One day an old miser called his doctor, lawyer and his minister to his death bed and he said to them “They say you cannot take your wealth with you when you die, but I am going to try. I have three envelopes with $30,000 cash in each one. I want each of you to take one envelope, and as they lower my casket, throw in the envelopes!”
At the burial each man tossed in the envelope as requested. But on the way home the minister confessed, ‘I needed the money for the church so I took out $10,000 and threw only $20,000 into the grave.” The doctor said, “I too must confess. I am building a clinic. So I took $20,000 and threw in only $10,000.”
The Lawyer said, “Gentlemen, I am ashamed of you I took the $30,000 cash but I threw in a personal check for the whole amount. “
One thing is absolutely certain, ‘none of us will take our wealth with us when we die.’ Although we cannot take our wealth with us… as Christians we can send it on ahead. The Bible clearly teaches that whatever treasures we store up on earth will be left behind when we leave and whatever treasures we store up in heaven will be waiting for us when we arrive.
Paul said to the rich of this world that through their generous giving and good deeds that they are “storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come” (I Timothy 6:18-19). Speaking of the financial giving of the Philippians Paul said, “Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account” (Philippians 4:17). God keeps an account open for us in heaven and every gift given for his glory is a deposit into that account.
The best and surest way to store up treasures in heaven is to give to the poor. To the rich young ruler Jesus said, “Give to the poor and thou shalt have treasures in heaven” (Mark 10:21).
I remember the first time I saw the little purple flowers on the mountains in Tibet. They were soooo simply beautiful. And I thought, what a pity that no one but me may ever see these. And then I thought, maybe God makes beautiful things, not to make us happy, but for His own pleasure and because He just enjoys making and having beautiful creations.
This was about 4… Read More....
Dear Family and Friends,
As always, time goes by so quick. The spring semester flew by and now I am in the process of moving to a new city. After the whirlwind of activities over the last few months, I finally have a few minutes to catch my breath before summer camp starts so I thought I’d take a moment to update you on how He is working… Read More....
School has begun! I started teaching on Monday of this week. I am teaching in the English department of my school and am very excited to be working with my students. I have loved all my students from year one to now but because these kids are English majors their English is a little better so we can discuss more in-depth topics and get to know each other a little… Read More....
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