Do Your Taxes, Save Your Soul
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http://www.forthright.net
Straight to the Cross
COLUMN: Final Phase
Do Your Taxes, Save Your Soul
by J. Randal Matheny
A few weeks ago, Daytimers, always attentive to
saving time, sent out this not-so-hard-to-believe
tax trivia:MUNCH, MUNCH: Taxes gobble
up 38.2% of the average family's income. That's
more than the amount for food, clothing and
shelter ... combined!
TIMBER! Nearly 300,000 trees are chopped down
annually to produce the paper needed to print the
IRS's mountains of forms and instructions.
ASTRONOMICAL! The IRS sends out 8 billion pages of
forms and instructions every year. Lay them end-
to-end and they'd encircle the earth 28 times.
That's a 672,000-mile highway of confusion!
THE ART OF, UH, SIMPLIFICATION? The Gettysburg
address has 269 words; the Declaration of
Independence, 1,337 words; the Bible, 773,000.
However, U.S. tax law has ballooned from a
relatively "slender" 11,400 words in 1913, to a
seam-busting 7 million words today!
DRIVEN TO COMPLY: American taxpayers spend over
$200 billion and over 5.3 billion hours to comply
with federal taxes each year. That's more than it
takes to produce every car, truck, and van in the
United States. SURPRISED? 60% of taxpayers must
hire a professional to complete their
return.So how does doing your taxes
stack up to saving your soul? I pulled out the
manual.
PERCENTAGES. If taxes take 38.2% of the average
income, the Lord requires all of your heart, soul,
mind, and strength (Matthew 22:37). Though you
MIGHT get a refund from the IRS, God brings you a
return equal to and beyond the measure you use
(Luke 6:38).
TIMBER. If 300,000 trees are converted every year
to IRS forms and instructions, God did his work
with only one, hewn in the form of a cross, good
for all time.
SIMPLICITY. The seven million words of today's tax
law will increase next year. And the next. And the
next. The gospel of God has stayed the same for
2000 years and won't change until the end of time.
Anybody can read and understand it.
COMPLIANCE. You make all that effort and hire a
tax-preparer, and the IRS can still get you on a
technicality, if they want. For the soul, all
diligence is required (2 Peter 1:10; 3:14), but we
can be assured of pleasing the Lord in all things
(Colossians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 4:1; 1 John
3.22).
DOUBLE-SPEAK. IRS talks about our "contributions,"
when, in reality, we pay taxes. God calls each
thing as it is. Sin is transgression of his law (1
John 3:4). Salvation is pulling man out of his
self-made condemnation (Romans 3:23; 6.23).
ENRICHMENT. Our hard-earned monies go into
government coffers. God's treasures descend from
heaven to enrich our spirits (2 Corinthians 9:8-
11) and enable us to make free, generous, and
voluntary contributions to help our neighbor and
further the progress of the gospel.
We pay taxes because the Lord commands us to
submit ourselves to the government, which serves
as his agent in this world to preserve peace
(Romans 13:1ff).
We save our souls because God gave the greatest
gift of his Son to die in our stead.
So do your taxes. And save your soul.
For Mark Twain was wrong. Death and taxes will one
day cease.
So the eternal soul deserves our full atention.
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