Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

James W. Moore (1938-2019) was an acclaimed pastor and ordained elder in The United Methodist Church. He led congregations in Jackson, TN; Shreveport, LA; and Houston, TX. The best-selling author of over 40 books, including Yes, Lord, I Have Sinned, But I Have Several Excellent Excuses, he also served as minister-in-residence at Highland Park United Methodist Church.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Rich in the Things That Count the Most

Abingdon Press

Chapter One

* * *

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:14-17

On November 4, 1879, in Oologah Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma), a baby boy was born. He was the youngest of eight children. His name was Will Rogers (www.willrogers.org).

While growing up on the family ranch, Will Rogers worked with the cattle and learned to ride and lasso from a young age. He became so talented with a rope that he was placed in the Guinness Book of World Records for throwing three lassos at the same time: one went around the horse's neck, another circled the rider, and the third flew under the horse, looping all four legs together.

Will Rogers dropped out of school in the tenth grade and became a show business performer, first with a wild west show, then a circus, then vaudeville, and then the Ziegfeld Follies.

Will Rogers loved talking to people and reading; and these two interests groomed him to become a humorist. His intelligent and amusing observations about people, life, the country, and the government, expressed in simple down-home language that his audience could understand and relate to, caused people to love his humor even more than his roping tricks. He became a movie star, appeared in seventy-one films and several Broadway productions, and in 1934 was voted the most popular male actor in Hollywood. Then, Will Rogers's career took a different turn that endeared him to even more people. He became a writer. He wrote four thousand syndicated columns and six books and became a radio broadcaster and a political commentator. His folksy humor and honest, intelligent observations about life, the government, and America earned the respect of the nation.

Will Rogers died in a plane crash in 1935. And to this day, he is still regarded as the greatest political sage and humorist our country has ever known. Here are some of his famous quotes:

* "Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco."

* "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

* "There are two theories to arguing with a woman; neither works."

* "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."

* "The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket."

* "Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip."

* "Lettin' the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back."

Wise sayings like these of Will Rogers have been with us since the beginning of time. They are a part of every language and every people's heritage. The Old Testament contains an entire book of proverbs, or wise sayings, and additional wisdom literature with fascinating sayings, which have been handed down from generation to generation. Sayings such as these:

* A soft answer turns away wrath. (15:1)

* The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. (1:7)

* A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. (22:1)

Also, some years before the time of Christ, Cicero was giving us some words that have been repeated millions of times since he first spoke them: "One does not have to believe everything he hears," and "Virtue is its own reward." And when we really stop to think about it, we see that the Ten Commandments were in a sense wise sayings that Moses and the early Israelites felt were worth repeating, worth saying again and again.

Now, with all this in mind, let's look closer at riches of the Bible. The Bible is full of wise sayings, strong commandments, great lessons, thoughtful parables, excellent examples, and powerful events that serve to teach us God's way, God's truth, God's will for us in this life.

Remember how the apostle Paul expressed it in his second letter to his close friend Timothy. He said, "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:14-17).

Recently, I had the privilege of giving Bibles to the third graders in our church. In anticipation of that significant event, I tried to think of how to express to our children, and all of us, in three simple sentences, or three wise sayings, what the Bible teaches us. And here's what I came up with. I'm sure that you will think of other ideas (there are so many), but for now look with me at these three basic sentences that remind us what the Bible teaches us.

First, the Bible Teaches Us to Love God Because He First Loves Us

Again and again, Jesus says this: God is a loving Father (not an angry, hostile, vengeful deity who must be appeased), a loving Father who cannot rest until he finds his lost children.

This is the recurring theme of Jesus' teaching and we see this especially in Luke 15 in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.

Interestingly, there are three different kinds of lostness depicted here: (1) the coin is lost by accident through no fault of its own; (2) the sheep is lost from wandering off, drifting away, going off on its own; (3) the son loses himself on purpose. He willfully, arrogantly, and pridefully runs away to the far country. But, in each case, the search is intense and victorious. And when the lost is found, there is great joy and celebration. Over and over the Bible teaches us this. We see it especially in the teachings of Jesus, the seeking, gracious, forgiving love of God! We love God because he first loves us.

His name was Ray. He had come to ask me a favor. His daughter (who was sixteen years old) was a teenage runaway, and someone had seen her in Dallas. He wanted me to go to Dallas with him. So, we went to Dallas in search of her. All day, one place after another, we looked. I'll never forget the intensity in Ray's face, the sense of urgency, the conscientious, dedicated manner of the search, the hopefulness in his eyes as we went into arcades and discothèques and coffeehouses and teenage hangouts. "Maybe she'll be here," he would say. We looked and looked all day long and into the night, but we didn't find her that day.

On the trip back home, we rode along in disappointed silence. I'll never forget Ray's slumped shoulders and misty eyes, his agonizing unrest, because he was separated from his daughter. His child was lost, and he was heartsick. He wanted to find her and bring her home.

She surfaced a few days later in Washington, D.C. She had heard somehow that her dad was in Dallas looking for her urgently. She was touched by his love. She called Ray crying. She wanted to come home. Ray was on the first plane to go get her and bring her back.

I learned something of what God is like that day with Ray—something of what Jesus taught in his parables about God's seeking love. God is a loving Father who desperately wants his children back. He wants to find them and bring them home. Nowhere is this more powerfully expressed than on the Cross at Calvary. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but...