True Treasure

Side note: As I started to type I was thinking about Psalm 1, Matthew 5, and Revelation 20, 21, and 22. If you read these, you’ll see why I related all these things together or maybe not.

Blessed is the person who finds the treasure of God: His word! We delight in His words and they are on our mind all the time. We find blessings when we don’t listen to the evil advice of sinners; and we avoid those who mock Him and His word. Blessed are the children of God! Think about His word as we are insulted, persecuted, imprisoned, and slandered. Though it hurts we know our reward will be worth it! We keep in mind that persecution and suffering is part of believing, and it even happened to the prophets and Jesus too!

In this world of persecution, we are planted by a stream of living water! Because of this we will yield fruit. This fruit comes when the time is right, as we abide in Christ. The opposite happens to the wicked and they perish; as the books (note the plural form) are opened all is revealed and they missed and rejected their Savior. These books containing their records are in volumes; for their evil deeds are heaped up to the heavens. However, God’s grace was displayed as yet another was book opened. Remember that tree of our soul? It will not wither. As the book opened, it was a different kind of book. That book was the Lamb’s Book of Life and it contained our names. They are there not because of merit or payment. They were there as a gift from our Father. Our Father’s gift cost His only Son life, His life. One day we will see our reward—gifted to us through Jesus. Jesus will open the doors of heaven itself, and we will live in our new body.

This is true prosperity: receiving Jesus, the gift of heaven itself! As we enter into heaven, we will see the true way the Father wanted things to operate from the beginning. We will see His perfect will on display. Yet it is sad that so many souls reject this gift of Jesus; instead of Jesus, they worked their way right into hell. Perishing in hell or prospering in heaven, which would you choose?

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.  The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.  If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Revelation 20:11-15 NIV 1984