Fortune Credit is the Treasure in Heaven. If you have more positive Fortune Credit, the Treasure in Heaven could be redeemed through good fortune in the earthly life and good things will happen to you or your family. If you have more negative Fortune Credit, the deficit of Treasure in Heaven will cause misfortune and bad things to happen to you or your family. When there is a cause, there will be an effect. The effect of positive or negative Fortune Credit will show itself sooner or later unless people know how to change their Fortune Credit before it happens. Therefore, it’s important for people to know about every aspect of Fortune Credit and how they work collectively on people’ lives.
1. Deed and Behavior
In the Deed and Behavior category, there are three aspects of Fortune Credit. Let me start with the negative effect of each aspect and then show you how to improve it with positive Fortune Credit.
1) Killing & Hurting vs. Loving & Caring
The first negative Fortune Credit is Killing and Hurting. We all know that killing and hurting others is against the law. But there are still so many people breaking the law by hurting or killing others. Why do they commit such a crime and ruin their Fortune Credit? Because they don’t know the effect of negative Fortune Credit and don’t think of the consequence. They may think that they can benefit or satisfy themselves by hurting others, and be lucky to escape the punishment of the law by outsmarting the police. They don’t know that every time when they hurt others, God will take a notice of that. Someone can outsmart the police, but no one can outsmart God. There is no secret in front of God. Every move of us is observed by God and every negative Fortune Credit will be recorded. When the time comes, these negative Fortune Credits will turn into misfortune or disaster to these people and even to their families.
Killing is the largest negative Fortune Credit of all, and “anyone who kills with the sword will be killed by the sword” (Revelation 13:10). Some people may spend large sums of money on lawyers to defend them; some people may hide away as a fugitive for a long time. These tactics may delay the judgment for a while but they won’t help them erase the negative Fortune Credit in front of God. Wasting money on lawyers and the difficulties of living as a fugitive are just small misfortune compared to the final judgment from God. Negative Fortune Credit will, sooner or later, show its effect.
Recently, in America, several cases of murders, which occurred thirty years ago, were brought to justice, such as the case of a “guru” who killed his girlfriend thirty years ago and another case of a member of a prominent political family who killed a little girl in the neighborhood with a baseball bat. In the Middle East, a former leader of a terrorist group was forced to “suicide” in Baghdad. Another leader of Al Qaeda was also assassinated in Afghanistan. Those who killed with the sword will be killed by the sword. This is the judgment of God on the crime of killing.
In recent years, there have been many cases of suicide bombings, which cause great loses of innocent lives. Those people might think that they were “martyrs” for a good cause; some of them were told that there would be seventy-two virgins waiting for them in heaven. These are all nonsense. Any one who kills innocent people will face the judgment of God, no matter what kind of reasons or excuses are. Even if the killers also died during the case of killing, like those suicide bombers, they will still face the judgment of God in the next life to eternal life.
In regarding to the judgment of God in this life, sometimes the misfortune or tragedies like sudden death and severe illness or injury can serve as the swords of God for punishment. Recently one man who brutally beat his wife and mother-in-law to death suffered huge pain from a deadly cancer. He tried to apply for parole and may not live to the day of his trial. Another man who killed his brother, a former NBA player, also suffered in a mysterious coma and died a few days later. Sometimes when the legal process could drag on for too long, the judgment of God may take place ahead of legal sentence. For the time of initial reward and judgment is already here.
Some people may be able to delay judgment for a while or even delay it until the next life. But that delay could cause more suffering during the next life, as people have no control over where they will be born. It could happen in some miserable situation, and the misfortune or tragedy usually strikes at the most vulnerable time, which could be even more painful. When the negative Fortune Credit of killing is carried into the next life, whatever pain and suffering the killer has caused to the victims will be applied to himself as well.
In the Bible, the Prophet Elijah killed four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel after he won the competition (I King 18) and also called fire from heaven to kill one hundred soldiers and two captains on his way to see the king Ahaziah. (II King 1) There was some overkill in these two cases. Although he didn’t face death in his life, he was beheaded in the next life when he came again as John the Baptist. (Mark 6). Even the prophet of God couldn’t escape the negative consequence of his overkill, let alone others.
Therefore, it’s better to take care of the negative Fortune Credit of killing in this life while it is still controllable rather than carrying it into the next life. Stop killing, repent to God, have faith in Christ’s sacrifice and do more good things with positive Fortune Credit; this is one way to offset some negative Fortune Credit. And keeping away from any new sins to avoid new negative Fortune Credit is the most important thing to get forgiveness from God.
