01/07/13

How are you planning to enter Heaven?

Psalms 37:16 - A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.


There is a scripture which many people quote 1 Timothy 6:10. People think this scripture talks of only craving for money as being evil and due to lack of understanding of this scripture they land up doing the other things which this scripture warns about.

The Greek word translated as money here is 'philarguria' and this word comes from 2 words which together mean 'a friend of silver'.

In the Bible silver symbolizes things of this world and gold as things of the Heavens. Silver is not evil but only a foolish person would crave for silver and reject gold, only a person who does not know the value of silver and gold would do such a thing.

Money is not evil, people gave Jesus and His disciples money and they took it, but you will see there are many times Jesus did not depend on the money but on God alone. Like when He had to feed a multitude of people, He did not opt for buying bread with the money they had but instead opted for God to perform a miracle and feed the multitude. There was also a time when Jesus sent His disciples in twos without any money, or extra pair of clothes, or food, or water, all they carried was a staff. By doing this Jesus tried to teach them how to rely on God to provide. We need to remember Jesus allowed Judas to hold the money bag knowing he was dishonest.

Righteousness and other fruits of the Holy Spirit are Heavenly riches and are gold, yet we see people do not crave for gold and run after silver. They give their lives for the silver even though they know that they cannot take any of the silver with them to Heaven when they enter it.

Silver does not mean just money it also means all those things that are valued in this world, like property, clothes, jewellery, good food, automobiles, luxury tours, good furniture, jazzy electronics etc. it also includes things like fame, worldly power, status, beauty of the flesh, good body (physic) etc...

We see many Christians actually pray to God day and night for silver and hardly ask God for gold. Jesus warned in the Bible that it is near impossible for a rich man to enter Heaven. And if one understands tithing and giving unto the Lord, they will realize it is a step towards overcoming the greed to become rich.

Even if a rich man does enter Heaven, imagine entering Heaven empty handed, penniless, naked (spiritually) while others are entering well dressed, decorated and rich, all because they gathered a lot of gold instead of sliver when they were on earth.

Let me take another example just to make you understand and please do not take the example literately.

Imagine as an Indian I am going to the US to settle down, to live the rest of my life there and in US Indian rupees are not an accepted currency and also there are no currency exchanges in the US. Even if I have billions of rupees and am a very rich man here in India yet when I enter US I would be a penniless person. On the other hand any person who managed to collect even a dollar here in India would be richer person than me in US when he enters US along with me.

The Lord is today asking us if we are planning to go to Heaven how we are planning to enter Heaven to the House of our Father, whom we desire to meet so much. Would we like to greet Him naked and empty handed or well dressed and decorated with finery? Are we planning to live in Heaven on essentials or in excess for eternity?


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, we pray that You open our eyes and the eyes of our brethren who are running after things that we cannot take or use when we come into your House. Things that will in fact hinder and make it impossible for us to enter your House, things that will cause us to deny your Will and cause us to be sent to suffer in the lake of immense suffering. Lord we pray we evaluate what we have of value and things that are worthless. Help us to gather things of value in our permanent residence that is Heaven...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference ]
1 Timothy 6:10 - For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Matthew 19:23 - Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)