BBD 10.15.09 How to be Happy (New)
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
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The Burning Bush Devotional
Welcome to the 1144 new subscribers since January 1, 2009
10.15.09
How to be Happy
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy
and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break
in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The
lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body
will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full
of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is
that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and mammon. - Matthew 6:19-24.
Mark Dreier is not as well known as Bernie Madoff and his fraudulent schemes
were not as far reaching, but they were devastating to all those they
touched. Dreier's schemes only reached into the hundreds of millions,
whereas Madoff's were in the billions of dollars. However, they are both in
prison now where hopefully they are no longer destroying the lives of the
people around them. Dreier is serving 20 years in prison for his fraud. Why
did Dreier do it? When asked he said, "I thought it would make me happy." Of
course that's what so many people in this world think, "If only I had more
money, I would be happy."
Then there are those who have decided to live without money. You can do a
search on Google for "living without money" and find them. There are
thousands of them, and they have dropped out of modern society as we know
it. Daniel Suelo is one of those "living without money." Nine years ago
Daniel simply stopped using money and started living in a cave, literally.
Daniel uses a public library computer to write a blog at
zerocurrency.blogspot.com and he says about money, "When I lived with money,
I was always lacking. Money represents lack. Money represents things in the
past (debt) and things in the future (credit), but money never represents
what is present."
There are extreme views about money with Dreier and Madoff representing one
extreme and Suelo representing the other extreme. Of course, both views are
incorrect if we want to live effectively as Christians. Money is not, in and
of itself, evil. The apostle Paul does not condemn money as being evil in
his epistle to Timothy instead he says, ".the love of money is a root of all
kinds of evil. (1 Timothy 6:10)."
Money is a tool which can be used for good, or it can be used for evil. All
of the material things that we have in this life actually belongs to God and
have been given to us by God. We are stewards of God; we are responsible for
the proper use of what we have been given to further the Kingdom of God
(Matthew 25:14-30).
The way to happiness in this life is to stop being doubled minded (James
4:8) by trying to serve two masters as Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and
mammon." Stop trying to gain the world and at the same time to live for God
because it is not possible to do. Let go of the world, and the things of
this world and begin to serve only God. As Paul says to Timothy and to us,
"But you, O man of God, flee these things (the love of money) and pursue
righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good
fight of faith. (1 Timothy 6:11-12a)." Then you will have "godliness with
contentment" which is "great gain (1 Timothy 6:6)."
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