LifeLink Devotions

Friday, October 1, 2021

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This week we have been seeking God’s wisdom for financial integrity. To wrap up this subject we must be aware of the greatest enemy to financial integrity – GREED. Here is what King Solomon has to say about the fleshly desire to always have more.

Proverbs 22:28 – “Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your forefathers.”

Proverbs 23:10-11 – “Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you.”

Here’s the wisdom principle: Don’t keep trying to get more for yourself at the expense of others. These verses speak of the intentional use of one’s power and authority, or the deceptive manipulation of the law, to advance one’s own cause at the expense of another. This is GREED.

In the days before plat maps and survey crews, boundaries were established by the use of large stones on the corners of property. Crude maps were kept based on the best measuring devices of the day, originating with the average length of a man’s step. It was not too difficult a task to move a boundary stone to one’ advantage and encroach on another person’s land.

Today we use steel posts driven in the ground, detectable by electronic device, and accuracy is maintained through global positioning satellites. Even though it would seem to be more difficult to illegally move a marker and get away with it, our greedy imaginations are hard at work. I know of one instance in which a man was so intent on building a new home on a piece of property with a great view, that he forgot to check how much room he had for a driveway to get to that location. After getting the house done, he built his driveway on the neighbors land without permission. Now he refuses to fix the problem and legal action will be necessary. Greed can drive us to illegal actions.

There is another point I would like to make today about boundary stones, especially those that have been placed there by our forefathers. There are serious spiritual implications to moving moral boundary stones. 

We live in a world that is degenerating. The human race is not evolving into something more god-like, except that the god it increasingly resembles is the god of this age Satan. Boundary stones are constantly being moved and shifted. We demand it because we seek self-gratification. We seek to be more like culture. We have allowed the media to move the boundary stones of sin and righteousness. We have become enamored with what the world offers, and we will move whatever boundary stone that limits our personal gain. The moral foundation of our nation and world is quickly eroding, and the building called society is about to tumble. 

God’s Word has established absolute moral boundaries. Society can do all it wants to move them for its own personal benefit, but someday the Chief Surveyor will arrive on the property, and using the Bible as His Transom, His Throne as the Global Positioning Satellite, and His cross as the chief cornerstone from which all other boundaries extend, He will reestablish the boundaries once and for all. Anyone found outside those boundaries will be punished for all eternity. All of us who have chosen by faith to surrender to the Chief Surveyor’s boundaries will live forever within them.

Today, check your boundary stones. Are they where God placed them, or have we moved them for personal benefit?

Pastor John