Bad girl, bad boy ∙

Bad girl, bad boy ∙

He has made us accepted in the beloved. – Ephesians 1:6

Romans 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

How many of us grew up in dysfunctional families? One or both of our parents were over the top with harsh demands and judgmental attitudes. Over and over again, we were told, “bad girl,” “bad boy,”  “you will never get anything right,” or “you will never amount to anything.”

Others grew up in religious homes where they went to church regularly. The fear “of God” was drilled into them repeatedly. Charles Stanley remarks, “The church I grew up in could sum up much of its theology in one statement: ‘Thou shalt not . . .’”

What a terrible legacy to burden our lives with. Indeed, we are damaged and wounded. Some of us carry this all of our lives.

In both situations, two vitally critical fundamental truths are totally lacking – sound teaching on the Father’s love and acceptance.

Stanley reminisces about his life and remembers, “I do not recall hearing about the Father’s love or how to live the Christian life. What I learned was that a wrathful God would punish me if I did not follow all the rules. And there seemed to be rules for everything – including what I could read, what I could wear, and what I could do.”

“As a teenage boy, I spent a lot of time begging the Lord to forgive me for one foolish thing or another. And I carried around a constant weight of guilt and worry everywhere I went. I just could not seem to be good enough. In truth, the rules were a burden to me, and since I thought God made them, He was a burden too.”

Regrettably, this is too often the case. The Father God is entirely different than what many have been led to believe. Sin, guilt, and shame are entirely dealt with by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and His subsequent resurrection. We are totally accepted and forgiven. We rest in the loving arms of our Father God, secure and safe, and totally beloved. There is no reason to fear.

Our distorted self-image is simply that “distorted.” We have to replace it entirely! Wherever there is error and incorrect understanding, it must be replaced with the truth of Scripture. We must choose to believe what the Father says about us as His beloved children.

It is simply time to stop believing lies, half-truths, partial truths, and outright deceptions that are only intended to drive a wedge between our Father and us and make us ineffective in His service. We have to totally abandon the fiction and myth that because of what we have done, we will never be good enough to be truly accepted and loved.

It is as though we have been working in a coal mine all day and are completely covered from head to toe in coal dust. We need a good scrubbing and cleansing to get rid of all the grime and filth.

Our souls and spirits become polluted by half-truths at best and erroneous, false teaching and distortions at worst.

The problem is twofold. On the one hand, we have a totally false conception of what the Father is truly like. Part of our misunderstanding is derived from our fears and dreads. This is analogous to the proverbial monster that lurks under our bed in the dark of night. We think to ourselves, “if I just hide under the covers, I will be safe.” The rest comes from our learned deformed and misinformed self-concept and self-image. It may haunt us throughout our lives.

What is the Father’s solution for false information, misinformation, or disinformation? In a word, Truth. What has the Father provided for erroneous and deformed self-image? A total makeover and transformation from the inside out.

The Truth is that whatever we have done in our lives before our adoption is totally forgotten by the Father when we become His children. The Father, who knows everything all the time, has chosen to forget!

Let that sink in.

He took us as we were, sinful, in some cases utterly horrid, and adopted us into His Forever Family. The act of adoption expunged the record of grievances He had against us. We start with a completely clean slate. He totally and completely accepts us. He places into His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

REFLECT & PRAY

“We cannot make ourselves acceptable to God; but He, by His grace, makes us accepted in Christ” (Wiersbe).

Father I can hardly imagine the incredible truth that You love me, favor me and have completely accepted me just as I am. But You have. You, my dear Father, have a special place for me in Your heart. Nothing can ever take that away.

INSIGHT

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic nearly shut down planet Earth. The death toll may never be completely known. But the truth of Scripture always stands firm, unmovable against short-term, although exceedingly deadly, awful, life-altering circumstances.

When we think poorly of ourselves, we are in direct conflict with what the truth of Scripture says. The Father does not lie. What He says is always true. If there is a disagreement between what He says and what we believe, it is time to abandon our way of thinking and align with His.

Romans 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

It has never been about who we once were or what we once did. Instead, it is about who we are and where we are now. We are the adopted children of the King. Each of us has been placed into Christ in some mysterious and mystical fashion; we are united with Him. We are precious in our Father’s sight.

