Greetings MOL Family!
In the book Christ’s Object Lessons, inspiration brings out the purpose of Christ for teaching in parables. His life and mission in this world also presents to us a parable:
That we might become acquainted with His divine character and life, Christ took our nature and dwelt among us. Divinity was revealed in humanity; the invisible glory in the visible human form. Men could learn of the unknown through the known; heavenly things were revealed through the earthly; God was made manifest in the likeness of men. So it was in Christ’s teaching: the unknown was illustrated by the known; divine truths by earthly things with which the people were most familiar. {COL 17.1}
The One Quest of Your Life
Matthew 13:45-46. Here is an illustration from nature:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking [What?] goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. – Matthew 13:45-46
Now, what was he hunting? He was hunting for p-e-a-r-l… is the “s” there? If you’ll look at your text, you’ll see the answer — Pearls, plural. And by the way, what kind of pearls was he seeking? Goodly pearls, beautiful pearls, outstanding pearls, unusual.
In this search he finally found what? — One. And that one pearl, to him, outweighed all that he had collected. And so, don’t miss this: He added that pearl to the collection he already had. What? He didn’t? What did he do? He sold all that he had and did what? — Bought the one pearl. I don’t know how much he had before, but I know how much he had when he got through. He had what? He had one. That one to him was worth more than everything else.
My dear friends, I hope you’ll get this. You will never find in Christ all that He is and wants to be to you, until everything else is put aside, and this becomes the one quest of your life.
In Contact With Christ
The greatest blessing that can come to us is by our own choice to focus, with all our souls on the effort, whatever it costs, to know Christ, to get acquainted with Jesus and to find in Him the answer to our personal problems.
Do you know what a medical missionary is? Shall I tell you? A medical missionary is somebody that has solved his own problems, and is ready to take on the problems of suffering humanity. This is a medical missionary. And if you haven’t solved your own problems, learning all the techniques of hydrotherapy and nursing arts, you might even learn surgery, it won’t make you a medical missionary.
A medical missionary is somebody who has solved his own problems through contact with Christ and is ready to take on the problems of others.
Have you solved your problems? Answer to yourself and Jesus, in the silence of your soul. Have you solved your own problems?
“Well, I think I could if the committee would just let me do what I think I ought to do.” “I think I’ve solved my problems as soon as this one or that one changes their attitude.”
Well, then you haven’t solved any problem at all. You still have a problem. Now, this man was hunting for what? — Pearls. And he finally found what? — one pearl of great price. And he did what? He sold everything he had to do what? Buy that one pearl. Did he get it? Do you suppose he was happy? Ah, yes friends, and you will be and you are happy, if you have found the Pearl.
I’ve found a Friend; oh, such a Friend!
He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love,
And thus He bound me to Him.
And ’round my heart still closely twine
Those ties which nought can sever,
For I am His, and He is mine,
Forever and forever.
Have you found it? Is He your Friend? That is why Paul and Silas could sing at midnight in the Philippian dungeon with their feet in the stocks and their backs bleeding. They didn’t say, “Oh, if we could just get out of here, we’d sing.” They sang right there. They had found Jesus. They knew He was looking after them. And they didn’t say, “Lord, if You love us, get us out of here.” There was no “if” about it.
As long as you and I are saying about any situation in the home, in the school, in the institution, in the church, “Lord, if You hear me then make this thing different,” we haven’t found the Pearl. We may be seeking, but we haven’t found the pearl.
Oh, but you say, “Don’t you think, shouldn’t some things be different?” Yes, a thousand things. But friends, we put the cart before the horse. Jesus is seeking to anchor us in Him, not in what He does to change circumstances. He is seeking to have our anchor, our solace, our confidence, our security in Him, not in something that somebody else does or does not do.
One of the practical problems that you may be thinking about is where do we find the time to do all these things [as we spoke about in Lesson 1] ? It’s very practical. Where do we find the time to commune with nature? Where do we find the time to talk with God in prayer and Bible study, sufficient to get tanked up, to get our batteries recharged? Where do we find time for all these good things, like exercise and rest? Oh, where do we find the time for it?
Well, friends, I’m going to share the answer with you. But I want to say this to you; it’s got a price tag on it. And I don’t know whether you want to buy it or not. That’s up to you. But you won’t buy it at the dollar store. There’s a price tag on it. We’ve read it in our lesson. This man that wanted that one pearl did what? — Sold all that he had and bought it.
We are dealing with life. And life in one aspect of it is time, one minute after the other. What we do with time affects what happens to us in eternity.
Now, I want to tell you about a little cartoon I saw once. If all you consider is just the surface you might smile; but if you’re really thinking, you’ll do more than smile. And it’s right at the heart of the problem. That’s why I tell it to you: A woman was seated in a doctor’s consultation office, and the doctor had just given her a diet. Obviously, the patient was overweight. As she was looking at that diet, she said to the physician, “Now, Doctor, this diet that you have given me, do I take this before or after my regular meals?”
Do you get the picture? There is only one way to get the benefit from the plan and principles that God has given us from His inspired Word. And that’s to do what the man did who was seeking goodly pearls. He took those wonderful pearls that he had gotten together and he laid them down in order to get what? — The one Pearl.
You too can have an experience with Christ, deeper and closer than you have ever know; if you are willing to pay the price of putting aside all other things…
Until next week – Invite a friend, and we’ll see you then…
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* This study has been adapted from classes taken by Elder W.D. Frazee.