Luke 16: 19~31
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Luke 18:25
Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
How hard does a rich man to enter the kingdom of God? Almost impossible. I want to share what I learned from today’s message.
Why it is impossible?
1. Rich men have enough property and they are much easier to rely on themselves rather than God.
2. Rich men enjoy their life and they spend less time to think about the world after death.
3. The more money they have, the more they want to get. It is not easy for them to stop chasing it. 4. It is even harder for them to give their money to the other poor guys.
Let us try to find root cause of how they become rich.
1. They might be born in the rich family and live at their ease. They do not even know how the money comes and they also do not care how much they spend on anything they like.
2. They might be born in the poor family and live very hard. So they study hard try to get scholarship, they work hard to earn more and they get no way to retreat because they have to support their family financially. After they become rich, they understand how difficult to even get a penny. So there will be a bigger possibility to become a miser. It is always easier to get than to give.
After they become rich, why they are not easy to become poor?
The rich can make money with their money. But the poor have to work for a living. They are working for someone that has capital and they are paying your less than your worth. If the rich pay the poor more than their worth, the rich will soon run out of their capital and join you on the work line. That’s very, very rare to happen.
Let’s say the rich stay rich but why it is so hard for them to give out their money?
There is a righteous young man ask Jesus in bible what else good things he can do to have the eternal life, he is such a good man that he keeps all the commandments in the bible. He kept asking Jesus that what do he still lack? To his great surprise, Jesus answered “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possession and give to the poor, and you have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Think about this, if this young man was a very poor guy and he actually did not care what he had and would immediately give out all he had and followed Jesus. That is why almost everyone who followed Jesus were fisherman and poor guys.
You may say Matthew is not poor. There must have some exceptions. Let’s try to talk about him.
Matthew was a tax collector but he had a very poor relationship with others. Why he got a poor relationship? As a tax collector in that time, it means that he helped Roman Empire to collect his native Israel people’s tax. Nobody liked tax collectors, they were treated as sinners. That’s why they got super low social position. Matthew was the person who had only money which is really sad. But he captured a precious chance to follow Jesus when he called.
I think it is time to talk about the relationship between heaven and earth and the treasures flow direction in them.
We can learn some points below:
- Heaven and earth are two different place, you can not go to the heaven until you get permission from God’s judgement after the death.
- Each one’s life time in earth will be checked by God, because he want to see how we gonna live in heaven, so God wants each of his children to prepare before it comes one day.
- The properties that each person has on earth might only show how successful for your fresh level fruits. That does not mean everything.
- The way for each one to accumulate treasure in heaven is to give out the wealth to the poor and help others who are needy.
- Before #4, each person has to open their heaven’s account above. How? Listen to the people nearby and talk about Jesus and Bible. Trust in Him and repent all your sins.
How the bank in heaven calculate how much treasure each person should get after his sharing/help?
It is apparent that nor by how much you give out. Instead, it depends on how much percentage.
Let’s read the bible verses below:
21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” —Luke21:2~4
We finally get the key reason for camel’s needle. The more you have in earth gives you a comfortable life, but it also add huge difficulty to share that much.
My dear friends, I wish you get this and share to your friends as well.
The Camel Go Through the Eye of Needle -- Conversion Rate in Heaven
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