pramsay posted on March 24, 2011 04:24 640 views
BIBLE BITES
www.heaven4sure.com
JUNKYARD OR GRAVEYARD?
A Better Possession
Did you check today to see how the markets performed? Nothing wrong with that! But there could be something wrong with the degree of your involvement and the character of your attachment to the markets and other aspects of the economy. Did you miss the prayer meeting in order to do some nervous number crunching? Have you fired your Investment Manager for her inability to meet your financial and wealth targets?
Of course, it is only wise to be a good steward and diligent manager of your finances - the Bible is with you on that, for sure! But, there is something questionable about the spiritual focus of someone who is consumed by financial performance and driven by money goals and targets. If money matters and profit margins basically control my life and my moods then something major is wrong with me spiritually.
There are numerous references in the Word of God to the emptiness and short-sightedness of shallow here-and-now living. Psalm 49 makes it clear there will be no armoured vehicles carrying our possessions from our safety deposit boxes and investments accounts to our plot in the cemetery. Our swanky, not-so-shabby homes and fancy, not-so-modest vehicles will never be loaded on to flat bed trucks and carried to the graveyard. Junkyard maybe - but not the graveyard. Our latest tech toys and treasures will not be wrapped in bubbles and sent on ahead. Our collection of fine furnishings and brand-name wardrobes, our recreational winter and summer motor toys and whatever else turns our crank when we want to splurge and pamper ourselves - all of it stays here and belongs here - not there. If that is all I have in life, I have nothing. If all of that is my pride and joy, then poor me.
Psalm 49:10-11 says it so bluntly eloquent:
"They leave their wealth to others.
Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever,
Their dwelling places to all generations;
They call their lands after their own names....
For when he dies he shall carry nothing away;
His glory shall not descend after him.
(Psalm 49:10-11, 17)
Absalom was a Bible character who erected a monument in a valley and called it after his own name: "Absalom." 2Samuel 18:18. But Absalom lost it all and lost his soul. It seems his world was a small one - me, mine and myself.
No one in their right mind courts adversity or actively seeks to harm their well-being or finances. But if it happens, is there a way for us to be joyful in the midst of such a trial? The believers mentioned in Hebrews 10:34 were joyful when they lost their property. How could it be? Read it for the answer:
"...you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property,
since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one."
(Hebrews 10:34)
The writer was encouraging the believers, reminding them how they smiled when their persecutors broke into their homes and stripped them bare of all their possessions. "Remember how you just smiled when they stole all your stuff, because you knew they could never touch your real treasure."
What is your better possession? What do I treasure today? What makes a smile come over my face? Can the enemy touch my real treasure? When I daydream - what kind of treasures excite me? Invest for eternity. Make today count for Christ. Live for Him.
Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today,
Warmly in Christ,
Peter Ramsay