Money, women, monuments.

Achievement is concerned with enhancing our individuality, with accomplishment of purpose, dominion, the exercise of one's will and judgment, the bringing of a vision into external form.

God's vision is the Lord Jesus Christ as all Security, all Pleasure, and all Achievement in Heaven and on the earth.

What achievement was necessary or possible for Adam and Eve in Paradise? They had God Himself. God commanded them to populate the earth and rule it. The commandment included the necessary wisdom and power for its fulfillment. That is enough achievement for anyone.

Then Paradise was lost. But Paradise can be regained. When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior we are given the key to Paradise. Whether we conquer through Christ in the realm of security, the realm of pleasure, and the realm of achievement, depends on us.

Mankind driven out of Eden was confronted with the issue of security. When man had attained a measure of apparent security he turned his attention to pleasure.

That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. (Genesis 6:2)

The pursuit of pleasure always leads to wickedness and violence.

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)

God's response to the pleasure-seeking, wickedness, and violence was the flood.

After the flood came the desire for achievement—the desire to build a tower to reach to Heaven itself.

Man by nature is a builder, a doer. He is a little god. God's purpose for man is that he become an integral, eternal part of God's plan to fill Heaven and earth with Christ.

But religious man often is tempted to become a competitor of Christ, as happened to the horribly misguided Pharisees.

The desire for achievement was in the hearts of the inner circle of disciples. When they beheld the Glory of Christ on the mount of transfiguration they desired to build tabernacles.

It can be difficult for us to allow Christ Himself to be the Center of our achievement instead of attempting to "build tabernacles."

Christ Himself was examined intensely along the line of self-centeredness versus God-centeredness.

"Look at Jesus on the roof of Herod's Temple! Hey! Jesus, up there! What are you doing? Are you going to fly away? Why don't you jump off the roof and get back in your carpenter shop?

"Why don't you leap off? Why don't you dare to find out if the Scripture will work?

"Prophesy! who hit you? Look at the king of the Jews! He looks a little sick.

"If you're the Christ why don't you come down from the cross?"

Kings do not enjoy being mocked and they do not forget who it was that mocked them.

To be continued.