 This is a fictitious story written by Rebekah. Her goal is to help people value the Bible over material things.
The alley where Terry and Candace lived was dark and dreary, but they did not really care. Terry had a well paying job, however almost all of their money went to the local bar. They thought that they were enjoying life to the fullest by eating, drinking and being merry, until one night they had a strange visitor come to their door. “Hello, man. What do you want?” “Well, I have a gift for you.” “Who are you? I have never seen you in my life.” “My name does not matter. I am just a servant of the Lord.” “Ha, ha. A servant of the Lord. We are not interested in God. So what do you want?” “I want to give you a gift. I have here with me a Bible and one million dollars. You must choose which one you will take. I will give you five minutes to discuss it with your wife and make the choice you think is best.” “Discuss it, nothing. We will take the million dollars. Just think of all the fun we can have with that sum of money!” “Are you sure that is what you want?” “Of course. We have no use for the Bible. After all it is just a book full of fairy tales like any other fantasy.” “You are mistaken. The Bible is written by God who cannot lie, and one day you will stand before Him and give Him an account of your life.” “Look, man, forget the religious talk. We aren’t interested. We chose the money and now we can live without this God.” “You think you have chosen wisely, but you have made a very foolish choice, my friend. Good night.” "Chosen foolish, yea right! “Now, my wife what do you want to do with this money?” “Let’s live it up. We can have all the best wine, parties, new cars, the grandest house and anything we want. I don’t think I will be able to sleep tonight.” “Great ideas. Forget sleep tonight. Let’s go party!” Terry quit his job; and party they did, both attending and hosting lavish parties in their elaborate beach front home with its luxurious furniture, art and entertainment. They had it all: new cars, lots of friends, glamorous clothing and whatever their hearts desired. Life was good, they thought. Without realizing it, their money was quickly diminishing. One day Terry was purchasing wine for yet another magnificent party. His card was denied for insufficient funds. That is impossible! What will I tell my wife, my guests? O no, the party tonight. We have promised that this party will be the best yet, and now we have nothing. Nothing. Utterly dejected, Terry returned to his house. “Hi, honey, where is the wine?” “There is no wine. Candace, our money is gone.” “Gone, what do mean gone? Tonight is our biggest, grandest party. It can’t be gone!” “It is. We must leave this house immediately or we will be the laughing stock of the city.” “Leave? No way. This is our home. I will not leave. Let our guests come. We will slowly bring out the wine we have saved and go on as if nothing is wrong.” “That won’t work.” “Yes, it will.” As the guests began to arrive, Terry and Candace tried to act as if nothing was wrong, but the guests sensed that something was amiss. Then when their was a lack of wine, a barrage of questions were hurled at them. When they stated that they were out of money, their guests began to laugh, mock and jeer. The guests soon left all making crude remarks as they did so. In bed, neither spoke. Feeling completely shamed and disgraced, they tossed and turned in troubled sleep. Suddenly, Candace awoke. “Honey, wake up! The house is burning!” One of their “friends” had started the fire. The house was so quickly engulfed in flames that they had to jump out the window to save their lives. They lost everything. Now, pennyless, homeless and hopeless, they walked to the nearest park to spend the rest of the night. The next day, they realized that the news had already spread about the lack of money. All who saw them sneered and laughed. They tried to find work, but no one would hire them. One man asked Terry, “Why would I hire a looser like you? Get out of my store and don’t come back until you can pay for something. That is if you ever get any more money.” Now forced to search the trash bins and dumps for food and clothing, Terry and Candace were furthered tormented by the towns people. They found an abandoned shack of a house in which to live. They had nothing. That night, sitting on the hard, splintery floor, huddled together for warmth, they tried to sleep. Squinting against the light that was coming in through the cracked walls, Terry and Candace awoke to a knock at the door. Fearing that it was another unkind towns person, Terry reluctantly answered the door. “Hello.” “Hello, sir, I am a servant of the Lord. I have a gift for you.” “You again? I don’t believe it.” “What do you mean?” “You met us about a year ago, with a gift for us.” “Yes, you do look familiar to me now. But I must ask, why are you living here? What happened?” “Well, we lost everything. Come in and we tell you the whole story.” The stranger patiently listened as the couple told them what had happened. Finishing with sobs, “Now, everyone hates us and mocks us. We have no money, and no one will hire us. We have to dig in the dumpster just to find food and clothing. We have nothing, no friends, no hope and no happiness.” “Would you like me tell you how you can have everything, the best friend, hope and happiness?” “Is that even possible?” Pulling out a New Testament from his pocket the kind stranger said. “Yes it is. The Bible it not a book of fairy tales or fantasy. It is God’s message to us. God created us, and He loves us. His Word tells that money cannot by happiness and hope. There is a story in Luke 16:19 - 26 ‘There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.’ “Does any of this sound familiar?” “It sure does. We were like that rich man, and now we are like Lazarus before he died. Please tell us how we can have this comfort. We are interested now in God, and we know we have made many foolish choices.” “The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that every person is a sinner. We all deserve hell just like the rich man we read about in Luke. But God does not want us to spend eternity without Him. He has provided a way for us to be forgiven of our sin so that we can have peace, joy and blessing in this life and in eternity. “Because God is holy, He has to judge sin. He cannot allow sin into Heaven, but He loves us too much to just let us die in our sins. This is why He sent His Son, Jesus to die for us. John 3:16 says, ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ “When a person comes to God, realizing that he or she is a sinner, and by faith places his or her trust in Jesus, that person becomes a child of God. When you know Jesus, you have everlasting life, joy, peace and true happiness. All the money in the world cannot buy nor compare with God’s gift of salvation and all the blessings that He bestows upon us.” By this time both Terry and Candace were in tears. They began to pray, asking God to forgive them of the sins and to take control of their lives. “Now, I have a gift for you. The same as before. Do you want a million dollars or do you want a Bible?” “Well, we sure could use the money right now, but we made a foolish choice last time. This time we will chose the Bible.” “My friends, you have chosen very wisely. May God bless you as you study His Word. In His Word you will find more joy and riches than you ever imagined. Before I go, I want to also give you a notebook and a pen so that you may write down things that you learn and keep a record of God’s blessings. Terry and Candace opened the Bible and began reading. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth...” They continued to read of the Flood, the Tower of Babel and Abraham. They realized that God was faithful and kept His promises. Often they stopped to discuss the truths that they read. One such conversation was about how Abraham gave a tithe of all he had. They had many questions about this tithe, what did it really mean and how much was a tithe? They walked to a church and found the preacher in his office. Briefly, they explained to him what had happened in the last year and of their visitor and his gifts. Then they asked him about Abraham and his tithe. The preacher explained that a tithe is when you give ten percent of your income back to God. As they continued to talk with the preacher, they learned that they needed to go to church so that they could learn more about God and His Word. As they walked home they had much to discuss. They decided that they would faithfully attend church and that they would tithe ten percent of their income when they had money again. When they arrived “home”, they opened the Bible again and continued reading about the lives of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. When they finished the book of Genesis, they found an envelope with fifty dollars in it. Overjoyed with the blessings that God was giving them, they decided to tithe twenty percent of the fifty dollars. They then went to the local diner. When the owner saw them he yelled for all to hear, “Hey everybody it’s rich, Terry and his wife!” Sneers and laughs filled the restaurant. “Do you have money to pay for your meals? Because if you think I will give it to you for free then you best get out of here and go dig in the trash for our waste!” “Yes, we have money. We have learned that God is good, and He loves us!” Laughing, a customer said, “I tell you, you all are some strange people. You lost everything and now you say God is good. You all are crazy.” Over the next few weeks, Terry and Candace continued to read and study the Bible. As they read Exodus, they learned that God does miracles. Leviticus told them of God’s holiness. In Numbers they learned that God punishes disobedience and failure to trust Him. Deuteronomy taught them that God blesses obedience. As they continued to read, they learned that God was victorious, merciful, loving, caring, kind, good, gracious, forgiving. Their lives were filled with peace, joy, comfort and blessing. As they read in Acts and Paul’s letters, they learned about the graces of giving and helping others. At the end of each book, they found a little white envelope. Each one containing fifty dollars more than the last one. As the money increased so did their giving. They continued to tithe twenty percent. They started giving thirty percent to missions and they helped many people in need around them. They joyfully shared Christ with everyone that they met. Rather than moving to a nicer home, they slowly repaired their home. They were amazed to see how God was blessing them. Eventually, Terry was able to get a job; and when God called him to preach, he purchased a mobile home and traveled as an evangelist telling people of the amazing blessings of God through the riches of His Word and not material gain. The main lesson that they learned is that God’s Word is of more value than anything else.  We live in a world that is obsessed with "output." From the moment we wake up, we are counting: how many emails did I send? How many loads of laundry did I finish? Did I do the dishes? How many boxes did I check off my list? We often measure our day—and our value—by how much we managed to get done.
