needs we may have. The unfortun ate thing is that generally we have just reversed the order of this con cept. Today in the United States, we are living in a country many times occupied by those who are in es sence practical atheists. A practical atheist is simply one who says that he believes in God but who lives as though the Lord never existed. It was the French skeptic, Fonten- elle, who declared, "Man is born to aspire at everything and to en joy nothing; to go always forward, but to arrive nowhere." This, how ever, does not need to be our con cept because we know what God has in store for us. We know that we are His concern and that He has promised to provide for our every need. The Apostle is not condemning wise planning. As a matter of fact, I believe Scripture would affirm that it is a sin not to plan wisely. An old ancient pointed out, "Every body should look into his own grave now and again." We ought to have a perspective on life that would consider things as they will be following the time when the Lord calls us to be with Himself. The problem is that when God is not involved in our thinking then we are heading for sudden disas ter. We simply do not know what is going to take place tomorrow. This fellow had no thought of sickness, accident, crime, a falling stock market, unemployment, strikes, drunk drivers, or natural disasters. He mistakingly thought life would always be the same. The
He has left God entirely out of his thinking. Oscar Wilde made a wise obser vation when he declared, "The on ly thing worse, sometimes, than not getting what you want, is ac tually getting it!" Have you ever stopped to thank the Lord for not giving you some of the things you thought you simply had to have? There can be great blessings in this regard to be sure. Too many people are simply satisfied to go on in their own self-same way, looking back on life with regrets, saying, "If only I had done such and such." Life is filled with "ifs," but the Christian is never called upon to look back. Our responsibility is to look ahead and to let the Lord do our guiding. As has been well said, "If God is your partner then you can make your plans just as big as you want, for nothing is impossible with Him." In this portion of Scripture, James 4:13, we further discover that prof it-making had evidently become a passion of the individual in mind. Notice the key words, "buy" and "sell," "get" and "gain." It is un fortunate that this seems to be the whole tenor of life today. It is the name of the game. But, when we allow money-making (obviously essential to our livelihood), to be come our consuming passion, then we are facing tremendous dangers. The purpose of making money should be the same purpose we have for living. First of all, it is to be to the glory of God. Secondly, for the service of humanity. Fin ally, to satisfy whatever personal
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