BBD 08.26.16 Miserly Fools (New)

#1 · August 26, 2016, 1:14 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on August 26, 2016, 1:14 pm
Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Since June 8^th 1998, this
is the 1771^st

Burning Bush Devotional

26 August 2016

Miserly Fools

Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to
divide the inheritance with me.”

But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over
you?” And He said to them, “TAKE HEED AND BEWARE OF COVETOUSNESS (NIV – BE ON
YOUR GUARD AGAINST ALL KINDS OF GREED), for one’s life does not consist in the
abundance of the things he possesses.”

Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain
rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What
shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 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. 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.”’ 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?’

“So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward
God.” – Luke 12:13-21 NKJV.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because
what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. –
Romans 1:18-19 NKJV.

God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are
not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness,
covetousness (GREED – NIV), maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God,
violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning,
untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. – Romans 1:28-31 NKJV.

The
rise in pharmaceutical company prices and profits at the expense of the
vulnerable is shocking. The latest is the 400% increase in the price of EpiPens
which is a lifesaving product many depend on. The price has increased from
$56.64 to $315.82 since Mylan Pharmaceuticals bought the patent. Since then, the
CEO of Mylan, Heather Bresch, has had a salary increase from $2 million to $18
million. Other executives of Mylan have also had huge increases in their
salaries. Some Senators are now calling for a probe into this outrageous profit
taking at the expense of the most vulnerable. If you are outraged by this too,
you can sign a petition demanding the stop of this horrific profiteering at the
Other98: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-epipen-profiteering-drop-the-price-of-this-lifesaving-medicine-now

(Yahoo
News 08.25.16 and the Other98)

There
have been many great and wonderful advances in developing medicines for the
treatment of diseases. However, when those medications are unaffordable what
good are they? There are currently six HCV Hepatitis C drugs that reach cure
rates of 96%. The cost of a 12-week course of treatment with these drugs range
from $63,000 to $94,500; but, sometimes it takes a 24-week course of treatment.
Just recently it was announced by some insurance companies that they will no
longer cover the cost of treatment of HCV. No surprise there. Really, what good
are the medications if most people are unable to afford them? (Info on
medications and cost from: Healthline 02.24.16)

The
definition for “greed” from
Dictionary dot com is: “excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions.” Looking at
the outrageous actions of executives of pharmaceutical companies,
those actions appear to go beyond simple greed. There is another word which
fits these actions. Dictionary dot com defines “avarice” as: “insatiable greed for riches; inordinate,
miserly desire
to gain and hoard wealth.” Executives for pharmaceutical
companies appear to have an insatiable greed, greed that can never be satisfied
no matter how much money or possessions that they accumulate.

At Sweetwater, Oklahoma
where we lived for 18 years as I was the pastor of a church there, we would
often pass by a large old house. I once asked who had built the house, and the
answer was “Miser Stewart.” No one seemed to know his first name; it was just “Miser
Stewart.” The pharmaceutical
executives are far worse than misers. God has a name for them, and that name is
FOOL! When their soul is required of
them, those things they have accumulated will be meaningless. The “wrath of God” will one day be poured out upon those
fools.

Focusing
your life upon accumulating money and material things will only result in an
emptiness that no amount of riches can fill. Money and material things cannot
give you peace, fulfillment, satisfaction, and meaning in your life. Only by
putting God in His proper place, proper perspective, can you have real life,
the abundant life (John 10:10b) that Jesus came
to give you. That proper place of God is first place. Put God first as Matthew 6:33 says and everything else will fall into
its proper place. The life abundant will then begin to flow into every area of
your life. You will then not be known as being a miserly fool, instead you will
be known as “blessed” of God (Psalm 1).

Copyright © 2016. Ed Wrather. The
Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998
the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather
began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of those first
devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison
facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush websites:

www.theburningbush.net

www.theburningbush.org

The Burning Bush websites are celebrating
18 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the Burning Bush
Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to more than 14,000
subscribers across the world.

The Addictions Kit - Biblical Help for Addictions by Ed Wrather is now
available for download from Amazon. The Addictions Kit provides practical Biblical steps to defeat
your addiction that actually work.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VIYLNLM

The New Pastor's Training Manual is available for download on Amazon. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PJ8UTGS If you prefer a paper copy of the book you can order it from
the Burning Bush website at http://bit.ly/1uXDBnk

Books now available at the Burning Bush website:

New Pastor's
Training Manual

Biblical Help for Overcoming Substance Abuse

Biblical Help for Overcoming Sexual Addictions

In Times of Trouble - Devotionals to Encourage and
Strengthen You

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the
Devotionals at the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of
the home page. Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Prayer
Requests:
Please continue to pray for Michelle Abetz, Shane
Hall, Brent, Brad, Reta (my sister), Beverly (Jeanie’s sister), Loretta Brewer, Gary Kirk and Jeanie. Please add Lexi Ausher to your prayer lists. Lexi is a young girl we know who is having tests to determine the extent of what appears to possibly be stage four cancer.

Please pray for an end to the
racial hatred in the USA and that it will be replaced with peace and love. Many
prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page.
You can also post your prayer requests there (Of course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me. My
prayer focus is now that God will give me opportunities to preach. As the
apostle Paul says, “…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!”).

