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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for September 7, 2010
“The Pull of Your Possessions”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
What did you invest your money in as a child?
You probably weren’t buying stocks and bonds and real estate at 12, but most American kids got money from someone for something, and the question is, what did they do with it?
When I was a kid, the girls were spending their money on things like Barbie clothes, while we boys were buying baseball cards. I would get a dime, or on a good day fifty cents, and would go down to the Red & White store and buy packs of Topps baseball cards with that flat stick of pink bubble gum.
Over the years I bought a lot of sports cards, and graduated from buying single packs to whole boxes to complete sets. Then I began ordering my favorite old cards from dealers and suddenly, the magic was gone. The challenge to obtain certain cards disappeared when I realized you could simply buy any card you wanted.
So when I hit my teen years I stopped buying sports cards and started investing in something much more substantial: records!
Do you remember the old Columbia House record club? You could join for just one penny and get like 15 of your favorite albums. It was a great way to build your collection and I can’t tell you how many times I joined.
So through my teenage years I invested in music – albums, 45s, cassettes and yes, even some 8-tracks.
Now if you’re keeping score, that means by the time I was 20 I had invested my money in two main categories: sports cards and music.
And then I answered the call to surrender my life to the Lord. My new life in Christ was so captivating that those old collections lost their meaning to me.
Like the old song says, the things of this world grew strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
It doesn’t mean we can’t have things in this world, but it does mean that they can’t have us.
First John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world…”
As Christians, we are to love the Lord and our fellowman, but we are not to love the things in this world.
It’s almost like two planets with their own gravitational pull. We are drawn toward God, but we are also drawn toward the things of the world.
Remember the story Jesus told of the rich young man in Matthew 19? He was drawn toward God, so he inquired of Jesus – who saw the gravitational pull on the young man. So He told him to sell all he had, give the money to the poor, and follow Him.
The young man was torn. He felt the pull of God, but he also felt the pull of his possessions. Finally, “he went away sorrowful,” the Bible says, “for he had great possessions.”
I don’t know how great his possessions actually were, but he thought they were great – great enough to pull him away from the exciting adventure of following Christ.
There is a pivotal scene in that story, and I picture it in slow motion. Jesus told the rich young man what to do, and then there was a pause.
The moment hangs there, like it’s paused on your DVD player. Now move your DVD forward one frame at a time – click, click, click – and there it is. The man’s eyes drop. He breaks eye contact with Jesus – and do you believe in body language? Well here the man sends an astounding message in body language to Jesus. He turns his back on Him. He moves away from Jesus and toward his possessions.
I wonder how many times we have done this. The Lord is pulling us toward something exciting, but then our possessions pull us back toward them.
The gravity of ball cards and records lost their pull on me, but then came cars and homes and big boy toys. The more money we make, the more opportunities we have to send that body language to Jesus, to turn our back on Him and move towards our “great possessions.”
So today, let’s take a good look at our possessions and their place in our heart. Do they come before God and people? Do we love our possessions?
Think about these two gravitational pulls, then answer this question.
Which will you surrender to: the pull of the Lord, or the pull of your possessions?
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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