Hebrews 12:1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, NKJV
Baggage Checking, Bad Bullion
Well the last two 'Night Whispers' have run around the subject of gold. Firstly, that illicit and selfish gold that will always lead to a trail of tears and secondly, that hidden treasure, that secret gold hid beneath the ground which even the eagle-eyed birds cannot see, yet if pursued, yet if procured, yes, if the rich earth of the heart and soul can be persuaded to let go of its treasures, will lead to untold riches for the brave miner of the inner-self. Tonight I want to continue this theme of gold and talk about 'good gold' which in the wrong circumstances can quickly turn into 'bad bullion'.
This weekend of my writing I have been on a men’s retreat in the mountains of North Georgia. We have been looking at how to release the springs of living water within, by checking our baggage. Yes, the theme has been entitled ‘Baggage Check' and we have been tracing it, facing it, erasing it and replacing it. The end of the weekend culminated with a powerful metaphorical benediction. We each wrote down those items of sin and burdens which we had been carrying for so long and placed them inside some luggage, which together we buried in the rich earth of that North Georgia mountainside. Now you might imagine that is was only bad things that were put in that bag, but you would be wrong!
Today on 1864, Confederate spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow was drowned off the North Carolina coast when a Yankee craft ran her ship aground. She was returning from a trip to England and France where she had been raising support for the Confederate cause. Whilst on the British blockade-runner Condor, she was intercepted and rammed by the U.S.S. Niphon off Cape Hattaras. Greenhow was carrying Confederate dispatches and $2,000 in gold and so insisting that she be taken ashore, she boarded a lifeboat, which was later overturned in the rough and pounding surf. She would have survived, she could have survived, but her refusal let go of the good gold she was carrying upon her person meant that she was pulled inextricably below the surface of the sea, to die both rich and famous in its cold dark depths.Now let me ask you tonight to consider this question. What good gold is sucking you down? What warm, yellow and shining sunshine weigh in the pocket of your pants to pull you down to death?
Listen: - Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the Valley of Achor. And Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day." So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day. Joshua 7:24-26 NKJV
Pray: Lord, show me the weighty good stuff which I needs must lay down, let go of and give away, in Jesus name I pray, amen.
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