In fact, being in Christ, His beloved Son, we are also beloved to the Father.

Ephesians 1:4-8 

 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

This passage is so very rich. The heart of this passage is Ephesians 1:6. Seeing it in several translations provides a bit of insight.

NAS Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

ESV Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

NLT Ephesians 1:6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

KJV Ephesians 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved.

NIV Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

The Greek word translated as freely bestowed, glorious grace he has poured out, freely given, and accepted is charitoo. The noun form of charitoo is charis. Charis means grace or unmerited favor. It is getting something we could never deserve.

“The apostle is speaking about the love or grace of God as shown in our redemption. He has predestined us to be adopted as his sons, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which grace he has exercised towards us in the remission of sins . . .. Therefore, here ‘he has freely given us means to accept, to treat with favor” (Hodge).

Simply stated, the Father has “graced us.” He has favored us and given us what we could never deserve, adoption into His Forever Family and total acceptance and love. The very idea is beyond the capability of our human comprehension.

Perhaps an analogy we can grasp would be going to a pound, finding a battered, mistreated, and abandoned puppy, and adopting it. Bringing it home and welcoming the pup as a beloved family member. The puppy did nothing to deserve it. But his life is forever changed.

He is part of a new family and is dearly loved and cherished.

And so are you!

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Touching heaven and changing earth

Touching heaven and changing earth

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. – James 5:16

James 5:17-18

 17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years!

 18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain, and the earth began to yield its crops.

Charles Grandison Finney was born in Warren, Connecticut, on August 29, 1792. He grew up on a farm with eight siblings. On October 10, 1821, while he was a law student at age 29, Charles Finney became concerned about the salvation of his soul. He entered the woods near his home to come to terms with God. That night, he had a dramatic conversion experience. In his own words, he felt “waves of liquid love throughout his body.” At the age of 29, he became a licensed minister. In 1835, he became a professor at Oberlin College, teaching systematic theology. Eventually, Finney became president at Oberlin College.

Charles Finney was not your average minister. He went far above and beyond. He became one of American history’s most influential (and controversial) revivalists and purportedly converted 500,000 people (Christianity Today). Finney is considered responsible for the Second Great Awakening Revival.

Finney was a man who believed in the power of prayer and letting God move in time. Here of some of his more well-known statements.

“Prevailing prayer is that which secures an answer. Saying prayers is not offering prevailing prayer. The prevalence of prayer does not depend so much on quantity as on quality.”

“Nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together. They never love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each other’s hearts in prayer.”

“If the presence of God is in the church, the church will draw the world in. If the presence of God is not in the church, the world will draw the church out.”

“Revival is a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one’s will to God in deep humility.”

“A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.”

“There can be no higher enjoyment found in this world than is found in pulling souls out of the fire and bringing them to Christ.”

“You hear the word and believe it in theory while you deny it in practice. I say to you that ‘you deceive yourselves.’”

“When you come back to God for pardon and salvation, come with all you have to lay all at his feet. Come with your body to offer it as a living sacrifice upon His altar. Come with your soul and all its powers, and yield them in willing consecration to your God and Saviour. Come, bring them all along everything, body, soul, intellect, imagination, acquirements-all, without reserve.”

“Christ is not only in heaven but Christ within us, as really and truly inhabiting our bodies as we do, as really in us as we are in ourselves. This is the teaching of the Bible, and it must be spiritually apprehended by a divine, personal, and inward revelation to secure our abiding in Him.”

“Sin is the most expensive thing in the universe. Nothing else can cost so much.”

REFLECT & PRAY

No child of the King is greater than their prayer life. The two prerequisites to successful Christian living are vision and passion, both born in and maintained by prayer (Ravenhill).

Father how I desire to touch heaven and change earth. Teach me and strengthen me to be a man with a passion like Elijah. May I hear Your voice and follow your directions.

INSIGHT

James 5:16 The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

In Greek, the word translated as effective is energoumen. Energoumen could be well translated energized. The English word energy is derived from it. Successful prayer is energized prayer.

When James speaks of effective prayer, the unspoken implication is that there is also ineffective prayer. How can we tell the difference?

By the results!

Effectual prayer is prayer that accomplishes something. More particularly, it results in the will of the Father being accomplished on earth.

