Eye of the Needle

“And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24)

Judy's dughter, Liza Minelli, famous tune:

Money makes the world go around
The world go around
The world go around
Money makes the world go around
It makes the world go 'round.

A mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound
A buck or a pound
A buck or a pound
Is all that makes the world go around,
That clinking clanking sound
Can make the world go 'round.

God only had to say it one time, we should all give careful attention: “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

Remember, Jesus did not say money, but the love of money. When I was a child, working in the fields, an older lady, Mrs. Sarah Peedin, would say to me, “Thomas today we are going to put a dollar in our pocket because that is what we got for a day's work, $1, 100 cents. Today, the fiat $1 is only worth 3 cents, decreased 97% in value in my lifetime.

I own a blessed life, ancestry, heritage, God having given me a “chance” at education and the “desire” to travel the entire world and make much money. I have seen human beings living in straw-clay huts, and seen Maharaja palaces where even the walls were decorated with precious stones. The unbeliever would ask, “why such disparity? The “occupiers”, protestors, Marxists would ask, “why such unfairness.”? Why would God Himself, be born in a cow stable?, live his 33 years on earth in poverty. When, all the cattle on a thousand hills are His (Psalm 50:10), as well as all the gold and jewels, as well as the hills, in which it is found, are His. He paid His taxes from a coin in the mouth of a fish. He does not need our money.

When the soldiers and demon possessed, Judas, came to arrest Jesus at Gethsemane, He asserted that He could call on 12 legions of angels (150,000) to protect Him. Just one angel killed 184,000, just one night, Sennacherib's army, outside the walls of Jerusalem. God's book talks more about giving than about heaven. The Jews, having known poverty as well as wealth, given by God, made regular sacrifices because of God's laws, sometimes 200 a week. They learned how to follow God's law, could be swallowed by the earth for disobedience, Korah and his family. (Numbers 16:32)

It is no more difficult for a rich man to quit smoking than for a poor man to quit smoking, a rich man to stop philandering than a poor man, a rich man to learn the fundamentals of warfare or even investing money than for a poor man to be militarily trained and study the investing of money, whether he has any or not.

Our blessed Lord owns a very unusual instrument, stethoscope-microscope-telescope-CAT Scan-Magnetic radiological instrument, all in one. Our omnipotent-omniscient-Sovereign-inerrant God is able to study and determine everything about the human heart. He knows that you can give without loving but cannot love without giving, He knows that the real test of a man, particularly a man who claims the name of Christ, starts at the pocketbook.

I truly believe that Jesus was talking about the real test of prosperity, “Will a man rob God.” (Malachi 3:8) “God loveth a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7) I truly believe that God was “messing around, getting nosy”, with rich men.

The tithe is the Lord's whether you give it or not. Tithing ten percent on $300.00 a week is far different that tithing 10% on $3 million a week. There are those who make that type money and $300,000 is a “hefty” tithe. This is the type giving, however, that God requires in His book.

You cannot stop cancer from eating your body, nor can anyone give or pay enough money to stop the disease. Cancer will not eat the soul.

There are people alive today, Queen of England, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, George Soros, who “possess” billions of dollars. At the last, no amount of money will buy one more breath. Jesus watched the widow give her all and He has watched expensive caskets roll into expensive churches knowing the real giving intent of the person in the box.