Dale Ridge church of Christ

A guaranteed investment?  Stock that doesn’t fail?  A savings plan that can not deteriorate?  Can there truly be such a thing? 

These days, our eyes and ears are filled with terrible news regarding the American economy.  The car radio fills us with gloom as we drive about our daily tasks.  Newspapers advertise terrible times, and warn of worse to come.  Television economists & pundits advise us that America is headed towards another “Great Depression” if we don’t act immediately.  The Executive branch of our government is taking severe action to shore up Wall Street.  Can there be hope for our financial stability?  Can there be a guaranteed investment?

Indeed there is.  Yes friends, there is a savings plan, an investment opportunity that holds the promise of eternal return.  A plan of such bounty, where the balance line will never fail, the benefactor never crumble, and the manager never abandon His investors.   A retirement package so profound, our richest words cannot adequately describe the experience. 

“What?  Impossible!  I’ve never heard of such!” many will respond.

Jesus Christ knew of such a plan, and freely shared it during his short time on earth.  Jesus well understood that we will often struggle with earthly materialism.  That we will be tempted by the temporary.  That we will be allured to lay all our hope, our plans, our investments, toward the ephemeral.

The inspired apostle Matthew records in his sixth chapter the warning of Jesus:

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal Matt 6:19

Christ balances that warning with a promise in the next verse:

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: Matt 6:20

Jesus would have us gain a proper understanding of our investment strategy.  Why is it so important that we maintain clarity in our goals, and keep a proper object of focus?  Again to Jesus:

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  Matt 6:21

Let us be then reminded that the objects we treasure, will by necessity steal our attention.

As our creator, God knows us best.  Who could better understand both our design, and what is best for us?  Who could possibly be a better care giver?  Certainly no man-made hedge fund, IRA, or stock market portfolio. 

Are material investments bad then?  Can there be no good use for financial gain?  Doesn’t the Bible teach that Christians are to be able stewards of that which we are given?

Indeed these and many other lessons are found within the pages of Holy Writ.  Lessons abound on the topic of stewardship.  Through the hand of Paul the Holy Spirit records an important command regarding use of our wealth:

Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.  1 Timothy 6:17-19

What a marvelous objective for our material goods!  How pleasing we are to God when we are become as the “cheerful giver“  of 2 Cor 9:7 and hold both the proper priority, and right use of, our material bounty.

In 1966 Jean Shepherd published a collection of short stories drawn from Depression-era America entitled “In God We Trust, All Others Must Pay Cash”.  Several of the stories later became the foundation of the 1983 hit film “A Christmas Story”.  The somewhat cynical view captured in the book’s title was a common saying of the Depression.  Sadly, the proclaimed official motto of the United States “In God We Trust”, while stamped on our money, is not stamped on enough of our hearts.

Let us look to God’s investment directives for the Christian and be those to trust not in the temporary, but rather the eternal.  “…lay hold on eternal life…” Paul tells us in 1 Tim 6:12.  Laying hold on the eternal means letting go of the temporary.  In so doing, what better hope we have in that guaranteed investment!

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Filed under: Uncategorized on September 26th, 2008