The Treasure Map

        Finding something elusive is fun.  People, especially me, like to come across a treasure map and find something, supposedly valuable.  I would even make a treasure map and bury something outside in the yard, probably in the middle of the lilac bush and then draw a map showing where it was.  Maybe that we should do that for the formula for salvation.  I was recently reminded that the knowledge necessary for salvation is not very much.  There is not a lot of information that is necessary in order to find eternal life.  Obviously there are many people who have not found salvation, who are not happy, who have most of what they want and yet are still missing the most important gift ever.  Even as I write these devotions, my e-mail provider floods me with the most recent celebrity suicides.  People are ending their lives dissatisfied thinking they had everything they wanted in life but they still missed it.  "It" being of course, salvation.  John 3:7 says,"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."  
     That is the statement that shows us that if a person desires to have eternal life, then that person needs to be born again.  Now, how does that take place?  This is where the treasure map comes in.  People for centuries have wondered how to find eternal life.  I once figured that there was a process, like following a treasure map, to acquire salvation.  Acts 16:31 lumps it into one act.  The Philippian jailer asked the question to which Paul gave the simplest of answers.  "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."  Well, there it is.  The answer to the quest is right before us, and yet people miss it every day.   For many, the problem lies in their arrogance, their pride or their estimation of what they might do to receive eternal life.  Our side of salvation is this, simply to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now, if we could take a glance at salvation from God's point of view, it would be much more complex.  We would see the plan set forth from the beginning including the sacrificial system and perhaps get a glimpse of God's magnificent work.  God made this complex salvation simple for us.  We might say, "What is there about John 3:16 that you don't understand?"  So, there is a treasure far more valuable than anything else we could ever hope for and the treasure is this precious salvation.  Your treasure map is called the B I B L E.  Praise God for salvation.