A Hidden Treasure

In 1954 the temple of Wat Traimit, in Bangkok, Thailand was to be moved to a new building, The last order of the move was the transport of a giant Buddha statue that had been in that spot for over 200 years. The statue, that was thought to made of stucco and glass, proved to be much heavier than expected. As they attempted to lift the statue from its pedestal, the ropes broke, and the statue fell hard on the ground chipping off the plaster. They then saw why it was so heavy. The plaster was covering about 250 million dollars’ worth of gold. At some point in the past the gold statue was covered, probably to keep it from being stolen. Ironically, once the plaster was removed they found the original designers had made the statue disassemble so it would be easily moved.

This is akin to what has happened in Christianity over the last two thousand years. The pure glory of the church of the first century has been obscured by the changes made by man over time. Some done so long ago no one realized they were not meant to be there in the first place. In order to placate the selfish desires of men, the true church has been plastered over. Yet under all the mess is something of great value. If we will break the inferior we can go back to the superior.

We don’t need all the inferior additions. We need to back to the pure original design. The creator and head of the church designed it so it would be easily moved into any generation still perfect and right. The changes we make just make it worse. His design for His Church is a treasure far more valuable than any amount of gold!

Comments

I Know All Those Words, But That Sentence Makes No Sense To Me

Let’s say you travel back in time six hundred years or so. Luckily, you happen across a fellow that speaks English. Upon hearing your tale, he describes you as nice, smart, and handsome. Wouldn’t you feel good? You shouldn’t. As Sol Steinmetz in his book, Semantics Antics , explains; Nice originally meant someone who was foolish, ignorant, senseless, or absurd (middle English 1300). Smart for the first 300 years of its use meant causing pain, sharp, cutting, or severe, a sense that survives in the idiom "smart as a whip.” Handsome wasn’t complimentary. When coined around 1425, it just meant easily handled; it didn’t have its current positive connotation until 1590. You might think he said you were a kind, intelligent, good looking bloke, when in reality he said you were a foolish pain easily dealt with. Words have an annoying habit of changing meaning over time in the same language and it becomes even more compli...

Master Your Self

In a contest for the toughest president of the United States, it would be hard to go against Theodore Roosevelt. He was known for his “manly” pursuits hunting big game, climbing the Matterhorn, participating in boxing match while president. (These weren’t play fights, he lost the vision on one eye because of them!) Once before he was about to give a speech an assassin shot him in the chest. Roosevelt refused to go to a hospital and insisted on giving his speech, still wearing his blood-soaked shirt! Teddy might have become tough but he wasn’t born that way. He was a sickly child that suffered from severe asthma that almost proved fatal. As was a young boy, doctors discovered that he had a weak heart, and advised him to get a desk job and not strain himself. He was homeschooled because of his many illnesses and spent most of his time indoors. But then as a teen his father, whom Teddy Roosevelt revered, told his son, “ ...

The Gift You Give Yourself

I always hated buying gifts for my Mom. If I got her something like a new set of pans, it was like saying “Here’s something you can use to go make me something to eat”. A gift for her was seemingly a gift for me. There are however gifts you give that benefit you more than the receiver. For example, forgiveness. When you give it, you are giving it to yourself as much as you are giving it to them. Jesus said that when we forgive others it means God is forgiving us our wrongs (Matthew 6:14-15). I once read: “ Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. Hell is where nobody's forgiven. So, when we forgive we pull heaven down into our lives. When we withhold forgiveness, we pull hell up into our lives ” Give yourself something nice today, Forgive.

Ecclesiastes 12:10

Search This Blog