TRASH OR TREASURES? 12/30/12

IT AMAZES me what I consider trash and what I consider treasures. When I was a child I would be given something from someone special and I would either put it into a little box or an envelope. Some of these little treasures I still have because I still have one little box, that in my early twenties my brother Layton gave me. He gave me about 4 empty cigar boxes that he found in a junk store. I painted them black on the outside and the insides were already yellow. It was his idea and of course whatever he thought I should do, I did! That is how I began to see my husband Jim as a possibility for me; but then that is another story.

I SAVED letters from my brother Lynn, that I received from him while he was in the Air Force. Those I still have! I saved little gadget’s a man friend had given to me while working at my very first place of employment. Scraps of poems that I loved and some I had written myself. Little odds and ends of memories when my children were very small. Some of these treasures through the years became trash and I threw them away. They were no longer needed, because the person I became no longer had a need for them. Besides that, some of the boxes just fell apart from age.

WHILE going through my sister Jewel’s home after she passed away, I kept hearing the term “trash or Goodwill”. I didn’t like the idea of making such a decision for myself, let alone my beloved sister. Since then I have given away many of my treasures and will let the recipient make that decision.

RECENTLY I heard the term “trash or treasures” in a more relevant light. One I had never connected with. Perhaps you have but even so, we need to examine it once again. “What agreement has the temple of God, with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said; I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16   Paul defines the church as a temple to house God’s Spirit. He reveals the difference between unbelievers (the world) from those who have agreed to be set apart and become His people.

READING FURTHER in verse 17, we find the Church has made an agreement with God and must cleanse themselves from every defilement of body and spirit. The Church is to become mature, or perfect, in the fear of God. In reality we as individuals, have become a single light and joined together we can be seen from a hilltop for all the world to see.

“DO YOU NOT KNOW that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body!” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20    When God’s people, who are called by His name, come together; we become one large body and are called the ‘Church.’ But as individuals we are the ones who bring the temple into the Church. We either come defiled or undefiled. Unless we have discarded the trash that we use to carry, we come tainted by the world.

HOW MANY times have we decided to make new years resolutions or to set up goals to help us start all over again. Perhaps it is to become financially savvy; lose weight, become more healthy; exercise more regularly; stop drinking; become faithful; and so on? Perhaps we need to dig a little deeper and clean the trash from within the temple. Perhaps we need to close the door to the little things that become bigger and monopolize our lives to the extent that we forget about our promise to become one, and be called by His name.

GOD HAS CALLED all to His throne but few answer the call, and many even after responding, allow the worldly things, to creep back in. With a new day tomorrow and the new year ahead, God is patient and willing for all to return. “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy and you are that temple."  1 Corinthians 3:16.   Do we house trash or treasures in our bodies? We are one with Jesus; think on these things! By Jane Ann Crenshaw 12/28/12