Sending It On Ahead!
This excerpt, taken from the book Money, Possession and Eternity, is so
encouraging to me, reminding me that every day I am given wonderful
opportunities to use my time, talents and resources for eternal purposes.
“Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and
steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21
for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
…the central focus of Matthew 6:19-24 is the accumulation of
heavenly treasures, not the renunciation of earthly treasures. We’re to avoid storing up treasures on earth
not as an end in itself, but as part of a new life strategy to lay up treasures
in heaven. A person may give up all
earthly treasures without ever investing in heavenly treasures. Jesus is not looking for ascetics or hermits,
but eternity-wise investors. Jesus is
not speculating, He’s speaking of sure things.
When He warns us not to store up treasures on earth, it’s not just
because wealth might be lost. It’s that wealth will definitely be lost. Either
it leaves us while we live, or we leave it when we die.
“Naked a man comes from
his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can
carry in his hand” (Ecclesiastes 5:15).
You
can’t take it with you.
“Do not be afraid when
a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dies
he will carry nothing away; his glory will not descend after him” (Psalm
49:16-20, NASB).
You
can’t take it with you.
King Tut thought that
by surrounding himself with treasures, they would be his in the afterlife. He was wrong.
They didn’t go with him. When
Howard Carter discovered Tut’s tomb in 1922, the treasures were still
there. Today those treasures sit in a
Cairo museum. They’re still here, but
Tut is long gone.
You
can’t take it with you.
When Jesus speaks of
moths and rust and thieves taking our earthly treasures, He is saying in
effect: “You can’t take it with you.”
But then He adds something breathtaking, something revolutionary, a
brand-new corollary to the old adage: “You can’t take it with you, but…you can send it on ahead.”
What a stunning
qualification. Who would have dared to
think such a thing possible – that we creatures of dust could make choices
today that would result in possessing eternal treasures in heaven? Moses prayed, “Make permanent the works of my
hands” (Psalm 90:17, literal translation).
Jesus says, “Here’s how you can do that: Take treasures you could have
stored up on earth (only to eventually lose them) and instead store them up in
heaven , where they’ll remain intact for eternity.”
Please consider making an eternal investment in the lives of others
through Thin Blue Line Ministries International today!
Taken from Money, Possession and Eternity by Randy Alcorn.
Copyright © 1989, 2003 by Eternal Perspective Ministries (Revised and Updated
Edition 2003). Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights
reserved.
