Charlise Theron the Oscar winning South African actress from Benoni received a shock when she was charged for wearing the wrong wrist watch at a social event in Los Angeles! She did not wear the watch given to her from the company that is sponsoring her. It was a mistake! But she has to pay $150 million to them as a punishment! When they interviewed her she was flabberghasted and said she could not believe they would do such a thing! It would probably swallow up all her life's earnings up to date!
The Psalmist continually warns us not to envy the rich or famous. The Psalmist also warns us not to take note when wicked people prosper and wonder why God allows it. He says that he almost backslid pondering these things and envying other people's wealth. The way of escape for him was to go into the sanctuary and pray about it until he had a revelation that gave him a new perspective on life in general. A word of the Lord came to him that reminded him to, 'look at their end'.
There are many books telling you how to get rich and how to imitate self-made millionaires, but these books do not tell you how these men ended up. As a young man looking at the path of life ahead of me, I investigated many aspects of life and studied the lives of great men to learn from them. Many books told you what to do and how to go about it, but in the end I decided to take the Bible, that old black Book that has withstood the test of time, to be my Road Map in Life.
When I realised that money is not the key to happiness and wealth is not the measure of a man's success, I turned to the riches Christ had to offer and decided to sell all that I have several times, give to the poor and to follow Him in the Way!
Nola and I have lived our lives as missionaries by this adage found in Scripture: there is he who scatters abroad and yet increases; then there is he who keeps back more than is necessary and it tends to poverty.
We have not stopped travelling abroad to other lands to spread the Good News of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, namely that God was in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to Himself and if anyone would believe with their hearts that Jesus Christ died for their sins and that God raised Him from the dead, would be saved if they confess Him as Lord!
The blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow to it! When God begins to bless you there is no turning back! If generation after generation would continue to server the Lord faithfully he will increase their blessing and eventually begin to multiply it like he did for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
Another verse of Scripture that guided our lives is the one where Jesus said, 'if anyone gives up houses or land, father or mother, or possessions for My sake and the Gospel's, he would receive 100 fold in this life and eternal life in the life to come, plus persecutions.'
Persecutions come when God blesses you because people are envious and jealous and begin to hate those who have found the favour of God in their lives by faitfully serving God and humanity.
I believe we need to make a decision individually, but also as a family, like Joshua and say, 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord our God!'
The Lord's financial operating system works in any economy of the world: Malachi prophesied and said, if you would faithfully bring in the tithes and the offerings and sacrifices to the Lord's house (the accurate church), He would pour out a blessing that there would be no room to receive it! He will even give back to you what you have lost over the years! Then the Lord invites us all to test him in this matter!
If people would realise that the best investment and the best financial business to be in is to serve the Lord with your finances, the world would turn out to be a wonderful place, because the love of money is the root of all evil.
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