Color-Blind Series

(how you see and use) 4. Money can color your destiny. The most important relationship which money colors or shapes, is your relationship with God. It’s so tempting to center our lives around ourselves, our money, or our stuff, or to depend upon our money -and what it can purchase- rather than God and His Word. This tendency to idolize money as our source or provider is what Jesus was referring to when he said that, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Matt19:23-25). The context of this comment was Jesus’ invitation for a rich young ruler to part with his money and pursue Jesus as a formal follower. Needless to say, the rich young ruler turned down Jesus’ invitation. Sadly, money can injure your eternal destiny. The good news is that money can enrich your eternal reward if you’ll invest it the way that Jesus said: use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

While the way you use money on earth may increase your reward in heaven, all the money in the world cannot get you into heaven –can’t buy you God’s forgiveness. This is what God is saying to us through King David’s complaint about his enemies in Psalm 49:6-9: They trust in their wealth and boast of great riches. Yet they cannot redeem themselves from death by paying a ransom to God. Redemption does not come so easily, for no one can ever pay enough to live forever and never see the grave. “Sin pays off with death,” The bible says (Rom 3:23). We’re all owed it, ‘cause we’ve all earned it. All of Bill Gates and Kirk Kerkorian’s wealth combined is insufficient to pay the spiritual penalty for your faults, flaws, and failures.

King David goes on to state: But as for me, God will redeem my life. He will snatch me from the power of death. (Psalm 49:15 NLT) That’s why God sent Jesus –to pay the penalty for your and my sins, as the Apostle Peter writes: For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 1 Peter 1:18-19 NLT

The good news is that though you could never buy it, forgiveness & heaven is a free gift, available to you if you place your trust in Jesus, --make Him (and not money) the center of your life, and ask for His forgiveness, and follow His lead. God –through His prophet Isaiah extends this invitation:

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live (Isa 55:1-3). God paid a ransom to save you from your empty life: the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. His ransom is priceless, yet free of charge –it’s only cost: the rest of your life under Jesus’ leadership, and that includes your money management. I’ll share more about that in the weeks to come, but I want to offer you an opportunity to receive God’s priceless gift of forgiveness. What do you need to do?