Now Think On This
by Steve Martin
“But it's trouble ahead if you think you have it made. What you have is all you'll ever get. And it's trouble ahead if you're satisfied with yourself. Your self will not satisfy you for long. And it's trouble ahead if you think life's all fun and games. There's suffering to be met, and you're going to meet it.” (Luke 6:24-25, The Message)
High above the city streets, comfortably living in the multi-millionaire condo, the pro NFL quarterback rests on his laurels. After achieving his early notoriety by leading his football team to the playoffs, he has it made. Now his $20 million a year contract, good for the next five years, has put him in a category few will ever know outside his bubble. The fans rave him. The advertisers laud him. The rest of the world lives on, scrapping by with what little they have. They live on the street below, with nowhere to go.
I will spend nine hours on the job today, among the same towering office buildings. I see it for what it is worth, breaking my heart in the process. Bustling with overachievers, the good life is just waiting to be had. Chasing after the gold, the glory and the girls motivates the majority. In America, wealth is. Get it. Spend it. Get some more of it.
But myself, having left a Christian ministry top administration job in 2010 (after a total of 24 years with three ministries) in order to start a new humanitarian ministry that same year (Love For His People, Inc.), I had to go back to a full time accounting job. I still had to pay the home mortgage and car payment, while keeping the water running and lights on. Typical American.
My good wife at that time had completed 10 full years on her daycare job. Now she is on her 16th year as of this writing. She continues to buy the food and other necessities.
During my office day, on occasion as I sit at my desk, I observe those around me. Several are earning the big bucks (easily $100,000 and much further up the scale each year) and spending company money like there is no limit. Makes no difference if it is today or tomorrow (with our USA government printing it freely, there isn’t.)
In my heart I cry out to the Lord. “Help us raise $150 to buy a sewing machine for a woman in a foreign land, so she can feed her family in the coming days.”
There has always been within me a sense of what Francis of Assisi must have felt like, when his soul became disgusted with the luxury life, and threw it off. These days that reality has become more prominent in our culture. Live like there is no end in sight.
While He walked the earth, coming to save mankind from their lost way, Jesus told the true story of a man named Lazarus. It is, as is true for all of Scripture, still very relevant to us today.
“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. "And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
"Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. "In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. "And he cried out and said, ' Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.'
"But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. 'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.' "And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house — for I have five brothers — in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'
"But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' "But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!' "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'" Luke 16:19-17:31 (NASU)
I have decided to quit watching pro football and NASCAR. (Never did like pro basketball or hockey. NASCAR occupied too much time in the past 20 years of my life.) Yes, I have been among those who got into it when young, cheering for the home team to beat the arch rivals. But knowing the vast amounts of money that those very few now make, while others go without, convicts and prevents me from adding to their rich coffers, to play the games people play.
When I stand before my Lord and He asks me, “What did I do with the time and money entrusted to me?” I want to be able to respond as Jesus did and say, “I was about my Father’s business.”
Each of us, having been given allotted time and resources entrusted to us, must choose how we will use them. What we do with what we have, during our remaining life here on earth, will be made known when we each will give an account, standing before the throne of the Almighty God. All things will be revealed when the books are opened.
What are you doing with your time and energy? I encourage you to make it count for eternity.
Now think on this,
Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People. Inc.
P.S. We sure could use your help to bless the families we do in Israel, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the hurting ones here in the USA. Please give out of the abundance you have been given.
Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.
If these messages minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.
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Now Think On This #192 “Make It Count” by Steve Martin
Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (10.19.15) Monday at 7:25 am in Charlotte, NC
All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This
