The best get rich quick plan!

Thesaurus states that riches are ‘An abundance of material possessions and resources’ which covers many aspects of riches, but not all! 

Recently my wife and I with two friends did a fifteen-day tour of the cities of the seven churches named by John in Revelation ch.s 2 and 3. This took the first four days, and then we had a few days in Kusadasi where we visited Miletus. From Kusadasi we went to the Greek island of Samos from where the Apostle Paul sailed to Miletus to meet with the Ephesian elders. One night on that island and then a ferry down to Patmos, where John wrote the Book of the Revelation. This is a lovely island; we spent three nights there. Our last port of call was Kos Town on the island of Kos. It was there that we saw Roma Abramovich’s yacht ‘Eclipse’ in the harbour. It is the largest privately owned yacht in the world at 533feet long. It has a helicopter on board, two swimming pools, seventy staff, and if you want to rent it for a week it will cost you a reported £1.25million. It also has a sea to air missile defence system and a James Bond type submarine to vacate the yacht if under attack, apart from the normal bodyguards that attend his person. This highlights the dangers that come with being wealthy. Mr.Abramovich is a mega-rich man but according to Forbes Magazine he only makes No. 69 of he world’s top 400 billionaires.

The 8^th October issue of the magazine has an interesting article about David Green who is a born again billionaire (No. 79 on Forbes list of top 400). He is CEO of Hobby Lobby an arts and crafts store-chain (520) in America. The company is solely family owned and sponsors worldwide evangelical outreach. One venture he sponsors is the YouVersion Bible app for mobile phones. It is equipped to offer 300 different versions of Scripture in 114 languages. To date there have been 50 million downloads throughout the world. Have you got one?

Conversely, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been disgraced by being sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud. He is No. 169 on Forbes list at around $6 Billion. Whether he will spend one day in prison is another question, he has bounced back more times than a tennis ball from Roger Federer’s racket!  Some Billionaires have known the embarrassment of losing large amounts of their wealth by shrinking stocks, but others have recovered along the path of affluence by shrewd business dealings.

Proverbs 23:4 reads, “Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”

The evangelist Luke tells us about four men that were rich and are worthy of consideration. The first one was a farmer; the second of the ruling class, the third a socialite and the fourth was a tax collector. 

The farmer had a good harvest and had thoughts of expansion, he said in Luke 12:18, “This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” He planned for a life of ease and prosperity but had not planned for an early exit. God said to him, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” The farmer had a good eye for business but was blind concerning eternity; he had no plans for the future. Have you?

The young man from the ruling class did think about eternity, Luke said, in Luke 18:18, And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” This young man had plenty of material things but did not have eternal life and he wanted it, the problem was he loved his riches more than his soul.

The rich man in Luke 16 died and went to Hell, the beggar Lazarus died too and went to Heaven. Anyone, rich or poor that dies without Christ as their Saviour, dies without hope. Jesus said, “ I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.”  Jesus died and rose again and went to Heaven, anyone that believes in Him will also go to Heaven, but unbelievers will go to Hell.

The taxman in Luke 19:2  “Was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich” Whether it was curiosity or concern we do not know but we do know that Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus. He climbed a tree to see the Saviour and when Jesus was at the tree He summoned him to come down. Riches may elevate one in society, being prepared to be humbled by the Lord, to be brought down to earth, meant salvation came to Zacchaeus. Christ came to his home. His outlook changed from that point, he said that half of his wealth he would give to the poor and if he had robbed anyone that he would repay fourfold. A change of heart and a change of destination, he was Heaven born and Heaven bound.  He was rich in faith. Amen and God bless.

Written for Stephen Baker by Stan Burdit

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Before you come to a conclusion - check the evidence!

Not so long ago I read a piece on ‘The Bible Society’s debt to Arthur C Clarke' in the Independent Newspaper. The author had obviously carried out some good research about the society and highlighted some key statistics which would be very interesting to a number of people.

I was then quite amazed that the writer then chose to violently misrepresent the teaching of the very book that the society has spent so long translating and making available to the world. For example he chose to ignore that the Bible and Christianity had developed more education programs, opened more hospitals and changed more societies for the good than the current world atheistic belief has ever done. 

Societies that have been successful (in theory) in establishing an atheistic state have generally produced as corrupt societies as capitalist ones but they have neither been ultimately successful or survived in the long run. All of this however only looks at the outcomes of the opposing world views without actually discussing the validity or plausibility of the views. 

