“But woe to you who are rich,
For you have received your consolation.” (Luke 6:24)
As of the year 2012, to be in the top 1% of annual incomes worldwide, your household needed to bring in about $34,000 – half of the world’s “1%’ers” lived in the USA. In other words – most of you are rich, which means this verse applies to you!
Then there is the parable Jesus told of “Lazarus and the Rich man” – one man is rich and well fed in this life, the other is poor and destitute. They both die, and poor Lazarus is brought into the riches of heaven, while the man that had it all on earth goes, well…you know…to the other place…
Here’s yet another one Jesus directed to us ‘rich folk’:
“For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:25)
Ouch – doesn’t sound too promising for us, huh? And I don’t know about you, but I really do understand the issue. When you have an abundance – food, clothing, cars, TVs, cellphones – it becomes easier to lose focus on the things that really matter.
But thank God that we are recipients of His Grace! For, let’s face it, if we left the story here most of us would be in serious trouble… But there is always room for grace – again I say... thank God!
Here is the rest of the story:
And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?”
But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18:26-27)
All things are possible with God – He is our only hope! So it doesn’t matter that we who receive all these incredible blessings in this life don’t deserve the even bigger blessings to come; it doesn’t matter that we are in a totally impossible predicament that we can never get out of… what matters is Christ, and the grace that only comes from God.
#LoveMatters