New Treasures as well as Old

What do you think about that?

He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
Matthew 13: 52


And it is true - the more I learn about he kingdom of heaven, the more I am reminded of the old treasures and the more I learn about new treasures that keep me wanting more.  This is an addiction that is OK to have!


Old:  Life is all about love.  We want to find it and give it.
New:  The exhilaration of new love is in many ways a hopeful dream that this new relationship will bring love to us and give a person to love in return.


Old:  Marriage is to reflect Christ's love for His bride the Church...you and me.
New:  The way many have treated marriage in the public eye has led to those in and outside the Church either not wanting it or not being willing to fight for it when love grows cold or old.


Old:  The love of God described in I Corinthians 13 clearly reveals that love is more than obedient behavior or miraculous gifts.  It is passion and joy and an attitude that communicates that "I cherish you and see in you more value than you see in yourself".
New:  I am not to allow myself to feel "neutral" toward my wife.  Neutral is not the abundance Jesus describes in John 10:10.   Jesus "loves us with a passion and without regret" to quote the singer Michael Card.  I am to reveal to my wife and others, but especially my wife, that Christ loves them deeply and earnestly and emotionally.  When I slip to a dispassionate or negatively charged attitude, I am to yield to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to move me out of the way so He can love through me as God designed.  He is to produce His fruit in me and I am to give it away...freely....just as I received it.


Old:  Our family of origin and other early influences may have left us immature in our emotional intelligence so that we may be 30+ in physical growth but only 5 years old relationally.  I Corinthians 13 has a beautiful quote about "when I became a man I put away childish things".  I did not do that well.
New:  I am being conformed to Christ.  He is mature emotionally, relationally, and spiritually.  I am not where I was, but I am not yet what I will be and am becoming.  Thank God through Jesus Christ, I belong to Him and what He started in me He will finish.  Philippians 1:6