God’s Property
I used to love the movie Scarface. It was interesting how a criminal who came from nothing, rose up and through crime got everything he wanted. A very famous quote from the movie is “the world is yours.” There are a lot of people who actually believe this. I even believed it at a time. It sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, somehow we always forget Tony Montana aka Scarface was killed brutally in His own mansion. I guess the world wasn’t his after all. I’m sure the world isn’t ours either. Just recently, I saw a person with a profile picture on Facebook that said “the world is yours.” That reminded me of the movie and I had to re-analyze the whole situation.
Do we really believe that saying “the world is ours” really makes it ours? Are we trying to steal God’s creation from Him? Just thinking about the movie, Scarface became a prisoner in his own home, an alcoholic and addicted to cocaine. Although had plenty of money, but his bank account of life was empty. He had nothing. So many of the lost and even many of us in Christ glorify Scarface (a fictional character at that) and similar characters or people. How many musicians (bad ones at that) glorify people such as Scarface and Manuel Noriega? He was a man who thought the world was his as well. Just recently it seems his prison term was completed in the United States and he was immediately extradited to France to face charges there. Seems like the world is really his, doesn’t it? Yet, we constantly elevate the names of such people. It is really disgusting and America makes it seem that it is the path to follow. Those who seek to do good are constantly oppressed, humiliated, degraded, and disrespected while the wicked are openly glorified.
It is very interesting that we can fool ourselves into believing the world belongs to us. From my last recollection, we were born into the earth and we surely leave this earth. I think we really need a wakeup call. Actually, it is apparent God has been sending many wake up calls recently. However, we continue to press the snooze button and rollover on God.
We try to build mighty personal empires, work our entire lives chasing some mirage in the desert, some American dream, but who has obtained it? We sacrifice our families for more stuff, stuff which ends up in our garage or at the city dump. Overtime, we love our stuff, and then we die with absolutely nothing. We leave it ALL behind. What will we take with us? Is it worth it? Is that what success really is? To think we have gained the whole world and lose our soul in the process? Seems like we consider it a failure to have joy and peace with a little while we see success as having a multitude of failed marriages, no interaction with our children all for the sake of money that we leave to behind to people who never knew us although we saw them every day of our lives. We leave it to people who were just waiting for us to die.
So the world is yours? I highly doubt that. Who has covered every last depths of the world? Seriously, who? The truth is nothing belongs to any of us, definitely not the world. Let’s narrow it down a bit. Our homes do not even belong to us. As soon as we don’t pay our dreaded mortgage or taxes, the government or bank is ready to take it back. Our own bodies do not belong to us either because we have no control over getting sick or accidents happening. As we clearly have seen, we also have no control over natural disasters and non-natural disasters like oil spills. We can blame whichever company or executive, but the truth is God allowed it to happen. He has control over it all. So you ask, “Why doesn’t God stop it then?” Simple answer, “He doesn’t want to or have to.”
So the big question is who does the world belong to? Simple answer: The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness; the world and those who dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1) I know many will object but there is honestly no need for that. If you believe the world does not belong to God, prove Him wrong. Go ahead. He’ll wait. He has eternity, but unfortunately whoever plans on proving Him wrong doesn’t.
Some of us have so much pride and are so stiff-necked that we will live a miserable life to try to prove God wrong instead of just aligning our hearts and lives with God to have overwhelming joy and victory.
Who is the Lord? Jesus Christ is the Lord, who the world fully belongs to and we ALL will bow down to Him whether it is willingly or unwillingly. Only Jesus was able to come back from where no man can return from. As it has been said, “10 out of 10 people die.” When we were born, we came with a one way ticket to death that only God knows the date. However, by God’s grace, He purchased the connection flight ticket for us to the His kingdom in heaven.
So does anything actually belong to us? YES! Salvation! Only by the grace of God through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ have we been given this beautiful gift of salvation to all who believe in, trust on, cling to, and rely upon Jesus Christ. Those who have Christ leave earth with everything and those who do not believe in Jesus leave the earth with less than they started with. Without Christ, we barely have life to start with and end up leaving with no life. Believe in Jesus! Love God! Follow Christ!