Thieves In The Church


Copyright by Joe Crews.
  All rights reserved.

Do you know about the sin nobody admits?  It's a sin we're 
afraid to mention.  We must be afraid to mention it, because 
nobody ever mentions it about himself, anyway.  Now people have 
confessed to me that they've committed some terrible, dark sins.  
I can recall people who have admitted being drunkards, who 
confessed to stealing, breaking up another's home, murder, 
taking the Lord's name in vain, trifling on the marriage 
partner, Sabbath breaking--all the rest--but as far as I can 
remember in all my time in the ministry, nobody has ever 
admitted to me that he was guilty of the sin we're going to talk 
about now.  And I suppose the reason for it is that it's the 
root sin; the basic sin; the very foundation sin.
The Lord Jesus Himself solemnly warned us of this sin in Luke 
12:15:  "And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of 
covetousness:  for a men's life consisteth not in the abundance 
of the things which he possesseth."  Now the sin that nobody 
admits is covetousness.
People just simply don't say "Well, I'm a covetous person.  I 
want to get hold of that extra dollar.  I want to reach out and 
grab and pull in everything I can get hold of."  And people 
never come to you and say, "I want to admit something.  
Greediness is my problem.  I'm just a covetous person."  It has 
always amazed me just a little bit.  People don't mind at all 
admitting some of those grosser, blacker sins; but when it comes 
right down to those refined sins like covetousness, I guess it 
is just too humiliating.  Of course, it is a sin that's not 
condemned very much by our materialistic age, either.  It is not 
even condemned very much by the church, it seems.  You break any 
of the other commandments and immediately you get into trouble, 
but coveting--well, nobody knows whether you're coveting or not.  
But there it is--it is a commandment of the Lord, and it is one 
that most people seem to overlook; yet in God's sight it's one 
of the blackest of all sins because it's the root of every other 
sin.  Remember what the apostle Paul said in Romans 7:7.  He 
said, "I had not known sin ... except the law had said, Thou 
shalt not covet."  The point he was trying to get across was 
this:  Every single sin has its roots in the sin of 
covetousness, and that's why God thought it was important enough 
to include in the Ten Commandments.  It's the sin that comes 
before and leads to every other sin that you could possible 
commit.

God Called a Man "Fool"

Now I may as well warn you ahead of time that there's no 
possible way of getting rid of coveting except through the Lord 
Jesus Christ--absolutely no way at all.  It takes special power 
from heaven to overcome this sin.  But now let's go back to Luke 
12 for a moment.  After Jesus said, "Take heed, and beware of 
covetousness," He told a story to illustrate the point a little 
bit further.  Let me read it to you, beginning with verse 16:  
"And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a 
certain rich man brought forth plentifully:  And he thought 
within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room 
where to bestow my fruits?  And he said, This will I do:  I will 
pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow 
all my fruits and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, Soul, 
thou hast much good laid up for many years; take thine ease, 
eat, drink, and be merry.  But God said unto him, Thou fool, 
this night thy soul shall be required of thee:  then whose shall 
those things be, which thou hast provided?  So is he that layeth 
up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."  
Now, notice something.  God calls this man a fool.  Now I may 
call a man a fool and be entirely mistaken, but when God calls a 
man a fool, he's a fool.  Now this man was a fool.  Why?  Well, 
because he was concerned only about himself--"I," "I," "I,"--and 
he forgot all about the solemn fact that one of these days we 
all have to stand before the Lord in judgment.  So God said, 
"You're a fool.  Tonight your soul will be required of you.  
Then whose will all these things be?"
This is a very solemn story.  Every single Christian should give 
it very earnest attention and heed.  The Lord is just saying 
here, "You go ahead.  If that's the way you want it, get 
anything you want.  Keep the things that are not yours.  Make 
provisions for more and more sins.  You have the right to 
choose, but when the day of reckoning comes and your soul will 
be required of you, then whose will these things be?"
You know, a lot of people think they are getting by with secret 
sins--things that are on the inside; things that don't show up--
like coveting, for example.  A person can go along and be quite 
a respectable Christians as far as other people are concerned, 
and yet be guilty of coveting. It just doesn't show up like many 
of the grosser, outward sins.  But mark you this:  On the great 
judgment day when the light from the judgment throne of God 
shines into every life, all of those things are going to be 
revealed and people are going to see them in all their rotten, 
disgusting fullness.  And one of the worst sins to be shown upon 
the judgment day will be the sin of coveting.

