Money, Business, and the Bible预览

You Can Make Investments in Heaven

Outside of Jesus, the apostle Paul had the greatest impact on this world for the Kingdom of God. Paul was a Pharisee, a religious leader. He was “successful” in this world. He would have had money, reputation, and material blessings. Yet, when Paul committed his life to Jesus on that road to Damascus his entire life changed. This means every area of Paul’s life he brought under the Lordship of Jesus. Paul invested everything in building the Heavenly Kingdom and God used him to change the world.

Paul said, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” vs. 14. What was the prize that motivated Paul every day of his life? Jesus! Knowing Jesus and bringing glory to Him was the focus and passion of Paul’s life. Paul invested all his time, energy, money, resources, relationships, and business. Paul was also a tent-maker who made tents to sell in order to make money to be able to go on mission trips and plant churches to reach people for Christ and to grow God’s Kingdom.

The question comes to all of us - are you investing in this world or in Heaven? The more we fall in love with Jesus, the more we want to bring glory to Him with our lives. The more want to invest in building His Kingdom and not our own. God used the apostle Paul to impact the world, and He can use each of us today. Put God first personally and professionally and watch God do miracles in your heart and life.

It is interesting to see business people in the world today, like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, giving half of their wealth away to charities. What we realize is that we can’t take anything with us when we die, but we can send it on ahead. We can invest in the things that will truly last for all eternity. One day each of us will stand before Jesus. We will be awarded crowns in heaven based on what we do with our lives here. Then, I believe, we will lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus. This motivated the apostle Paul, and I pray this motivates us as well today. Let’s invest everything God has entrusted to us for the glory of our great God!