Millionaire Musings

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVLHTqdkwZ0]

I love this song, and it’s been running through my head for obvious reasons. The first verse starts out:

Imagine this, I get a phone call from Regis.
He says “Do you want to be a millionaire?
They put me on the show and I win with two lifelines to spare.

I’ve sung this many, many times, and I never would have imagined I’d be this close to not having to imagine that. A week from today, I will be at a taping for Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and I could win big. That’s an amazing thought. But then the song continues:

Picture this
I act like nothing ever happened
and bury all the money in a coffee can
Well, I’ve been given more than Regis ever gave away
I was a dead man who was called to come out of my grave.

I think the reason this song is running through my head is God’s way of reminding me that, while being on Millionaire may be a big thing in some ways, in others, in the ways that matter, it’s not that big at all.
No matter how I do on the show, the best I can walk away with is money. And while money helps make life easier in some ways, it can do nothing for you in the long run. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)
I have been given more than Regis, or Donald Trump, or Bill Gates could ever give away. I have been given eternal life. I have more treasures than I can imagine stored up for me in heaven, “where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” (Matthew 6:20) By realizing that the things of this earth are ephemeral and transitory, it puts everything into perspective. Who will remember my appearance on a TV show ten years from now? Or even next year for that matter? Other than me and a few close friends, no one will remember. Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 12:8, “all is vanity”. One of the wisest men in all the world realized that, in the end, things of this earth don’t matter. Did he discover anything that mattered? Well, just a few short verses later, he says, “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.” (Eccl. 12:13) The man who had it all knew what really mattered. There is so much I could say about that one verse, enough to fill several blogs, but I’ll try to keep it short and to the point here. No matter what you think you have in this world, it could all end tomorrow. It could all end today, for that matter. And then where will you be? There are only two options – heaven or hell. For those who think they’re good enough to get into heaven on their own, you can stop reading this blog now and go here. The rest of you can continue on.
The only way into heaven is to be perfect and sinless, and not a one of us – myself included – can say that about ourselves. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) How, then, can any of us get into heaven? We can through the one person who was sinless, who was perfect, and who became the doorway for us. That person is Jesus Christ. When He was nailed to that cross, he took upon Himself every one of our sins, past present and future, so that we could appear spotless before God in our time of judgment. But just like a Christmas present we cannot appreciate if we never unwrap it, that spotlessness, that salvation is a gift that we can choose to receive or reject. And if we reject that gift, then we will appear before God clad in our sinfulness, and we will not be able to enter heaven. Which leaves only one place to go…
If you haven’t opened that gift, if you haven’t accepted that the only way to Heaven is through Jesus, search your heart, search the Bible, phone a friend, whatever it takes to help you find “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6) before it’s too late and you’re out of lifelines. The treasures waiting for you in Heaven are immeasurable. And that’s my final answer.