This Bible verse from the Old Testament caught my attention decades ago, and I have never forgotten it. The inspired King James Bible warns us in 1st Timothy 6:10 that the love of money is the root of all evil. Money in itself is merely a tool. It is the love of money, and not money itself, that is evil. The book of Proverbs has much wisdom to offer regarding finances and money.
Sadly, many churches (like the Harvest Baptist Church on Guam for a year) have become enamored with the subject of money. It is just my personal opinion that a church shouldn't be enamored with the subject of finances and money. The average pastor today in Florida gets paid $86,000 to $117,000 a year, MUCH more than the average U.S. worker earns. I have a problem with a Richie Rich pastor giving financial advice on how to live on a budget to church members who are trying to survive on only a fraction of what he is getting paid. Anybody making 50% above what the average American earns annually can live on a budget, but a man with a wife and kids simply cannot live on a budget. The family is broke all the time!
The Bible doesn't say “how” your riches increased in Psalms 62:10. It doesn't matter if Aunt Gertrude kicked the bucket, or you found a suitcase full of money in a field, or you worked hard to save it up—the Holy Bible commands, SET NOT YOUR HEART UPON THEM!
The desire for money is a dangerous thing. It is sad to see a young female strip naked and sell her virtue on the altar of some quick cash. These “fans only” smut websites are of the Devil. I read somewhere that the average “fans only” female gets paid about $170 per month. What a sad and wicked thing to sell one's self for cash.
Dear reader, money never made anybody happy. The world is full of miserable bitter old women, who have no children and no grandchildren, because they were too busy with their careers. Dolly Parton comes to mind, Deborah Harry (aka, “Blondie”), and Stevie Nicks (who aborted her child she conceived with Don Henley of The Eagles). Miss Nicks had only one child, but she murdered him. I say that kindly. If you search online to see if she has any children, every website will tell you, no, she doesn't. But in God's sight she does have a child, the one she terminated in her womb. Life begins at conception dear reader.
If you have any money, or ever run into a bunch of money, do not set your heart upon it. Read what the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, said about money in Proverbs 23:5, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.” So true! Riches have a way of growing wings and flying away, like a bird escaping into the air. In other words, money doesn't last. You could spend days online reading about millionaires and even billionaires whose money vanished quickly due to their bad financial decisions, reckless spending habits and partying, et cetera.
A Virginia Man Was Cheated Out Of $700,000
When I lived in Chicago I read a horrible true story many years ago that broke my heart. A good man in Virginia had worked his entire life and diligently saved up $700,000. When the day for retirement came, he rejoiced and happily left his career. He wanted his acquired fortune to last, but he didn't know anything about investing, so he contacted a slick stock broker in Chicago. The evil broker stole every penny of the man's hard-earned money, and took off for Mexico with a cocktail waitress he knew. The distraught man in Virginia, upon learning that he had no retirement money, commit suicide.
While sleeping in a motel room in California, the shady cocktail waitress took the suitcase with all the stolen money and fled. When the wicked man woke up, he panicked when he saw that the woman and all of the stolen money was gone. 2nd Timothy 3:13, “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”
So, the wicked stock broker went and robbed a local bank for $9,000. While he was making his getaway a few miles down the road, a police officer pulled him over. The broker took out a handgun and commit suicide in the driver's seat. In later testimony, the police officer said he had only pulled the man over for a cracked taillight, and had no clue that he had robbed a bank. He wouldn't have just given him a citation and let him go. The old adage is very true: “What goes around comes around.”
There is a common rationale among thieves that stealing from others is a victimless crime, because nobody is getting hurt. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible says when you steal from someone else, you are taking away their life. ...
Proverbs 1:17-19, “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.”
You can ask any businessman worth his salt and he will confirm what I say that, “Time is money and money is time.” An employer is essentially paying you for your time. That dear man in Virginia worked hard for 37 years, to lay up a nest egg of $700,000 for his retirement. From paycheck to paycheck he felt the satisfaction of having laid up a little bit more toward his much-deserved retirement someday. But then some crooked, two-bit, dirty, ungodly, thieving monster just took it for himself, causing the defrauded man to kill himself, leaving his wife a widow. Woe, woe be unto that evil stock brother, who stole their money when he is judged by God!!!
It's Just Money
Dear reader, it's just money! I know that sounds crass but it is nonetheless true. I have made plenty of stupid and bad decisions in my life. I lost $50,000 in 2013 while making a series of bad decisions. I tried to move from Guam to the United States, but I was all alone and had no real plan, so it all fell apart and I ended up moving back to Guam. I lived out of a suitcase in a hotel for 4 months. With expensive rent cars, hotel rooms and everything else, it drained my bank account. The money was what remained after I lost my house from my wife abandoning and divorcing me in 2006. I've never gambled a day in my life, and yet I've lost so much!
And as much as I wanted to die, to go home to be with Jesus in Heaven, by God's grace and mercy alone I somehow hung in there are survived the journey. I cannot express in words the inexplicable pain of soul, emotional trauma and depth of misery that I endured for all those years after my wife divorced me and my life went sideways for the next decade and beyond.
One thing that I know is that God is faithful. He is a good God. I do not blame Him for anything. I admit that I do get quite frustrated with the Lord from time to time, because I know He has the power to make everything right, but He won't do it. But I know why, thankfully. The Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 8:3 that God intentionally led the Hebrews into the Wilderness to test them. God made them hungry and thirsty, to see if they would still trust Him.
Sadly, they utterly failed the test. Instead of trusting God, they whined and complained night and day. Ten times they moaned and complained, until the LORD had had enough and banned them from entering into the Promised Land. Their bad attitudes were like cancer, so I humbly think that God didn't want them to contaminate the Promised Land. God hates complaining!
Some of the happiest people have nothing. They have no money in the bank, no earthly possessions, their teeth are mostly gone and rotted, they have a big hole in their ceiling, but they are happy in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When you know that your name is written in Heaven in the Lamb's Book of Life, you can rejoice even in the darkest of circumstances.
