Live Faithfully - Week Two

James 1:9-11 and 5:1-6

This week is all about money and corruption...funny how those two words go together a lot.

First we focus on the fact that all riches and "toys" are only good here on earth.  We can't take it with us, and any wealth and high power means nothing for eternity.  On page 46 we read:

If God's hand of favor and His bountiful blessings have caused you to develop an inflated perception of yourself, perhaps you should revisit your own humble beginnings and remember that without Christ we are nothing.

Here are the other things I learned this week:

• God looks unfavorably upon those who selfishly hoard their riches
• he who dies with the most toys doesn't win, he just dies, but whoever dies believing in Jesus gains all of eternity 
• "in the last days men will be lovers of pleasure not lovers of God"
• earthly FAT is foolish acquisition of treasure, spiritually FAT is a person who is faithful, available, and teachable
• your possessions should never possess you
• God bestows financial blessings not so we can live lives of idle luxury, but so we can bless others and help light their way
• hypocrisy means pretending to be what one is not or the false appearance of virtue or religion

I hope you are woking along in the book....there is so much more there.  This is my second study on James and I've already learned new things this time around.  God's Word never stops giving.