Years ago, my wife and I watched a movie based on a famous book by Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago. The movie, made in 1965, is a gorgeous movie: The scenery of Russia in the winter is breathtaking and stunning. The movie is set during the tumultuous years of the Bolshevik Revolution that swept Russia from 1917-1920. As the forces of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who took the name of Lenin, ravaged the country of Russia, they killed, pillaged and destroyed as they built their communist utopia in Russia. Dr. Zhivago is caught in this tumult and, when he returns from the front in World War I, he finds his home ransacked and occupied by 13 families. But the movie is really not about the Bolshevik Revolution; it is a love story.

n preparation for a recent conference at which I was to speak, I was studying Matthew 6:19-24. Among other things, Jesus is clearly asking His followers to have an investment strategy, one that balances investment for the future with investment for eternity. Material wealth is not evil, but it is transitory, will deteriorate and can be stolen (vv. 19-20). Not so with investment for eternity. As Randy Alcorn has observed, ?Whatever treasures we store up on earth will be left behind when we leave.