Money in Heaven

I learned a lot from being friends with William MacDonald, who wrote the Bible Believers Commentary. That book sold over a million copies, and it could have easily made Bill MacDonald a millionaire, but he believed in putting his money in heaven. William MacDonald wrote over 80 books, and he never took a dime off of any of them.

Rather, he plowed that money into the spread of the gospel. Bill invested all his money in heaven. He lived frugally, and what money he had above his basic needs, he put in the bank of heaven toward the spread of the gospel.

His desk in his Spartan apartment in San Leonardo, California, was a door taken off its hinges and laid across two chairs. Bill never spent any money on himself, and Bill's book on discipleship, True Discipleship, is a classic. It sold over a million copies as well, and he plowed all that money away into heaven as well.

Bill encouraged me to write my own book on discipleship, No Turning Back, and he advised me not to state the obvious and to take the gloves off. Bill convinced me to take all my profits from all my books and put that money in heaven. I am the author of 18 books, and I've never taken a dime of royalties from any of them.

All my books at Revival Literature, all the profits there, go directly to printing Bibles in Russia, and all my books at Gospel Folio Press up in Canada, the profits go into foreign missions and evangelism. Right now, I'm trying to raise money for the church in Africa for Bible translation. Every dollar that someone gives to my ministry, 20% of it will go to foreign Bible translation.

I may be poor in the things of this earth, but I have a pretty big bank account in heaven that I've been investing in for years. Jesus told us, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon our earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But rather, lay up for yourself treasure in heaven.

With all the recent stock market fancy of people making a quick fortune in a few days, it's created a spirit of greed in folks. Christians aren't supposed to sit on their money like the world does, but to put those resources to work in the spread of the gospel. Put that money in heaven.

People perish by the minute without ever hearing a simple gospel message. Wouldn't you rather die with a little less net worth, friend, in the knowledge that you did all you could with your money, your time, your talents, and your resources in the spread of the gospel in your generation? Put your money in heaven, friend, where it counts for eternity. You'll be glad you did.