No-one can serve two masters … You cannot serve God and mammon.
By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.
Matthew 6:24; Hebrews 11:24.25.
“Choose … this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).
A teacher was giving a scripture lesson to some children. He had read them the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16). The rich man had lived opulently without worrying about his soul. The poor man had lived in communion with God. On the day of their death the poor man entered the joy of heaven; the rich man suffered the torment of hell. After a brief comment the teacher asked his young listeners, “Well, children, who would you rather be, the rich man or Lazarus?” One boy replied, “I’d like to be the rich man during my life, and Lazarus when I die.”
In his simplicity the boy had expressed the attitude of countless persons: “Let us eat and drink and have pleasure on earth, and at the last possible moment may God welcome us in paradise.” Such thinking is entirely wrong! “God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7).
An atheist about to die was filled with terror. His girlfriend, who like him did not believe in God, sought to reassure him: “Don’t be afraid. Hang on, darling, hang on to the end.” The dying man replied, “I do want to hang on. But on to what? Can you tell me?” A life without God can only lead to an eternity far from God.