Coveting Another's Praise,
    Honor, or Position

I'm afraid we don't realize just how far this thing reaches.  
Take for example, professional jealousy. Have you ever heard 
that expression?  I want to tell you, it's not limited to just 
the professions, either.  It's a term that we ought to use 
loosely, because it can apply to everybody, everywhere.  Wives 
are jealous of other wives; husbands of other husbands; workmen 
of other workmen; and it's covetousness--this professional 
jealousy--coveting another person's praise, or his honor, or his 
position.  It's so widespread that there is hardly a place 
anywhere that it's not named.  It even exists among preachers, 
and here's where the thing comes home.  A person could build a 
very beautiful home and I could go look at it one day and say, 
"You know, this is a lovely home.  It's a masterpiece. You've 
done a very beautiful job."  And that wouldn't take anything out 
of me--it would be easy for me to say that, because I'm not a 
builder.  A person could paint a beautiful masterpiece--
delightful, exquisite--and I could say, "Listen, that's 
beautiful; it's superb; never have I seen anything like it."  I 
could just lavish praise on that man and it could be nothing to 
me because I'm not a painter.  But when somebody stands up and 
preaches a better sermon than I can preach--then for me to say 
honestly and truly from the heart, "It's a masterpiece; the Lord 
was with you"--then that is something else.  
Do you see what I mean?  Now that is what we're talking about 
today.  This matter of coveting somebody else's praise, somebody 
else's success, somebody else's prestige, is one of the greatest 
sins mentioned in the Book of God.  It is my prayer that as we 
go further into this study, every person will determine in his 
heart to begin right now laying hold of God for victory.  It's a 
very terrible thing for a Christian to be guilty of coveting.  
It is bad enough for a worldling, but it's an awful thing for a 
person who names the name of Christ to be guilty of coveting 
something.  We need to learn to give God the praise for 
everything; then we will stop worrying about credit--who 
deserves credit for that.  We will give it all to God, where it 
belongs in the first place. 
Another place where many of God's people seem to be crippled by 
the sin of coveting is the area of giving.  Far too many of 
God's professed people are guilty of embezzling God's money.