Charles Finney was a man who prayed effectively. He touched heaven and changed earth.

The Father is always at work around you. The Father invites you to become involved with Him in His work. He does not ask us to dream our dreams for Him. He does not invite us to set magnificent goals and then pray that He will help us achieve them. The kingdom of God is not a democracy. It is a theocracy.

The Father already has His own agenda when He approaches us. He desires to invite us to leave behind our plans and aspirations and to accompany Him where He is working. He leads us from being self-centered to being God-centered. When the Father reveals to you where He is working, that becomes His invitation to join Him in His activity (Blackaby).

Effective prayer is a science whose laws can be learned. Effective prayer is praying the Father’s will into existence. To pray effectively, we must know what the Father wants to accomplish and pray toward that end.

James 5:17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

What is the difference between Elijah and us? This is not a trick question. There is a simple one-word answer: Nothing! Elijah knew what to pray and how to pray because he knew the Father’s plan. He heard the Father’s voice and told him what to pray and say. Elijah’s task was to pray what he was told into existence.

1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives – the God I serve – there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!”

1 Kings 17:2 The word of the LORD came to him, saying

1 Kings 18:1 Now it happened after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth.”

Praying is not a shot in the dark. It is not a net cast into the sea hoping for a good catch. Praying is working with God to fulfill His divine plan (A.W. Tozer).

To pray effectively is a skill that can be learned. Any child of the King can master it. Prayer is the hardest thing we will ever be called upon to do, and being human, it is the one act we will be tempted to do less frequently than any other.

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Elevating your service ∙

Elevating your service ∙

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. – Luke 9:23

2 Corinthians 8:1-5

 1 Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia.

 2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.

 3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will.

 4 They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem.

 5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.

Many of these estimates are outdated, originating in 2018, decades ago in Internet time. It is estimated that there are between 5 and 10 billion pages on the Internet. There are more than 2 billion websites on the Internet. 4 billion out of the 7 billion people on earth are already online. Facebook has over 2.40 billion users, approximately 30% of the world’s population.

Internet users consume a great deal of bandwidth. In 2016 one zettabyte of bandwidth was used. One Zettabyte equals a thousand Exabytes, a billion Terabytes, or trillion Gigabytes. 85,000+ websites are hacked every day.

Each of us follows something or someone. We scour the Internet and social media for “facts” and opinions. We listen to friends, leaders, or even so-called “experts.” Some of us follow family customs or what are considered accepted societal norms. But all of us follow something.

What we follow, we serve!

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

You’re gonna have to serve somebody

Well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody (Bob Dylan)

To be a servant of the Father takes more than just being one of the children of the King. Right choices need to be made and maintained.

What is the standard?

We are to serve and help up to and beyond your ability. How can this possibly be done? Paul makes it simple. He provides an example, the brothers and sisters in Macedonia. They were “all in” regarding their determination to serve and help. Nothing could keep these people from helping. They begged to help despite personal sacrifice, suffering, and their current poverty. They were determined to help.

The key to their service is found in their very first critical decision. They gave themselves to the Lord and to us (2 Corinthians 8:5). Once you give yourself to the Father, giving things, time and resources follow easily.

REFLECT & PRAY

Elevating your service successfully is not easy; it is hard, sometimes seemingly impossible. But anyone can do it!

Father encourage me to daily surrender control of my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.

INSIGHT

To be a successful servant of the Father, we must hear Him and do what He says. It is one thing to hear; it is another thing to do.

“Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!” (James 1:22 – MSG)

We start where we are and acknowledge that the Father is in charge. When we accept Him as our sovereign Lord, it is not a concession. Instead, it is a confession of what is indeed fact. We choose to believe what is already true. We spend the rest of our lives endeavoring to actualize what we believe.

The Father’s intention is for Christ to have His special place in the lives and hearts of each child of the King. Sadly, many of us have snatched Christ’s special place away from Him. We have put ourselves in the driver’s seat instead. Our responsibility, as servants, is to surrender and allow Him to assume His rightful place in our hearts that we usurped from Him.

