Glimpses of Truth
What’s Valuable?
I’m a senior now and times are a little different today than they were for people who were my seniors. (You don’t say!) Times are different than they were 10 years ago. For the good or bad, I’ll let you be the judge. “The good old days” - - it depends on how old you are. It depends on your line of work. Some things barely change, while others are changing this very moment. If you give it a little thought, you’ll be able to make 2 lists, one which will be short and the other long. Some of us get along just fine with the same things, the same way, day after day, while others of us look for and help create change.
We live in a time of depreciation and devaluation. It seems to me that everything has been cheapened these days. On top of that is the promise of sales of 20, 40, 60, 80 percent off. Are we being sold for nothing? Our country and our heritage are being cheapened by all kinds of Monday morning quarterbacking. The price that was paid in blood, sweat, and tears is being mocked and left behind. We’re watching things crumble. Our Nation, our homes, our families, our marriages – lives are falling apart. Someone said we live in a time when high-priced clothes are hanging on low-priced people. Character is cheap today. The generations before us, though poor to our standards, shared a richness which money has no power over. But we live in a cheap time.
I’m afraid today that we are cheap because we are suffering from a cheap concept of God. He’s not the “man upstairs” who is to be brought down to our level. We’ll never see our poverty this way. Our music and preaching have become contemporary to the point that our inspiration is equal to God’s inspiration. Critics sit in judgment of our “Truth,” telling us what is inspired and what is not. The Word of God is being reduced to a smorgasbord of you pick and choose instead of “Thus saith the Lord.” That doesn’t attract many folks in today’s society. Vance Havner, one of my seniors, said only a few years ago, “Men handle the Scriptures, the living book of the dead in such a way that it becomes a dead book to the living.” We must remember the heritage not only of this country but of our provisions in Christ.
As believers, we are not cheap. We’ve been “bought with a price.” We are “a peculiar people.” Salvation is the most valuable possession of my soul. It’s not just knowledge. It’s not looking a special way. It’s not a set of rules. It’s not being entertained. It’s not feeling good about yourself. Sometimes I feel as though the Church today is playing fast and loose with eternal issues. Don’t forget, the pearl of great price is not cheap.
I read a story years ago about a missionary who gave his life to share the Gospel with those in
We have glorious treasures today. Oh God, forgive us when we handle them so carelessly.
