Friday, December 14, 2007
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Our son and daughter-in-law own a little piece of rhodochrosite since a recent western vacation. (I hope I'm saying that right.) And with the stone came the story. Their host told them about the men in search of gold who didn't care much about this rock they found on their way to the gold. Initially, they just tossed it aside. But they noticed that embedded in the granite was an attractive rose-colored stone. As they refined it, the rare and rich, almost ruby-like color of that stone revealed its beauty. There was a time when it was just used for making driveways or even just discarded. But today a relatively few ounces are worth thousands of dollars.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Overlooked Treasure."
That's what rhodochrosite was. Nobody realized what it was really worth, so they just threw it aside. There are lots of people like that. No one realizes how much they're really worth. Even they don't realize it. So they're overlooked, undervalued, cast aside. Sometimes, we even throw ourselves away, not realizing the treasure we are.
That might be hard for you to believe if you've had friends who ultimately treated you like you weren't worth much, if you've had an employer who didn't value you, if you've been overlooked and marginalized much of your life, if someone you love has turned on you or treated you badly, if someone you trusted betrayed your trust. In a self-centered and often cruel world, it's easy to begin to believe that you really aren't worth all that much. You've been unnoticed and unappreciated so many times.
But not by the One who really matters. You can see Him in action in our word for today from the Word of God in Luke chapter 8, beginning with verse 46. It's part of the story of a woman in desperate need of healing from a 12-year hemorrhaging condition. She was out of doctors to see; she was out of money to pay them. So she desperately pushed through a throng that was crowding around Jesus and, in an act of simple faith, she touched the hem of His robe to be healed. Suddenly, Jesus stopped and asked, "Who touched Me?" His disciples pointed out the obvious: in a crowd that big, hundreds of people had touched Him.
The Bible continues: "But Jesus said, 'Someone touched Me; I know that power has gone out from Me.' Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at His feet. He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.'" I love those words, "She could not go unnoticed." Neither can you. Not to Jesus. He knows all about you. You may have felt lost in the crowd your whole life. But to Jesus, you're His unique, one-of-a-kind creation; someone He thinks was worth dying for. In the words of Revelation 1:5, "He loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood."
The sins of our life are the ultimate cause of our feelings of worthlessness. We've defied God and the way He wants us to live, so we're away from the One who gave us our worth in the first place. It took Jesus paying your spiritual death penalty to make it possible for you to find the God that you've needed all these years. He made you. He paid for you with His life. Whatever others may have thought you're worth, you are priceless to Him.
You don't need to live one more day away from this love that you were made for. Jesus has come to where you are today to stir your heart, to draw you to Him; to give you this chance to have every sin forgiven, the wall between you and God who loves you removed, and your heart finally filled with the love it was made for. Jesus becomes your Savior when you tell Him, "Lord, I abandon the rule of my own life that's kept me from You and earned me a death penalty. I'm putting all my trust in you, Jesus - your death on the cross to pay for my sins."
I'm thinking this little booklet I wrote called Yours For Life could help you understand and confirm your relationship with Him, if you'll just let me send it to you. You can get it by going to our website at yoursforlife.net or calling toll free for it at 877-741-1200.
When God sees you, He sees a treasure made with His own hands and paid for with the blood of His Son.