Homepage Message: July 2009
Recently America has mourned the passing of notable personalities such as Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and, on a smaller scale, Billy Mays who advertized for OxiClean.
What do these people have in common; wealth and notoriety? One would have had to live in a cave not to have heard of these people. They made a name for themselves and accuried large sums of money and assets.
What else do they have in common? They are all dead and have passed into eternity. Another question: How much of their wealth and assets did they take with them? Nothing, not even the clothes they were buried in; only the suit in which they were born. As a very wealthy man who lost everything once said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.” —Job 1:21
No matter how much of the world’s wealth and material possessions we accumulate, not one speck of dust can we take with us. No matter how popular, influential or powerful we become, it will not count on the other side. What is of this world remains in this world upon our death, but what is of God will return or remain with God. Jesus gives us the right perspective:
“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
This is not to say it is evil to save money or have valuable assets. But it is wrong and evil to trust in earthly tresures. Better to have treasures in heaven and a home in heaven than to have earthly tresures and no home for all eternity.
Figuratively speaking, an example of this is seen in Bernie Madoff. He gained billions of dollars through a $50-billion-dollar ponzi scheme allowing him and his family to live in “paradise” on earth. Now he is as good as “dead” spending the rest of his life in prison without any of his wealth or possessions. What did all his scheming gain him? Only temporary pleasure and pain, and poverty in the end. Was it worth it? Maybe, if this is all there is to life and tomorrow we die. One more question: Can anything we accomplish or accumulate on earth prevent death? No! We are all dying and will one day, famous or not, find ourselves in a box six feet in the ground. But where is the soul? It’s in eternity.
“Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” —Hebrews 9:27-28
There is a day of reckoning for all of us. That day need not be frightening or uncertain. Jesus Christ took your sin with him to the cross and paid the price of eternal death for you. He is the only substitute there is, and faith alone in Jesus will remove every sin and every barrier from entering heaven.
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” —John 1:12