Every Day We Handle 
Someone Else's Money

We often read in newspapers about individuals who 
misappropriated millions of dollars.  These embezzlers often 
skip the country, taking the money, and leaving financial ruin 
for scores of people who lost all they had. We secretly hope the 
law will catch up with them, and throw the book at them. But 
now, wait a minute.  Let's not move too fast here.  All of us 
handle money.  
Furthermore, regardless of who you are--you handle money that is 
not yours.  You handle money that belongs to God.  Could it be 
that someone reading this is guilty of embezzling heavenly 
funds?  Did you know the greatest holder of lands and good in 
the world has been chiseled and robbed repeatedly without going 
out of business?  God is that great Owner of whom I speak.  I'm 
referring specifically to tithes and offerings. In Leviticus 
27:30 the Scripture says that the tithe is the Lord's.  There is 
just no possible way to miss it.  
Perhaps I should read that verse.  This is what it says:  "All 
the tithe of the land ... is the Lord's:  it is holy unto the 
Lord."  All the tithe is the Lord's; that is specific.  Then in 
Malachi 3 we find something added. Verse 8 says:  "Will a man 
rob God?  Yet ye have robbed me.  But ye say, Wherein have we 
robbed thee?  In tithes and offerings."  Now notice:  A person 
who does not tithe is a robber, but in addition, a person who 
does not give offerings is guilty before God of robbing Him; so, 
your tithes and your offerings belong to God.  Oh, may it be 
engraved upon every heart with a pen of fire:  These things do 
not belong to us; they are God's. We are handling sacred funds, 
and the question is--how are we handling them?  Could it be that 
some of us are guilty of misusing God's money?
What is a tithe anyway?  Read Leviticus 27:32:  "And concerning 
the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever 
passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord."  
This means that one-tenth of all our increase belongs to God.  
We may not have thought of it before, but ten percent of our 
income is holy for the Lord.  We can't keep it for ourselves 
without actually breaking that eighth commandment again and 
stealing what is not ours.  If a man earns $1,000 a month, $100 
is not really his own.  Of course only the profit, or increase, 
is subject to the tithe.  In other words, a businessman might 
realize an increase of $5,000 a month but $4,000 would be needed 
to pay the salaries of his helpers and other overhead expense.  
In such a case, he would only have to pay $100 tithe on the 
$1,000 profit for that month.
Somebody is bound to object that tithing belongs to the Mosaic 
Law, the Old Testament, and doesn't apply to us in the New 
Testament.  But the fact is that this plan of tithing antedates 
the time of Moses by hundreds of years.  Abraham paid tithe at 
the Lord's own direction long before the days of Moses.  Jacob 
also tithed on all that he had. It was an obligation before 
either the Jewish race or the ceremonial law had even come into 
existence. 
But now let's read what Jesus had to say about tithing.  After 
all, He's the great guide and example for all of us in spiritual 
things.  In Matthew 23:23:  "Woe unto you, scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and 
cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, 
judgment, mercy, and faith:  these ought ye to have done, and 
not to leave the other undone."  That word "ought" denotes 
obligation and immediately creates a moral basis for the 
doctrine. It is moral because it involved stealing from God, as 
we have already read.


Tithe Is to Be Used for Only 
One Purpose


Let's ask this question before we go further.  What is the tithe 
money to be used for in the Lord's work?  Please turn to 1 
Corinthians 9:13:  "Do ye not know that they which minister 
about holy things live of the things of the temple?  and they 
which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?"  Here 
Paul is referring to the priesthood of the Old Testament and how 
they received a livelihood for their work of ministry at the 
ancient altar.  But now read the very next verse:  "Even so hath 
the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live 
of the gospel."  Verse 14.  This text clearly teaches that the 
gospel minister is to be supported exactly the same way as the 
priests of the Old Testament.
We  now turn to the Scriptures to find out what God's plan was 
for the support of the ministry, both in the Old Testament and 
in the New.  In Numbers 18:21 we read, "And behold, I have given 
the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, 
for their service which they serve, even the service of the 
tabernacle of the congregation."  The tribe of Levi was not 
given any inheritance as the other Israelites were.  They had no 
herds, or business ventures.  All the other tribes paid tithe 
and that one-tenth was used to pay the priests, the Levites.
All right, "Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which 
preach the gospel should live of the gospel," so Paul said.  The 
tithe is not to be used for an education fund, a church expense 
fund, or even a poor fund.  It is ordained of God only to pay 
the ministry.  This is the biblical way for preachers to be 
supported.
I heard of one preacher who closed all the doors of the church 
and refused to preach until the offering goal of a certain sum 
was reached.  Other churches have resorted to religious fairs, 
lotteries, bingo, etc. to meet their pastoral financial 
obligations.  Is this the plan of God?  Is this the way He had 
ordained for churches to meet the deficit in their budgets?  
This is not according to God's plan. Something is desperately 
wrong with a church which has to bring the world into its 
operating plan.  If Christ should walk into some of these 
temples and cathedrals of our day, He would be just as indignant 
as He was in days of old.  He would say once more, "Take these 
things hence.  You have made my house of prayer a den of 
thieves."  What a tragedy it is that many young people have 
learned to be expert in gambling inside the walls of their own 
church. What a sad commentary on the state of modern religious 
leaders who encourage such demonstrations.  Is this what God 
expects from the people who are called by His name?
Some Preachers Fear to Preach Truth 
Because of Money

