DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES (3)

DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES – III

(The Concluding Part)

Well, we cannot do without thanking God all times for things which are seen were made from things unseen. Rightly was it said that, “…for the just shall live by faith” By faith in God through Christ Jesus. The wonders of God to us are numerous and more than could be numbered. In the dreams of the night and by visions of the day, God protects us daily. Without fail the Scripture gives the basis for this, for God justifies the ungodly. “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on HIM that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness – Romans 4:5.” Are we to question Him? Well, let us leave that for God to settle. God justifies us daily before the accuser of the brethren. Isn’t that enough to give Him praise all the time and all day long? Can somebody say Hallelujah to that…

Just went you and I thought all is done with concerning this topic, this last session on it must have to be written for better emphasis and attention. Isn’t it surprising to us that sometimes we think God has done all there is to do but suddenly brings another thing to the stage. “The deceitfulness” of riches – we must get rid of this. There is a way to live in the Kingdom of God and we need to be thought by God Himself how best to live in it to pleasing Him.

BLESSED IS HE WHOSE TRANSGRESSION IS FORGIVEN, WHOSE SIN IS COVERED – Psalms 32:1

To complete the verse stated above, we need to add this to it, “Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” Our riches and wealth cannot and will never earn us the mercies and forgiveness of God. The standard of God has not changed and it will never change. That we start to think that my money will grant me God’s favour or your wealth will make you to merit God’s compassion and mercies is impossible. God is not a man. There is no respecter of man with God. If you won’t repent, don’t expect His mercies. You can’t buy God’s mercies with money. Impossible! If you think otherwise, you have been deceived. Riches deceived you!

Emphatically it is written in Lamentation 3:22-23 that, “It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” We cannot bribe God with money. And even if we eventually try to do that, I trust God enough to this point that, He won’t accept or take bribe. For God is not a man that He should lie. Many people are thinking that, they can go all the way stealing and hoarding enough money and by paying tithes and offerings they would pacify God. If we are in that category, then most assuredly, we have been deceived by our wealth. Others are like, God is not so much concerned about how you make money if you are faithful to giving His portion to Him. When has God become deaf, dumb and blind that he could no longer hear, speak and see respectively. Liar! You have been deceived.

AND WHEN SIMON SAW THAT THROUGH LAYING ON OF THE APOSTLES' HANDS THE HOLY GHOST WAS GIVEN, HE OFFERED THEM MONEY – Acts 8:18

You know, money and wealth can so much deceive us to a level of illusion that we start to think there is nothing money cannot buy. If at all I don’t know all that money cannot buy, at least I know this one thing that, your money and my money, in fact all the money in the treasury of the world combined together cannot buy the gift of God. Come to think of it, if God is to be giving His gifts according to wealth and money, the poor would have no hope of getting it. But No, that is not the standard of getting it. Money cannot buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. All we have been told to do to getting it is simply by asking, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Many are of the opinion that asking is obsolete and that money is the real deal of getting it. Liar! Deception!!  Anything other than this is deceptive. If you doubt the validity, truth and authenticity of this, do ask SIMON from whom we have learnt a lesson in the above verse.

 

AND HE CRIED AND SAID, FATHER ABRAHAM, HAVE MERCY ON ME, AND SEND LAZARUS, THAT HE MAY DIP THE TIP OF HIS FINGER IN WATER, AND COOL MY TONGUE; FOR I AM TORMENTED IN THIS FLAME – Luke 16:24.

If there is one message God would be willing we know at this moment, one of them would be that, our wealth and money cannot take us to heaven. This is majorly because the way and method people are chasing after this thing called “MONEY”, it is gradually getting out of control. Some chased after it and lost their children, some in quest to have it, lost their family, spouse. Many more are so desperate that they use the destiny and blood of their parent as REPLACEMENT and others even used parts of their body as ransom. What a legacy! Gone are those days when people hold unto integrity and honesty. Nowadays everything is pointing to the fact that we are all saying, “to hell with integrity.” Whereas in those days, it was, “to hell with your money!” In order not to digress, let us major on the foci points – heaven!

We should have known better that no matter the amount of money and wealth in our possession none is enough to give us a free and automatic ticket to heaven. Don’t you know? I know you know. The rich man while on earth thought he could buy his way to heaven. He didn’t do good neither was he merciful to the poor. He lived and lived all to himself. That we can buy our way to heaven, No Way! There are many who think that they can do all the evil in the world and later come back to pay in cash to settle the bills. We can do that with men but with God, No Way!! Are we saying that rich men cannot get to even? No, not at all. They can but if all the rich are thinking that their wealth and riches will guarantee them a place with the Most High, then they need to think again. Let us be informed that, they have been deceived! Now, in our gatherings with treat the rich with preferential treatment but despitefully use the poor. James warned us about this that, “And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool.” Are we not being partial? Anyway, I trust God that He is not partial! Simple!

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 – Luke 12:18.

To mention but a few, faith in God is another aspect we need to consider. Do you think we are still living by faith in this our present day? Yes, we do. Maybe not as much as we should. Many are living by drugs. Other are living by wealth. We do have few who are living by strength and boast in earthly possession. We should not forget that we have been told that, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” Money, money and money, a whole lot of it is the language we are all speaking forgetting that faith is the key. In the ancient times, it took a man to live by faith than it is now. Why is it so? This is because for a daily bread to be eaten, it has to be by faith. There were no many hospitals those days than we have now. Therefore, if anyone were sick, faith is mostly needed. Bushes and forests were all around the areas of settlements were people lived then compared to ours. So therefore, to sleep and wake up safely had always been my faith too.

By contrast, it is as if faith is going on extinction. Perhaps faith is on vacation. If I am hungry now, all I need to do is to visit a grocery store or supermarket with my money and get food stuffs – no more by faith. If I am sick, all I need do is to visit a doctor or a pharmacist with my money, to get drugs and prescription – not by faith anymore. We use our money to buy security for ourselves. We get the gatemen, police officers so that when we are asleep, they watch over us. We don’t need to have faith to get all done again. Does this mean money is a necessary evil? Well, that is not what we are pointing to but if we have been totally overwhelmed by the consciousness of it, then it is. Does this sound strange? But if we are to be careful in our methodology, observation and analysis, it wouldn’t not take us longer time to realise that, money and riches are deceiving us. Dependence on God is to be our life, our breath, our will and our hope. But this is gradually becoming inconsistent to us in this present age. Who deceived us?

Our riches should not make us to think with money we would get to heaven – it is deceitful. Trusting in our money and wealth is deceptive too. That we begin to live independence from and of God is deceitful. Finally, thinking that God loves the rich than the poor by the reason of wealth and riches is wrong. Very deceptive! 

DON’T BE DECEIVED GREETINGS TO YOU ALL

Happy Weekend!