The Treasure Trove by C. R. Oliver (black male authors txt) 📕

These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

I truthfully believe pastors and teachers should not speak unless they speak from the treasury of His Wisdom and Knowledge. Our people have been deceived and robbed by those who teach from a different source.

In my own life, I know every book and every written piece for these newsletters have their origin in His treasury. When I handle the truths of God, I view them as jewels, as precious gifts of rare beauty and charm. How could anyone write or preach with less? Yet, we are subjected to messages and preachments from variant sources.

Paul was correct to complete Colossians 2:1-3 with a verse 4 warning:

‘Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words…’

The Church Deceived would be a huge title for a new work!

People have been robbed of their inheritance in the treasure trove of God’s Wisdom and Knowledge. David Wilkerson was correct in fearing to address an audience that was going to hell with a 16 minute skit, followed by a 10 minute message on, How to Cope.

When the Lord spoke to Samuel about the sorry estate of the priesthood, He made a declaration about The Anointed One Who would be more interested in the mind of God than His own words or thoughts.

1 Samuel 2:34-36

Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed forever. And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and say, "Please, put me in one of the priestly positions, that I may eat a piece of bread."'

His Treasure:

Remember, Paul attested in the focal passage that wisdom and knowledge are treasures.

Colossians 2:3: ‘in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’

I have learned something in my years: what people treasure differs from one another and what they do with their treasures is based on their value judgments as to their worth. For instance,

Matthew 13:52

Then He said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.’

In my home are tokens from around the world. They are valueless to anyone who would seek to appraise them, but they mean much to me, for they represent a time in my history where and when I acquired them. On the wall, for instance, is a framed black cloth having straw pieces cut and neatly glued, forming the shape of a Sri Lankan girl strumming a native stringed instrument. It is a small picture, but it was once the only picture owned by the tea worker in-you whose home I was invited. Not knowing the custom of the country, I admired its intricate work because it represented a form of art uncharacteristic to the western motif. Upon departing, he presented it to me as a token of his esteem and because of the custom of the area. I insisted he keep it, backed up from accepting it, and explained I did not compliment it because I wanted it. Nothing would do but to take it. To me, it is a treasure and when I look upon it, I see this humble man and his family as vividly today as 30 years ago.

My household treasures are sundry. (A picture from my grandmother’s house is hanging in the spare bedroom [it is well over 100 yrs old]. My wife’s father’s Moccasins, handmade by Potawatomi Indians, are priceless. A curio, housing objects from our missionary travels, include some small wooden boxes made by naked aborigines being evangelized.)

Each object tells its own story and calls to remembrance a place or person of interest. Imagine the treasure trove collected by the Son of God. Revelation tells us that the prayers of the saints are kept as treasures. I suspect Hebrews 11 is a glimpse into the galleries of dignitaries who are honored in greater number in the halls of heaven.

However, Wisdom and Knowledge are hidden treasures—meaning they are removed from public view and available only to those whom God opens. (I know what it is to be shown some of these treasures. I know what it is to receive from the Lord out of His treasury. I have experienced seeing things in Scripture that were put there by His hand but not understood apart from His Wisdom and Knowledge. I am not talking about “words of knowledge” which are often temporal and earth based. I am talking about the Spirit taking me into the hiding place of God’s Wisdom and enlightening me from a treasure source. Once having been introduced to hidden realms, there is a desire to be nourished from none other.)

Charles Finney, in 1825, said the congregation in Boston was incapable of receiving what was revealed to him. Sometimes, it is best not to cast pearls before swine.

Do we treasure what He treasures? Is this not the real issue we face with our ambitions and worldly pursuits?

Hebrews 11:24-31

By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible

Paul made sure his readers knew the source of their spiritual wisdom was a transaction from the throne

2 Corinthians 4: 6-10

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

Jesus taught that God’s intent was to gift His children with the kingdom and that included heavenly treasures.

. Luke 12:32-34

"Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also

The ambition of the believer should be to attain this treasure at all cost. Interestingly enough, in the light of the two passages below, it would appear God wants us not only to possess His treasures but to wear His treasures as ornaments.

Matthew 13:44-46

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

It is God’s desire to give you the hidden things, but who among us searches Him out and seeks to drink from His supply? Notice the circuit in Matthew 13:44. The treasure came from one hidden place to another hidden place—so does the hidden treasure of wisdom and knowledge. In the parable, “a man,” not a corporate body, discovered the treasure and knew its value.

The shallow base of the modern church leaves me speechless in the wake of what is truly available to those who humbly seek after Him and tread the highway of Holiness and determine to possess what He treasures.

Proverbs 2:6-8

For the LORD gives wisdom;

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;

He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;

He guards the paths of justice

And preserves the way of His saints.

Likewise, He is aware of the conditions of the masses and understands they are reluctant to know Him, for they are like those who gathered at the Mount who said to Moses, “You go.”

Jeremiah 29:11-14

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD,

Nor do they understand His counsel;

For He will gather them like sheaves to the threshing floor.

Aside from every other consideration concerning His treasure trove, two things stand above all others. Here is what He treasures:

1 Peter 3:3-4

rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

Deuteronomy 32:9 …the LORD's portion is His people.

Until Next Month,

Publication Date: 10-07-2013

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Dedication:
Thanks to the Newsletter Division from Zadok Publications allowing us to use C. R. Oliver's newsletters for this study book.