Wednesday, December 1, 2010

God and Mammon

This is a message actually shared by Pastor David Goh from Banner of Love church which I think is relevant in the light of the world right now...

Yesterday, I was invited to a marketing business plan which shared about opportunities of business and I won't say bad things about the business but there was something that really struck my mind. The people there who were promoting this business were mainly having motives of:

1) Proving to other people that they could make it big
2) Wanting to make money
3) Wanting to help ease the burden of their families (I consider this a noble reason)

And just by seeing the 1st 2 of these motives does it no confirm more of what the bible says in 1st John 2:15-16 which says "Do NOT love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world! "

Now whether or not you may be in such a business is not my concern, but 1st of all to you Christians:

My brothers and sisters, I plead with you, please please do not run after the things of the world. Do not be obsessed with them for when our Lord and Saviour, Jesus comes again, all these things will BURN UP in the flame and you will be left standing naked before Him and all your treasures you laid up here on earth will just be gone... Please.. Spend your time on earth to seek His face.

Yes no doubt money is important, in fact I would accept it if someone gave me 1 million dollars but if to gain the 1 million would mean compromising my relationship with God,

FORGET IT!!

Please..run after Him..Only then can your joy be full..

To you non-Christians, I cannot tell you how wonderful and awesome Jesus is and how fulfilling He is, filling up the very holes and emptiness in your heart which even loads of money can't fill. All I can do is pray that you will find out that the stuff of these world will not last, but it will all be rot and dust when Jesus comes again.. However, I guess it's something that you all must go through to find out that Jesus is MORE THAN ENOUGH for you..

Anyway back to a portion of the message shared by Pastor David: Alright, in Matthew 6:24 - No one can serve 2 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.

Notice this that the only other god mentioned in the New Testament is mammon. Jesus didn't even mention anything about the Baals, Ashtoreths and etc... and if you realize that in the Old Testament, any other god that comes up, God would "challenge" that God and show that He is superior to those other gods..

eg. In Exodus, the plagues that happened were actually showing how powerless the gods of Egypt were. For instance they worshiped the sun but the sun was darkened and no light was given.

So even in this time, God is shaking the heavens and the earth. God is show His superiority over mammon. Take a look at all these economic crashes, currency just dropping, inflation etc.. and take note, these are only the beginnings and the worst is yet to come! God is staging a "fight" with the god of mammon cause He wants to show His people and the rest of the world not to depend on money but to depend on Him Who is the source of EVERYTHING!

Therefore, in conclusion, let us not look to money as our everything but to God and Him alone. Our God is everlasting, infinitely rich and glorious, even the sparrows He takes care, what more us who are of more value than sparrows (Matt 10:29-31).


Pleading with you,
David