Warning to the Rich

“You rich people, listen! Cry and be very sad because of the troubles that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have been eaten by moths. Your gold and silver have rusted, and that rust will be a proof that you were wrong. It will eat your bodies like fire. You saved your treasure for the last days. The pay you did not give the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the workers have been heard by the Lord All Powerful. Your life on earth was full of rich living and pleasing yourselves with everything you wanted. You made yourselves fat, like an animal ready to be killed. You have judged guilty and then murdered innocent people, who were not against you.” (James 5:1-6, NCV).[Re-read James 1:9-11]

James paints a very unpleasant picture of the rich in this passage. His warning to the rich announces that judgment is coming and terrible troubles because of their lavish, selfish, and dishonest ways. All worldly possessions are precarious at best. Fine clothes will become moth-eaten. Hoarded silver and gold will rust (accumulations of money won’t last). Again, James sounds an echo of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 6:19-20: “Don’t store treasures for yourselves here on earth where moths and rust will destroy them and thieves can break in and steal the. But store your treasures in heaven where they cannot be destroyed by moths or rust and where thieves cannot break in and steal them. Your heart will be where your treasure is.” (NCV) James says wealth will “eat your bodies like fire.” Those who amass wealth will become obsessed with gaining more. The wealthy pay meager wages to workers, thus adding more to the rich person’s coffers while mistreating the poor. The plight of the poor is noted by the Lord, and while the rich seem to enjoy their wealth, they are unaware that there is a “pay day some day.” Even what they save up for the “last days,” will be of little use. Their days of rich living and pleasing themselves will meet a stern judgment. The tone of this passage is prophetic. A day of reckoning is coming and those who love riches will be judged. Wealth itself is not a sin, but when it becomes a god, pursued with an obsession that drives the wealthy to love and pursue riches without regard for others, then judgment is sure. Paul wrote a similar warning in I Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (NIV). James also wrote about poverty and riches in James 1:9-11.

Is there a way out of the dilemma of the love of money? Consider these guidelines: (1) We brought nothing into the world and will take nothing out. (2) God gives us the power to acquire money. Our pursuit of money should be honorable and honest. (3) Our money should be used to serve God and others, not hoarded selfishly and with the idea of more possessions, more pleasure. God, help us to follow these guidelines.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Monday, October 25, 2010

Let the Lord Plan Your Life

“Look here, you people who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.’ Otherwise you will be boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” (James 4:11-12, NLT).

In Proverbs 27:1 we read: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” We do not know the number of our days. Neither can we know whether our plans will materialize. God alone knows and controls the future. With this knowledge securely in mind, we ought, therefore to let the Lord lay plans for our future. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us not to worry about our life, what we should eat, drink, wear. After using the birds of the air and the lilies of the field as examples, He then said: “But seek first His kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34, NIV). An adage states: “Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” Are we not to plan, then? Not to make any preparation for the future, such as an education to help us better do the work we are to do? Hardly that. But even in preparation for our life’s work, we take it a step at the time. We cannot worry and fret, nor boast. Prayer will be the springboard to guide us in the right way. Depend on God to lead, and at the same time be ready to serve willingly where He leads. The parts of the puzzle which is the future will then fall into place. James had the right advice, indeed, when he wrote: “If the Lord wants us to, we will do this or that.”

Life is like a fog which vanishes quickly away. Life is utterly dependent upon the sustaining power of God. Because of its brevity, how much more ought we to be within the parameters of God’s will and way. Psalm 23 is a good example of the believer’s dependence upon God. And watch the progression of what happens: whatever the need or situation, God is present and providing. Knowing to do good and not doing it is sin. This is what we often refer to as the “sin of omission.” When we make plans for the future, even though our plans are good, and fail to lay the whole matter before God, seeking His guidance and will, we are committing the sin of omission with a very important entity—our very life, its work, and its influence. God has numbered our days. How He would like to order our days as well, and bring fulfillment and purpose into our lives. God gave us talents and abilities for a purpose: to serve Him and others. Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God gave this advice for Christians: “Look to see where God is working and join Him in that work.” Be alert to God’s bidding; join Him and be blessed.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Sunday, October 24, 2010

Parable of the Rich Man’s Meditation

“And He told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21, NIV).

Those who have studied carefully the teachings of Jesus and documented them state that he taught more about money and the use of and love for it than any other subject. Why is this? Because how we live, including how we make our living and how we use our resources, all express our Christian faith. Jesus knew this, and often gave cryptic insights into how we should consider that “unrighteous mammon,” or money, which we are often tempted to set up as an idol. Yesterday’s thoughts on the unjust steward parable showed this concept. That parable was all about the theme of prudence and ingenuity in using property. Today’s parable, which someone has called “The Rich Man’s Meditation” also gets at the heart of man’s attitude about possessions. There’s an old adage, “The more one has, the more one wants.” Paul the Apostle, knowing this, advised his son-in-the-gospel, young Timothy: “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (I Timothy 6:10, NIV).

In the parable of the rich man and his desire to build better barns in which to store his abundance, he suddenly found that he had none to store. Death came upon him suddenly. Someone has said, “You don’t ever see a U-Haul behind a hearse. You can’t take it with you.” Life is tenuous at best. We have assurance of today, but tomorrow is nebulous. It is not that we are to completely disregard money and its ability to help and sustain life needs. Rather it is the love of money we are to guard against, that insatiable desire to put temporal things first in our lives to the exclusion of loyalty to God. We need to constantly check our attitude toward money, earning and accumulating it; and also our attitude to others in terms of generosity toward the needy, and extension of the Kingdom of God.

