Just a moment...

“One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” _– Jesus to a man in the crowd (Luke 12:15)_ During one of Christ’s sermons, a man in the crowd asked Jesus to tell his

brother to divide the family inheritance with him. Rather than step into the family feud, Jesus turned the tables on him by exposing his greed and covetousness. Advertise on TGC Take a look

at our hectic pace here in the United States. Many times, our lives indicate that the purpose of life is to get, keep, and save as much _stuff_ as possible. The bumper sticker puts it: “He

who dies with the most toys wins.” Yet, Christ reminds us that the most important things – those factors that actually define life, are not _things_ at all. Wealth and lots of money do not

give life and lots of happiness. The person that lives and dies with money, may live and die “happily.” But the person who lives and dies with nothing but money, will live and die in vain.

Jesus does not command us to put away all our legitimate goals and ambitions. We are not commanded to despise the pleasant things in the world. But good gifts should always point us to the

Giver. The motivating factor for the life of Jesus was the glory of his Father. He did not live for “things.” Jesus spent His life with and for people, not possessions… – truth, not things…

– God’s will, not man’s wishes… Yes, we must use our God-given resources to further His kingdom. Yet the moment in which we begin to relate our lives to the gifts, rather than to the Giver,

is the moment we have begun to engage in idolatry. written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog TREVIN WAX is vice president of research and resource development at the North American

Mission Board and a visiting professor at Cedarville University. A former missionary to Romania, Trevin is a regular columnist at The Gospel Coalition and has contributed to _The Washington

Post_, _World_, and _Christianity Today_. He has taught courses on mission and ministry at Wheaton College and has lectured on Christianity and culture at Oxford University. He is a founding

editor of The Gospel Project, has served as publisher for the Christian Standard Bible, and is currently a fellow for The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He is the author of

multiple books, including _The Thrill of Orthodoxy_, _The Multi-Directional Leader_, _Rethink Your Self_, _This Is Our Time_, and _Gospel Centered Teaching_. His podcast is _Reconstructing

Faith_. He and his wife, Corina, have three children. You can follow him on Twitter or Facebook, or receive his columns via email.