in Lame Cherry. If there hadn't been the Intervention on both of our parts, there is no doubt we'd both be dead right now. And it was exactly as God Planned, because through this beautiful Spirit's gentle direction, by God's Grace I have been Healed and become Whole (or at least Patched up and Cobbled together enough with the Holy Ghost to be a passably functional person, as some scars will never completely Heal this side of Heaven). Since God's Plans for me were WAY better than what I planned for myself, the same is true for you, whether in this life or in the next. There is nothing in the Bible about this, as it is based solely on my personal experience, but I do believe that as God is 3-fold in Person, humans infused with the Spirit of God are halves of a whole (or 3-fold, including the Holy Ghost, as He Is always Present whenever two or more are gathered together). Until the arrival of LC, I would not have ever believed in an eternal Spiritmate for every Child of God, but I do now.
To all of you, no matter what your situation and whatever trials and heartaches you are undergoing, I hope you will always remember that God is always Working for your Best in His Plans for you, to Give you a Future and a Hope, even when you are wearily slogging through years/decades of miry lows, and Christ Is always the Light at the end of the tunnel. It really does get better eventually, you just have to dig deep and hold on to Jesus during the refining process (Psalm 66:10, Isaiah 1:25/48:10, Daniel 11:35/12:10, Zechariah 13:9, Malachi 3:2-3, 1 Peter 1:7).
Now to the lesson. A few observations on this wonderful Truth given us by Jesus:
1) Generally speaking, "treasure" in monetary terms is something you work for, which requires some effort on your part (e.g. sailing around the world and diving for hidden shipwrecks or digging/mining for gold and precious metals or pirating and stealing from others or simply going to your 9-5 job without fail and putting in the sweat, blood and tears, you get the idea), thus you tend to value it more highly. When you put your monetary treasure into something, whether it is the stock market/401k/cryptocurrency, your bank account, buying food for your family and pets, your hobbies, your house, or even designer apparel, it is a reflection of what is in your heart and what you prize most highly, as it is where you choose to invest your treasure.
2) Treasure can also describe the labor and the amount of time you put into anything, whether it is learning to play an instrument or speak a foreign language, obtaining a degree from an educational institution, making crafts, playing sports, reading books, socializing your dog, playing video games/rpg/mpg, building furniture/houses, planting a garden, going to bars with friends, traveling the world, volunteering, or even going to the gym to bulk up on muscle/build endurance for a marathon/general exercise for health. This also applies to the talents you were given, if you are honing them purely for your own ends or if you utilize them to build up others and give the glory to God. Wherever you choose to invest your treasure, it reflects what you care about most and it will end up being what you value most, both about yourself and about others.
3) Jesus Exhorts us to "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal" (Matthew 6:20). Sounds great. So what is this "treasure" He is Speaking of, specifically, and how do we acquire it, let alone store it in Heaven?
The answer is simple: see 1 and 2 above. If you're not putting the time and effort in with God, building your relationship with Him and finding out how to carry out His Will, if you're not Loving others as you love yourself, all on a daily basis, you're not investing your "treasure" of time and talent wisely. If you're using the wealth God Gives you to buy things for selfish purposes, or if you're hoarding it because you enjoy the power money gives to the one who wields it, you're storing up treasure on earth instead of in Heaven.
So ask yourself: where is my treasure? On what activities and things am I spending my wealth, time, and endeavors? Is it primarily productive, or is it necessary, or is it wasteful? Is it beneficial to me in pointing me towards God, or is it destructive in distracting me from seeking His Face?
Your heart knows the answers to these questions. It is solely up to you whether you continue to do what is right in sticking with Jesus, whether you make the decision to change your ways, or whether you continue on the path to destruction. Wherever you are, I encourage you to turn to Jesus Christ. He Is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If you choose Him, and stay with Him through thick and thin, the rewards are eternal and overflowing.
God Bless the Good with Blessings beyond compare, and God Bless the wicked to repent their ways and turn to Jesus for the salvation of their souls. In Jesus' Name Amen and Amen.
agtG
