Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr19/thieves.zip/THIEVES.TXT

Text File | 1993-05-30 | 35KB | 597 lines

Thieves In The Church


Copyright by Joe Crews.
  All rights reserved.

Do you know about the sin nobody admits?  It's a sin we're
afraid to mention.  We must be afraid to mention it, because
nobody ever mentions it about himself, anyway.  Now people have
confessed to me that they've committed some terrible, dark sins.
I can recall people who have admitted being drunkards, who
confessed to stealing, breaking up another's home, murder,
taking the Lord's name in vain, trifling on the marriage
partner, Sabbath breaking--all the rest--but as far as I can
remember in all my time in the ministry, nobody has ever
admitted to me that he was guilty of the sin we're going to talk
about now.  And I suppose the reason for it is that it's the
root sin; the basic sin; the very foundation sin.
The Lord Jesus Himself solemnly warned us of this sin in Luke
12:15:  "And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of
covetousness:  for a men's life consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesseth."  Now the sin that nobody
admits is covetousness.
People just simply don't say "Well, I'm a covetous person.  I
want to get hold of that extra dollar.  I want to reach out and
grab and pull in everything I can get hold of."  And people
never come to you and say, "I want to admit something.
Greediness is my problem.  I'm just a covetous person."  It has
always amazed me just a little bit.  People don't mind at all
admitting some of those grosser, blacker sins; but when it comes
right down to those refined sins like covetousness, I guess it
is just too humiliating.  Of course, it is a sin that's not
condemned very much by our materialistic age, either.  It is not
even condemned very much by the church, it seems.  You break any
of the other commandments and immediately you get into trouble,
but coveting--well, nobody knows whether you're coveting or not.
But there it is--it is a commandment of the Lord, and it is one
that most people seem to overlook; yet in God's sight it's one
of the blackest of all sins because it's the root of every other
sin.  Remember what the apostle Paul said in Romans 7:7.  He
said, "I had not known sin ... except the law had said, Thou
shalt not covet."  The point he was trying to get across was
this:  Every single sin has its roots in the sin of
covetousness, and that's why God thought it was important enough
to include in the Ten Commandments.  It's the sin that comes
before and leads to every other sin that you could possible
commit.

God Called a Man "Fool"

Now I may as well warn you ahead of time that there's no
possible way of getting rid of coveting except through the Lord
Jesus Christ--absolutely no way at all.  It takes special power
from heaven to overcome this sin.  But now let's go back to Luke
12 for a moment.  After Jesus said, "Take heed, and beware of
covetousness," He told a story to illustrate the point a little
bit further.  Let me read it to you, beginning with verse 16:
"And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a
certain rich man brought forth plentifully:  And he thought
within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room
where to bestow my fruits?  And he said, This will I do:  I will
pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow
all my fruits and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, Soul,
thou hast much good laid up for many years; take thine ease,
eat, drink, and be merry.  But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee:  then whose shall
those things be, which thou hast provided?  So is he that layeth
up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
Now, notice something.  God calls this man a fool.  Now I may
call a man a fool and be entirely mistaken, but when God calls a
man a fool, he's a fool.  Now this man was a fool.  Why?  Well,
because he was concerned only about himself--"I," "I," "I,"--and
he forgot all about the solemn fact that one of these days we
all have to stand before the Lord in judgment.  So God said,
"You're a fool.  Tonight your soul will be required of you.
Then whose will all these things be?"
This is a very solemn story.  Every single Christian should give
it very earnest attention and heed.  The Lord is just saying
here, "You go ahead.  If that's the way you want it, get
anything you want.  Keep the things that are not yours.  Make
provisions for more and more sins.  You have the right to
choose, but when the day of reckoning comes and your soul will
be required of you, then whose will these things be?"
You know, a lot of people think they are getting by with secret
sins--things that are on the inside; things that don't show up--
like coveting, for example.  A person can go along and be quite
a respectable Christians as far as other people are concerned,
and yet be guilty of coveting. It just doesn't show up like many
of the grosser, outward sins.  But mark you this:  On the great
judgment day when the light from the judgment throne of God
shines into every life, all of those things are going to be
revealed and people are going to see them in all their rotten,
disgusting fullness.  And one of the worst sins to be shown upon
the judgment day will be the sin of coveting.

