As both a verb and a noun, the word treasure is one of my favorite words in the English language. As a verb, the word treasure indicates placing value in something or cherishing something. Twice in his gospel Luke reports that Mary treasured in her heart the experiences of being Jesus? mother. As a noun the word treasure indicates something of great value and often conjures up visions of a lost item being found. As a human, I like the idea of having treasure and being treasured.

The Bible identifies the kingdom of heaven with treasure. Matthew 13:44 says that, ?The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.? It always amazes me to read that he sold all that he had with joy. For me, I can?t think of many circumstances in which joy and selling everything that I have would go together. If the kingdom of heaven is like hidden treasure it is worth pursuing relentlessly?with all that we have.

While I don?t find it hard to believe that the kingdom of heaven is a treasure for us humans to pursue, I am surprised that God treasures things on this fallen earth. I believe that there are at least two things on earth that God treasures: 1)
Humankind- For God so loved the world that he gave his only son to be crucified for our sins. God must treasure us immensely. 2) The Church: Jesus said that He would build His church and Scripture declares that the church is the bride of Christ. We could not be more treasured.
This month we will begin what I am calling our ?Acts 2:42 Groups? and they are all about Biblical treasure. These groups are about the people Jesus died for joining together as the church He is building to pursue the treasures of heaven. It has never been God?s plan for His people to go it alone?the phrase one another? is used 57 times in the New Testament. We are called to love one another, encourage one another, serve one another, bear with one another, and live in harmony with one another.

The purpose of the Acts 2:42 Groups is to teach us how to grow and mature as individual believers and then fit together as a body so that we can experience the riches of heaven together. At the founding of the church, the first Christians ?devoted themselves to the apostles? teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.? This is exactly what we will be doing and I hope that everyone will make the effort to participate in this 12-week study. I know that for some of you this will require sacrifice but virtually all treasure is found through sacrifice.

I am truly looking forward to what God is going to do as we proceed on this great adventure together. I don?t believe that we will ever be the same church again.
God Bless,
Pastor Frank

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Published on: 2006-01-01 (1741 reads)