*WISDOM FOR TODAY*
*THE POOR MAN AND HEAVEN (2)*
*Scripture Treasure.*
Mark 10:25 *It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.*
*Insight and Highlight.*
Riches are good but are not worth dying for, and neither are they worth the attention given them.
*Scripture Commentaries.*
Riches are good, and being rich is a way to afford the good things of life.
Solomon tells us that *"... Money answereth all things."*, Eccl 10:19.
May you never be poor in Jesus name.
In Mark 10:25, Jesus was not endorsing poverty, and neither was He saying that the rich can not make heaven.
The center focus of money, riches, or affluence is the excess love for it.
Uncontrolled desire for money, desperation, and riches with their false sense of security are key behind Jesus's statement in Mark 10:25.
Jesus wants us to understand the risk riches pose to righteousness.
People will be rich at all costs but not at God's time.
Riches come with several evil associated with it. Timothy sums it all very accurately, saying *But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.*, 1 Tim 6:9.
We know that people will tell us that riches are riches, just let us know any way to be rich as long as we are rich.
Jesus was telling us that there are true riches, and there are very bad riches.
True riches are God's making with cooperation of man, Deut 8:18, Joshua 1:8, I Kgs 3:13, Prov 10:22, Hag 2:8.
Bad riches are riches acquired out of idolatry, ref 1 Tim 6:9. Riches out of exploitation, Prov 28:8. When one is not rich unto God, Luke 12:16-34.
Just because a person is rich is not an indicator of God's endorsement, and it does not make him more righteous than a poor man.
Though God knows everything, a rich person may have become so, not by God's perfect will but by a permissive will of God giving him up to a reprobate mind to do what was not convenient to do in the eyes of God, ref Rom 1:28. This act will not come without its consequences.
Riches are only confined to the world. You do not need to strive at all costs or at the loss of God to be rich.
Being rich will not determine your eternal destination, and neither is being poor
The Carmel's illustration by Jesus is simply saying that a rich man would have to unload his pride in his material possessions in order to enter heaven.
How?
If you are going to pass through the narrow way to the narrow gate, Matt 7:13-14, you have to unload the Carmel. The burden beast can not enter with such loads. The road will be too small, and the road through narrowed, so this passage will be good for just the carmel.
The same way, the passage will only be good for you without the load of your physical possessions, the pride of it, and how it has kept you away from God's fellowship.
Our physical possessions can not go with us into eternity, 1 Tim 6:7, so why should they keep you away from God now?
*Remorse corner.*
The number one vice of riches is pride against people and against God.
*Call to Word action.*
Riches acquired both from God and through ungodly ways will not go with you into eternity. However, other things constant, while being rich here unto God would lead you to eternity. All things not constant and not being rich unto God will lead you to hell, Luke 12:16-34.
*The Christian clarion duty.*
Why should you lose God whom you are going to need in order to enter into eternal rest for riches acquired through ungodly ways that are temporal that you will leave behind when you die.
*Prayer.*
Lord, help me to be rich unto you, in Jesus name.
Good morning all, and have a blessed day.
God bless you.
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