1 Peter 3:15 Reverence Christ as Lord of your heart.

The Greek term translated as reverence or sanctify is hagiazo, from hagios, which means holy, set apart. Reverence envisions an act of dedication, consecration, or commitment. It has the sense of “serving the Father with a whole heart,” “dedicating yourself,” or “giving yourself to God.”

Such reverence or commitment in your hearts involves continual deep-seated confidence that the Father is sovereign and that the Lord Jesus Christ reigns as Lord of lords and King of Kings.

1 Peter 3:15 can be translated as “In your hearts give Christ a unique place” (Barclay).

Children of the King who have enhanced their service are people for whom the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are of prime importance in life. For them, their relationship with the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ is their most precious possession.

If people set their hearts on earthly things, material possessions, happiness, pleasure, an easy life, and comfort, they, of all people, are most vulnerable. Life in our fallen world is unpredictable. They may lose these things at any moment. Such people are desperately easily hurt (Barclay).

On the other hand, when the Children of the King give the Lord Jesus Christ His unique place in our lives, things change dramatically. The most precious thing for us becomes our relationship with the Father. Nothing can take that from us. Therefore, we are completely secure.

Suffering is part of the human condition. No one escapes suffering, but for children of the King who are serving the Father with their whole hearts, suffering cannot touch the things that matter most of all. Suffering cannot rob us of the most precious things in life (Barclay).

The fear of suffering is mitigated by elevating our service. “Only he who can say, ‘The Lord is the strength of my life’ can go on to say, ‘Of whom shall I be afraid?’” (Maclaren)

The Father is looking for servants willing to really serve Him, not merely go through the motions. A special delight awaits His servants. One day He will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!” (Matthew 25:23)

Trust the Lord Jesus Christ wholeheartedly and allow Him to take control.

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Spent, daring greatly ∙

Spent, daring greatly ∙

I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know. – Acts 20:27

1 Samuel 17:23-58

 23 Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, came out from the Philistine ranks. Then David heard him shout his usual taunt to the army of Israel.

 24 As soon as the Israelite army saw him, they began to run away in fright.

 26 David asked the soldiers standing nearby, who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?”

 31 Then, David’s question was reported to King Saul, and the king sent for him.

 32 “Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!”

 33 “Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.”

 37 The LORD who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the LORD be with you!”

 41 Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him,

 42 sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy.

 43 “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods.

 45 David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies– the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

 47 This is the LORD’s battle, and he will give you to us!”

 48 As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him.

 49 Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground.

 50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword.

Theodore Roosevelt, no stranger to criticism or boldness, wrote: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.”

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause.”

“Who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Too many of us do not want to get involved. We tend to hold back and wait on the sidelines, watching life go by. We do not error by trying and failing; we error by not trying at all. The Word of God recounts the stories of average people accomplishing great deeds with the Father’s help. Courage is an inner dynamic available to all people who possess Biblical faith.

It is not what you have that matters; instead, what matters is that the Father has you. In our struggle, we are never alone. Our good Shepherd is always with us, watching over us. He is at hand to care for us and carry us when necessary.

I am like the sheep that strays from the rest of the flock. Unless the Good Shepherd takes me on His shoulders and carries me back to His fold, my steps will falter, and in the very effort of rising, my feet will give way (St. Jerome).

REFLECT & PRAY

Instead of being critical of those who do, do!

Father give me the wisdom to know when to act and the courage to do so.

INSIGHT

Courage takes many forms. Sometimes courage advances boldly. At other times, the courage is to show up and remain constant and unswerving.

Courage is the quality of mind or spirit, mental or moral strength that enables a person to face and persevere difficulty, danger, pain, uncertainty, or intimidation without fear. Spiritual or moral courage is the ability to act rightly in the face of widespread opposition, shame, scandal, discouragement, or personal loss (Richard Zinbarg, Ph.D., Psychology Today).

Father, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference (Niebuhr).

The Scriptures are replete with stories of courageous people who did extraordinary things as they were encouraged and powered by the Father.

Acts 7:55-60

 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

 56 And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”

 59 As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

 60 He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.

1 John 2:28 And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.

Revelation 3:2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing (Edmund Burke).

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© Dr. H 2022

Greed unlimited ∙

Greed unlimited ∙

Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.- Luke 12:15

Luke 12:16-23

 16 And He told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man was very productive.”

 17 “And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’”

 18 Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.”

