Rich or Blessed

​Love you all, praying for you. 
 
I just love God’s Word.  It’s truth, and history.  It reveals people are the same no matter what century they live in.  Have you noticed that today we conflate rich and blessed.  We view them the same.  Do you want to be blessed?  You probably mean rich.  Do you want to be rich?  There are actually three levels of rich.  You Tube is full of people teaching what it takes to get rich.  They get a lot of views – so they are getting richer by the click.  “Ten years of complete focus, over family, over God, over anything, and you can be rich.”  No Thanks.  What level of rich are you talking about?  Money Rich – Happy Rich – or Fruitful Rich?  If you are money rich, you may not be happy, but if you’re fruitful, you may not always have money, but you will always be happy.  And what you sow will yield a return in this life and the life to come.  If you are rich in money, but not happy are you rich?  What is poor?  Lacking.  If you’re poor, you lack something.  If you have money but lack happiness are you rich?  No, you’re poor, you lack.   If you are rich and happy about it, cause you love money and the pleasures it brings.  But aren’t fruitful?  Are you rich?  Fruitful – eternal things – things that will outlast you – that have value beyond this temporal world.  So what are those things?  Treasures in Heaven.  God said he who wins souls is wise.  Win them to what?  Salvation and Obedience.  The only things that matter.  Nothing else matters.  If you are rich here, and bankrupt in eternity, how does that help you?  If you made money, but didn’t know the purpose God created you for – you clearly didn’t fulfill it, and if you didn’t know Jesus, you gained the trinkets of the world, but forfeited your soul.  Even on earth, overnight millionaires can lose it overnight, better to become rich over a lifetime of hard work.  But even if you do, in a moment you will lose it all.  Your life’s savings, all the wealth you amassed, from all the sacrifices you made... It stays here, and you go to a place where you have no savings, nothing stored up.  Or even down here…  If you learn the rules of making millions, but the game changes.  (War, Natural Disaster, Economic failure, Currency Failure, or both).  All the rules you learned to make millions in America – in what once was the land of the free – those rules no longer apply under socialism, communism, or feudalism.  Different rules now apply, fortunes made are lost, or stolen, and new fortunes are made, or stolen.  A nation that allows people to get rich, depends on civil order and the rule of law.  Once that disintegrates, the rules change.  Those with the guns - get the money.  That’s why governments seek power, and people seek government positions to wield power over others.  Riches don’t last forever neither is a crown secure to all generations.  If money is your goal, and you get it, so what?  What then?  If your goal is what you can easily lose, that’s not a great goal.  Is it really worth a life’s pursuit?  If your goal is what you can never lose – treasure in heaven – that is a wiser goal.  What is Rich?  What is happiness?  What is Blessed?  God tells us.  Blessed – truly happy – rich are those… who put their trust in him (Ps 2:12), who dwell in his house they are always praising Him (Ps 84:4), who maintain justice, who always do what is right (Psalms 106:3), who are undefiled in the way (the road they walk, how they live their life) who walk in the law of the LORD (Psalm 119:1) Truly Happy – Rich, Blessed are those who record his testimonies, (they write them down), who seek Him with their whole heart. (Ps 119:2)  Who keep His ways (Prov 8:32) Blessed, rich, truly happy are those who wait for Him (Isaiah 30:18), who are poor in spirit (humble), who mourn for they will be comforted. The meek (humble, superior power, under control), they will inherit the earth. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness – they will be filled.  Who show mercy, they will receive it. who are the peacemakers,  who are persecuted for righteousness sake – they will receive the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5) Blessed, rich, truly happy,  are the eyes that see, the ears that hear, (Mt 13:16)  Those who hunger now, they’ll be filled, who weep now, they will laugh (Luke 6:21),  who are hated, reviled and slandered for His Name’s sake.  Blessed – truly happy – rich - are those who hear the Word of God and keep it (Luke 11:28) - those servants that the LORD when He comes finds watching for His return (Luke 12:37-38).  Blessed, rich, truly happy, are those who have not seen and yet believe. (John 20:29), whose iniquities are forgiven whose sins are covered.  Rom 4:7  Blessed, rich - are the dead who die in the LORD. (Rev 14:13).   Rev 19:9 -  Blessed, truly happy, rich are those who do his commands, (follow his plans, keep his commandments), they will have the right to the tree of life, and will enter though the gates into the (eternal) city.   Praying that you will be all three levels of rich – truly happy – blessed – not money rich – you could really be poor.  Praying that you will be rich up there, and rich down here, not just money rich, truly rich – Blessed! 
 
Love you all,
dad