5/1/09

Be rich...

Beautiful landscaping, an enticing front door, a second story and lots and lots of room. This is how "the other half" lives; people with more money than they know what to do with, more excesses than they will admit to and way too much leisure time on their hands. They probably even have a housekeeper, a nanny, a gardener AND A POOL BOY!! In short, they have everything! They are probably so well off they don't even consider themselves rich and are constantly trying to find ways to make more money. Obsession about money can cause us to forget God and that is dangerous; Jesus relates a tale of a rich man in the Gospel of Luke.

Luk 12:13 One of the multitude said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
Luk 12:14 But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?"
Luk 12:15 He said to them, "Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man's life doesn't consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses."
Luk 12:16 He spoke a parable to them, saying, "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly.
Luk 12:17 He reasoned within himself, saying, 'What will I do, because I don't have room to store my crops?'
Luk 12:18 He said, 'This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
Luk 12:19 I will tell my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry." '
Luk 12:20 "But God said to him, 'You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared-whose will they be?'
Luk 12:21 So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
World English Bible
Bigger and better, that is the American way of life, right? Unfortunately, yes, but that doesn't make it right. Personally, I don't think it is wrong to have wealth, just wrong to make it and only it the focal point of your life. Money can be a good thing when used wisely in the fear of God. Besides, the more you have, the more you have to guard and the more people will try to steal from you. Today, perhaps even this very hour, it would be a very good thing to consider where your priorities lie and if they are wrong, change them. We have today, we are not promised tomorrow, so be rich toward God!!!