TREASURE HUNT: The Declaration of Dependence

Greetings Fellow Chewers of the Cud. Are you treasurING your TREASURE? One is a VERB and the other is a NOUN. Where are you treasurING your TREASURE? Do you have bank account, a lock box, a tin can buried in your backyard, a 401 K or a 666 d (little d)? Is your TREASURE safe...or is it being lost in corporate buyouts or decaying in your can in your backyard?

I love a good movie of mystery, intrigue, adventure, love interest, humour, and conspiracy. The movie NATIONAL TREASURE satisfies all my itches.

It stars Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates...who has a family legacy of supposed lunacy... as from generation to generation they have searched for a treasure based on clues left along the way. The clues are linked to the conspiracy of the Freemasons and are found on everything from money to lost ships to the back of the Declaration of Independence.

The SEARCH FOR THE TREASURE...seems to be merely an endless enticement from clue to clue to clue...only to result in another clue. The search become more than just trying to find TREASURE...as much as it is to clear the Gates name.

Another element is the bad guys entering the picture whose motive is GREED versus INTEGRITY. The pivotal CLUE is found on the back of one America's founding documents... THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Even that clue...is another clue to find the glasses that will reveal the ULTIMATE clue that will eventually...actually lead to the TREASURE. Get large Diet Coke and a tub of butter popcorn and sit back for a good time. This review gets four moo's from the Ruminator.

Now...as you know...the premise for the Rambling's...always has other motives. The motives this time...are DEPENDENCE versus INDEPENDENCE... WHERE and WHAT we are TREASURING...and PRISON versus FREEDOM.

The DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE is a founding document as we declared (thus the declaration part)....a break from the rule of England. I would like to go on record that I am declaring...The Declaration of DEPENDENCE on the Lord. On the original Declaration of Independence, there was a signer by the name of Caesar Rodney...but I would like to sign my declaration with larger letters that John Hancock...RODNEY BOYD. The first part of my DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE will begin with PROVERBS 3:1-4)

"My Son...do not forget my teaching
But let (allow) your heart (treasure chest) KEEP (treasure) my commandments
For length of days and years of life (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness)
And peace (wholeness/rest) they will add to you
Do not let kindness and truth leave you
Bind them around your neck
Write them on the tablet of your HEART
So you will find FAVOR and GOOD REPORT in the sight of God and man"

This is the purpose of my DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE (on the Lord).

The next section of my DECLARATION...is the meat of my document in PROVERBS 3:5-7:

TRUST in the Lord with ALL your HEART
And do not LEAN ON OUR OWN UNDERSTANDING
In ALL your ways ACKNOWLEDGE Him
And He will make your paths straight
Do NOT be WISE in your OWN eyes
FEAR the Lord and TURN AWAY from evil

The next section of my DECLARATION is the CAUSE and EFFECT if I do what I declare found in PROVERBS 3:8:

It will be HEALING to your body
And REFRESHMENT to your bones

NOTE: At this point I would like to give out a big...Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Now that's refreshing.

The next section of my DECLARATION of DEPENDENCE (on the Lord)...will not just manifest in inward healing and refreshing...but will manifest by my purse strings and is found in PROVERBS 3:9-10

HONOR the Lord from your WEALTH
And from the FIRST of ALL your PRODUCE
SO your barns will be FILLED with PLENTY
And your VATS will OVERFLOW with NEW WINE

The last section of my DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE (on the Lord) deals with yielding MY WILL to HIS WILL. I need to learn NOT to let MY FREEDOM OF DEPENDENCE to turn into an OPPORTUNITY for the FLESH. This is found in PROVERBS 3:11,12:

My son...DO NOT REJECT...the DISCIPLINE of the Lord
Or loathe His REPROOF
For whom the Lord LOVES He REPROVES
Even as a FATHER...the SON...in whom he DELIGHTS


I am placing my DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE (on the Lord) in MY TREASURE CHEST. The Word of God has all the clues you need to find the TREASURE. This TREASURE...is not measured on the size or amount of what is treasured. A little in the Lord far outweighs a FORT KNOX.

