THROUGH THE BIBLE IN THREE YEARS
((I just received this lil joke from a very dear friend who was once my pastor.))
Once upon a time, in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.
The man then announced that he would now pay $20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. But soon the supply diminished even
further and they were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their farms and forgot about monkey catching.
The man increased his price to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one.
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for $50!
However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.
While the man was away the assistant told the villagers, 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought. I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.'
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys. They never saw the man nor his assistant again, and once again there were monkeys everywhere.
Welcome to Wall Street!!
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________SCRIPTURE____________________________________________________________________
Luke 12:18-21
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 much 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.
KJV
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_______THOUGHT______________________________________________________________________
Our lives are not built upon our accomplishments and abilities.
Our lives are built upon God's GRACE!!
We cannot say that we own even our next heart's beat or our next breath!
Our physical existence is dependent upon how long God grants us His grace to live!
Someone might well ask, "Why then should we make plans for the future?"
Jesus answered that question in the parable above (vs 21).
When we make plans for the future, they should be to glorify God!
He should be FIRST in our lives in all our actions!
"A stock market allows individual investors to buy an interest in a company, thus allowing the corporation to use their capital in hopes of future gain. The market works because all concerned hope to gain through the process.
The development of vast global economic systems simply builds upon the simple principle that all participants are willing to trade one good for another they want even more and to invest in the hope of future gain.
Is this greed? In and of itself, this is not greed at all. The desire for a profit, for income, and for material gain is not in itself greed. The Bible clearly teaches that the worker is worthy of his hire and that rewards should follow labor, thrift, and investment."
The man in the parable above had no thought toward God at all.
He simply wanted to please HIMSELF!
Let us be sure that our plans for the future include God at the CENTER!
Love ya,
(Quoted from Albert Mohler, Pres. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, see http://www.crosswalk.com/11582124/)
Bruce