"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."
Matthew 13:44 |
It honors God so much when we come like this, instead of out of duty.
Pursue your joy every minute of every day, everything else becomes refuse.
|
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Matthew 6:19-20 |
O America, America, you are far too easily pleased with your stock portfolios and your fancy houses and your fancy cars and your fancy wardrobe and your fancy leisure vacations.
John Piper
|
"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. "
Matthew 19:29-30 |
Astonishingly the Bible endorses pure pursuit of our own wealth, but this is not the "health and wealth" gospel preached by some. Be sure your portfolio is right in heaven. The securities you invest in the Kingdom do not rust nor are subject to theft.
|
| Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw —
each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
1 Corinthians 3:12-15 |
We all have wood, hay and stubble. Reject tin to get gold. Work in pursuit of your own wealth.
Be sure your portfolio is right in heaven. The securities you invest in the Kingdom do not rust or are not subject to theft.
|
Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ
Philippians 3:8 |
We are far too easily pleased ... we are like children that want to make mud pies in the slums because we cannot imagine what a holiday at the sea is like.
CS Lewis The Weight of Glory
|
"Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good. Let your soul delight itself in abundance."
Isaiah 55:1-2 |
This is biblical self-denial:
Reject tin to get gold, reject brackish water to get pure wine, reject mud pies in the slums for a holiday at the sea, and reject a life of earthly pleasures to get an eternity of infinite pleasures.
|
Heard from the pulpit:
Why would you settle for such brief, short-term, inadequate, low yield dividend pleasures offered by the world when eternal pleasures — tens of thousands of years of pleasures — await.
|
