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Don’t drown in love of money

In all places where humans gather, money is needed to buy things. Most times we need it just to provide the necessities of life. When I was growing up, we siblings never had an allowance to count on. In the stories Jesus told, even then, money was needed to pay the bills and the cost of food. Just like many of the modern silver coins that I had, some of these ancient coins had seen constant wear on the surfaces.

The worn coins always fascinated me for they represented the day-to-day usage just to buy necessities. I have been in the process of eliminating coins that I have collected over 75 years. Most have already gone to school kids, church kids and young collectors at coin shows — plus my own kids who are now fully grown.

While scrounging around at the bank, I found an overlooked assortment of Jerusalem coins. Four years appeared — 34 B.C, 14 A. D. 70 A. D. and 134 A.D. These years are important to the Jewish believer for they are events important to their history.

34 B.C. was the time of the Herodian Dynasty. 14 was the time that Jesus walked the earth, starting his ministry. In 70 Rome destroyed the synagogue and the year 134 was the total dispersion of the Jews to all countries of the world.

The Jews, most of them anyway, did not accept God’s messiah. Praise the Lord, because that allowed the gentiles, that’s you and me, to accept this messiah as our redeemer.

Life teaches us that to live in this world, it costs money. Jesus told about a poor woman who came to the temple to give her money to the Lord. The most wealthy gave generously but this widow threw in two mites — it was all she had. Jesus made a point to say that she gave more than the most wealthy folks. She had given all her wealth for the Lord to use. That is part of the wisdom of this story — give a tithe that your whole life can be blest. Yes, money is important but the love of money must not drown out our need to know God.

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