In the Book of James, Jesus’s brother speaks of the Danger of Riches in Chapter 5. In case you don’t know or have forgotten, James is Jesus’ brother and he should know a thing about being perceived as being poor. I’m sure he was told about the humble beginning of his Brother’s Life. Born in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. Born in a place by our standards was not fit for our King. But he was placed there so that when we complain about our homes that might have a leaking roof, a broken window, a door where it was secured by merely a piece of wood and a nail, how dare we, Glory to God.
The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords to today’s standard was born into poverty. He didn’t have the wealth of those in his bloodline. It wasn’t described of him to have been given the wealth of Moses, Boaz, David, or Solomon. Perhaps because Father God knew we would complain about our circumstance, we would have had an excuse to say, “Well Jesus didn’t come from where I’m from”. How many of you were born in a manager? So when you start to have your pity party or think you got it going on, I wish someone would read Matthew 5:3-14 (The beatitudes). 2 Corinthians 6:10 says, As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
Know Ye not that his grace is sufficient. Look back over your life, has he not brought you through. When you went into sickness, hard times, drug addiction, and depression, whatever or wherever you were, Jesus Christ brought you from there and through there. He has given me things I alone could not have achieved. Taking me places I alone could not go. Heal this body which I had no control over. So what have I to complain about?
Don’t be like the Sadducees and Pharisees who boast about what they have or can do. Know that it is only by God’s Grace and Mercy that you have what you have.
James says in the 5th chapter, “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 3 Your gold and silver are cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. 4Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. 6Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you”.
What profits someone to gain the whole world and lose their soul. Ponder this for a moment, how many celebrities you have heard on the news that had wealth, and have committed suicide. Their souls are lost forever. They had what the world says, they had it all. The scripture tells us to lay not your treasures on earth but in Heaven. Don’t be as the man in the parable which Jesus describes in the parable that God called a fool. He had much wealth. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast many goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
22 And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.
23 The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.
Know Ye not that you are already blessed beyond measures in Christ Jesus. If you have accepted Him as your Savior, you have eternal life. No earthly price can be paid or worth that. In the Book of Malachi, the Scripture says, “saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it”. If He did it then, He will do it now.
Remember always, that Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
We Do Not Own the Rights to This Music;