”By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches!”  Prov. 24:4

It was said of a rich man I knew in this town:  ”Even our Queen couldn´t live more comfortable than he!”  His  estate had many rooms filled with treasures.  And yet it was also said of him, ”What a poor man he is!”  Now, deep inside he knew that himself.  Had the rooms of his life been filled with true, spiritual knowledge, things would have turned out differently with him who died sick, in spiritual poverty despite his riches.

Our “rooms” can be empty too without the knowledge that could enrich other people.  It´s possible to know almost everything ”under the sun”, and yet be pretty ignorant about the things above the sun.  “What does it mean that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” the question was asked in a young people´s group.  A young girl suggested, “I think it means this, we have like the real temple many rooms, and those you don´t want to rent out to anybody!”  What an excellent bible commentary!

 I once spoke to a lot of  precious children in a Lutheran free church on the west coast of Norway.  I asked them, “What do you call those who go to the natives to tell them about Jesus?”  A child suggested, ”Millionaires!” This slip of the tongue was understandable.  In her language a ”millionaire” rhymes with ”missionair” (English:  ”missionary).  But didn´t she have a point?  They may go out as poor, and yet as those making many rich!

What do we fill our “rooms” with?  What do we talk about out of the abundance of our hearts?  D.A. Carson from America raises the question, ”What do we talk about when we meet?  An exchange of courtesies?  The weather?  Sports?  Our children?  Our various disabilities?  Obviously we can as Christians can talk about topics like that, but the real thing that unites us is the passion for the gospel….”

If this passion doesn´t exist we are truly poor people.  Søren Kierkegaard was right.  ”Our age is miserable, it lacks passion!”  Yes, that passion of the gospel meant to fill our ”rooms”, nay the passion of Christ, whose knowledge we want to spread by the grace of God.
-jn-

Aug. 23, 2010,