The Word is life, and just like a neck can be choked of its vitality, so can the ability to provide benefit be strangled from the Word.
Mark 4:19 , “ And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.” Cares, deceitfulness and lusts can lead to the strangulation of the Word that is in one’s heart and memory.
We’ve all heard it before. Money can be very deceiving. In fact, it is possible to place one’s trust in the dollar as if it is the answer to all things in life. That reliance, can have unexpected consequences.
Proverbs 11:28 , “ He that trusteth in his riches shall fall..” While possessing riches, bad things still happen to good people, such as the collapse of the stock market, which, as I have read, is predicted by Trump if he loses the 2020 election.
Many of us have been told that a person’s financial success is an indication of God’ approval. Is this true? Do the Scriptures bear this out? Actually, the opposite is true. Satisfaction, with one’s state, if basic needs are met, is the better life view.
1 Timothy 6:5-9, “… supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 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.”
Is this to say that one can be godly but not be content with it? It would seem so. Godliness, apparently, must be linked with contentment if one is to be satisfied with having merely food and raiment.
Mark 4:19 , “ And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.” Cares, deceitfulness and lusts can lead to the strangulation of the Word that is in one’s heart and memory.
We’ve all heard it before. Money can be very deceiving. In fact, it is possible to place one’s trust in the dollar as if it is the answer to all things in life. That reliance, can have unexpected consequences.
Proverbs 11:28 , “ He that trusteth in his riches shall fall..” While possessing riches, bad things still happen to good people, such as the collapse of the stock market, which, as I have read, is predicted by Trump if he loses the 2020 election.
Many of us have been told that a person’s financial success is an indication of God’ approval. Is this true? Do the Scriptures bear this out? Actually, the opposite is true. Satisfaction, with one’s state, if basic needs are met, is the better life view.
1 Timothy 6:5-9, “… supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 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.”
Is this to say that one can be godly but not be content with it? It would seem so. Godliness, apparently, must be linked with contentment if one is to be satisfied with having merely food and raiment.
