Am I intentionally storing up lasting treasures in heaven rather than just temporary pleasures here?

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

INSIGHT:   Jim Elliot was an evangelical Christian who was one of five missionaries killed while participating in Operation Auca, an attempt to evangelize the Huaorani people of Ecuador, in 1956.  Before becoming a full-time missionary, Jim met a friend named Ed McCully at Wheaton College.  Ed was brilliant and gifted as an orator and had plans on being a lawyer.  Jim felt led to challenge him to see that his talents and gifts came from God and to consider using them as a missionary.  Jim told Ed that if he became a lawyer, he would be doing what someone else could easily do, but that not many people were answering God’s call for missions.  Jim and Ed, along with three others, lost their life for Christ, after being speared to death by the Huaorani Indians on Jan 8th, 1956.  To this day, their sacrifice casts a long shadow and has had a dramatic and encouraging impact on many for the cause of Christ.  Jim Elliot’s most famous quote comes from remarks found in his journal after he read Luke 16:9. In it he wrote, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”

The men who killed Jim and his friends, later testified to seeing what they now know were angels coming to retrieve the souls of the men they killed.  The main leader’s name was Mincaye.  He along with many others in the tribe came to know Christ and His transformative power.  According to Steve Saint, whose father was killed by him, Mincaye’s most frequent speaking theme was, “We lived angry, hating and killing, ‘ononque’ (for no reason), until they brought us God’s markings. Now, those of us who walk God’s trail live happily and in peace.”

Jim’s life, death, and legacy are a vibrant picture and proof of the blessed side of this teaching of Christ, regarding the wise choice of storing up treasures in heaven which we cannot lose.  Whereas the first 19 years of my professed “Christian” life are a vibrant example and proof of the consequences of violating Jesus’ teaching.  For most of those years, all my efforts were directed towards achieving and amassing the “good life” down here.

Once, while looking back at videos of my old life, I exclaimed to Lisa, “What do I have to show for all that effort and striving now?” Nothing.  It is all gone.  Exactly as Jesus warned, the thief, Satan, broke in and stole all of it, my first marriage which I put together, my five children, the house, my friends, my 20 year career, the business, all my income, my reputation, my lifestyle, etc.  All of it was gone without a trace.

The good news for me in that this all happened because of my full surrender to Jesus Christ and His plans were to redeem it all.  It was then, that the Lord allowed Satan to come strip me of all my earthly treasures, everything I had acquired outside of His will, and to remove all the things that would weigh me down in His purposes for my life.  I literally lost my life in this life, but found it in the next life, before it was too late.  All of us lose everything at the end of our life anyway, but by then it is too late to send it forward and store up any treasure in heaven.  For most it will be too late to learn the lesson of a fool.

Each day, we have an opportunity to consciously remember that our life here will soon end, and we will step into eternity, perhaps sooner than we think. We must live our lives, and invest our time and resources, with this in mind. Fools will stand before Christ on that day, filled with dread and horror over the reality of what they missed by rejecting the Living Lord, and living for the here and now.  They worked only for food that spoils.  Ask God to help you increasingly walk with an eternal mindset, and for his empowering grace, so you can walk and invest your life wisely in heaven, and according to His will.  For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.