Jehovah's Witnesses Straight Talk - Forum/Blog

Daily Bible Thought: Tonight Your Soul is Required

Luke.12:16 He spoke a parable to them, saying, "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly. 12:17 He reasoned within himself, saying, 'What will I do, because I don't have room to store my crops?' 12:18 He said, 'This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 12:19 I will tell my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry."' 12:20 "But God said to him, 'You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared--whose will they be?' 12:21 So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

God and Christ exposes our hearts, while men may praise us, our religion may speak highly of our accomplishments, God and Christ speak the plain painful truth of our hearts lust for security.

James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn't God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

James 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Don't the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?

Why did this man want more, the man Christ spoke of here? It was because that is who he was at his core. Moreover, that is why he was wealthy in the first place. He knew how to run and operate a business, it wasn't luck as some would have you believe it was just like all successful people are, they get that way from hard works, and all consuming effort. When this man reached his goal, he could not stop, he had developed a pattern of work habits throughout his life, he could not just stop and rest, he must push to feel normal and gain more for that is what he had done his whole life!

Luke 18:25 For it is easier for a camel to enter in through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God."

Luke 14:12 He also said to the one who had invited him, "When you make a dinner or a supper, don't call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors, or perhaps they might also return the favor, and pay you back.

Ecclesiastes 5:12 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.

How are such pattern changed? It can be done, but such change for the physical man is only transferred into yet another endeavor, and it will become one more compulsion even if its religion, the bible. This is our sinful nature, we trade compulsion, but not the inward man. Who changes the inward man, now we are not talking about trading lustful greed for wealth into a lustful greed of doing a good work through a religion, no!

2 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore we don't faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.

Ephesians 3:16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man;

We are speaking about God changing us by being a new creation where the old man is put into the grave! This is the real change Christ was look for, not the fact the man stopped building wealth to make a deal with God: “I will stop building and put time into the ministry if its a good investment for eternal life”? No! Christ own apostles tried that when Christ spoke to another rich man, they immediately said: “We have given up every thing to follow you, shouldn't we get more?'”

Luke 19:26 'For I tell you that to everyone who has, will more be given; but from him who doesn't have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.

Luke 8:10 He said, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables; that 'seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'{Isaiah 6:9}

Proverbs 28:11 The rich man is wise in his own eyes; but the poor who has understanding sees through him.

James 1:11 For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in his pursuits.

Christ stated: “You have not given up anything for me that you will not receive a hundred times more”. Yes, this is our thinking, but soon these disciples would understand the full meaning of Christ words, when anointed and raised up with Christ receiving the treasures of heaven in the eternal life of the Son of God. The treasures of Holy Spirit, and its fruit, the fruit of peace, the fruit of love and joy despite the power of our own flesh to demand security through riches, it not real, its is an illusion. There is no easy life for God's children upon this earth, there is giving, and serving others, and unfortunately for now suffering in our rebellious flesh that demand security through money.

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.

Ephesians 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us.

Revelation 3:17 Because you say, 'I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;' and don't know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;

Many Christian's never come to understand, God knows our heart, but he also understands no matter what we say or do we cannot make ourselves righteous by what have, do, or possess. That is why he sent us his son's righteousness, so we might become rich, what kind of riches? The kind we all need if we are honest, that is, honest like Christ is, the truth; examining our every action against his life proves we all fall short of the glory of God, we all worry too much about making a living, thus, we must have the greatest riches ever given to mankind undeserved kindness, because we have all done the same as this rich man if not physically, in our hearts!

Romans 10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him.

John 1:14 The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Romans 4:4 Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as debt.

2 Corinthians 8:7 But as you abound in everything, in faith, utterance, knowledge, all earnestness, and in your love to us, see that you also abound in this grace.

See also: www.nu-truth.com