Coveting Another's Praise,
    Honor, or Position

I'm afraid we don't realize just how far this thing reaches.
Take for example, professional jealousy. Have you ever heard
that expression?  I want to tell you, it's not limited to just
the professions, either.  It's a term that we ought to use
loosely, because it can apply to everybody, everywhere.  Wives
are jealous of other wives; husbands of other husbands; workmen
of other workmen; and it's covetousness--this professional
jealousy--coveting another person's praise, or his honor, or his
position.  It's so widespread that there is hardly a place
anywhere that it's not named.  It even exists among preachers,
and here's where the thing comes home.  A person could build a
very beautiful home and I could go look at it one day and say,
"You know, this is a lovely home.  It's a masterpiece. You've
done a very beautiful job."  And that wouldn't take anything out
of me--it would be easy for me to say that, because I'm not a
builder.  A person could paint a beautiful masterpiece--
delightful, exquisite--and I could say, "Listen, that's
beautiful; it's superb; never have I seen anything like it."  I
could just lavish praise on that man and it could be nothing to
me because I'm not a painter.  But when somebody stands up and
preaches a better sermon than I can preach--then for me to say
honestly and truly from the heart, "It's a masterpiece; the Lord
was with you"--then that is something else.
Do you see what I mean?  Now that is what we're talking about
today.  This matter of coveting somebody else's praise, somebody
else's success, somebody else's prestige, is one of the greatest
sins mentioned in the Book of God.  It is my prayer that as we
go further into this study, every person will determine in his
heart to begin right now laying hold of God for victory.  It's a
very terrible thing for a Christian to be guilty of coveting.
It is bad enough for a worldling, but it's an awful thing for a
person who names the name of Christ to be guilty of coveting
something.  We need to learn to give God the praise for
everything; then we will stop worrying about credit--who
deserves credit for that.  We will give it all to God, where it
belongs in the first place.
Another place where many of God's people seem to be crippled by
the sin of coveting is the area of giving.  Far too many of
God's professed people are guilty of embezzling God's money.

Every Day We Handle
Someone Else's Money

We often read in newspapers about individuals who
misappropriated millions of dollars.  These embezzlers often
skip the country, taking the money, and leaving financial ruin
for scores of people who lost all they had. We secretly hope the
law will catch up with them, and throw the book at them. But
now, wait a minute.  Let's not move too fast here.  All of us
handle money.
Furthermore, regardless of who you are--you handle money that is
not yours.  You handle money that belongs to God.  Could it be
that someone reading this is guilty of embezzling heavenly
funds?  Did you know the greatest holder of lands and good in
the world has been chiseled and robbed repeatedly without going
out of business?  God is that great Owner of whom I speak.  I'm
referring specifically to tithes and offerings. In Leviticus
27:30 the Scripture says that the tithe is the Lord's.  There is
just no possible way to miss it.
Perhaps I should read that verse.  This is what it says:  "All
the tithe of the land ... is the Lord's:  it is holy unto the
Lord."  All the tithe is the Lord's; that is specific.  Then in
Malachi 3 we find something added. Verse 8 says:  "Will a man
rob God?  Yet ye have robbed me.  But ye say, Wherein have we
robbed thee?  In tithes and offerings."  Now notice:  A person
who does not tithe is a robber, but in addition, a person who
does not give offerings is guilty before God of robbing Him; so,
your tithes and your offerings belong to God.  Oh, may it be
engraved upon every heart with a pen of fire:  These things do
not belong to us; they are God's. We are handling sacred funds,
and the question is--how are we handling them?  Could it be that
some of us are guilty of misusing God's money?
What is a tithe anyway?  Read Leviticus 27:32:  "And concerning
the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever
passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord."
This means that one-tenth of all our increase belongs to God.
We may not have thought of it before, but ten percent of our
income is holy for the Lord.  We can't keep it for ourselves
without actually breaking that eighth commandment again and
stealing what is not ours.  If a man earns $1,000 a month, $100
is not really his own.  Of course only the profit, or increase,
is subject to the tithe.  In other words, a businessman might
realize an increase of $5,000 a month but $4,000 would be needed
to pay the salaries of his helpers and other overhead expense.
In such a case, he would only have to pay $100 tithe on the
$1,000 profit for that month.
Somebody is bound to object that tithing belongs to the Mosaic
Law, the Old Testament, and doesn't apply to us in the New
Testament.  But the fact is that this plan of tithing antedates
the time of Moses by hundreds of years.  Abraham paid tithe at
the Lord's own direction long before the days of Moses.  Jacob
also tithed on all that he had. It was an obligation before
either the Jewish race or the ceremonial law had even come into
existence.
But now let's read what Jesus had to say about tithing.  After
all, He's the great guide and example for all of us in spiritual
things.  In Matthew 23:23:  "Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and
cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, and faith:  these ought ye to have done, and
not to leave the other undone."  That word "ought" denotes
obligation and immediately creates a moral basis for the
doctrine. It is moral because it involved stealing from God, as
we have already read.