God never intended for preachers to dabble in real estate, car 
sales, or some side business.  A man called of God should give 
his whole time to the Word of God.  His livelihood, in other 
words, should be supplied by the divine plan of the tithing 
system.  This system eliminates one of the greatest temptations 
facing the modern minister of the gospel.  Some preachers are 
actually afraid to preach the plain truth for fear of cutting 
off their own salary.  
When a pastor is paid directly by the local congregation and has 
to depend solely upon the liberality of one church group, he is 
in an anxious dilemma. If he rebukes sin as it should be 
rebuked, he may offend the very ones who may stop giving 
offerings, and thus his own salary will be jeopardized.  Now I 
know that no true pastor would preach smooth things just for 
worldly gain; nevertheless, many are actually afraid to preach 
plainly under the conditions I've just described.  God's plan 
eliminates that temptation to soften the truth.  A local 
congregation shouldn't be directly paying the man who preaches 
to them, and this would eliminate that great danger.
Some people complain that they can't pay the tithe because 
there's nothing left after all the bills are paid.  But, are we 
doing the right thing by waiting until everything else is paid 
before we give God the tithe?  In Proverbs 3:9 we read:  "Honour 
the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all 
thine increase."  In other words, pay the tithe first.  Even the 
ministers pay one-tenth of their salary although they are paid 
from the tithe fund themselves.  After all, everything belongs 
to God, doesn't it?  All the silver and gold and the cattle on a 
thousand hills--we are simply stewards of these things.  He has 
let us use them.  We pay the rent on a house in order to 
acknowledge that the house is not really ours.  We just use it. 
In the same way, we give the tenth back to God to acknowledge 
that all our possessions are just given to us to use.  They 
really belong to God, the great Creator, and Owner of all 
things.
Now, a great many people say, "I go to church and I pay my 
tithe," when what they really mean is that they go to church and 
give offerings; because nobody is a tithe payer who does not 
give one-tenth of his income.  Tithe means one-tenth.  And that 
is what the Bible is speaking of, one-tenth of a person's 
increase.  Some people say, "Isn't that a great deal to give, 
one-tenth?"  Suppose somebody came to you and said, "I would 
like to set you up in business.  I would like to furnish the 
capital, the buildings, the equipment--everything.  I want you 
to run it.  Then at the close of the month I want you to figure 
up the profit.  When you have found the profit, I want you to 
keep nine-tenths and give me one-tenth."  Would you say, "Whew, 
you mean you want a whole tenth?"  No, you would look at the man 
and say, "You've made a mistake, haven't you?  You mean you want 
nine-tenths and give me one-tenth."  
Why, you have never heard of an offer like that.  People don't 
make offers like that today--not at all--but that is the offer 
God has made. There is no question about it.  This world and 
everything in it belongs to God.  He made the whole thing and 
everything here is His.  The Bible is so clear on it.  I read 
from Psalms 24:1:  "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein."  Psalms 50:10-
12:  "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon 
a thousand hills.  I know all the fowls of the mountains:  and 
the wild beasts of the field are mine.  If I were hungry,  I 
would not tell thee:  for the world is mine, and the fulness 
thereof."  In Haggai 2:8:  "The silver is mine, and the gold is 
mine, saith the Lord of hosts."  We forget that sometimes, but 
