“People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” – 1 Timothy 6:9-10

In December 1993, a small Canadian mining company named Bre-X reported favorable gold mining results in the jungles of Indonesia. Gold fever gripped St. Paul in Alberta, the hometown of Bre-X. More than 100 of the 5,200 residents invested heavily in the company.

“I’ve never been so broke,” says Real Michaud, a small business owner who tossed all his liquid investments into the stock when it floated near $12 a share.

The stock skyrocketed to a high of $286 a share, making millionaires of ordinary people virtually overnight. Press releases issued from the firm’s modest Calgary offices proclaimed their Indonesian gold mine to be the richest gold mine ever found.

The party ended on March 19, 1997, when a report that the company’s chief geologist, Michael de Guzman, had committed suicide by hurling himself out of a helicopter over the jungles of Borneo. Almost overnight, the company lost $5 billion. Pension and retirement funds along with thousands of individual investors were hit hard.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine this could happen in Canada in the year 1997,” says Greg Chorney, who lost several million dollars in the fiasco.

Are you placing your hope in riches? Today in prayer, place your hope in Jesus Christ and stay away from the temptation to seek riches.

“The real measure of our wealth is how much we’d be worth if we lost all our money.” – John Henry Jowett

God’s Word: “A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.” – Proverbs 28:20

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2006, Devotional E-Mail DEVOTIONS IN 1 AND 2 TIMOTHY pkennedy6@yahoo.com