Tithe Is to Be Used for Only
One Purpose


Let's ask this question before we go further.  What is the tithe
money to be used for in the Lord's work?  Please turn to 1
Corinthians 9:13:  "Do ye not know that they which minister
about holy things live of the things of the temple?  and they
which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?"  Here
Paul is referring to the priesthood of the Old Testament and how
they received a livelihood for their work of ministry at the
ancient altar.  But now read the very next verse:  "Even so hath
the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live
of the gospel."  Verse 14.  This text clearly teaches that the
gospel minister is to be supported exactly the same way as the
priests of the Old Testament.
We  now turn to the Scriptures to find out what God's plan was
for the support of the ministry, both in the Old Testament and
in the New.  In Numbers 18:21 we read, "And behold, I have given
the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance,
for their service which they serve, even the service of the
tabernacle of the congregation."  The tribe of Levi was not
given any inheritance as the other Israelites were.  They had no
herds, or business ventures.  All the other tribes paid tithe
and that one-tenth was used to pay the priests, the Levites.
All right, "Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which
preach the gospel should live of the gospel," so Paul said.  The
tithe is not to be used for an education fund, a church expense
fund, or even a poor fund.  It is ordained of God only to pay
the ministry.  This is the biblical way for preachers to be
supported.
I heard of one preacher who closed all the doors of the church
and refused to preach until the offering goal of a certain sum
was reached.  Other churches have resorted to religious fairs,
lotteries, bingo, etc. to meet their pastoral financial
obligations.  Is this the plan of God?  Is this the way He had
ordained for churches to meet the deficit in their budgets?
This is not according to God's plan. Something is desperately
wrong with a church which has to bring the world into its
operating plan.  If Christ should walk into some of these
temples and cathedrals of our day, He would be just as indignant
as He was in days of old.  He would say once more, "Take these
things hence.  You have made my house of prayer a den of
thieves."  What a tragedy it is that many young people have
learned to be expert in gambling inside the walls of their own
church. What a sad commentary on the state of modern religious
leaders who encourage such demonstrations.  Is this what God
expects from the people who are called by His name?
Some Preachers Fear to Preach Truth
Because of Money

