Unsearchable Riches

Today, three of my work colleagues were discussing how they might win £100 million in the lottery. They joked that we might go in as a syndicate and get £25 million each. At that I said, "Well, you can split it three ways, because I don't gamble." What I then thought, and should have said at the time (though I did say it to one of my colleagues later) was that I wouldn't have much use for even £100 million. I'm a wealthy man, I have Christ, my treasure is in heaven! These poor (in more than a monetary sense) colleagues of mine were dreaming of a one-in-a-million chance to get a finite amount of corruptible wealth that might disappear in an instant. If only they knew that they could get "the unsearchable riches of the Christ" (Ephesians 3:8) in an instant, and with complete certainty, and for eternity! What unsurpassed riches we have in Jesus, beloved brethren! And it's to be enjoyed now, because we have "the earnest of our inheritance" (Ephesians 1:14), the Holy Spirit of promise. Worldly people think that Christianity is all about self-denial, not doing this, not going there, not 'having fun'. Well, it's true that we must deny ourselves and take up the cross of Christ as far as the world is concerned, but our life isn't in the world. When I told my colleagues that I don't gamble, one of them said, "Isn't that a bit restrictive?" There's nothing restrictive about Christianity! Quite the opposite. It opens up infinite vistas to the seeking soul: broad shining uplands of the land of our inheritance! A soul which has Christ is infinitely wealthier than the Rockefellers, the Trumps, the Carnegies of this world. That should raise the question and exercise with me: if I'm rich, then what am I doing with my wealth? Am I sharing it? If a brother or sister is poor, or has 'fallen on hard times' spiritually, am I ready to share with them something of Christ which will enrich them? And, an even higher thought, am I rich towards God? Am I ever ready to take up the perfections of Jesus and present them to God as an offering of "sweet savour"? We have no excuse for poverty, thanks and praise be to the Giver of every good and perfect gift.
 
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