You can contact Ed Wrather at
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com View LinkedIn profile with
endorsements at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=92988105

If you enjoy the devotional
please recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank
email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time
constraints the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by
sending a blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

--

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org

Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Since June 8^th 1998, this
is the 1771^st

Burning Bush Devotional

26 August 2016

Miserly Fools

Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to
divide the inheritance with me.”

But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over
you?” And He said to them, “TAKE HEED AND BEWARE OF COVETOUSNESS (NIV – BE ON
YOUR GUARD AGAINST ALL KINDS OF GREED), for one’s life does not consist in the
abundance of the things he possesses.”

Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain
rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What
shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 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. 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.”’ 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?’

“So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward
God.” – Luke 12:13-21 NKJV.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because
what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. –
Romans 1:18-19 NKJV.

God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are
not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness,
covetousness (GREED – NIV), maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God,
violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning,
untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. – Romans 1:28-31 NKJV.

The
rise in pharmaceutical company prices and profits at the expense of the
vulnerable is shocking. The latest is the 400% increase in the price of EpiPens
which is a lifesaving product many depend on. The price has increased from
$56.64 to $315.82 since Mylan Pharmaceuticals bought the patent. Since then, the
CEO of Mylan, Heather Bresch, has had a salary increase from $2 million to $18
million. Other executives of Mylan have also had huge increases in their
salaries. Some Senators are now calling for a probe into this outrageous profit
taking at the expense of the most vulnerable. If you are outraged by this too,
you can sign a petition demanding the stop of this horrific profiteering at the
Other98: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-epipen-profiteering-drop-the-price-of-this-lifesaving-medicine-now

(Yahoo
News 08.25.16 and the Other98)

There
have been many great and wonderful advances in developing medicines for the
treatment of diseases. However, when those medications are unaffordable what
good are they? There are currently six HCV Hepatitis C drugs that reach cure
rates of 96%. The cost of a 12-week course of treatment with these drugs range
from $63,000 to $94,500; but, sometimes it takes a 24-week course of treatment.
Just recently it was announced by some insurance companies that they will no
longer cover the cost of treatment of HCV. No surprise there. Really, what good
are the medications if most people are unable to afford them? (Info on
medications and cost from: Healthline 02.24.16)

The
definition for “greed” from
Dictionary dot com is: “excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions.” Looking at
the outrageous actions of executives of pharmaceutical companies,
those actions appear to go beyond simple greed. There is another word which
fits these actions. Dictionary dot com defines “avarice” as: “insatiable greed for riches; inordinate,
miserly desire
to gain and hoard wealth.” Executives for pharmaceutical
companies appear to have an insatiable greed, greed that can never be satisfied
no matter how much money or possessions that they accumulate.

At Sweetwater, Oklahoma
where we lived for 18 years as I was the pastor of a church there, we would
often pass by a large old house. I once asked who had built the house, and the
answer was “Miser Stewart.” No one seemed to know his first name; it was just “Miser
Stewart.” The pharmaceutical
executives are far worse than misers. God has a name for them, and that name is
FOOL! When their soul is required of
them, those things they have accumulated will be meaningless. The “wrath of God” will one day be poured out upon those
fools.

Focusing
your life upon accumulating money and material things will only result in an
emptiness that no amount of riches can fill. Money and material things cannot
give you peace, fulfillment, satisfaction, and meaning in your life. Only by
putting God in His proper place, proper perspective, can you have real life,
the abundant life (John 10:10b) that Jesus came
to give you. That proper place of God is first place. Put God first as Matthew 6:33 says and everything else will fall into
its proper place. The life abundant will then begin to flow into every area of
your life. You will then not be known as being a miserly fool, instead you will
be known as “blessed” of God (Psalm 1).

Copyright © 2016. Ed Wrather. The
Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998
the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather
began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of those first
devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison
facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush websites:

http://www.theburningbush.net

http://www.theburningbush.org

The Burning Bush websites are celebrating
18 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the Burning Bush
Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to more than 14,000
subscribers across the world.

The Addictions Kit - Biblical Help for Addictions by Ed Wrather is now
available for download from Amazon. The Addictions Kit provides practical Biblical steps to defeat
your addiction that actually work.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VIYLNLM

The New Pastor's Training Manual is available for download on Amazon. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PJ8UTGS If you prefer a paper copy of the book you can order it from
the Burning Bush website at http://bit.ly/1uXDBnk

Books now available at the Burning Bush website:

New Pastor's
Training Manual

Biblical Help for Overcoming Substance Abuse

Biblical Help for Overcoming Sexual Addictions

In Times of Trouble - Devotionals to Encourage and
Strengthen You

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at http://www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the
Devotionals at the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of
the home page. Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Prayer
Requests:
Please continue to pray for Michelle Abetz, Shane
Hall, Brent, Brad, Reta (my sister), Beverly (Jeanie’s sister), Loretta Brewer, Gary Kirk and Jeanie. Please add Lexi Ausher to your prayer lists. Lexi is a young girl we know who is having tests to determine the extent of what appears to possibly be stage four cancer.

Please pray for an end to the
racial hatred in the USA and that it will be replaced with peace and love. Many
prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page.
You can also post your prayer requests there (Of course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me. My
prayer focus is now that God will give me opportunities to preach. As the
apostle Paul says, “…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!”).

You can contact Ed Wrather at
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com View LinkedIn profile with
endorsements at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=92988105

If you enjoy the devotional
please recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank
email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time
constraints the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by
sending a blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org