Hello my friends,
I was thinking, I am going to start a Sunday morning Service,
There
are many here who are house bound and unable to hear the word so I will
bring the word to you. Hopefully as I pray the right word will be
brought and it will have meaning to some in their life.
So praise God we are here together and God does forgive and he is merciful.For the Love of Money: The Dangers of Materialism
Steve Scalici, CFP(r)
Treasure Coast Financial
1 Timothy 6:4 – 10: Some false
teachers may deny these things, but these are the sound, wholesome
teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are the foundation for a
godly life. Anyone who teaches anything different is both conceited and
ignorant. Such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over the
meaning of words. This stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, fighting,
slander, and evil suspicions. These people always cause trouble. Their
minds are corrupt, and they don't tell the truth. To them religion is
just a way to get rich.
Yet true religion with contentment is great wealth.
After all, we didn't bring anything with us when we came into the
world, and we certainly cannot carry anything with us when we die. So
if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people who
long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish
and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the
love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people,
craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with
many sorrows.
[IFrames not allowed]
Often
times, we simply read the verses about money being the root of all evil
and we call it a day. That’s what I like to call “verse of the day
Christianity.” But, the Bible is not quite that simple. Whenever you
read God’s Word, you must read it in its full context. As we read this
verse, we can see that Paul is expressing to us the utter failure of
money to give us anything. As long as we believe that money will bring
us happiness, we will always be disappointed. When we love money, we
learn it is an empty love. You see, money can’t love you back. It is
incapable of reciprocating your love.
Loving money is expensive. It can cost you your family, precious
time (as you pursue its accumulation), and of course your relationship
with God. When you allow money to be your god, you find out rather
quickly that it makes a poor god. It becomes a jealous god that has but
one goal: to destroy anything in your life that doesn’t believe as it
does. That’s not love. Jesus said: “Greater love has no one than this,
that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 NIV). Jesus told
us the two greatest commandments we can keep are love God and love
others. He says nothing about loving money. Loving money interferes
with our ability to love God and love others.
God created us to love people and use things, but materialism leads
us to love things and use people. A.W. Tozer said “The man of pseudo
faith will fight for his verbal creed but refuse flatly to allow
himself to get into a predicament where his future must depend upon
that creed being true. He always provides himself with secondary ways
of escape so he will have a way out if the roof caves in. What we need
very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to
trust God as completely now as they know they must do at the last
day.”
John Calvin said, “where riches hold the dominion of the heart, God
has lost His authority.” And if God loses authority over your heart,
there will be a God-shaped hole in your heart that can’t be filled by
anything or anyone other than God. Money is like a fresh bag of potato
chips: half substance and half air. Yet, we keep buying those bags of
chips believing that the next time we open a bag, it will be completely
full. But, alas, it never is.We continue to pursue it in hopes that
this time it will satisfy. But, alas, it never does. Money is
necessary. We need it for food and shelter. That is the substance part.
The rest of it is simply vapor.
Satan is the Lord of Materialism. He will use our money, our
materials, and our possessions to lead us down the deep and dark path
that leads to his kingdom. In Luke 4, we see that Satan says the
following to Jesus: "I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and
authority over them-because they are mine to give to anyone I please. I
will give it all to you if you will bow down and worship me." You see,
Satan wants nothing more for mankind to worship him. But, he has a more
insidious plan for those of us who worship God. He’s smart enough to
know we will never directly worship him, so he tries to tempt us to
worship and depend on something, anything, else but God.
Some
would say that Satan’s greatest resource in his effort to take our
focus off God is money. Money is universal. It affects all of us. We
need to remember how easily money can be a stumbling block whenever we
are tempted to give our love and sense of security to our bank
accounts.
Steve Scalici is the Vice
President of Treasure Coast Financial, a financial planning firm in
Stuart, FL. He is co-host of God's Money which can be heard weekdays at www.oneplace.com. He can also be reached at his website www.tcfin.com.
Kathy Hamilton/simikathy.com