Brown's Daily Word 8-6-07

Good Morning.
The Gospel reading for yesterday, Autust 5, was taken from Luke 12. I recently came across the following statements regarding the blessings we enjoy as we live in these United States.
If you have had an education and know how to read, then you are more blessed that over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all.
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won’t survive the week.
If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change lying in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.
And if you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, You are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.
In Luke 12, we find Jesus sitting and teaching his disciples, but also sitting with them were many just listening to him teach. He was trying to teach his disciples to fear God alone, when he was suddenly interrupted by a man who was not trying to learn what Jesus was teaching, but he was adamant about his own problem. He blurts out and asks Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Our Lord refused to be sidetracked from his mission of seeking and saving the lost. He looked at that man and saw that the problem wasn’t really the fair division of the inheritance, but one of ‘greed’. Jesus saw that not only did this man have a problem with greed, but also with the man’s brother. Jesus knew that no settlement would be satisfactory, until both the brothers had a change of heart.
“A change of heart”…that was what made Jesus’ teaching so different. He knew that everything that comes from Man starts in the heart. We find Jesus saying in Mark 7 verse 20,“What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of men’s hearts come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.”
What Jesus saw coming out of this man was ‘Greed”, and so he begins to teach about the sin of greed in the parable of the “Rich Man”. After all my reading, I don’t believe that Jesus had a problem with a man having possessions or even being wealthy. Jesus was concerned with the man’s Heart…where is your heart? Is your heart turned toward getting more and more of what you already have…or is your heart bent on loving and giving to where it is needed.
Proverbs 21:26 speaks to this very point, ”they are always greedy for more, while the godly love to give.”
Then, in verse fifteen, Jesus spoke, “And He said to them, 'Take heed and beware of covetous-ness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.'" When he said, “take heed and beware”, he was literally saying, “be on guard against all kinds of greed.” The area of danger for this man was “greed or covetousness” (pleonexia) and it means “the lust to have more than one’s fair share, a grasping for more that is never satisfied” or to put it another way covetousness is “wanting more of what you already have enough of!”
Charles Swindoll has pictured it this way, “Picture a shipwrecked sailor on a life raft in the middle of the ocean. His terrible thirst impels him to drink the salt water, but it only make him thirstier. This causes him to drink even more, which makes him thirstier still. He consumes more and more of the salty water … until, paradoxically, he becomes dehydrated and dies.” [Charles Swindoll & Ken Gire. Study Guide. “Living Above the Level of Mediocrity.” (Anaheim, CA; Insight for Living, 1994). p. 83]
Beginning in Luke 12:16 is what is referred to as “The parable of the Rich Fool” in which the Lord shows us what happens when our hearts are focused exclusively on ourselves.
When Our Hearts Are Focused On Ourselves We Do Not Give God The Credit For Things He Has Done. (v. 16) “Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.” This parable is addressed to the multitude, for it says that Jesus spoke this parable to them (plural). I think that it is important to note that this parable does not condemn this man for being rich. And to his credit it would appear that this man had come by his wealth honestly.
The rich man of this parable was farmer but he represents all human beings who are seduced by “all kinds of greed.” As this farmer looked at his amazing harvest he did not see the hand of God – he saw only his own effort. Yet he is a perfect example of greed because he has much and he expects to get more.
When Our Hearts Are Focused On Ourselves We Make Plans But Leave God Out. (vv. 17-18) "And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ (18) "So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.”
There was nothing intrinsically wrong with his desire to build more barns; it was both wise and prudent. The problem lay in the fact that there is no thought of sharing. In the original Greek the personal pronoun “my” occurs four times and “I” eight times. Even in the English we see the pronoun “I” five times and “my” four times. Notice he how he says my crops, my barns, my goods. He is confused between ownership and stewardship. It is not ours to own it is ours on loan.
When Our Hearts Are Focused On Ourselves We Consider Spending Our Resources Only On Ourselves. (v. 19) “ ‘And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry."‘
In this verse although he addresses himself as “soul” it is the physical life that he is really concerned about. This man thought that when he put his plan into being that he would he would have it made for years to come. But all of this is based on the fact that this man expected to control the fate of future crops. He envisioned the future as continually expanding and under his control. But nothing could be further from the truth.
The book of James speaks to just such an attitude (4:13-16) when he says, “Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; (14) whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (15) Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."(16) But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” The Bible does not discourage us from looking to the future with great expectation. However, as we make our plans, whether in business, in relationship or in our personal lives, we are to do so from the perspective that ultimately God is in charge. In other words, we need to plan with humility.
