Hebrews 12:25-29: "See to it that you do not refuse Him Who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven? 26. At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. 27. The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken - that is, created things - so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29. for our God is a consuming fire."
We are caught in the tension between "things," which we need, and eternal things which we need even more. If we are not careful, we will put too much emphasis on earthly things instead of eternal things. We need to remember that there is nothing on this earth that is eternal. (I am referring to "created things.") We are proud of our stately buildings and great institutions, but they will all vanish when God removes the "things that can be shaken." We are proud of our possessions, e.g., cars, houses, jewelry, etc., but they will vanish too. We think that there are things that we cannot do without, but that is not true. We are warned not to be possessed by our possessions. That was the problem with the "rich young ruler" in the New Testament. He wanted eternity, but he wanted to hold onto that which was not eternal. Jesus was trying to teach the young man, and us, that the greatest thing that we can do is to serve God, even if it costs everything that we have. There is nothing that we possess that can save our souls. There is nothing that we possess that can take us to heaven. It is only through the unseen God that we can be saved and go to heaven. I'm not saying that our possessions do not count. In fact, we are told to be good stewards of what we possess. We are not to keep them only to ourselves merely for our own selfish use, but to share them as best we can. What I am saying is that our possessions are not eternal, and will vanish. Let me use the example of trading cars. We get "trading fever" and that car seems to be the greatest thing in all of the world and we just have to have it. We buy it, drive it and smell it's newness. Before we know it, time has gone by and we relegate that treasured possession to the used car lot, or the junkyard. The joy that it brought was only temporary. Everything on this earth is only temporary. One day God will "shake" the heavens and the earth, and only what is eternal will remain. We have a difficult time convincing ourselves that everything on this earth is temporary. In affluent America, we seem to think that things will go on as they always have, and that we will always have the things that we want. It is almost as if people will sell their souls to have more and more. I am certainly not against people having things and getting ahead in life. I’m grateful for that part of our lives in America. What concerns me is that we increasingly seem to be ignoring the things that are eternal. For example, the Bible is a perennial best seller, but it is definitely not the most read. It has not been my intention in this article to make you feel guilty for owning “things.” I mainly want to remind you, as well as myself, that we should not be owned by what we own. I want to hitch my star to that which will not fade away. I have done that by trusting Jesus as my Savior. I hope that you have too. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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