God never intended for preachers to dabble in real estate, car
sales, or some side business.  A man called of God should give
his whole time to the Word of God.  His livelihood, in other
words, should be supplied by the divine plan of the tithing
system.  This system eliminates one of the greatest temptations
facing the modern minister of the gospel.  Some preachers are
actually afraid to preach the plain truth for fear of cutting
off their own salary.
When a pastor is paid directly by the local congregation and has
to depend solely upon the liberality of one church group, he is
in an anxious dilemma. If he rebukes sin as it should be
rebuked, he may offend the very ones who may stop giving
offerings, and thus his own salary will be jeopardized.  Now I
know that no true pastor would preach smooth things just for
worldly gain; nevertheless, many are actually afraid to preach
plainly under the conditions I've just described.  God's plan
eliminates that temptation to soften the truth.  A local
congregation shouldn't be directly paying the man who preaches
to them, and this would eliminate that great danger.
Some people complain that they can't pay the tithe because
there's nothing left after all the bills are paid.  But, are we
doing the right thing by waiting until everything else is paid
before we give God the tithe?  In Proverbs 3:9 we read:  "Honour
the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all
thine increase."  In other words, pay the tithe first.  Even the
ministers pay one-tenth of their salary although they are paid
from the tithe fund themselves.  After all, everything belongs
to God, doesn't it?  All the silver and gold and the cattle on a
thousand hills--we are simply stewards of these things.  He has
let us use them.  We pay the rent on a house in order to
acknowledge that the house is not really ours.  We just use it.
In the same way, we give the tenth back to God to acknowledge
that all our possessions are just given to us to use.  They
really belong to God, the great Creator, and Owner of all
things.
Now, a great many people say, "I go to church and I pay my
tithe," when what they really mean is that they go to church and
give offerings; because nobody is a tithe payer who does not
give one-tenth of his income.  Tithe means one-tenth.  And that
is what the Bible is speaking of, one-tenth of a person's
increase.  Some people say, "Isn't that a great deal to give,
one-tenth?"  Suppose somebody came to you and said, "I would
like to set you up in business.  I would like to furnish the
capital, the buildings, the equipment--everything.  I want you
to run it.  Then at the close of the month I want you to figure
up the profit.  When you have found the profit, I want you to
keep nine-tenths and give me one-tenth."  Would you say, "Whew,
you mean you want a whole tenth?"  No, you would look at the man
and say, "You've made a mistake, haven't you?  You mean you want
nine-tenths and give me one-tenth."
Why, you have never heard of an offer like that.  People don't
make offers like that today--not at all--but that is the offer
God has made. There is no question about it.  This world and
everything in it belongs to God.  He made the whole thing and
everything here is His.  The Bible is so clear on it.  I read
from Psalms 24:1:  "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness
thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein."  Psalms 50:10-
12:  "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon
a thousand hills.  I know all the fowls of the mountains:  and
the wild beasts of the field are mine.  If I were hungry,  I
would not tell thee:  for the world is mine, and the fulness
thereof."  In Haggai 2:8:  "The silver is mine, and the gold is
mine, saith the Lord of hosts."  We forget that sometimes, but
he says, "It is mine."  Now notice Deuteronomy 8:18:  "But thou
shalt remember the Lord thy God;  for it is he that giveth thee
power to get wealth."
When we add that all up and put it together, the Bible is simply
saying this:  Everything is God's.  If you have anything at all,
God gave you the power and the strength, the intelligence to
obtain what you do have.  And  then He says to you, "Now, ten
percent of what you receive is mine.  I want you to give it to
me."  Is that a fair offer? I submit to you today, you have
never heard a more fair, generous offer anywhere.  Remember the
text, Leviticus 27:30, that says the tithe is the Lord's.  Oh,
may God impress us with  that point.  It isn't a question of our
deciding whether we ought to turn it over to Him, whether it
should become His, or will become His; it already is the Lord's.
That has been settled.  The tithe is the Lord's, and so one-
tenth of every man's income belongs to God.  He may be a
complete heathen and knows nothing of our God, but still one-
tenth belongs to the Lord God of heaven.
Finally, we come to that very important text in Malachi 3:8-11:
"Will a man rob God?  Yet ye have robbed me.  But ye say,
Wherein have we robbed thee?  In tithes and offerings.  Ye are
cursed with a curse:  for ye have robbed me, even this whole
nation.  Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there
may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the
Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and
pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to
receive it.  And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and
he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground."
There it is, people robbing God!  In one year the FBI records
revealed that there were 111,750 cases of robbery in the United
States and more than a million cases of burglary. But this is
only a fraction of the true picture.  How many million church
members have been guilty of the worst type of stealing--and from
God, at that?  Probably there are more thieves in the church, on
this basis, than outside the church.  In fact, there's no
question about it; God says if we take the tithe, we are
stealing from Him.
Incidentally, have you noticed the amazing parallel between the
tithing tenth and the tenth commandment of the Decalogue?  The
command against coveting is the tenth one, and the command to
give a tenth is God's remedy for covetousness.  The root reason
for breaking either one of these basic biblical laws is
selfishness.  The opposite of self is love, and all obedience
should be based on loving God more than ourselves.
Love means giving, as we learn from John 3:16:  "For God so
loved ... that he gave."  We could never match the love-gift of
God in surrendering His Son, but we should love him enough that
the surrender of 10 or 50 percent of all we possess should not
be counted a sacrifice.  God's challenge to "prove me" has
always produced the same results in those who took Him at His
word. The promise is literal that "there shall not be room
enough to receive" the blessing as it returns to us "pressed
down, shaken together, and running over."
Never underestimate the blessings and benefits of turning away
from the robbing business.  When we rob God we are, in reality,
robbing ourselves.  We lose the blessings which are a part of
the package called obedience. Unbelievable promises of
protection and prosperity are made to those who go into
partnership with God through faithful giving.  The fruits of
unselfish stewardship, based upon love, are fantastic to
contemplate.  "Prove me," says the Owner of everything.  Will
you dare to do it right now by making a covenant with God to be
an honest steward in both tithes and offerings?

 What Is Time Worth?

