Máquinas que trabajan por arranque de viruta

put them over the top. Now they were thinking no one could be saved! Jesus said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a man who trusts in riches to be saved. He was stressing the importance of turning our finances over to God and trusting Him as our source, yet many people today are not acknowledging the emphasis that Jesus put on trusting God with our finances.

A popular story has circulated that tries to

reinterpret what Jesus meant in this teaching. You may have heard the story yourself. Supposedly, the eye of the needle was a special gate in the city of Jerusalem. During the day, the story goes, big gates in the walls of the city were open, but at night the big gates were closed and the only way into the city was through a small opening in the gate. Supposedly, the smaller door was called the eye of the needle and in order to get a camel through, they had to unburden the camel and make it crawl through on its knees. In other words, getting a camel through "the eye of a

needle" was hard work, but it wasn't impossible. It's a neat story, but no such gate existed.

Actually, I have a funny story about that. When I was in Israel, I asked our tour guide to show us "the eye-of-the-needle gate." At first, the guide told me that it was out of the way, and we didn't have time to go see it. I kept asking him about it, and he continued

brushing me off. Finally I asked him, "Is there really a gate called the eye of the needle?"

"No," he said, "there isn't." I asked him why he didn't just tell me that in the first place and he explained how the tour guides in Israel are trained to make sure tourists have a wonderful experience—not necessarily to tell them the truth.

The guide told me how one time he had a tour group that kept asking him to see the burning bush from the story of Moses. (Exodus 3:1-3.) He remembered a bush catching fire the week before behind a gas station, so he had the bus driver stop at the station.

They all got off the bus and he told the tourists that the charred plant behind the gas station was Moses' burning bush! He said the tourists were lining up to take pictures next to it. They actually believed it was the same bush that burned in front of Moses

thousands of years before—never mind that the whole reason Moses turned aside to inspect the bush was that it wasn't being consumed by the flames.

The eye of the needle wasn't a gate any more than

some burned plant behind a gas station was Moses' burning bush. Jesus was literally talking about the eye of a needle. He wasn't saying it is hard for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God—He was saying it is impossible. That's why the disciples were shocked and wondered if anyone could be saved. In fact, Jesus specifically said it was

impossible: "Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible" (Mark 10:27).

The point is that you can't sidestep the issue of trusting God with your finances. This is square one.

Trusting God with your finances, as we've seen, is the least use of your faith, and if you aren't faithful in that which is least, then you won't be faithful in greater things. In my own life, I couldn't be doing the things I am doing now if I hadn't started with

trusting God in my finances.

God has a plan for every Christian, and His plans are bigger than our dreams. (Jeremiah 29:11; 1

Corinthians 2:9.) I don't think anyone has maxed out God's plans for them. God will do great things, but you have to rely on Him. One of the first steps in that direction is becoming a faithful steward of God's resources. Once you begin trusting God for that which is seen—money—then you will be able to trust Him for that which is unseen: health, peace, joy, prosperity, and God's favor in your life.

I've mentioned the parable of the unjust steward a

few times, but now I want to take a closer look at what Jesus was teaching. This parable is one of Jesus' hardest teachings to understand. You have to have a pretty good revelation on prosperity before you can decipher what the Lord is talking about here. I think understanding this parable will make a big

difference in the way you view and use money. The parable starts like this:

[Jesus] said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship;for thou mayest be no longer steward.

Luke 16:1,2