Storing up treasures

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  Matthew 6:19-20

Yesterday after church and a sermon by our pastor on stewardship, Rob and I went to a store that buys old record albums to sell about 100 records that we had.  How many of us have these old things laying around that we just can't get rid of and think..."Boy, these are gonna be worth a fortune someday, so I better hang on to them!"  Well as we have been packing up our home we have found a few of these "treasures" and the records were in that category for us.  I'm not sure what we thought they were going to be worth but we expected to get "a pretty penny for them".  

We walked into the record shop and were shown to exactly who I pictured would be buying our "vinyl".  A 60 something guy with long graying hair and a rock concert t-shirt on.  He was a super nice guy and talked a lot about the music business and how with the onset of digital media, record sales have dropped off.  He flipped through our records and began to separate out some that we thought, "wow, those must really be worth something if he is pulling them out!"  He then looked at the condition of the ones he pulled out and divided them out even more.   The whole "appraisal" process took about 20 minutes...20 minutes to flip through our "treasures" that we had bought for anywhere from $7.99 and $20.99 when we were in our younger years.  20 minutes to tell us that he would offer us...$32.00 for all of the records he had separated out and an additional $3.00 for the other 75 in the boxes we had brought them to him in.  $35.00 for our "treasures", $35.00 for our memories, $35.00 for what we thought was some pretty good old stuff!  We took the $35.00 he offered us because we are trying to reduce our "treasures" before we move and this was 3 more boxes gone but we left there thinking wow, did we get ripped off or what?  We had seen the prices they charged for "vinyl" and they were going to make a ton of money from those records!  Then I wondered if Jesus feels like that when we offer him such a small portion of our "profits".  When we give Him pennies on the dollar for His treasures instead of what He deserves.

So then I  asked, what are Jesus' treasures?  People.  People are His treasures. I have looked many times at how I steward the resources that God has given us.  Do I waste it on earthly treasures?  Absolutely I do.  I think as Americans we all spend more money on earthly treasures than is necessary.  We have hobbies and interests, we travel, we eat out and most of us have closets full of clothes and shoes.  Each time this slaps me in the face, which that's what this was, I get a little better about how I steward those resources.  My prayer is that when I think about spending money on a non-necessity I think...how many souls could be won if I gave this money to our church, a missionary or an organization that helps to evangelize and disciple Jesus' treasures.  I want this to be my prayer for all of the resources we have been blessed with each day.  

We have also had people send unexpected gifts in for our ministry when God gave them an unexpected treasure.  Well, we have an unexpected treasure, $35.00, that we have to think about now.  Will it be spent on a meal, some fishing lures or at the quilt shop or will it be stored up in heaven as an unexpected gift to a fellow missionary or disciple of God?  Hmmm...seems like a no brainer to me.