Nuggets

One of my girls is studying "recent" American history this year. Just before Christmas she spent a week studying the California Gold Rush. The facts about the Gold Rush are absolutely fascinating. We learned that over the course of eight years, the gold that was found was worth some $500,000,000! More surprising than this, though, is the fact that very few prospectors ended up even reasonably wealthy. Most wasted their rich profits and died poor. I became curious about the average size of a gold nugget, so I searched the internet. (Not always the best source of information, I know. ;)) I found lots of information about the "largest" specimens, and the "first" nuggets, but very little about the "average" size. I did finally discover that the average gold nugget weighs less than one ounce. Even though gold is intrinsically quite valuable, at that size it would take quite a bit to get rich.

I've been thinking this week about the "nuggets" of truth that I'm gathering from Scripture. I've been picking away at the Scriptures for nearly two decades, and I consistently turn up new "nuggets". But like the average gold nugget, you won't get the richness in your spiritual life if you're only picking up a nugget here and there during sermons. However, if you pick and pan at the passages of Scripture consistently, over a lifetime you will acquire riches of wisdom far beyond your imagination! And that is wealth worth pursuing!

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
 
I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 1:16-21
 
For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2:1-3