Jun 22

Regarding the issue of things that can be shaken and things that cannot -- I have a question for you: When you die -- and you will die, unless the rapture occurs first -- what will happen to all the many things which you did in your life here on this earth? Will they continue to live on after you, or will they disappear with you into the grave?

God himself asked this question of a rich man in one of Jesus' parables, found in Luke 12:13-21. Here Jesus describes a rich man who had so much wealth that he did not know what to do with it. So he decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones to store his wealth for future use in pleasure. That was his plan.

But God had a plan of his own and said to him, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" (v. 20).

That is the question posed you as well. How much of what you have done with your life will remain once you yourself are gone? All of it, some of it, or none of it?

At first glance, it might appear that the Bible says that we take absolutely nothing with us when we die and pass over into the next life. For 1 Timothy 6:7 says that we brought nothing into the world and that we can take nothing out of it.

But the context of this passage is that of money and how we handle it. Jesus also spoke of a rich man's obsession with wealth in his parable. Obviously, God's Word knows how easily we can fall into the trap of becoming oblivious to the true wealth of heaven and settle for the trinkets of this earth. God save us all from this deadly trap.

But Scripture does say that certain things of this life will go with us into the next. We will look at some of these things in later devotions.

Scripture for today: Luke 12:13-21
Thought for today: We take none of our material possessions of this world into the nonmaterial world of the next.
Prayer for today: Grant me the wisdom, Lord, not to set my heart on the riches of this world.

JUN 22