Welcome to Treasure in Earthen Vessels! Whether you are here by accident or by invitation, I trust this blog will be a positive experience, as well as a source of encouragement to your Christian faith.

Several years ago God brought into my life 2 Corinthians 4:7 ~ “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” It has taken years to unearth the message hidden here, but the journey to find it has been worth every effort. It has been a ride of ups and downs with God always being faithful and me always being needy.

After leaving corporate America to begin working from home, I decided to pursue my love for writing. I anticipated sitting quietly by the fireside every morning and journaling about the goodness of God to my life and my family. I had this perfect picture of bliss for the next 20+ years of my life with a pen in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

Within months, my husband was diagnosed with fast-growing prostate cancer that totally consumed the next two years of my life. Widowed at 53, my journals filled up with real life experiences—not the fireside chats with God that I had envisioned. Page after page is more closely akin to scripts from reality TV shows as my faith was tested, tried, and stretched. Out of the depths of my search for God during this life-altering event, I made an amazing discovery. It has much to do with 2 Corinthians 4:7.

I have never been satisfied with the status-quo of Christianity. My thirst for more has taken me on an intense search into the writings of Oswald Chambers, Amy Carmichael, Hudson Taylor, Andrew Murray, Brother Lawrence, Henry Nouwen, and others. I was looking for the secret they had found, yet somehow seems to have fallen through the cracks of modern-day teaching.

What did they have? What did they know? What power were they able to tap into that set them apart as great men and women of faith? As I have continued to search for “the pearl of great price,” I became the woman who swept the floor until she found the lost coin; the man who beat persistently upon his friend’s door asking for bread; and the widow who bothered the judge at midnight until he arose and gave her what she asked for. I am the one who, when she discovered the treasure in the field, sold all, and bought the field that she might have the treasure also. My efforts have not been in vain for God has done exceedingly abundantly above all that I could ask or think.

Today, the Holy Spirit continues to connect the dots for me. He has led me to the secret place, and through the writings of my faithful friends who made this journey before me, He is teaching me how to abide there. The meaning of 2 Corinthians 4:7 has become perfectly clear. In the weeks ahead, I will share with you one of the best kept secrets of all time. My post on November 22, 2012, titled The House Guest – A Short Story, reveals many of the clues to finding this hidden treasure in a fiction format.

I hope you will join me on this journey to discover the immeasurably valuable Treasure within each of us that God fully intends for us to find. ~ Sarah Jane Kellogg