 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”

 20 But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you, and now who will own what you have prepared?”

 21 So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

 22 And He said to His disciples, “For this reason, I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.”

 23 “For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”

The Great Unconformity refers to a gap in the geologic record of rock worldwide. The Grand Canyon exposures this gap in the rock layers or strata. An unconformity is a surface in the rock record, in the stratigraphic column, representing a time from which no rocks are preserved.

According to evolutionary time reckoning, this unconformity represents a long period of 250 to 1200 million years. The Grand Canyon divides rocks with familiar fossils from those with no fossils or only fossil bacteria. Why does this gap exist? How did it occur? There are many theories, but they are all nothing but educated guesswork. Without human observers or a written record, it is hard to explain why something is present. It is far harder to explain why something is absent. For creationists, the global flood of Noah provides a plausible explanation.

The life and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ are revolutionary. His teachings and principles exposed a tremendous gap between what people should aspire to and seek to be and what they actually are.

People should be rich toward God. But instead, they seek to be rich in the things this world provides. Consequently, they remain destitute, poverty-stricken indigents in their relationship with the Father.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the nonconformist, exposed the Great Unconformity of Greed Unlimited.

Luke 12:16-23 does not prohibit wealth. Instead, it reveals the Great Unconformity lurking within us all.

It is ironically tragic that in pursuing to provide satisfactorily for our own earthly needs, we become fools in the things that matter for eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ warns of the dangerous eternal ramifications of wealth. Wealth can create a seductive tendency toward complacency, self-sufficiency, and covetousness. Though the rich fool anticipates years of ease – a time to eat, drink, and be merry – instead, an eternal destiny apart from the Father is about to begin that night.

REFLECT & PRAY

Poverty and the poor will always be with us. But so will the rich. The real tragedy is to be rich in the things of this world yet poor, destitute in the things of the Father.

Father encourage me to honor You with my life to make my number one priority to be rich in You.

INSIGHT

The wealthy farmer had success, satisfaction, and security. He indeed had personal peace and affluency. What more could he want?

Alas, he was a rich fool. The rich farmer had the “I’s” of a fool. In Luke 12:17-19, the word “my” is repeated four times, while the term “I” occurs 6 times in English and 8 times in Greek. For him, it was all about “me.” The rich man’s ability to see beyond the now, the things that had eternal value, was catastrophically impaired. He never saw beyond himself nor beyond this present world.

Mark Twain defined civilization as “a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.”

The Greek word translated as greed is pleonexia. It comes from pleíon – more, and echo – to have. It is translated as greed, avarice, and covetousness. It can be simply defined as the desire to have more.

Luke 12:15 Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.

This rich farmer had an incorrect understanding of life and death. The Lord Jesus Christ and an entirely different perspective. He did not see the farmer enjoying life; He saw him facing death!

Matthew 13:22 The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.

Riches cannot keep us alive when our time comes to die. Nor can they buy back the opportunities we missed while we were thinking of ourselves and ignoring the Father and others. Greed Unlimited and the pursuit of wealth choke the Word of God out of our lives and render it mute (Matthew 13:22). We lose our hunger for it and do not pursue it.

His greatest tragedy is not what he left behind but what lay in front of him, eternity without the Father. The man lived his life without knowing the Father, died without God, and will be in eternity without Him.

What does it mean to be rich toward God?

It begins with salvation and our entrance into a relationship with the Father. The closer and more intimate we grow in our relationship with Him, the richer we become in the things of eternal value.

Solomon personifies wisdom and commends developing a deep relationship with it.

Proverbs 8:17-19

 17 I love those who love me, and those who diligently seek me will find me.

 18 Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness.

 19 My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold, And my yield better than choicest silver.

The Lord Jesus Christ challenges us to recognize our propensity toward personal peace and affluency (Francis Schaeffer). We need to do a serious self-examination of our values and priorities. Are we driven by greed, consumerism, unethical living, materialistic values, and the need to accumulate?

True satisfaction in life flows out of fulfilling the purpose for which we were created and enjoying an intimate relationship with the Father. As a substitute for the Father, acquiring material excess only makes the heart feel more hollow (Stanley).

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© Dr. H 2022