Hey you don’t ever have to try and read Words for the Day on a cell phone while driving again. For that matter you don’t even have to read this devotion through e-mail; you can just listen to it.
Just sit back, relax, and listen while focusing on your driving. I’m now recording WFTD daily for a Tallahassee Christian radio station Wave 94 and it airs between 10:50 and 11:10 a.m. (I’m also attaching the wave file that I recorded for them to the e-mailed version and you may click on it at the bottom of the page to listen).
Yesterday I spoke to a Rotary Club in Tallahassee. I was asked to do so by a client whose daughter is getting married at Honey Lake in a few weeks. I spoke in part about the transition of my life from being a homeless person to someone of wealth. One observation I shared with them in that regard was that money does not solve as many problems as it creates.
I got the usual stares of disbelief and as I looked at their faces I could read their minds, “Oh yeah, well I’d like to give that one a try I tell you”. I often remind audiences of Whitney Houston’s life. She was a beautiful, talented, recording artist, singer, producer, actress, and model who sold millions upon millions of albums. She won Grammys, performed brilliantly in movies, and was even cited in the Guinness Book of World Records as being the most awarded female act of all time.
She had fans all over the world, and became rich beyond most people’s comprehension with private jets, mansions, furs, jewels, luxury cars and a red carpet lifestyle.
This beautiful young lady began her singing career at the age of 11 as a soloist in the junior gospel choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark N.J. Her heavenly voice soon was discovered by the right people and she was off to the races and experienced a dazzling rise to wealth, power and fame.
After she “arrived” one would think that all was well on “Easy Street”, but behind the veil, it was anything but . . . I have a friend who lives in Country Club South in Atlanta Georgia who lived next door to Whitney for a while and he told me that the police often came to her house to break up fights between her and her husband Bobby Brown. In spite of all that she had going for her she became lonely, sad and miserable and ultimately drowned in a bathtub in a hotel room in L.A. (An autopsy revealed her body was full of cocaine and other drugs that she had used to try and remove her pain, find some peace, and drive away her inner demons.)
Elvis Presley once said that he was surrounded by people everywhere he went and yet he was the loneliest man in the world and all of his billion dollar plus fortune and accomplishments meant little to nothing to him; he described himself as a “prisoner’. Michael Jackson was in a similar boat.
We read about the misery of the rich and famous all the time; an NFL superstar who seems to have everything going for him suddenly commits suicide, one of the Patriot’s football greats is involved in a gangland murder, wealthy CEO’s live lonesome lives with wives who are stone cold and kids who are an absolute wreck, “lucky sperm club-silver spooners”, bankers, attorneys, doctors, lottery winners, and others often find themselves owning every possession and object money can buy and yet the peace, joy, and love that they desire in their lives eludes them.
What’s up with that? Is the American Dream to obtain wealth, fame, power, and the attainment of significant achievements really where it’s at?
Jesus spoke to this one time when someone described as a “rich young ruler” came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said: “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!”…
I had a difficult time focusing on God when I made a ton of money; (so many temptations, distractions, and opportunities to do anything but Kingdom work). I mentioned this while standing on a hot prison yard last weekend. I could have been anywhere in the world that I wanted to be that day, (including the topless beaches of the French Riviera or Rio). Instead I chose to stand among those tough, sociopathic, tattooed thugs amongst the concrete and prison cells surrounded by razor wire and gun towers pleading with them to choose Jesus and allow Him to change their lives like He did mine.
Hmmm . . . French Riviera, Rio, Amsterdam, sounds pretty good compared to a prison yard . . .
Am I CRAZY?
Not really . . . I relate to old King Solomon who as he drew close to the end of his days reflected that his experiences in life had led him to understand once and for all that the wealth, power, fame, and significant achievements of this old world are “vanity” and nothing more. The things of this world will rot, rust, be eaten by moths and this life will vanish like a vapor. As testimony to his wise reflections I visited Israel and saw the ruins of his once grandiose kingdom and lavish lifestyle and today it is crumbling and covered with weeds and vines and old King Solomon is no more . . .
When I die I take nothing with me except the things I do in my life, (the good, the bad, and the ugly). According to the Bible because of my faith in Jesus Christ the bad and the ugly will be covered in the blood of Christ and those terrible sins will be “remembered no more”, but those things done on behalf of my Savior will live on.
Standing in the hot prison yard, dizzy and dehydrated from the heat, and trying my utmost to persuade those hardened men that they need Jesus in their lives is what it’s all about. Giving to the poor, helping to spread the Gospel to every nation, visiting someone in a hospital, offering a helping hand when you can, teaching children, assisting the sick, there is plenty to do for those who are wise.
Don’t focus on yourself 100% of the time. Don’t allow the distractions of this world to take your eye off Him. Remember Whitney and don’t work overly hard in this world to be rich; it isn’t what it’s cracked up to be unless you are one of the very few that can withstand the temptations and remain focused on God and channel that tremendous wealth towards Kingdom work. Build your empire in heaven and not on this earth where it will be destroyed.
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!
Acts 20:32
“And now I entrust you to God and the message of his grace that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance with all those he has set apart for himself.”
August 23, 2013 – Click here to listen