Season 3, Episode 50: All I Want for Christmas is You...Not to be In Jail

What are you supposed to do when your plans go horribly wrong? You can give up and make the best of how things have turned out, or you can dig in and keep trying. That’s what our four would-be bank robbers from last week decided to do, but no matter what they did, things just kept getting worse. Crime certainly didn’t pay for them. If they hadn’t had so much bad luck, they wouldn’t have had any luck at all.

We’re continuing our story of The Santa Claus Bank Robbery. If you missed last week’s episode, check out the link below you so you won’t miss out on anything. When we left off, our four armed robbers Marshall Ratliff, Louis Davis, Henry Helms, and Robert Hill had just entered the Cisco Texas First National Bank to rob it.

Our Bible passage this week is 1 Timothy 6:9-11

“People who want to get rich are tempted. They fall into a trap. They are tripped up by wanting many foolish and harmful things. Those who live like that are dragged down by what they do. They are destroyed and die. Love for money causes all kinds of evil. Some people want to get rich. They have wandered away from the faith. They have wounded themselves with many sorrows. But you are a man of God. Run away from all these things. Try hard to do what is right and godly. Have faith, love, and gentleness. Hold on to what you believe.”

Wow! It almost sounds like Paul wrote this passage after reading this book! I think sometimes we think that as modern people we are so much more advanced than anyone who has come before us. But we struggle with the same things that the churches that Paul was writing to struggled with. The Bible is so relevant to our lives today!

I’m guessing none of us have robbed a bank or killed someone with a shotgun blast. But Jesus always taught that what was in our heart was as important as our outward actions. I know that I’ve spent too much time working rather than being there for someone when they needed me. Paul said the love of money causes all kinds of evil. The LOVE of money. Not money itself. God knows that we need money to get shelter and food and medical care and all of the necessities of life. We also need it so we can give to people who are struggling with those basic necessities. We need it to support the work of the church and other ministries.

Money is a tool. We can use it to do good things, or we can hoard it. When we do that Paul says that we wound ourselves with many sorrows, we’re tripped up by wanting many foolish and harmful things.

So for our practical action step I want us all to take some money that maybe we were going to use to splurge on ourselves and give it to a child who is struggling to have those basic necessities. That’ll probably look different for all of us. Maybe for some that will be sponsoring a child through a group like Compassion International. Or maybe you know a family from your neighborhood or church that needs help. It might even look like partnering with Prison Fellowship and their Angel Tree Program so that a prisoner can give their child a gift this Christmas. If you ask God where and how to give, He will open up opportunities for you, I promise. If you have more than enough, like I’m guessing most of us do, find some way to serve someone with your abundance so that the love of money doesn’t stand a chance of taking root in you.

Listen to last week’s episode here

Buy “The Santa Claus Robbery” here

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