Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College

For hundreds of years, men on earth have been dreaming an
impossible dream: the dream of bringing one’s wealth across the barrier
of death. The ancient Egyptians thought they had found the answer
when they built huge pyramids and buried their dead pharaohs with all
the gold and possessions they would need for a comfortable afterlife.
But it did not work. The only ones who gained from all this were grave
robbers who broke into the tombs and carried them all away, even
taking the preserved remains of these pharaohs to sell to some museum.
And then a long time ago, the people of China thought that they had
found the perfect answer to this dream. They believed that things that
are burned up would somehow reach the spirits of the dead in the
underworld. And so when someone dies, many Chinese today burn piles
of incense paper, hoping that these would somehow be transformed into
real currency that departed loved ones can use to get their material
assets in the underworld. And not only that, when someone dies they
also burn big houses, cars, clothes, even TV sets and video players all
made of paper, hoping against hope that the dead will somehow receive
them in real functional condition. But again it doesn’t work. Nothing is
achieved by all this.
Dear reader, there is absolutely no way that wealth and possessions
can be taken beyond the grave. There is no way at all that we can take
anything from this world with us when we die. God’s Word reveals this
sobering truth about man in Ecclesiastes 5:15, “As he came forth of his
mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take
nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.” Paul the
Apostle echoes the same truth in 1 Timothy 6:7, “For we brought
nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”
Some have sought a more pragmatic solution to this. They think:
“Since I cannot take anything with me, at least I can leave them all to
my children who will be able to enjoy them and then pass it on to their
children.” It does at least bring some comfort to imagine that our
personal wealth may become a resource or foundation that our
descendants can build upon and develop into a large empire. But this is
just wishful thinking. In reality, wealth does not stay in a family for
very long. In fact there is a Chinese saying that wealth can only last for
58 A Consecrated Life