BBD 10.21.08 Greed
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
The Burning Bush websites have received visits from more than 150 countries.
Celebrating 10 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 11,000 subscribers across the world.
The Burning Bush Devotional
Welcome to the 1,271 new subscribers since January 1, 2008!!
10.21.08
Greed
But they lie in wait for their own blood, they lurk secretly for their own
lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; it takes away the
life of its owners. - Proverbs 1:18-19.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into
many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have
strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue
righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. - 1 Timothy
6:9-11.
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in
glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth:
fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness (greed -
NIV), which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming
upon the sons of disobedience. - Colossians 3:4-6.
In South Korea, Han Sang-choon, was dismissed last week from his position as
the deputy of Mirae Asset Investment Education Institute. He lost his job
because of his statement about why so many people lost money in the recent
financial crisis. Han Sang-choon on Korean television stated, "I reckon
people haven't cashed in their funds because of personal greed and
expectations of profits." Mirae Asset in a statement regarding the firing
said, ".we decided to sack our deputy head, Han Sang-choon, who gave
individual views out of line with our institute's original purpose, and
caused concern to investors."
Certainly, I have experienced my own share of greed in my personal life.
However, God has spared me from some very bad decisions that I could have
made because of greed. In 1982, during a boom in the oilfield I had my own
oilfield inspection company and business was great. I was making money and
thought it would be good to make even more. To do so, I would need to buy
equipment to build another inspection unit and hire another pipe inspector.
I went to the bank and established a line of credit and was ready to expand.
However, I wanted to make sure this was what God wanted. There was only one
person at the time that I thought could be the inspector that would work
well with me, and I made it a matter of prayer that if God wanted me to
expand the company that this man would agree to work for the company.
In October 1982, I was ready to launch my plans and talked to this
prospective employee. He rejected my offer and I knew that because of his
rejection that God did not want me to go ahead with my plans for expansion.
The next month I did have some jobs but was never paid for them and my
income from the business was cut off like a switch had been flipped. The
bust had come to the oilfield boom. I was eventually able to sell my
equipment, go back to college, and change careers. However, it could have
been much more devastating financially if I had not listened to what God
wanted. If I had gone ahead with my plans, bankruptcy would have been my
only option.
Greed can easily slip into our view of money and use of money. Caution and
prayer about our use and plans for the use of money is always the wise way
to proceed. We are in an uncertain time in our world today. Most believe
that the financial situation will improve but only God really knows what
will happen tomorrow. We must lean heavily upon His wisdom and guidance
during these times.
Copyright © 2008. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited. 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.
Prayer Requests: Please pray about the upcoming election in the United
States and the current world financial crisis. Please pray for Malachi,
Cody, and Mica who are young boys with cancer. Many prayer needs are posted
at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page. You can also post
your prayer requests there and they will be forwarded to the Burning Bush
Prayer Group (Of course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for
me.).
If you enjoy the devotional please recommend it to your friends. They may
subscribe by sending a blank email to
burningbushdevo-subscribe@welovegod.org
Two videos of my sermons are posted on Godtube at:
http://www.godtube.com/Wrather
You can listen to services at my son, Clark Wrather's church (First Baptist
Church of Broken Bow, Oklahoma) live on Sunday mornings at 10:55am CST
http://www.kkbifm.com/
There is a complete devotional archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here
is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/33.html.
You can unsubscribe to the pure text version of the devotional by sending a
blank email to burningbushdevo-unsubscribe@welovegod.org and then respond to
the confirmation email.
You may subscribe to the html text group by sending a blank email to
burningbushhtml-subscribe@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-unsubscribe@welovegod.org and then respond to
the confirmation email.