DEVOTION / Burning through your money
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Inflation seems to be the word on everybody's lips these days. With prices up on food, gas, and so much more, it can seem like we are burning through our money faster than it’s coming in, right?
Imagine for a moment you are in China. You are walking down the sidewalks of a city. You see people with hands full of money stopping at booths and tossing money into stoves with open flames. It looks like wads of bills or stacks of money. You want to yell "Stop it! Why are you burning up your money?" But no one seems concerned about what seems to you to be very strange behavior.
Money to burn? Why?
Are these people actually burning money? The answer is a little bit "yes" and a little bit "no." What you were seeing reflects common religious beliefs. What they were burning is referred to by a number of names:
Joss Paper *
Incense Papers
Hell Paper
Spirit Money.
Such "spirit money" is often printed in denominations from thousands to millions of dollars. The bills are printed to look like money and made from bamboo or rice paper. Today they are sometimes made to resemble credit cards or put together to create paper mache cars, houses, and even servants. In Chinese ancestral worship, the goal is to provide for the needs of the spirit of the deceased in their life after death. Most often burned, "spirit money" can also be scattered to the wind or placed in the casket. Millions--possibly billions--of dollars are spent annually to try to provide a better "afterlife" for ancestors.
The Good News of the gospel
What a contrast to what God's Word teaches. Jesus brings us comfort in the face of death and answers the question of what our future holds. Consider these beautiful passages of hope and life...
• I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die (John 11:25-26).
• Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).
• But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body (Philippians 3:20-21).
Prayer
Dear Lord, thank you for the comfort of knowing you are preparing our place in heaven. We await your triumphant return!
Source: Dave Payne
*Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joss_paper