Treasure Hunt and The Pearl of Great Price😇

Treasure Hunt.

We’re going on a treasure hunt😏

What are we looking for…….

An ounce of trash is worth a pound of diamonds.

(Translation? 💍+💩<>💩+💍)

Go ahead.

Make my day.

The seed or the sower.

The weed or the grower.

When you come to the end of the fork in the road, take it, make it or break it.

The Kingdom of Heaven is of inestimable value.

Once we have hunted and searched and toiled and questioned. Fought and scraped and creatively accounted. The fact that the treasures are hidden is the journey we need to continue. Spiritual truth is missed by many and cannot be found by intelligence or power or worldly wisdom ( Matthew 13:11-17) (Corinthians 2: 7-8, 14)

Make it clear.

That in order to

Make my day

Make your day.

Mysteries are usually mysteriously hidden.

The mysteries of the kingdom are hidden.

Hidden from some who are unable to hear, see and comprehend these truths. (gqo)

The disobedient reap the consequences of their unbelief—spiritual blindness.

Those whose eyes are opened by the Spirit do discern spiritual truth, and they understand its great value.

Great value.

And.

Ya gotta know what you are looking for😏.☺️.💍.💩.

Incorruptible inheritance=Eternal life- No matter how much, how creatively we attempt to “Pi-R-Square” it. Through and during the hunt for treasure, we come to see the love of God through Christ constitute the pearl, which, once found, makes further searching unnecessary.

Unnecessary.

Christ fulfills our greatest needs, satisfies our longings, makes us whole and clean before God. Calms and quiets our hearts, and gives us hope for the future. Not an easy task, but a task worth undertaking and living for.

The “great price” is what Christ paid for our redemption,

The coupon of all coupons😇. So to speak.

You see, he emptied Himself of His glory, came to earth in the form of a lowly man and shed His precious blood on the cross to pay the penalty. For our sins.

In the meantime, we hustle bustle and muscle to cheat death, hide our aging with potions, lotion and notions. All in an attempt to prove we are not the lowly and ugly man we have become in all our personal hidden-ness. Our intense hiding of our fragilities and frailties.

We forget.

To cry.

To weep.

For true and utter misfortune.

We became lazy and did not continue our daily, even weekly Spiritual Exercises. (Pf)

Our spiritual exercises including bearing the weight of our fellow man. Genuinely. Sincerely.

We cared too much, wanted so much to look good in doing the right thing, we forgot to do the right thing. Alienating ourselves and others while we were the ones throwing the baby out with the bath water all along,

Shame on our thinking. Shame on our behavior.

Discarding the essential while retaining the superfluous because of excessive zeal. (wk).

Good news for us. His mercies are new every day. But. When will we learn? How long must it always take? Until we get serious about doing our exercises? Our spiritual exercises.🏋️‍♀️

To really gaze into the eyes, His eyes, the eyes and face of our fellow man and see the Luminous Light of God’s Holiness? (pf) His light cannot be reduced. Sadly, sometimes, we do everything in our power to ensure that is is reduced.

Why? Do we alienate our fellow man in this way? He orients our journey with grace and mercy and sometimes we continually toss the lesson and the message in the trash.

We forget. That love is not alienating. Love is darn right confusing for humans when we do not remain with Jesus. We forget to look past our own flaws but boy oh boy can we be “Johnny on the Spot” pointing out another person’s flaws.

Shame on our thinking. Shame on our behavior.

What we forgot to do is lean into our own scars, wrinkles and tears and weep. Weep for what we have done. Weap for what we may have forgotten to do better. Failed to do better and more spiritually prudent in the Light of the Lord’s face.

Paying the price.

Paying the wrong price.

Because we did not strengthen our spiritual muscles and punched ourselves right in the face. We alienated ourselves. We closed us in on ourselves.

Good news. His mercies are new every day.😇. His luminous beauty bears the marks of the cross. (pf) He reminds us each and every day. 🏋️‍♀️🤼 That when we wrestle with our laziness, He is there to provide luminous light and strength in the face of our weaknesses.

A very bright light in the face of our weaknesses. During our hunt for treasure, we as pilgrims need to weep openly with our scars as our guiding light. With our wrinkles as our compass. Tears as our strength with Him at our side.

Forming. In His likeness. The beauty of His likeness.

Storming. In His likeness. Weathering the storm as Noah showed.

Norming. In His likeness. Spiritual Exercises daily, weekly, monthly, eternally.

Performing. In His likeness. There is no such thing as a small act of kindness.

Adjourning. In His likeness. Accept the challenges along the journey, the path.

The depths of the pit of our despair may become magnified. Rely on His strength to get through the moment. We should seek to have the moral courage to share truth when actual doesn’t meet expected.

Measure small. Measure often. (dk) Value our fellow man more than we value the overwhelming desire to be “right”. Use His expressive luminous face as the guide. It is not, nor ever “business as usual” in the beauty of His luminous love and expressions. (pf)

His expressive language of love for you. For us. Clear expectations. Clear consequences= The Pearl of Great Price.

Good news. His mercies are new each and every day.

And.

People don’t willfully and deliberately try to underperform. The treasure hunt includes self-discovery, learning, mentoring more than teaching sometimes.

Choices.

Choose.

Choose not to lose yourself. In the alienation of self, in the alienation of others.

Wisdom + Experience + Value = The Kingdom of Heaven and wide open gates.

”Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you into pieces. Do not be tempted to alienate. Any one. Any time.

“Keep the light of her son in her heart”. Every day. All days. A pearl of wisdom to share.

Make your own day. Manifest the best. Concrete Acts. (pf) A beautiful day. A new and a beautiful day in the luminous light of God’s holiness. It matters less whose plan it may be to play the spoiler than who is the one intent on performing the spoiling. For the long haul, and in the short term live recklessly like the treasure you have been seeking and hunting for has been by your side all along. Good chances it has been. You just may not have known it. Known it for its patience, kindness and love.

Stand with strength-face to face with the wounds, scars, and tears of the God. It is a great way to humbly learn.