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Sayings and Proverbs
Sayings
Treachery
Nails on the Door
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Adeste Fideles
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--by DaySounds ©2011 |
"The only truly safe investment one can make in life is what is given to
others. Everything else, eventually, will be taken by trickery, fraud,
deception, bad management, poor investments, bankruptcy, ruinous
divorce, theft, or death. You will be separated from your material
possessions, one way or the other!
"True riches come from a life of service, a life committed to doing
God's will in the world. There are sufficient resources in the world for
the needs of everybody, but not enough for the greed of even a
significant minority."
--Anonymous
(The quote above was not written by DaySounds. It was found in our
files without a name attached. If any of our readers knows the source,
please communicate it to us so we can acknowledge and make it known.
We have written "Anonymous" because we don't know who the author
is, not because the author has decided to stay anonymous. Thank you.)
The key to the quote is the statement: "True riches come from a life
of service, a life committed to doing God's will in the world."
The Bible gives us further insight on the topic:
"When you sit down to eat with a person of high social standing, consider
carefully what is before you; and put a knife to your throat if you are a man
given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.
"Do not be anxious to be rich; be wise and give up. Why will you set your
eyes on riches when they are nothing? For riches will certainly make
themselves wings, and they will fly away to heaven.
Do not eat bread with the greedy, nor desire his extraordinary food; for
what he thinks in his heart, that's what he is. "Eat and drink!" he will tell
you; but his heart is not with you. You will vomit the morcel that you ate,
and waste your pleasant words."
--Book of Proverbs, chapter 23, verses 1-8
"He who loves money will not be satisfied with money; and he who loves
to own many things will not see the increase he desires. This is also vanity.
"When goods increase, so also increase those who will devour them; what
profit, hence, will the owners have but watch them fly away with their
very eyes?
"The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but
the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep"
--Ecclesiastes 5:10-12
Riches are good not just when they are shared, but only when they are
shared with the poor, and that is precisely what the article quoted at the
beginning means. If they are shared with the rich or kept by the owners,
they will only bring suffering (to themselves and others).
God, our Father, keeps talking to us through the Bible:
"He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he that gives
to the rich, shall surely come to poverty." --Proverbs 22:16
"The one who gives to the poor is lending to God; and the good he
has done He will pay back." --Prov. 19:17
Jesus parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus illustrates clearly
the point. You can read it in the Epistle of Luke (in the Bible) , chapter
16, verses 19-31.
Sometimes, poverty doesn't come in the shape of financial poverty
--even though that is frequently the case. At times, it comes as the
poverty associated to losing the love or allegiance of the people who
are most meaningful to us.
To spend more time with our dear ones, enjoying their company, is
the best gift we can give them. We deceive ourselves if we reason:
"I am working so hard to be able to provide for them more material
possessions, a better college, a higher social class--It's too bad I can't
see them that much, but it is a sacrifice for their own good."
Really?! Perhaps when you open your eyes and realize your spouse is
going out with someone else, and your children tell you they hate you,
you will wonder why, and you will either blame God or stop believing
in Him, ...but you are the only one to be blamed. Today is the D-day,
the day of salvation: Turn around, turn to God, turn to your family,
turn to a needy world.
"Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy
herds; for riches are not forever." --Prov. 27:23 & 24A
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where
thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also."
--Jesus, as quoted by his disciple Matthew in the Bible (Mat. 6:19-21)
You can reply, "I am just saving. Saving is wise financial management.
Everybody knows it." True, if it is indeed wise; however, saving can be
foolish. It is good to have a prudent cushion for emergencies, but it
should be precisely that: prudent, to cover an emergency.
Jesus spoke about a greedy farmer who saved, and saved, and saved; and
he saved so much that he was planning to build larger silos than the ones
he already had in order to keep his goods. And, as he was in the middle
of his planning, thinking, "Wow, my savings will last me for many years;
so I am going to rest, eat, drink, and rejoice," God told him, "You, fool,
tonight you are going to die; so who is going to get all you saved?"
(The Bible, Luke 12:16-20)
"Well, you really don't know anything. It is not for me, it is to leave it for
my sons and daughters," you might be thinking. Are you sure it is going
to do them good? If they are struggling financially now, why don't you
help them now, while you are still alive? And if they aren't, they don't
really need your savings, other people do.
How can a person, who has material possessions to spare, think or say
that he or she loves God if they don't follow His commandments?
Perhaps you think, "Uhm..., I don't have anything to spare. I need my
two houses. I need my two cars. I need, I need, I need..." Things you
know very well, by looking at the world around you, that they are
luxuries which help you not only to enjoy yourself temporarily, but to
set your head above other people, to boost your pride and arrogance...
...While there are people, even in your city, who don't have work, who
don't even have enough to pay the rent of an apartment, enough for
food? You say, "Oh, they are jut lazy." Really? Do you know their life
circumstances, their contexts?
Oftentimes, laziness is a symptom of depression. And, when that
depression is caused by circumstances, it can not be eliminated by
using legal mind-altering drugs. The only solution is bringing hope.
Maybe if you were in their shoes, you would have killed yourself long
time ago.
They are fighters, fighters who have refused to end it all; and, in spite
of the horrendous situations they face, they have chosen to keep
on living, one day at a time, one day at a time with the help of God.
Why don't you help them by trusting them with a decent job, by
investing some of yor funds in them, instead of buying more toys for
yourself, instead of giving to organizations which will give you a
coveted tax break?
Another disciple, John, tells us that Jesus was not talking about
theoretical love:
"But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and
shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
My dear children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and
truth." -John 3:17, 18
"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. And the world is passing away, and
the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."
-John 2:15-17
For millennia, there have been the rich and the poor in all societies.
We do well calling the attention of the rich toward their unjust way
of living--the prophets have done it all through the same millennia.
Jesus did it. We do well admonishing them to change. And anybody
who opposes those voices (voices who are conveying nothing but
God's message either through their physical presence or through
Media) opposes God Himself.
There are certain people, though, that are responding evil for evil,
not just exposing the injustice, the lack of love, the oppression of
the rich. That attitude is not going to lead to any positive, permanent
change. It will make things worse. Permanent, positive changes are
brought about only by true love and forgiveness.
Paul, a former enemy of Christians, touched and radically changed
by God's amazing forgiveness, tells us:
"Love does no ill to anybody; therefore, love is the fulfillment
of the law."--The Bible, Epistle to the Romans, chapter 13:10
Jesus' love dying on the cross for us, and praying, "Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they are doing," as he was suffering
the enormous pain of the previous floggings, the sharp thorns
around his head, and the hanging from the nails that pierced his
hands and feet, gives us the example to follow.
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