A few days ago I wasted thirty minutes of valuable time waiting
for a shoe repairman to finish a job that had been promised
earlier.  Mentally I did some rough computations and concluded
that my thirty minutes of time was worth much more than the cost
of the shoe repair.  I can assure you that the results of my
arithmetic did not relieve my frustration in the least degree,
but it did start me thinking more about the worth of minutes and
hours.
Unfortunately, we equate the value of time with a certain number
of dollars and cents. People are paid so much an hour, or so
many dollars a month. On the basis that one is paid $10 an hour
for his work, let's try to evaluate the true worth of that 60
minutes.  The equation would go something like this:  one hour
of time equals $10 in cash money.
Having translated the hour into money, and assuming that the
money is fully equivalent to the 60 minutes of time, we can
determine the true value of the hour of time as we trace the
value of the $10.  How valuable is that $10 to the person who
exchanged his time for it?  How much good will it perform for
him, and how much will it contribute to his quality of life?  If
the $10 adds more happiness, longer life, and greater security,
then we must conclude that the man's time was easily worth the
amount and perhaps even more.
But suppose the $10 is spent for liquor, which leads to
alcoholism or disease? Instead of having any real worth, the
money would have a negative value, and the hour's time would
also really be worth less than nothing.  In other words, our
time is worth only as much as we are able to squeeze out of the
money we are paid for our time. If the things we spend the money
for result in better living and longer, happier life, our time
may be worth infinitely more than any amount of money.  On the
other hand, if we spend the money for things which create
disease, cheapen the moral worth, and prevent our receiving
eternal life, then our time has a negative worth.
If this principle is true, the world's standard of evaluating
time is totally wrong. Some men who are paid over a million
dollars a year are using their wealth to defile body and mind,
and destroy spiritual perceptions.  Society can say what it
will, but those men are wasting their time, because they waste
the money which their time purchased.
Other men are paid little in dollars, but they invest that
little in things which contribute to peace of mind, building a
strong moral character, and preparing for eternal life--they are
the people whose time is really valuable; in fact, more valuable
than the highest paid executive in the corporate structure who
is misusing his wealth.
Do you get the picture clearly in mind, that your money
represents your time?  What you do with your money, then, is the
same as what you do with your time. The benefits drawn from your
money represent the true value of your time.
Think about it for a moment. How are you using those dollars?
Are they invested in ways that will lead to your eternal
happiness and security?  Are you making it possible for others
to reap the blessing of God's saving grace?  As a result of your
use of money, will souls be able to rejoice with you in Heaven?
The imprudent, wasteful manner of treating money will lead
millions to lose eternal life. Not only are their years of
earthly time lost, but the endless time of a future eternity is
also forfeited.  All the money purchased by a lifetime of labor
is worthless unless it contributes to building up the true
quality of life.  Sorrowfully we observe how billions of dollars
are spent for selfish indulgence, drug addiction, and
destructive purposes. How many wasted lives are represented in
those wasted dollars!
Much has been written about Howard Hughes, the eccentric
millionaire, whose limitless wealth became the ultimate cause of
his horrible and dehumanized death.  Suspicious of everyone, he
isolated himself from friends and society for fear of being
exploited for his money.  After his death additional animosities
and selfishness were stirred among those who fought like animals
to acquire a portion for themselves.
Was Howard Hughes' time really that important and valuable?  His
time produced money that produced misery which finally brought
death. Make no mistake about it, it is better for a man never to
be born than to live for self and to lose eternal life in the
end. It is better for a man to be a pauper than to earn millions
which cause himself or others to be lost.
At the risk of sounding redundant I come back to the question,
How are you spending your money?  The years of your life are
tied up in that money.  Disposing of it is disposing of years of
your time.  When your life is over, all your years of
remunerated time will be reflected in your estate. It may be
small, but it is important, because it represents the value of
all the time you exchanged for it.
How do you value that time?  How do you appraise those years
that made up so much of your life?  The answer to those
questions will be revealed by the way you relate to your
possessions. If that money now ministers to your deepest
priority needs, then the time it took to acquire the money was
well spent.  And if the money becomes a vehicle for reaching
souls for God's Kingdom, the value of the time in earning it is
far beyond the computation.  Why so?  Let me illustrate.
If your money can be used to turn just one soul to Christ, how
much would the time investment be worth?  Try to understand it
in these terms:  one soul saved for eternity will live longer
than all the combined years of all the people who ever lived and
died on this earth.  Can you grasp that fact?  Eventually that
one person's life in eternity will outstrip the total number of
years that all the millionaires, corporation presidents and
world thought leaders lived out in their lifetimes. And if those
millionaires and famous personalities are not saved, then the
time of that one redeemed soul will have been more valuable than