I wonder what this says about our American concept of retirement. I am not against retirement; I would like to be able to do so one day. But perhaps God would have us to look at it differently; perhaps to see it as a time when we have more free income and greater time on our hands than ever before to do some for the kingdom of God.
When Our Hearts Are Focused On Ourselves We Store Our Treasure In The Wrong Places. (v. 20) "But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?”
This man is pronounced a “fool” (aphron) by God. A fool in biblical language was not a description of mental ability but of spiritual discernment. According to Scripture a fool is a man who leaves God out of any consideration. Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool has said in his heart there is no God.” This man is a fool not because he has said this, but because he has lived his life as if God did not exist. He is a fool in that he did not recognize that his material blessings came from God, nor did he recognize any obligation to God in the use of his possessions. Fools leave God out of their lives. “Greed is “the logical result of the belief that there is no life after death. We grab what we can while we can however we can and then hold on to it hard.” [Sir Fred Catherwood. Evangelicals Now, September, 1994 http://www.bible.org/illus/g/g-83.htm]
“Leo Tolstoy once wrote a story about a successful peasant farmer who was not satisfied with his lot. He wanted more of everything. One day he received a novel offer. For 1000 rubles, he could buy all the land he could walk around in a day. The only catch in the deal was that he had to be back at his starting point by sundown.
Early the next morning he started out walking at a fast pace. By midday he was very tired, but he kept going, covering more and more ground. Well into the afternoon he realized that his greed had taken him far from the starting point. He quickened his pace and as the sun began to sink low in the sky, he began to run, knowing that if he did not make it back by sundown the opportunity to become an even bigger landholder would be lost.
As the sun began to sink below the horizon he came within sight of the finish line. Gasping for breath, his heart pounding, he called upon every bit of strength left in his body and staggered across the line just before the sun disappeared. He immediately collapsed, blood streaming from his mouth. In a few minutes he was dead. Afterwards, his servants dug a grave. It was not much over six feet long and three feet wide. The title of Tolstoy’s story was: How Much Land Does a Man Need? [Bits and Pieces, November, 1991 - http://www.bible.org/illus/g/g-83.htm]
To be a fool is to have missed the point of life. The remarkable thing is that this person that God calls a fool, we would very often call a success. Jesus says, “this very night your soul will be demanded of you.” The Greek verb translated required or demanded (apiteo) literally means “to demand back or require back” conveying the idea of life as a loan that must be repaid to God upon demand. He goes on in the second half of verse twenty to say, “Then whose will those things be which you have provided”. Long before the great philosopher Solomon made comment on this very problem in Ecclesiastes 2:21-23. “For though I do my work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, I must leave everything I gain to people who haven’t worked to earn it. This is not only foolish but highly unfair. (22) So what do people get for all their hard work? (23) Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night they cannot rest. It is all utterly meaningless.” (New Living Translation)
Since we cannot "take it with you", there is no need to wear ourselves out accumulating it. Everything you have will one day be left behind. It is yours now to use or to abuse, but one day it will be taken from you and you will stand before the Lord and give an account of how you used it. It would do well to remember the words of missionary Jim Elliot at this point, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
When Our Hearts Are Focused On Ourselves We Will Find Ourselves In Conflict With God’s Plan For Our Lives. (v. 21) "So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." Riches have one major weakness, they have no purchasing power after death. The “rich towards God” are those who use what God has given them for others. There are numerous examples in Scripture. People such as the centurion who build a synagogue for the people to worship in (Luke 7) and the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus where Jesus often found rest (LUKE 10) were rich toward God. The way we become rich towards God is to invest in His church and in the lives of His people. However, don’t misunderstand me; it is not that the church needs your resources in order to survive, but that generosity will add an richness to your life that you would otherwise miss.

Please pray for Sunita, who is currently in Johannesburg, South Africa on assignment for World Vision. She is scheduled to return to Virginia on Saturday, August 11, and then the push is on toward the wedding.
Pray for Alice, as she is driving to Boston today to spend some more time with Janice, Jeremy, Micah, and Simeon.
Pray for our friend, Dr. Allan Burns, who is having knee replacement surgery on Aug. 8.
Pray for the family of Edna Messersmith, a member of our church family here in Union Center, who died on Saturday morning. She was 11 days short of her 90th birthday. She was a wonderful servant of Jesus. She belonged to a group called the "crazy quilters", who made over 4,000 quilts for the homeless. Each quilt contained a Bible verse, and was wrapped in lots of love.
Pray for Millie Rood, as she goes for a biopsy and other tests in Pittsburgh this week.
We are planning and gearing up for "Operation No Sale" this Saturday under the tent (beside the Chicken BBQ). This event provides clothing and household essentials freely to members of the community who need them. It runs from 8 to 4 on Saturday and 11 to 4 on Sunday. The Chicken BBQ is from 12 to 4 on Saturday.
Happy 50th wedding anniversary blessings to our friends,Jack and Alice Black.

In Jesus our Lord,
Brown