"Better is a LITTLE with the FEAR of the Lord...than GREAT TREASURE..and TURMOIL with it." (Proverbs 15:16)

My TREASURE CHEST is my HEART. The men who encounterd Jesus on the Road to Emmaus...had an EYE OPENING experience...and a burning heart that was not HEART BURN. After they realized that they were talking to the RESURRECTED JESUS...they DECLARED..."And they said to one another...were not our HEARTS BURNING WITHIN US...while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?"
(Luke 24:32)

"The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good...and the evil man out his evil treasure brings forth what is evil." (Matthew 12: 34,35; and Luke 6:45

"Do not lay up for yourselves TREASURES upon earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves TREASURES IN HEAVEN, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS...there will your heart be also." (Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 12:34)

"But we have this TREASURE in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may BE OF GOD...and not from ourselves..." (II Corinthians 4:7)


Now with the TREASURE and the TREASURE CHEST established in my life... and my DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE (in the Lord)...declared...let's talk about PRISON.

In the movie NATIONAL TREASURE...after all the clues have been found... and the treasure has been found...Ben Gates has to face the authorities (the FBI) for stealing the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Actually...this section is what got me to Ruminatin' about all of this.

Ben Gates is being pursued by the F.B.I. led by Agent Peter Sandusky. When Ben is captured (because after notifying them that he had found the treasure).
Sandusky and Gates were sitting at the altar of a church (that was above where the treasure was found)...and they had this dialogue:

SANDUSKY: So...here is your options. Door number one...you go to PRISON for a very long time. Door number two...we're going to get back the Declaration of Independence...you can help us find it...and you still go to PRISON for a very long time...but you'll feel better inside.

BEN GATES: Is there a door that doesn't lead to PRISON?

SANDUSKY: (He shakes his head and then laughing says)...Someone's got to GO TO PRISON, Ben.

My DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE (on the Lord) has been fought for...with blood shed...and signed and sealed. My freedom from PRISON was paid for by the DEATH AND BURIAL...and it was sealed with the RESURRECTION of Jesus...D.B.R...NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS.

Someone DID have to go to PRISON...and it was not me. I deserved to go to prison. I did the crime...but JESUS...hung on the cross IN MY PLACE. Jesus became my PROPITIATION...my SUBSTITUTE...what SATISFIED GOD...for the punishment of my CRIME (sin).

"If we say that we have NO SIN...we are deceiving ourselves...and the truth is not in us. If we CONFESS (declare) our sins...He is faithful and righteous to FORGIVE us our sins...and to CLEANSE us from ALL unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar....and His word is not in us. My little children...I am writing these things to your that you may NOT SIN...and if anyone SINS...we have an ADVOCATE (paracletos...on called along side to help)...with the Father...Jesus Christ the righteous...and He Himself is the PROPITIATION (substitute/satisfaction)...for our SINS...and not for ours only...but also for those of the whole world." (I John 1:8-9)

"I have been crucified WITH CHRIST...and it is no longer I who live...but Christ lives in me...and the life which I NOW live...in the flesh...I live by faith in the Son of God (D.B.R.) who loved me...and delivered Himself up for me." (Galatians 2:20)

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple (sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you ARE NOT YOUR OWN (dependent on Him)...for you have been BOUGHT with a PRICE...therefore glorify God in your body."
(II Corinthians 6:19-20)

"Let each man remain in that condition in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord's FREEDMAN...likewise...he who was called while free is CHRIST'S SLAVE. You were BOUGHT WITH A PRICE...do not become the slaves of men. Brethren...let each man REMAIN WITH GOD...in that condition in which he was called." (II Corinthians 7:20-24)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone...has to go to prison...and HE DID.

Love and Dependent Kisses
Rodney "Treasures of the Heart" Boyd