Why are you valued?

Well first off it has been a long time since I have posted, and for that I am sorry. Hopefully I will be getting back at it a little bit more. The Lord has blessed my family and I richly, and His hand is clearly in the Youth Ministry which I have been blessed to oversee. There is much I could say about the volunteers He has supplied, the provisions He has given, and the many ways He is at work, both in the ministries which Kristin and I are involved in, and in our personal lives. What seemed seemed like such a big leap for Kristin and I, now seems a simple step after seeing the Lord provide every need we have. On to the blog... Why is a Picasso painting worth so much? Is it because Picasso himself painted it? Is it because of the skills Picasso had? Or a Hank Aaron rookie baseball card, why is it so valueable? Is it because he was so great? Is it because the card is so rare? What about the house I live in, is its value determined by its size? The decor? The neighborhood? Where does something receive its value? If there were another economic depression of the same magnitude of the great depression would a Hank Aaron card lose its value? Certainly it would when people need money for bread. Would a Picasso sell for as much? Certainly not when people could not afford clothing. Would my home retain its value? Of course not. Now does the change in economy affect the rareness of baseball card, the appearance of a painting, or the layout of a home? No, those things remain constant but the value may change drastically. What then determines the value of something? My home is a lower middle class home that would sell for around $110,000 in Toledo Ohio, in West Virginia it may sell for $70,000, and in California it may sell for $500,000. Why is it worth more or less? The value of an object is not determined the attributes of the object. The value of an object is determined by how much someone will pay for that object. There are many impressionist painters with greater skill than Picasso who have gone unnoticed in the history of art. The value of their paintings though superior in quality are less, because people are not willing to pay as much for them. So what is the point? Your value is not, and never will be based on your skills, your sacrafice, your performance, or anything else about you. All your value rests soley in the price that was paid for you. You are worth very little outside of the payment that Christ paid on your behalf. The purchase price of your soul was so high, therein lies your value. This is important to see, as soon as you can grasp this you will feel the weight of your unworthiness fall off of your shoulders. He has given you value by paying such a high price for you. There is no room for depression in the Christian life, there is no room for feeling worthless, or unwanted, or rejected in this life. The price was paid for you! The unthinkable thing would be to choose to reject His payment on your behalf and remain of no value. To attempt to stand before the Lord on that day believing yourself to be valuable because you are you, and you are special. Forget it, your value lies only in Christ, the value of your family, your congregation, your friends, is only in the fact that Christ died for them, that He paid the price. He paid that price, and He in the words of Paris Reidhead, "He Deserves the Rewards of His Suffering" in other words He paid for you in full. He paid the price for you in full. A sobering question is this: Has He received what He paid for? That is all for tonight.