Scripture

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.”

~Matthew 6:19-20, NLT

Quote

Exchange that which you cannot keep for that which you cannot lose.

~Jim Eliott

If you have traveled abroad, you know that other countries demand that you use their currency. If you go to Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, or Spain, you convert your dollars in to euros. In the UK, it would be pounds or in Mexico the peso. I went to Nigeria in 1986 and the currency there was the Naira.  I don’t know how much longer the dollar can survive with the current administration, but presently, the dollar has value worldwide but this is not true of other currencies. When I was in Nigeria, I did not convert any money. The first thing our group did upon arriving was go to a bank and convert dollars into naira but not me. In the first place, I had only a few dollars and it was a long way back home. During the course of my 11 days in Nigeria, I discovered that the dollar was far more valuable than their naira. I didn’t buy that much but I found out that I could get three ice cold cokes from the laundry man for one American dollar.  Listen, anything cold in Nigeria is a blessing.  Before leaving the country, we stopped to buy souvenirs and my dollar would buy 20 times more than their currency. Some of the guys got on to me for breaking the rules but I didn’t pay any attention until we began filling out the forms to get out of the country. It is called a balance sheet and if you brought x number of American dollars in, you have to have x number to get out or else a bank statement on how much you exchanged. Needless to say, I was sweating bullets. The Nigerian officials would know that I broke the rules. The last thing I wanted to do was stay in Nigeria. Fortunately for me, another member of the group had mis-declared coming in and he needed to get rid of the same amount I needed. It was less than a hundred dollars but it got me out of the country. Saved by grace, amen!

Let me tell you what not to do: don’t go into a foreign country and exchange a lot of dollars because if you don’t spend them, they will not exchange the money back into your currency. The US is the only country that will exchange money back to whatever currency you are declaring. Number two; don’t think that because the dollar is worth so much more that you can make a wise investment by exchanging millions into their currency. For example, a million US dollars, could get you a 100 million naira. Guess what the naira is worth in America or around the world? Nothing! In the USA it would be used as napkins. It is like Granny’s confederate money on the Beverly Hillbillies. It is absolutely worthless. Now switch gears and think of earth verses heaven. What is a dollar worth in heaven? Nothing, absolutely nothing. But you can convert your dollars and exchange them for heavenly currency. A currency that will never lose value; matter of fact it will grow and grow. How do you covert earthly currency into heaven currency? By giving to those in need, to the church, to ministries of mercy, to missions to anything connected to the two great commandments. Of course you cannot leave Jesus out of the equation. You could give millions to St. Jude and still die lost and go to hell if you reject Jesus. BUT if you trust Jesus as Savior and LORD and give out of love to HIM, your gifts to St. Jude and others will be rewarded. Biden and the marxist can get to my little puny treasure here on earth and if we don’t get them out, they are going to, but all the marxist democrats in the world cannot get to what I have in heaven. By the way, there are only two kinds of democrats left: the boll weevil demos are extinct. The only thing left is the “yellow dog” and the “marxist”. Yellow dogs are ignorant and the marxist are pure evil.

EXTRA

This may be two days in a row on STEWARDSHIP: sorry about that but when I get an idea, I have to act on it or I will forget it. We had a spaghitte supper last night at GP and it was great to be back in the fellowship mode. We gad a good crowd to go along with the supper. Pray for Jean Smith. She had to return to Vanderbilt. Problem with the lungs. I know we are all praying for some dry weather. I am involved in a project that is hard to do in the rain. A couple of days of sunshine would be wonderful. Have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.

 

 

 

 

Tainted wealth has no lasting value,
    but right living can save your life.