the time of all those leaders combined.
What I'm really saying is this:  money, success, and all that
goes with it are less than worthless unless those things are
used to prepare for eternity, and to help others prepare. Our
time is valuable, but it is only valuable in proportion to the
eternal benefits we derive from the money we receive in exchange
for our time. If our money is wasted, our time has gone down the
drain in earning the money.  How true the saying of Jesus, "For
what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and
lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul?"  Matthew 16:26.
Even Christ spoke of a trade-off.  There is an investing of one
thing to get another.  We exchange our time for money.  Then we
trade off the money--for what?  For things that unfit us for
heaven?  If so, our time as well as our money is misspent and
worthless.  I repeat, it would be better never to be born than
to live and die without Christ.  It would be a thousandfold
better to live as a pauper than to be a billionaire oilman who
fell one step short of heaven.
Analyze that statement carefully.  The Christian pauper had to
live with physical want and deprivation, but he had peace of
mind and joy in his heart.  The rich man lived with all the
creature comforts, but his mind was distressed and unhappy.
Even if there were no eternal life beyond the grave, the
Christian pauper had a better life in this world than the
unsaved billionaire.
But think about those two men in terms of eternity.  For a
sextillion times longer than the rich man had life, that
redeemed pauper will live in a mansion more magnificent than the
oilman could have imagined.  When his years finally exceed the
life span of earth's total population, the saved poor man will
still be in the bloom of radiant health and immortal youth.
And what of the man who had everything?  (Well, almost
everything!  He really lacked only one thing--a simple, saving
faith in Jesus.)  What will happen to him?  Just before being
cast into the lake of fire he will have opportunity to look
through the transparent walls of the New Jerusalem.  In the
total recall of that moment the miserable Midas will recognize
the utter emptiness of a life lived without God.  The time which
had been worth a million dollars a year will be seen in
retrospect as vainly squandered.  The agonizing remorse of that
instant in eternity will overpower the mind and constitute the
most sensitive and supreme punishment that anyone will ever have
to suffer.
Now, aren't you thankful that we are still living in the realm
of time where things can be changed?  Eternity is at the door,
but we have a fragment of time left in which every one of us
will be exchanging minutes for money. But then what?  The money
will be exchanged for something else.  That something else will
either help fit us for heaven or condition us to be lost.  Which
will it be for you?
One more important truth about money:  since it really is the
equivalent of the time you invested in earning it, as long as
your accrued money remains, your influence can still be felt in
time.  Even after your death your money will be representing
hours, months, and years that you spent in gathering it.  Many
are abdicating all responsibility for the influence of that time
after they die.  The accumulative result of an entire lifetime
is casually left in the hands of disinterested relatives or even
unscrupulous lawyers.  It is used often to tear down and
disannul the very cause for which the deceased gave his life.
His invested time, in the form of money, now turns against the
investor, and is employed to blot out the results of carefully
planned years.
All men and women should have a will which can protect the
interest of their time investment.  Just as they did not want
their time wasted in life, they do not want their money,
representing their time, squandered after life is over.  By
designating in a will exactly how the estate should be divided,
an individual can guarantee that his influence will still be
extended in time.  The value of those invested years can still
be revealed through the spiritual benefits of his bequeathed
wealth, whether small or great.
Even those who have been fearful of making expenditures while
living need have no fear of boldly assigning, in a will to be
executed after death, the fruits of their  lifetime investment.
Many have a legitimate fear of depleting their saving and
becoming dependent on others.  But after death they have nothing
to fear.  They can accomplish for Christ what circumstances
never permitted while they were alive.  Souls can still be won
for the Kingdom.  Their means can prepare people for heaven.
Many a Christian who never had the personal joy of winning a
soul for Christ, will meet souls in the kingdom who will thank
them for their post-humous provisions, which made it possible
for them to hear the truth and be saved.
Perhaps you are now in this category.  You dare not give largely
to God's cause for fear future disease and hospital costs will
require all your savings. You long for Jesus to come, and the
gospel to be proclaimed everywhere, but you dare not invest the
nest-egg which might be your only buffer against dire need. You
do well to make provision and retain that nest-egg for future
eventualities. I think God wants us to be wise in planning for
economic independence and security.  But if, through His
blessing and protection, those funds are not needed, they can be
directed into the winning of souls; but only by the one who
makes the careful, deliberate decision beforehand.
Many souls have been won to Christ just because people cared
enough, and designated their funds to keep working after their
death.  What a thrill it will be for those committed Christians,
in the resurrection of the righteous, to learn the wonderful
results of their dedicated means which continued speaking for
them long after their departure.

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