he says, "It is mine."  Now notice Deuteronomy 8:18:  "But thou 
shalt remember the Lord thy God;  for it is he that giveth thee 
power to get wealth."
When we add that all up and put it together, the Bible is simply 
saying this:  Everything is God's.  If you have anything at all, 
God gave you the power and the strength, the intelligence to 
obtain what you do have.  And  then He says to you, "Now, ten 
percent of what you receive is mine.  I want you to give it to 
me."  Is that a fair offer? I submit to you today, you have 
never heard a more fair, generous offer anywhere.  Remember the 
text, Leviticus 27:30, that says the tithe is the Lord's.  Oh, 
may God impress us with  that point.  It isn't a question of our 
deciding whether we ought to turn it over to Him, whether it 
should become His, or will become His; it already is the Lord's.  
That has been settled.  The tithe is the Lord's, and so one-
tenth of every man's income belongs to God.  He may be a 
complete heathen and knows nothing of our God, but still one-
tenth belongs to the Lord God of heaven.
Finally, we come to that very important text in Malachi 3:8-11:  
"Will a man rob God?  Yet ye have robbed me.  But ye say, 
Wherein have we robbed thee?  In tithes and offerings.  Ye are 
cursed with a curse:  for ye have robbed me, even this whole 
nation.  Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there 
may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the 
Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and 
pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to 
receive it.  And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and 
he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground."  
There it is, people robbing God!  In one year the FBI records 
revealed that there were 111,750 cases of robbery in the United 
States and more than a million cases of burglary. But this is 
only a fraction of the true picture.  How many million church 
members have been guilty of the worst type of stealing--and from 
God, at that?  Probably there are more thieves in the church, on 
this basis, than outside the church.  In fact, there's no 
question about it; God says if we take the tithe, we are 
stealing from Him.
Incidentally, have you noticed the amazing parallel between the 
tithing tenth and the tenth commandment of the Decalogue?  The 
command against coveting is the tenth one, and the command to 
give a tenth is God's remedy for covetousness.  The root reason 
for breaking either one of these basic biblical laws is 
selfishness.  The opposite of self is love, and all obedience 
should be based on loving God more than ourselves.
Love means giving, as we learn from John 3:16:  "For God so 
loved ... that he gave."  We could never match the love-gift of 
God in surrendering His Son, but we should love him enough that 
the surrender of 10 or 50 percent of all we possess should not 
be counted a sacrifice.  God's challenge to "prove me" has 
always produced the same results in those who took Him at His 
word. The promise is literal that "there shall not be room 
enough to receive" the blessing as it returns to us "pressed 
down, shaken together, and running over."
Never underestimate the blessings and benefits of turning away 
from the robbing business.  When we rob God we are, in reality, 
robbing ourselves.  We lose the blessings which are a part of 
the package called obedience. Unbelievable promises of 
protection and prosperity are made to those who go into 
partnership with God through faithful giving.  The fruits of 
unselfish stewardship, based upon love, are fantastic to 
contemplate.  "Prove me," says the Owner of everything.  Will 
you dare to do it right now by making a covenant with God to be 
an honest steward in both tithes and offerings?

