The world turns on money -- even our life decisions are based upon money.

Have you noticed the headlines of the last week or so?

First, Bill Gates resigned from his active position at Microsoft to take over full time control of his foundation.  At this point, this resignation will take two years to complete.

Gates, of course, is one of the richest, if not the richest, man in the world and his foundation has performed over $50 billion in gifts and actions for the betterment of the world.

Today's headlines announce that Warren Buffett, another of those high valued businessmen will leave the bulk of his multi-billion dollar wealth to Gate's foundation.

Now I find this amazing.  The rich help the rich. Probably nothing new about this, but I find it interesting that those who are the richest feel they can provide the best help to the world.  Most of the truly rich have given large portions of their money to charitable causes.  The old money did this (Rockefeller, Carnigie, Mellon, etc), the newer have done the same (Kennedy, etc.). Now the newest generation is following suit.

Of course, the Bible tells us that man cannot serve two masters. In Matthew 6:24 Jesus calls the two masters God or money. When man puts money first, God is left by the wayside.

The problem is that when the super rich start doing everything themselves their focus will be on the "proper use" of the money, not upon the needs of the people. Of course, without God there can be no truly good deeds. Every good act taken without God is still a "bad," even evil act in God's eyes. Those who are focused on the money miss this important aspect. They are too busy being focused on the money.

In many cases the rich even use the money to promote their own particular goals. I do not know about the Gates, but I know that Ted Turner gave a huge amount to the United Nations for the use of particular programs that promoted his particular view of social welfare. While such gifts still appear to be "good," God is missing.

This makes everything sad. Man without God is lost. No matter how much money they may have, no matter how "good" their intentions, without God this all fall short. These people will receive great praise from the people of the world.  These rich will be richly acclaimed by the media and others. Saddly, this will be the end of their rewards. Come the end of times, their works will burn in the fire. They will no rewards coming to them in heaven.

Our works should be designed to survive. We should undertake everything we do for God's glory. This is why our little ten dollar gifts will carry more weight than the billions of the super rich. We who are believers are accummulating rewards in heaven. We are serving God rather than money.

Jim A.