The Pearl

It is Tuesday morning, 23rd November, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.

“Again, (Jesus says) 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.

Matthew 13:45

I want to say to you today that we need to seek that pearl of great price.
Why should someone give up a promising career to go off to a distant land and live an obscure life? I looked up obscure in the Oxford Dictionary it means: "A life not important or well-known". Well, simply because they have found something of greater value, something much more precious.

The big fisherman, Simon Peter and his friends, James and John, they found it... and Andrew. Matthew the tax collector left his desk with all his money on it and walked away because he found it. What about that short little man, Zacchaeus who climbed the wild fig tree - the sycamore tree. He too found it and he repaid all the money that he had stolen from his fellow man.

You know, C.T. Studd was England’s most eligible bachelor in the 1800s. He played cricket for England, he was a great sportsman. He rode horses in winter and played cricket in summer... He left it all and he went to Africa and died in the Congo because he had found a pearl of great price.

I have just seen and read the story of Lilias Trotter, apparently the most promising young artist in England. John Ruskin, the famous English writer and art critic said that it was a tremendous waste when Lilias left her promising art career and went to Algeria in North Africa, to be a missionary. She died there forty years later, telling people about the great pearl that she had found.

Today, we need to look at Revelation 3:20:

Jesus says, “I am knocking at your door.” He says, “and if you open the door I will come in and sup with you and you with Me.”

Stop looking for the pearl of great price in the wrong place. Open up your heart today and say:

“Jesus I need you more now than ever before.
I have realized that looking for things in the world is like chasing the wind, as Solomon said. Today, I want to find you in a very special way.”

Have a wonderful day as you find that pearl of great price.
God bless you and goodbye.