 What Is Time Worth?  

A few days ago I wasted thirty minutes of valuable time waiting 
for a shoe repairman to finish a job that had been promised 
earlier.  Mentally I did some rough computations and concluded 
that my thirty minutes of time was worth much more than the cost 
of the shoe repair.  I can assure you that the results of my 
arithmetic did not relieve my frustration in the least degree, 
but it did start me thinking more about the worth of minutes and 
hours.
Unfortunately, we equate the value of time with a certain number 
of dollars and cents. People are paid so much an hour, or so 
many dollars a month. On the basis that one is paid $10 an hour 
for his work, let's try to evaluate the true worth of that 60 
minutes.  The equation would go something like this:  one hour 
of time equals $10 in cash money.
Having translated the hour into money, and assuming that the 
money is fully equivalent to the 60 minutes of time, we can 
determine the true value of the hour of time as we trace the 
value of the $10.  How valuable is that $10 to the person who 
exchanged his time for it?  How much good will it perform for 
him, and how much will it contribute to his quality of life?  If 
the $10 adds more happiness, longer life, and greater security, 
then we must conclude that the man's time was easily worth the 
amount and perhaps even more.
But suppose the $10 is spent for liquor, which leads to 
alcoholism or disease? Instead of having any real worth, the 
money would have a negative value, and the hour's time would 
also really be worth less than nothing.  In other words, our 
time is worth only as much as we are able to squeeze out of the 
money we are paid for our time. If the things we spend the money 
for result in better living and longer, happier life, our time 
may be worth infinitely more than any amount of money.  On the 
other hand, if we spend the money for things which create 
disease, cheapen the moral worth, and prevent our receiving 
eternal life, then our time has a negative worth.
If this principle is true, the world's standard of evaluating 
time is totally wrong. Some men who are paid over a million 
dollars a year are using their wealth to defile body and mind, 
and destroy spiritual perceptions.  Society can say what it 
will, but those men are wasting their time, because they waste 
the money which their time purchased.
Other men are paid little in dollars, but they invest that 
little in things which contribute to peace of mind, building a 
strong moral character, and preparing for eternal life--they are 
the people whose time is really valuable; in fact, more valuable 
than the highest paid executive in the corporate structure who 
is misusing his wealth.
Do you get the picture clearly in mind, that your money 
represents your time?  What you do with your money, then, is the 
same as what you do with your time. The benefits drawn from your 
money represent the true value of your time.
Think about it for a moment. How are you using those dollars?  
Are they invested in ways that will lead to your eternal 
happiness and security?  Are you making it possible for others 
to reap the blessing of God's saving grace?  As a result of your 
use of money, will souls be able to rejoice with you in Heaven?
The imprudent, wasteful manner of treating money will lead 
millions to lose eternal life. Not only are their years of 
earthly time lost, but the endless time of a future eternity is 
also forfeited.  All the money purchased by a lifetime of labor 
is worthless unless it contributes to building up the true 
quality of life.  Sorrowfully we observe how billions of dollars 
are spent for selfish indulgence, drug addiction, and 
destructive purposes. How many wasted lives are represented in 
those wasted dollars!
Much has been written about Howard Hughes, the eccentric 
millionaire, whose limitless wealth became the ultimate cause of 
his horrible and dehumanized death.  Suspicious of everyone, he 
isolated himself from friends and society for fear of being 
exploited for his money.  After his death additional animosities 
and selfishness were stirred among those who fought like animals 
to acquire a portion for themselves.
Was Howard Hughes' time really that important and valuable?  His 
time produced money that produced misery which finally brought 
death. Make no mistake about it, it is better for a man never to 
be born than to live for self and to lose eternal life in the 
end. It is better for a man to be a pauper than to earn millions 
which cause himself or others to be lost.
At the risk of sounding redundant I come back to the question, 
How are you spending your money?  The years of your life are 
tied up in that money.  Disposing of it is disposing of years of 
your time.  When your life is over, all your years of 
remunerated time will be reflected in your estate. It may be 
small, but it is important, because it represents the value of 
all the time you exchanged for it.
How do you value that time?  How do you appraise those years 
that made up so much of your life?  The answer to those 
questions will be revealed by the way you relate to your 
possessions. If that money now ministers to your deepest 
priority needs, then the time it took to acquire the money was 
well spent.  And if the money becomes a vehicle for reaching 
souls for God's Kingdom, the value of the time in earning it is 
far beyond the computation.  Why so?  Let me illustrate.
If your money can be used to turn just one soul to Christ, how 
much would the time investment be worth?  Try to understand it 
in these terms:  one soul saved for eternity will live longer 
than all the combined years of all the people who ever lived and 
died on this earth.  Can you grasp that fact?  Eventually that 
one person's life in eternity will outstrip the total number of 
years that all the millionaires, corporation presidents and 
world thought leaders lived out in their lifetimes. And if those 
millionaires and famous personalities are not saved, then the 
time of that one redeemed soul will have been more valuable than 