I believe God made a plan, even for our money. He said, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse” (Malachi 3:10). “But that is Old Testament and the law,” some argue. Jesus did not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it, to make it more applicable to the Christian life. Listen to the New Testament admonition: Jesus, in addressing the scribes and Pharisees on their diligent attention to tithing, said, “these ye ought to have done, and not to leave the others undone” (Matthew 23:23). He was talking of their tithing, but also of “weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy and faith.” If Jesus is Lord of our money, how we earn it and manage it, we can gladly practice what Paul taught in II Corinthians 9:7: “Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.” We don’t need bigger barns or more secure depository sources. We need to honor God, first of all. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). God loves us and wants the best for us. But our loyalty to Him is expected as we accept His provision for us. Not bigger barns, but bigger hearts for the things God wants us to partner with Him in doing in the world; that’s the idea behind Christian stewardship!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Saturday, September 4, 2010

Tomorrow Is Uncertain

“Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.” (Proverbs 27:1, NASV).

Tomorrow is uncertain. We should not count as definite what we plan to do for we do not know what that elusive “tomorrow” holds. Eugene Peterson in The Message Bible renders the verse: “Don’t harshly announce what you’re going to do tomorrow; you don’t know the first thing about tomorrow.”

It is hard to draw the line between being boastful and concerned about tomorrow and being so lackadaisical that we set no goals for the future or make any plans whatsoever, allowing whatever may to come, as in the song, “What will be, will be.” In that case, why plan to get an education? Tomorrow may not come, so why would we have a need for preparation? Why, then, did the wise man who wrote this proverb warn us to beware of boasting about tomorrow? The emphasis here seems to be on the word boast. We cannot say with assurance that we will do a certain thing or accomplish specific goals on the morrow, for, behold, today is the time we have. Yet, even in today, we can work as though tomorrow will come and have faith that God, who controls all of time, will work out His will in granting us the days allotted to us.

Horace, a great Italian philosopher who lived from about 65-8 B. C., had probing concerns about tomorrow. He stated: “Drop the question what tomorrow may bring, and count as profit every day that Fate allows you.” He is also responsible for the often-quoted “carp diem,” which we translate “seize the day”. The quotation containing this Latin phrase, translated, reads: “While we’re talking, time will have meanly run on; pick today’s fruits (or carp diem), not relying on the future in the slightest.” The idea is to seize today. It is here for us to enjoy, to gain benefits from, to live wholly in. One of my favorite quotations along this line is Psalm 118:24: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” I quote this nearly every morning upon awaking, thanking God for another day of life. Jesus taught about the folly of earnestly seeking to lay up treasures upon earth because of the uncertainty and brevity of life (Luke 12:16-23). See also in His “Sermon on the Mount” where he taught: “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34, NKJV). James, too, wrote on this theme: “Some of you say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money.’ But you do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away.” (James 4:13-14, NIV). Someone has wisely observed: “Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.”

To close out thoughts on avoiding the uncertainties of tomorrow, I end with an original poem:

One Day at a Time

If we could but the secret find
Of one day at a time,
We’d borrow not tomorrow’s fears
And neither look behind
To yesterday’s regrets and tears,
Nor rue today’s firm tread,
But fill life full of love and joy
And happiness instead.

In our concern to push ahead
We grab and gulp and pine,
Not understanding precious peace
Of one day at a time.
Lord, grant us patience thus to live
And give us grace to find
The sheer delight of present tense,
Of one day at a time.

-Ethelene Dyer Jones (c1984)

Lord, may we live fully for You today. “Today is the first day of the rest of our lives.” Amen.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Fool’s Testimony: There Is No God

(Theme: Selections from the Psalms—Faith Set to Music)

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God, They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No not one.” -Psalm 14: 1-3 (NKJV. Read Psalm 14).

Psalm 14 is another in the “Wisdom” Psalms classification, one that probes the mysteries of life. This psalm is attributed to David as author. It is a dark Psalm, for it deals with a common theme, atheism, or unbelief in Almighty God. This Psalm is as timely in our day as in the day of King David. There are those in every age who say, “There is no God.”

In our society, great precedence seems to be given to actions that might offend unbelievers. For example, new coins being commissioned and minted today do not bear the motto, “In God we trust.” The Ten Commandments cannot be displayed in public buildings because some will be offended by these laws from God’s own Word. In seeking to rewrite history, there are those who deny that America was founded on Christian principles. With David, we can sadly conclude: “There is none who does good, No not one” (Ps. 14:3). Certainly, “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

But the Psalmist gives an optimistic note. Despite evil everywhere and many who have turned aside from following God, he declares, “for God is present in the company of the righteous” (v. 5). God is also with the poor and is their refuge. This could also read “the poor in spirit,” or the humble—those who turn to God for help. David looks forward to the time when the salvation of Israel will come forth out of Mt. Zion and the Lord will restore His people. God and not evil will finally triumph.

The wisdom about life gained from this Psalm is that holiness is the high road and the one who walks in that way must make a conscious choice to do so. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you,” said Jesus in Matthew 6:33. God calls us to be holy. A positive goal for the life of a Christian is holiness and righteousness. We should make decisions in all our activities as though God is our companion—for He is. The fool does not acknowledge God or even believe in God. The wise person has God at the center of his life.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Thursday, May 20, 2010