Marilyn speaks: "Treasures in Heaven."

Dear lambs in green,

I feel very inspired by the weekend with the Williams and the couple whose surname i've forgotten haha. It has been a fruitful workshop and i'm so encouraged that we have so many friends today to hear God's word with us. I was convicted by the humility of Dennis and Karla on Saturday when they gave God and the Williams the honour of their rags-to-riches testimony.



Here are some thoughts i'd like to share.

When i was studying in acjc, everyone around me lived in mansions or condos, my classmates /schmates /cca mates were sons and daughters of very affluent families - families who owned huge organisations or shopping malls like Paragon and Millenium Walk, ministers and foreign ambassadors and so on. They lived in Sixth Avenue and were chauffered to school, i was a heartlands girl and my dad gives me a lift in his taxi. Though i'm a simple girl living in a small flat, opulence and wealth do not faze me. A life of glitz is enviable to some, but it was nondescript to me. Show me small luxuries and i will gawk and appreciate. Show me simple pleasures, a good book, good music and exciting fellowship and i will be delighted.

Admittedly there was once or twice in my 2 years there that i wished i had a little more, or that i didn't have to work and study at the same time, but i was NEVER ashamed of my humble background. My parents loved me and worked their fingers to the bone to send me to university and sponsored my trips to China and Vancouver. We lived simply and thus my parents never or had very very little conflicts about finances - something that seems to be tearing marriages apart in Singapore lately. While my wealthy schoolmates had the latest cell phones and a credit card, i had home-cooked food everyday. For the many intangible things that my parents gave to me, i believe God really blessed me tremendously.

On a side note, i always think that the best parents are not the ones that fawn and splurge on you when you bring back straight As or a shiny trophy. The best parents are the ones that who keep the childish comics you've penciled, the unintelligble drawings you've scrawn, the lopsided paper cranes you've folded out of 80cents coloured paper. The best parents are the ones who appreciate every single thing you've done, big or small, nothing is too insignificant for them to be proud of.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Matthew 6:18-21

Sometimes you can tell what a person is like by the possessions they hold on to.

To store up treasures on earth is to set our heart on earthly things. It is difficult, even impossible, to desire the return of our Lord when we have made all of our investments in earthly things. Not only this but we also tend to put our trust, our confidence and hope in our investments. The great difficulty of the rich is that they are deceived into fixing their hope on the uncertainty of riches. Jesus is not telling us that it is wrong to have material possessions, but with material possessions comes responsibility as well; not that we are forbidden to enjoy many of life’s pleasures, but that we view them as temporary and, in the long term, unsatisfying compared to the riches God prepared for us.

Amen, have a great week ahead all :)