Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Buried Treasure




Read: Leviticus 19:9-15
"Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law". —Psalm 119:18
Growing up in rural Missouri where American outlaw Jesse James (1847–1882) had lived, my friends and I were convinced he had buried treasure nearby. We wandered the woods in dreamy hopes of digging up a saddlebag or other treasure. Often we’d run into an elderly man chopping firewood with a giant axe. For years, we watched this mysterious “axe man” trudge the highways in search of soda cans, his own kind of treasure. Redeeming the cans for cash, he’d retire to his run-down, roofless, unpainted shack with a bottle in a brown paper bag. After his death, his family found bundles of money stored in his ramshackle home.
Like the axe man who ignored his treasure, we Christians sometimes ignore parts of Scripture. We forget that all of Scripture is ours to use; that each passage has a reason for its inclusion in the canon. Who knew Leviticus held so much buried treasure? In an efficient seven verses in chapter 19, God teaches us how to provide for the poor and disabled without stripping them of their dignity (vv.9-10,14), how to run our businesses ethically (vv.11,13,15), and how to embed respect for Him into our daily life (v.12).
If a few verses can contain so much treasure, think of all that can be ours if we dig into our Bibles every day.

For Further Study
Mine the treasure in Leviticus 19, and then search
for more treasure in other parts of Leviticus to put into
practice in your Christian walk.
Every word in the Bible was placed with a purpose; any part you’ve not read is your buried treasure.

Verse of the day
If someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.

Galatians 6:1
New International Version
 

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY'S VERSE...
In a day when intervening in someone's life is no longer politically and socially correct, these verses ring out like a gunshot on a still night. Sin is still real and is just as deadly as ever. Yet because we fear being branded judgmental, we let many who are trapped by sin go to their spiritual death. The call is for nonjudgmental intervention -- we recognize the gravity of the sin and the need of the sinner, without feeling arrogant in our righteousness. "There but for the grace of God go I." 


MY PRAYER...
Father, forgive my sins as I forgive those who have sinned against me. But Father, also help my heart to be gripped by the gravity of sin's effects and to be stirred into action by those whom it has trapped. Through Jesus, who came to rescue me from my sin, I pray. Amen 

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