A Parable about a Rich Man

A Parable about a Rich Man.
Luke’s gospel records this parable of Jesus.
“And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.  
He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  
And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ 
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 
“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:13-21.
Let me state from the beginning there is nothing wrong with being rich. There are many rich people in the church who serve the Lord honourably and faithfully. It is the love of money that’s the problem. The apostle Paul tells Timothy,
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:10.
What Jesus is saying here is where is your faith, in the riches of this world, or in God?
Matthew quotes Jesus in his gospel as saying,
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21.
Joshua in the old Testament speaking to the Israelites posed a question we all must answer
he said,
“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.  
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24: 14,15.
We who live in the twenty-first century especially if we claim to be followers of Christ Jesus need to assess our lives and decide who we will serve.
Do we serve the God’s of this world and put our trust in the riches of this world or do we follow the Lord God Almighty?
Please think about it.

You, Your Treasure, and God

You, Your Treasure and God
Jesus said,
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.  
But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” Matthew 6:19-24.
Where is your real treasure? Jesus states here that we are to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Noting that where our treasure is there will be our heart.
Now let me state there is nothing wrong with having wealth in this world. The apostle Paul makes it clear,
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:10.
Note Paul states “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” That it has caused some to wander from the faith. This is what Jesus is alluding too.
Wealth in and of itself is not evil or good. Money and material things can be used both for good and bad. It can also keep you from getting to heaven depending on what your relationship with your wealth is.
Our true treasure must be laid up in heaven.
The writer of Hebrews states,
“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  
So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” 
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.  
   Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” Hebrews 13:5-8.
As a Christian I believe we should be content with what we have at any given time.
Now there’s nothing wrong with wanting to better our position in life. At the same time however the urge to better ourselves should never pull us away from our faith, or cause us to harm  others in any way.
Jesus told this parable,
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.  
At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores  and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 
“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.  
In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.  
So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ 
“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.  
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ 
“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house,  
for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 
“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 
“ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 
“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ” Luke 16:19-31.
Thus my question to you the reader is, Where is your treasure?
Please think about it.

The Christian, The World, and God

The Christian, The world, and God
John the apostle wrote,
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  
For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.  
The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” 1John 2:15-17.
Here John echoes the words of Jesus who said,
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.  
But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Matthew 6:19-24.
We as believers in Jesus need to decide where our first love is. There is nothing wrong with having money and riches. It is when that money and riches become gods in our life that the problem starts. When they become more important that God.
We cannot stand with our feet in both worlds.
Matthews gospel records this incident between Jesus and a rich man,
“Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” 
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” 
“Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, “ ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony,  honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’’” 
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” 
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”Matthew 19:16-22.
In order to be true followers of Jesus we need to be willing to give up everything we have of material value in this world if necessary.
God may never require us to give up our material possessions. Never the less we must be willing to do so if God asks.
 Are you willing to do so?
        Where is your true riches?
         Please think about it.

Two Masters

You can’t serve God and man

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.  
But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money”
                                                                                                    Matthew 6:19-24.
Let me make it clear from the outset being wealthy is not a sin. Having a lot of money earned honestly is not a sin. The Apostle Paul makes it clear
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 
                                                                       1 Timothy 6:10
Here in the above scriptures Matthew 6:19-24,  Jesus is talking about greed. Like is said, money and riches in themselves are not bad. The church needs wealthy people to help in the spread of the gospel.
It’s what you do with your money. Don’t hoard it for the sake of hoarding it.
There’s a very famous story of a miserly woman in the late eighteen hundreds. She had substantial wealth enough to pay doctors to help her sick son. Yet the son died because she didn’t want to pay out the money and was looking for a charity hospital to help him and save her money.
While this is an extreme case it is what Jesus is talking about.
Some people put their trust entirely in money. Proud they are self sufficient. Thus quite often they miss the blessings of God.
You can always tell where a persons heart is.
Over the years that I’ve been in church work I’ve met people that are earning an excellent base wage but work long hours of overtime to get the extra they want to buy a new toy, be it a $500 dollar cell phone, half million dollar house or a fancy car.
They work so much they can’t enjoy their toys.
While they claim to love God they are so absorbed in making money that they don’t have time to serve Him.
The Apostle Paul noted in his letter to Timothy,
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 
                                                                                           1 Timothy 6:10
 Jesus made it clear “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money”
We all need money but my cousin use to say “you can’t go anywhere without it. But you can’t take it when you go.”
We all as Christians need to take a long hard look at were our treasure is. Is it hear on earth or is it in heaven?
Do we really need all the toys of this world?
Or could our time be better spent serving God even if it’s only in a small way.
Please think about it?