Hey there and welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled Easy Money was written by Tim Gustafson.

In the late 1700s, a young man discovered a mysterious depression on Nova Scotia's Oak Island,

guessing that pirates, perhaps

even Captain Kidd himself, had buried treasure there? He and a couple of companions started digging.

They never found any treasure, but the rumor took on a life of its own. Over the centuries,

others continued digging at the site, expending a great amount of time and

expense. The hole is now more than 100 feet, 30 meters deep. Such obsessions betray the emptiness

in the human heart. A story in the Bible shows how one man's behavior revealed just such a void in his heart.

Gheizai had long been a reliable servant of the great prophet Elisha.

But when Elisha declined the lavish gifts of a military commander whom God had healed of leprosy,

Gheizai concocted a story to get some of the loot. When Giehazai returned home, he lied to the

prophet, but Elisha knew. In 2nd Kings chapter 5, he asked him, was not my spirit with you when the

man got down from his chariot to meet you? In the end, Giehazai got what he wanted, but lost what was important.

Jesus taught us

not to pursue this world's treasures

and to instead, store up

treasures in heaven.

Beware of any shortcuts to your heart's

desires. Following Jesus

is the way to fill the emptiness

with something real.

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