Dear Fellow Laborers,
Can't live without it...how can you live with it? Individuals ruin their health...shipwreck their homes...sacrifice their lives...and forfeit their integrity...for money. "God has given to some people very great wealth and honor so they can have everything they want...but though a man lives a thousand years twice over but doesn't find contentment...well, what is the use?" (Ephesians 6:2,6) Some people worship money...some make it an idol. Some beg, some borrow, some steal it. a few inherit money, others marry it. The majority of us work for it. We all want more of it. Could you agree? The love of money...is the root of all evil. If you agree, you are agreeing with scripture. Jesus who was so gentle and compassionate was hard hitting on the proposition of "you can not serve God and money." What is the problem? Money promises what it can never produce. Get wealth, you will have prosperity and peace. It just is not true! What can money do for you? Its roads are full of mirages...enticing gleams of water...which vanish as soon as we draw near. Depressingly, the alluring pools turn out to be hot, glowing sand piles which lead you to only intensify your thirst. God gives to some the honor of having riches...but He would give to all His loved ones the wealth of a "contented" life. This is wealth without a limit. The subject of 1 Timothy 6 says, everybody lives in two tents; either "content or discontent". Look deeper in verse 17: "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant not to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." Enjoy? Amazing! God who has richly supplied you expects you to even enjoy them! He doesn't stop there but he says for those who are rich to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future so they may take hold of that which is life indeed. Be known by the things you love! Anything can be...a tool or...an idol. What you bend your knee to is what you worship. the issue is not what you have, not what you own, but what owns you. You can't take it with you but you can send it ahead...by giving out of the Grace you have been given. Do the right thing for the right reason! The dial on the thermometer tells you how hot something is...money can be God's thermometer. How hot are you? Your Servant for Jesus, C. Earle Carpenter, Founder of CMMA |
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