True Riches

My husband’s channel surfing finally landed on the History channel recently. The program listed the world’s resources; gold, oil, and water, among other things. At the end of each segment, they stated the dollar amount of each resource in today’s market. At the end of the hour, they estimated the world’s total riches in so many quadrillion dollars. I don’t know about you, but I can’t get my head around that much money. All I can understand is that’s one heck of a lot of cash.
The Holy Spirit reminded me of the scripture that says, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:26 NLT)
People waste their whole lives grabbing for a piece of the world. Even if they were to gain the quadrillion dollars worth of riches and lost their soul, they would be the poorest of the poor.
I shake my head when I hear the ads to “buy gold to secure your future.” The Bible says in Ezekiel 7:19 that “their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord.”
It’s best to invest in the Kingdom of God. Buy from Him “gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see” (Revelation 3:18).
How do you do this? Revelation 3:19 holds the answer. “Repent.” That word means to quit doing evil; turn around. Go in the opposite direction. No one can do this on their own without the help of God.
Simply ask Him to forgive your sins, place your feet on a right path, and teach you His word in the Bible. It’s as easy as that. No hocus-pocus. No chanting. No hidden mystery.
In doing so, you have placed yourself in God’s hands. He will finish the work in you to prepare you for His soon return. (Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”)
Which riches will you choose, God’s or the world’s?

There is none so deaf as he who will not hear,

none so blind, who will not see,

so lame as those who choose their own destiny

headed for utter darkness, alone, for all eternity.

 

In this day of increased knowledge, theories abound. People who embrace these ideas consider them new and enlightening. In essence, these are the old lies dressed up in new clothes.

 

Satan has been at this deception since the beginning. He told Eve to go ahead and eat the forbidden fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. In essence, he was telling Eve, God doesn’t want you to eat the fruit of that tree because He knows then you’ll be as wise as He is. He’s holding out on you. Go ahead. Eat it. Don’t believe God’s lie.

 

Today people search the world over for “Truth,” when in essence; the real Truth is tucked away on a bookshelf in their own home in the pages of the book entitled “The Bible.”

 

People look for power. Real power comes from God and God alone. (Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you . . .”)

 

People look for peace. There is only one true peace that continues no matter what befalls people. (John 14:27-28 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’”)

 

People look for purpose. A life lived without fulfilling this purpose is a life wasted. (Matthew 22:37-39 “ . . . You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”) The love God speaks of here is not human love, but agape love. God’s love loves even the most unlovable people.

 

People look for real, lasting relationships. There is no greater relationship than the one we can have with Jesus Christ. (John 14:21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him.”)

 

People look for safety and security. There is no safer place on earth than in a loving Father’s arms. (Isaiah 43: 1-3 “But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; . . .’”)

 

People look for a good outcome, even after they die. Some people make up a fairy tale that all people go to heaven or that we are reincarnated and come back in another form. God’s Word, the plumb-line for all of life, says differently. (Hebrews 9:27 . . . it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,”)

 

If, at the end of this life, we have not taken the opportunity to receive Jesus and His truth laid out plainly in the Bible for us, as our only way, we will be cast into the place where there is “the furnace of fire;” the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41-42). Jesus said of Himself, “ . . .I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6).

 

There is only one way. Will you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ? Today is the day to do that while you still have time.

A Day with My Granddaughter

 

 

Recently I spent the day with one of my granddaughters. She’ll be a senior in high school next year. We spoke of many things, but one stands out in my memory. She told me of accompanying a friend to a Planned Parenthood facility. Her friend’s mother instructed her to go there to get a pregnancy test. I’ll let you hear the conversation we had.

 

“Mandy’s * mother was out of town so Mandy asked me to go with her.”

 

“Why didn’t she get a pregnancy test at the drugstore?”

 

My granddaughter shrugged. “Her mom wanted her to make sure the test was accurate. When we got there the door was locked, so we rang the bell. A big blurry guard came to the door.”

 

“Wha’dda want?” he asked.

 

“We’re here for a pregnancy test.”

 

“The guard eyed us up and down and then said, “Go back to your car. Leave all cell phones, cameras, and recording devices. Then come back.”

 

“We did as he asked. When we came back a person behind the desk asked us if we had any recording or camera equipment with us. We said we didn’t. Then she shoved a paper at us to sign stating the same. We signed it. Then she warned us we would be in big trouble if we were lying. She directed us to have a seat in the empty waiting area.

 

“The nurse came out and told Mandy to follow her.”

 

Mandy asked, “Can my friend come with me?”

 

“Absolutely not!”

 

My granddaughter continued, “My friend told me when she got back there, four women employees laughed and joked like this was some regular office gathering around the water cooler. Mandy took the test and it came back negative.

 

“After the test, the nurse talked with her for a while. ‘I’ve had three abortions myself. I wanted a boy and a girl. After my first boy, I just kept getting more boys. Now I’ve got my boy and a girl. Everything’s good.’”

 

I wonder. Is this the education Planned Parenthood so proudly touts as they take millions of our tax dollars each year?

 

For the past forty years, the spirit of murder has run rampant. We have murdered 53 million babies in this nation over that period. In the book of James it says, “The prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

 

Hard hearts, greedy for money, need to be changed. No amount of demonstration or protests on the street is going to do that. There is only one way. Only God can cause that to happen. He will only move if we pray. Will you join me in asking God Almighty to send a sweeping revival so that God’s gift of life is once again revered?

 

*Not her real name.

Update to a 9/11 Story

In God's Little Miracle Book II I wrote a story told to me by a life-time friend, Grant Besley entitled, "My Unforgettable Night."

Grant was the Captain of a United Airlines 747 jet on a fourteen-hour flight from Los Angeles headed for Sydney, Australia, on September 11, 2001. He got the word about the ongoing tragedy in the east as they flew in the dark over the Pacific Ocean. They discovered terrorists aboard their plane. He told me, "I wondered if we would survive the night."

He and his crew did survive to tell the tale. On the 10th of July 2013, eleven years and 10 months after that fateful day of 9/11, Grant was a passenger in a small plane piloted by a friend. The plane spiraled out of control and crashed 200 feet short of the Taos, NM runway. Grant had logged over 30,000 hours of flight time in his life. He died doing what he loved best. Rest in peace, my friend.

In the above picture, Grant is the second man on the right shown here with his crew that flew together that frightful night. If you would like to read more of his story, click here. It's available in e-reader and paperback.