Consider for a moment the genuineness of the biblical documents; the writer called them ‘stories, myths, legends etc. I would have imagined that any intelligent person would accept the validity and historicity of the Bible. Even Professor Dawkins accepts the validity of the record and recommends that every child should read it (“Richard Dawkins, the atheist author of The God Delusion, believes that children should grow up reading the Bible”. The Times May 10th 2007) despite the fact that he does not like what it says. The biblical record has been consistently proven to be accurate in terms of history, archaeology and even in the realm of science despite the fact that the modern scientific world view is split between evolutionary belief and the biblical record of Creation (see The Genesis Enigma: Why The Bible Is Scientifically Accurate by Dr Andrew Parker, published by Doubleday). 

In terms of the New Testament record, especially regarding the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth and the claims to his resurrection, there is clear evidence and logic that it speaks the truth even if many do not wish to follow through with the logical question that ‘if this actually happened what does it mean for me?’ Many clever people have attempted to discredit and disprove the historical accuracy of the account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ but have been persuaded by the evidence that he must have risen from the dead (A couple of examples come to mind; see the end of this article for details). How an individual responds to that information is up to them but I believe that the evidence is there to be found. 

As far as the conclusions regarding the Old Testament I do understand the concerns and issues unbelievers have with what seems to be the severity of the God of the Bible. I am not sure if you have read the whole biblical record and sought to understand the complete picture before coming to a conclusion. A careful analysis of the Bible will show that among many things God is both holy (just, righteous and morally pure) and loving. One characteristic does not cancel out the other; in fact his goodness and love of what is right demands that he deals justly with acts of sin and wrongdoing. 

Where people assume that God is acting out of order a careful analysis of the facts will persuade them that he was acting to maintain what is right. If a judge in our times was confronted with evil behaviour, child abuse, rape or one of a whole range of anti-social behaviours that were illegal and detrimental to the good of society we would not question his ‘goodness’ when he passed sentence and 

enforced a punishment that met the severity of the crimes. But when facing the examples of God’s judgment on nations who engaged in the very same activities we question his goodness because he acts justly and righteously to deal with behaviour which breaks his laws and damages society. I am not sure if we are being consistent in our approach to the issues.

Ultimately God has revealed Himself in the Bible and is warning us that we are in danger of his coming justice and judgment as a result of our moral defection and sin (all of us). He has made provision for us all to flee from his coming judgement through the sacrifice of His own dear Son, Jesus. His offer to clear the legal case against us and to offer us pardon, forgiveness and salvation is 

still on the table. That doesn’t sound like a vengeful, demanding, capricious, merciless and tyrannical God to me. 

This is the alternative argument to the atheistic viewpoint: people should know what it is so that they can decide for themselves where the truth lies. 

Note referred to: examples of legal minds who set out to disprove the resurrection and were convinced that it must be true – this is a limited list, there are many more examples. 

Dr. Greenleaf, Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University, was one of the greatest legal minds that ever lived. He wrote the famous legal volume entitled, A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, considered by many the greatest legal volume ever written. Dr. Simon Greenleaf believed the Resurrection of 

Jesus Christ was a hoax. And he determined, once and for all, to expose the "myth" of the Resurrection. After thoroughly examining the evidence for the resurrection — Dr. Greenleaf came to the exact opposite conclusion! He wrote a book entitled, An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice. In which he 

emphatically stated: "it was IMPOSSIBLE that the apostles could have persisted in affirming the 

truths they had narrated, had not JESUS CHRIST ACTUALLY RISE  FROM THE DEAD , . . ." 

(Simon Greenleaf, An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice, p.29). 

Dr. Greenleaf concluded that according to the jurisdiction of legal evidence the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the best supported event in all of history! And not only that, Dr. Greenleaf was so convinced by the overwhelming evidence, he committed his life to Jesus Christ!). 

Dr. Benjamin Gilbert-West and Lord Littleton were from Cambridge. They were so fed up with Christianity they wanted to destroy it, they took leave of absence to study and write books to refute both the resurrection and the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. As a result of their study, they too became ardent believers and wrote: "Reject not, until you have examined the evidence." 

Dr. Frank Morrison, a lawyer and engineer, was brought up in a rationalistic background. He liked Jesus, but thought the resurrection was a myth that was tacked on. He, too, wanted to write a book to refute it, but in the process of writing, he like the others committed his life to Christ. His findings are in the book "Who Moved the Stone"? 

Meet & Greet - Eve meets the Devil

A bible message from Seek the Truth Bible Media. Meet & Greet - Eve meets the Devil. http://youtu.be/baUFp-eWBbo