But if we look at the way God works, we find the truth: God isn't keeping a scorecard of your productivity. He is far more interested in the state of your heart and the "why" behind what you do. He cares about our motives. The Heart Matters 1 Samuel 16:7: “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” While we are busy running a race to see who can finish the most tasks, God is watching the motives driving us. He sees if we are acting out of love, kindness, and obedience, or if we are just checking boxes to feel worthy or to impress others. When God leads our day, He leads it from the inside out. He isn't asking for a frantic, exhausted version of you; He is asking for an intentional, surrendered heart. Motivation Have you ever had a day where you did a million things but felt completely empty? That usually happens when our "doing" becomes separate from our "being." When we let God lead our day, our motivation changes. Instead of doing things because we feel like we have to, we start doing them because we want to reflect His love. Whether you are leading a big conference, a podcast, producing graphics, or simply trying to get through a busy Wednesday, the value of those actions isn't found in their quantity. It’s found in the love you poured into them. As Colossians 3:23 tells us: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” This verse shifts the focus entirely. It doesn't say "do the most things"; it says "do whatever you do with all your heart." LeadSo, how do we let God lead our day through our hearts? It starts with a morning pivot. When you wake up, instead of immediately reviewing your calendar, take a moment to set your intention. Ask God, "What is on Your heart today?" Drive to work, with nothing playing, no phone calls, just you and the Lord. When you operate this way:
If you got three things done with a heart full of love and integrity, that is a far more successful day in God's eyes than finishing twenty things with a spirit of anxiety or selfishness. Ouch, that hurts! It will take time and practice, but just start. Today. So, breathe deep. Stop counting the tasks, and start focusing on the heartbeat behind them. When your heart is in the right place, everything else will fall into its proper order.  Have you ever spent a whole weekend with a friend who does nothing but complain, only to realize by Sunday night you’re suddenly annoyed at everything too? Or maybe you’ve spent time with someone who is so joyful and encouraging that you leave feeling like you could conquer the world? It’s not just a vibe; it’s a reality. Who we hang out with actually changes who we are.
The "Mirror" 1 Corinthians 15:33 says "Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character.'" It’s simple. If you’re trying to grow in faith, kindness, or integrity, but your closest friends are constantly pulling you toward drama or negativity, you’re fighting an uphill battle. We tend to mirror the habits and heart-postures of the people we spend the most time with. Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." Think about what happens when two pieces of iron rub together. There’s friction, but the result is that both become more effective, not just one. A Godly influence isn't someone who just tells you what you want to hear; it’s a friend who calls you out (kindly), reminds you of what God says about you when you’re feeling low, and really prays for you. Not Just the People While your best friends are the biggest factor, "influences" cover more ground than just your contact list. Think about:
"Faith Squad"Don't panic; you don’t need to fire all your friends tomorrow, but you can start by pointing them toward Jesus. Look for people in your life who have the "fruit" you’re looking for. Then, don't be afraid to invite them into your life. It can be as simple as asking someone you admire to grab coffee or see if you can join their small group. Lastly, you might need to set some healthy boundaries with the influences that consistently drain your spirit or lead you away from your values. It is okay to say "NO' and take time if you need it. SupportWalking out your faith is hard enough. Why do it alone or worse with people pulling you in the opposite direction? Surrounding yourself with Godly influences isn't about being "holier-than-thou." It’s about building a support system that helps you become the person God created you to be. |
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