the time of all those leaders combined.
What I'm really saying is this:  money, success, and all that 
goes with it are less than worthless unless those things are 
used to prepare for eternity, and to help others prepare. Our 
time is valuable, but it is only valuable in proportion to the 
eternal benefits we derive from the money we receive in exchange 
for our time. If our money is wasted, our time has gone down the 
drain in earning the money.  How true the saying of Jesus, "For 
what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and 
lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his 
soul?"  Matthew 16:26.
Even Christ spoke of a trade-off.  There is an investing of one 
thing to get another.  We exchange our time for money.  Then we 
trade off the money--for what?  For things that unfit us for 
heaven?  If so, our time as well as our money is misspent and 
worthless.  I repeat, it would be better never to be born than 
to live and die without Christ.  It would be a thousandfold 
better to live as a pauper than to be a billionaire oilman who 
fell one step short of heaven.
Analyze that statement carefully.  The Christian pauper had to 
live with physical want and deprivation, but he had peace of 
mind and joy in his heart.  The rich man lived with all the 
creature comforts, but his mind was distressed and unhappy.  
Even if there were no eternal life beyond the grave, the 
Christian pauper had a better life in this world than the 
unsaved billionaire.
But think about those two men in terms of eternity.  For a 
sextillion times longer than the rich man had life, that 
redeemed pauper will live in a mansion more magnificent than the 
oilman could have imagined.  When his years finally exceed the 
life span of earth's total population, the saved poor man will 
still be in the bloom of radiant health and immortal youth.
And what of the man who had everything?  (Well, almost 
everything!  He really lacked only one thing--a simple, saving 
faith in Jesus.)  What will happen to him?  Just before being 
cast into the lake of fire he will have opportunity to look 
through the transparent walls of the New Jerusalem.  In the 
total recall of that moment the miserable Midas will recognize 
the utter emptiness of a life lived without God.  The time which 
had been worth a million dollars a year will be seen in 
retrospect as vainly squandered.  The agonizing remorse of that 
instant in eternity will overpower the mind and constitute the 
most sensitive and supreme punishment that anyone will ever have 
to suffer.
Now, aren't you thankful that we are still living in the realm 
of time where things can be changed?  Eternity is at the door, 
but we have a fragment of time left in which every one of us 
will be exchanging minutes for money. But then what?  The money 
will be exchanged for something else.  That something else will 
either help fit us for heaven or condition us to be lost.  Which 
will it be for you?
One more important truth about money:  since it really is the 
equivalent of the time you invested in earning it, as long as 
your accrued money remains, your influence can still be felt in 
time.  Even after your death your money will be representing 
hours, months, and years that you spent in gathering it.  Many 
are abdicating all responsibility for the influence of that time 
after they die.  The accumulative result of an entire lifetime 
is casually left in the hands of disinterested relatives or even 
unscrupulous lawyers.  It is used often to tear down and 
disannul the very cause for which the deceased gave his life.  
His invested time, in the form of money, now turns against the 
investor, and is employed to blot out the results of carefully 
planned years.
All men and women should have a will which can protect the 
interest of their time investment.  Just as they did not want 
their time wasted in life, they do not want their money, 
representing their time, squandered after life is over.  By 
designating in a will exactly how the estate should be divided, 
an individual can guarantee that his influence will still be 
extended in time.  The value of those invested years can still 
be revealed through the spiritual benefits of his bequeathed 
wealth, whether small or great.
Even those who have been fearful of making expenditures while 
living need have no fear of boldly assigning, in a will to be 
executed after death, the fruits of their  lifetime investment.
Many have a legitimate fear of depleting their saving and 
becoming dependent on others.  But after death they have nothing 
to fear.  They can accomplish for Christ what circumstances 
never permitted while they were alive.  Souls can still be won 
for the Kingdom.  Their means can prepare people for heaven.  
Many a Christian who never had the personal joy of winning a 
soul for Christ, will meet souls in the kingdom who will thank 
them for their post-humous provisions, which made it possible 
for them to hear the truth and be saved.
Perhaps you are now in this category.  You dare not give largely 
to God's cause for fear future disease and hospital costs will 
require all your savings. You long for Jesus to come, and the 
gospel to be proclaimed everywhere, but you dare not invest the 
nest-egg which might be your only buffer against dire need. You 
do well to make provision and retain that nest-egg for future 
eventualities. I think God wants us to be wise in planning for 
economic independence and security.  But if, through His 
blessing and protection, those funds are not needed, they can be 
directed into the winning of souls; but only by the one who 
makes the careful, deliberate decision beforehand.
Many souls have been won to Christ just because people cared 
enough, and designated their funds to keep working after their 
death.  What a thrill it will be for those committed Christians, 
in the resurrection of the righteous, to learn the wonderful 
results of their dedicated means which continued speaking for 
them long after their departure.

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