Infomercials & the Garden

I don't watch infomercials, but I've seen them. Sometimes they are like a crash site. You are horrified but yet you can't look away. In each case, they are trying to help you make money in an easy way with a minimum of work. These offers are everywhere. I have been approached several times over the years, often by dear Christian friends, with an offer to "buy into" some thing or another that would "help fund my ministry." I always politely declined because I suspected that what would actually happen would be that selling whatever it was that I would be selling would have to become my ministry. I would need to trade on the relationships that I build and get my friends to become clients. Time would have to shift more and more to that effort to try to make it work. I have yet to meet a real person (as opposed to a shiny paper testimonial) who explained to me that they made a ton of money without much of any effort. When you look at the richest people in the world, almost all of them work hard or did to get where they did. They had to learn, research, study, work, invent, put in hours and hours of attention. I guess there are a few who are rich because someone else did that for them and they didn't have to (ala Paris Hilton) but many of them are not people you want to emulate anyway. My point is that this is the same old lie from the garden of Eden. Try the easy way out. There will be no consequences. You will get something for nothing. You want it don't you? Man was meant to work. Work became a lot less enjoyable after the fall, but we were meant to work. If you want to get ahead, you will have to work hard. And not all who even work hard get ahead. The same is true in the Christian life. If you want spiritual riches, it is going to take work. Look at Peter or Paul. They gave their lives to the effort. They didn't put in a little effort here or there. They didn't dedicate an hour or two a week to the ministry. It was their life and they worked hard. May I not try "get rich quick" programs in my earthly life, or in my spiritual life. I'm sorry Satan, I don't care if operators are standing by.