Where your treasure is

This passage I read this morning got me thinking about this typical "what if" question:

"What if your house was burning down and you could only take one thing out, what would it be?"

Would I rush for my laptop first, cause that's where all my work is and my work is how I earn money?

Would I rush for my expensive gadgets, like the DSLR, cause somehow it's common sense to take out the most expensive item in the house?

Or maybe I'd go for my baby photo albums and family albums cause there's no back up copy of those anywhere.

Or maybe my favorite book or a box of letters or my purse which was my wallet, cellphone and iPod.

Or I'd just carry my 3 cats out of the house (of course this is what I would do!!!), but if had only time to carry one of them out, I don't think I can answer that! (Sophie's Choice moment much??)

Would it cross my mind to take out my Bible and my devotional journal?

Or would I just make sure that none of my family members are inside the house and just get myself out of the house?

How about you, what would your answer be?

Honestly, I don't know what the answer would really be. Under that kind of stress, I don't know how I would react. 

But the question got me thinking, though, about how I feel about my material possessions. How does God feel about the material world?

Jesus then left the Temple. As he walked away, his disciples pointed out how very impressive the Temple architecture was. Jesus said, "You're not impressed by all this sheer size, are you? The truth of the matter is that there's not a stone in that building that is not going to end up in a pile of rubble." (Matthew 24:1-2 MSG)

Even the most beautiful, the most expensive, the most exquisite, priceless things on earth will fall to ruin when the end of the age comes. 

Picture the Titanic, with its first class rooms with fine linen, expensive paintings, never-been-used china and all the intricate, superior design of the ship, glorious and deemed "unsinkable". Then all of it comes crashing down, useless, ruined, cracked in two as though it was a matchstick and now lies at the bottom of the ocean, rotting away. 


In Matthew 24, Jesus tells his disciples who were marveling at the architecture and grandness of the Temple how not one stone of that glorious building would be left, all would be rubble. Everything on earth is temporary. Matthew 6:19 says "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." No use trading your life for it. 

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:20-21 NIV)

A different perspective. There is absolutely nothing wrong with material wealth, money, being rich. It is wonderful to be blessed to be a blessing. But to also check ourselves to see where our hearts are. 


What is it that I am living for? 
What is it that I can live without? 
What is it that I can't live without? 


Read something.