Isn’t it amazing how value shifts over time? In the mid ‘80’s, if you
had a sizable sum of money to invest, you might have bought stock in a
time-tested entity, like Pan Am, for instance, and bypassed the initial public
offering (IPO) of a little-known company named, Microsoft. But $10,000 plunked
into Microsoft in 1986 would be worth over $6.3million today. And your little
Pan Am nest egg? Sorry, that flight’s been canceled—the company hasn’t flown in
over 20 years. Just think of all the similar sagas played out over the past few
decades—Walmart and Kmart, Apple and Polaroid, Netflix and Blockbuster, Amazon
and B. Dalton, on and on. At any given moment, some investments party on the “up-escalator,”
while others sputter on the “down.”
Moses had all the things we value and envy in this life—adopted into royalty, privileged to the treasures of Egypt and the pleasures of life, and certainly the best education money could buy. It was good to be Moses! So, what did he do with it all? He cashed it in, and traded up! The Bible tells us there came a point in Moses’ life when he chose mistreatment with God’s people above “the pleasures of sin,” opted to suffer disgrace for God, rather than to enjoy the “treasures of Egypt,” and risked the wrath of the Pharaoh he could see in order to to obey the God he couldn’t. Why? Because Moses saw two escalators headed in opposite directions, and he was on the wrong one. He understood the wealth of this world ultimately descends into nothingness, while the life invested entirely in God rises to “greater value” and “reward”—the kind of riches that satisfy forever the deepest longings of our innermost soul.
For each of us, the time draws nearer when our earnings will grow as silent as E.F. Hutton, our possessions go the way of Polaroid, and our fame fizzle like F.W. Woolworth. We can ride it out, living for worldly gain if we wish, but by now we know its end-point—as grounded as TWA after its final descent. How much better to invest like Moses, placing our very lives in Jesus Christ, an irrevocable trust of enduring value. In Him are hope in a sure thing, faith secure in the One who lives forever, and a love that comes from the Spirit of Him who is love by nature. These are the things we actually do “take with us” when we leave this world, when we step off the escalator that only rises and never descends.
God, take this life, and make it yours in every way. Grace me to trust daily and forever in Christ Jesus. Bless me to live this life in blessing to others. And when my time here is over, take me to yourself, where my true riches lie. Amen.
[Click here to read today’s Scripture in Hebrews 11:23-28.]
Moses had all the things we value and envy in this life—adopted into royalty, privileged to the treasures of Egypt and the pleasures of life, and certainly the best education money could buy. It was good to be Moses! So, what did he do with it all? He cashed it in, and traded up! The Bible tells us there came a point in Moses’ life when he chose mistreatment with God’s people above “the pleasures of sin,” opted to suffer disgrace for God, rather than to enjoy the “treasures of Egypt,” and risked the wrath of the Pharaoh he could see in order to to obey the God he couldn’t. Why? Because Moses saw two escalators headed in opposite directions, and he was on the wrong one. He understood the wealth of this world ultimately descends into nothingness, while the life invested entirely in God rises to “greater value” and “reward”—the kind of riches that satisfy forever the deepest longings of our innermost soul.
For each of us, the time draws nearer when our earnings will grow as silent as E.F. Hutton, our possessions go the way of Polaroid, and our fame fizzle like F.W. Woolworth. We can ride it out, living for worldly gain if we wish, but by now we know its end-point—as grounded as TWA after its final descent. How much better to invest like Moses, placing our very lives in Jesus Christ, an irrevocable trust of enduring value. In Him are hope in a sure thing, faith secure in the One who lives forever, and a love that comes from the Spirit of Him who is love by nature. These are the things we actually do “take with us” when we leave this world, when we step off the escalator that only rises and never descends.
God, take this life, and make it yours in every way. Grace me to trust daily and forever in Christ Jesus. Bless me to live this life in blessing to others. And when my time here is over, take me to yourself, where my true riches lie. Amen.
[Click here to read today’s Scripture in Hebrews 11:23-28.]
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