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I have a confession to make. I
am an incurable packrat! If you were to walk in my garage or attic and
begin to explore the boxes stored there you would finds things that might
seem of no use at all. And, truthfully, you probably would be correct! But
I have saved them anyway, “just in case.” I also rent a storage
building for things I have run out of room to store at the house. There I
have place boxes of files and books that were shelved in my study when I
pastored full time. There are thousands of books stored there. Will I ever
use them? It is doubtful with the advent of so many resources on the
Internet. However, I still hold on to them, “just in case.” While I
could do a better job of discarding the things that aren’t of any use
any longer, or giving them to someone who may be able to use them, the
following story illustrates the opposite position. At the height of the Napoleonic
era, French troops fanned out around the globe to share the
"best" of France with their colonies and to bring the best
things from those colonies back to France. Included in this "cultural
exchange" was a storehouse filled with ancient Egyptian artifacts. As
the empire waned, many of these treasures found their way into the
basement of the Paris museum. In the 1940's some workmen uncovered a
burial case squeezed into an obscure corner of the basement. They decided
that the box would make an excellent storage space for many of the
treasures. Without consulting the museum's caretakers, they simply emptied
the contents into the sewer and filled it with odds and ends of Egyptian
artifacts. Only later did they discover that they had inadvertently
disposed of the remains of Egypt's most famous queen, Cleopatra. It’s strange how people keep
things that aren’t of any use and discard things that are of great
value! This is what the Apostle Peter meant in his first letter: So get rid of all malicious behavior and deceit. Don't just pretend to
be good! Be done with hypocrisy and jealousy and backstabbing. You must
crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your
salvation. Cry out for this nourishment as a baby cries for milk, now that
you have had a taste of the Lord's kindness. Come to Christ, who is the
living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by the people, but he
is precious to God who chose him. (1 Peter 2:1-4 NLV). Perhaps you need to reevaluate what you’ve kept and what you’ve discarded. With Christ it is not too late to get back what you may have discarded. Perhaps soon I will donate my library to a church or a seminary student who may be able to use it; however, I will not give away the thirst for more knowledge of Christ. Whatever source may bring me into more knowledge of His grace and peace, I desire to keep and explore that! How about you? Do you need to go through some of the things you’ve been storing in your spiritual life? Perhaps there are some things that need to be discarded. Perhaps there are some things you have inadvertently stepped away from and need to recover. Get those things back today! |
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