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GraceBro -> What Money Can't Buy (5/4/2008 1:12:36 AM)
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"There are few things quite so boring as being religious, but there is nothing quite so exciting as being a Christian! Most folks have never discovered the difference between the one and the other, so that there are those who sincerely try to live a life they do not have, substituting religion for God, Christianity for Christ, and their own noble endeavors for the energy, joy, and power of the Holy Spirit. In the absence of reality, they can only grasp at rituals, stubbornly defending the latter in the absence of the former, lest they be found with neither!They are lamps without oil, cars without gas, and pens without ink, baffled at their own impotence in the absence of all that alone can make man functional; for man was so engineered by God that the presence of the Creator within the creature is indispensable to His humanity. Christ gave Himself for us to give Himself to us! His presence puts God back into the man! He came that we might have life - God's life! There are those who have a life they never live. They have come to Christ and thanked Him only for what He did, but do not live in the power of who He is. Between the Jesus who "was" and the Jesus who "will be" they live in a spiritual vacuum, trying with no little zeal to live for Christ a life that only He can live in and through them, perpetually begging for what in Him they already have!" From the foreword of Classic Christianity by Bob George, Eugene: Harvest House Publishers. ©1989.
$162,000,000! That is what the PowerBall jackpot is up to for the next drawing. There isn't a person alive who doesn't dream about what they would do with that kind of money. Quit work. Buy a house, or two, or three. Get that luxury car they've been dying to purchase, or two, or three. Go back to school. Help out family and friends. Get that liposuction or laser eye surgery. Start a business. Oh yeah, and support the Lord's work. Haha!! Can't forget about God, right? Basically, we think about what that money would purchase for us that we don't already have. "If I only had the money, I would do so many things," we tell ourselves, as if that is the reason we haven't achieved any of our goals in life. We hear it all the time. "I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck." "Sometimes it's hard to make ends meet." So many people are buried in debt and the troubles of life that the lure of winning millions, and what they believe it would do for them, is the only way they feel they can make it through life. There are Christians who act the same way about their faith as some do about PowerBall. They are always concerned about what they don't have and what they need to do to get it. The sad thing is that they already have everything.
"I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:10-19
Paul didn't have millions, yet, he was able to say with conviction that he had "learned to be content whatever the circumstances." This is something that I can't even say I have completely learned myself, nor do I know anybody who claims to have found total contentment. Did Paul have something special that the rest of us believers don't have? The answer is "no." If he had anything it was the understanding of who he was in Christ and all that he had because of his faith in Jesus. Paul had something that money can't buy. Paul new, and was secure in, his identity in Christ. He new exactly how God saw him as a child of God. Paul knew he had the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the love, acceptance, meaning and purpose to life that comes from that knowledge. How many christians believe that they are as righteous in God's eyes as Paul? Most likely a fair share of them do. But how many christians believe they are as righteous in God's eyes as Jesus Christ, Himself?
"It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1: 30-31
If you are in Christ you are as righteous, in God's sight, as Christ Himself! That may be hard to swallow at first, but it is the truth. Think about it. Has the normal way of obtaining righteousness worked for the believer? For some, they will say it has, but that is only religious pride rearing its ugly head. The endless traditions, rituals and works that promise the righteousness of God, as long as you never rest, only lead to frustration and never to contentment. All of them are designed to have you pursuing, in the flesh, what you already have received because of your faith. The words of Major Ian Thomas ring true. When we don't understand what we have been freely given, in Christ, we are like cars without gas, lamps without oil and pens without ink, doomed to search for what we cannot find because we already have it through faith in Christ!
"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?" Hebrews 13:5-6
Our contentment in life is clearly separate from the money we have, or hope to receive, in the future. God knows we need money to survive in this world, but is our goal to gain the world or allow God to save it through us? No amount of money will get us any closer to God than we already are, in Christ. No amount of money can buy the righteousness that we already have in in Christ. It is realizing all we have in Christ that reveals to us that what the world has to offer pales in comparison. PowerBall ticket. $1. Tank of gas. $50. Luxury automobile. $70,000. Dream home purchased with PowerBall winnings. $850,000. The inheritance we have in Christ. Priceless!
Grace and Peace
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