Another negative Fortune Credit in this category is hunting or killing animals just for fun. In the past, when people were starving, hunting for food for the survival of human beings may be excusable. But now some people have plenty of food and still go hunting or killing animals just for fun. That is inexcusable.
Killing animals just for fun is an act of cruelty. It’s the dark side of human nature, which will cause negative Fortune Credit to the people and their families. The most typical effect of this negative Fortune Credit is personal injury in accidents. I know a lot of people who love hunting that have suffered some major injuries and broken bones in accidents. Sometimes the damage could be much more severe.
Just a couple years ago, a man in Utah took his two-year-old son hunting in the mountains. While he was pursuing the target, his son wandered away from the truck and got lost. A few days later, the boy was found frozen to death in the mountains. Several months later, the father was sentenced to six months in jail for negligence in his child’s death. Instead of reporting to jail, he went to the place where his boy was found death and shot himself. What a tragedy for his family. That’s the result of negative Fortune Credit for killing animals just for fun.
Recently there were a series of murders in Maryland and Virginia by a couple of snipers who used high velocity rifles to kill their victims from long distance. This kind of rifle is most commonly used for hunting and its power is way beyond the purpose of self-defense. When more and more people are interested in this kind of powerful weapon to kill animals for fun, it is just a matter of time before someone uses these kinds of weapons to attack people. This kind of weapon is purely for assaulting, not for defending, and it should be banned along with other assault weapons. Those who use these kinds of weapons to kill people will pay the price sooner or later.
Now many groups in the United States have called for banning the death penalty, but the deaths caused by privately owned guns far exceed those caused by the death penalty. And most of the victims of private guns are innocent people. The death caused by private guns has outweighed the benefit of self-defense by thousands of times. If people don’t have mercy in their hearts and renounce these killing weapons, the negative Fortune Credit of killing will eventually cause more damage and tragedy in society. Those anti-death-penalty groups should spend more effort on banning those killing weapons, for it will save many more lives. On those who committed horrible crimes against other human beings, it’s better for them to pay the price in this life than suffering the painful consequences through eternal life.
To avoid and offset the negative Fortune Credit of killing or hurting others, people need to have mercy on all living beings, including animals. Taking care of the ill, helping elders and those who are handicapped are good examples of positive Fortune Credit in this category. In Buddhism tradition, setting free those small animals, like birds or fish, and taking care of injured animals is also a good way to offset some negative Fortune Credit in the past.
Some schools of Buddhism or other Eastern religions even require people to be vegetarians to solidify their faith in “No Killing”. Although it’s hard for most people to be a full vegetarian, being a part-time vegetarian one-day a week or two days a month is a good start to cultivate mercifulness in heart, and it’s good for health, too. It will improve people’s Fortune Credit and help people reduce the chance of accidents and personal injuries.
2) Stealing and Robbery vs. Charity and Donation
Stealing and robbery are punishable crimes in every country. But some people still can’t resist the temptation to make some easy money through illegal ways. What they don’t know is that by doing these kinds of things, they are ruining their Fortune Credit or Treasure in Heaven, which is worth ten times or even a hundred times more than they might have gained unethically on Earth. These unlawful gains will bring more misfortune. When the judgment of God comes, they will either be caught by the law or suffer some bigger losses in unexpected accidents or tragedies.
A typical example includes some gang members and crime families. They may gain some money or power through violence or other illegal methods, but in the end, most of them will either lose their money or be locked up in the jail; some of them may even lose their lives. These are the certain consequences of their negative Fortune Credit. So what is this money and power good for if they can’t enjoy them in the end? If they obtained their wealth through hurting others, sooner or later their negative Fortune Credit will hurt them. There is no factor of “luck” here, for God sees everything clearly from above. It’s just the matter of time when the judgment will be carried out. If the negative Fortune Credit is not paid off in this life it will be carried through to the next, and the misfortune could be even worse. Hopefully people can understand how Fortune Credit works and do some good things to make up for the negative Fortune Credit before it is too late.
To improve the Fortune Credit in this category, charity and donation are a good way to start.
Some people don’t know the value of charity and donation. They always think about how to keep as much money as possible for their family or children, only to find out later that their children lose it all. Once, a rich young man came to Jesus to ask how to get eternal life, Jesus said he needed to obey the commandments from God, and the young man said that he did. Then Jesus said, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21).
By sharing some of your fortune with those in need and donating money to charitable organizations, you are turning your earthly wealth into Treasures in Heaven, which could bring more good fortune and blessing for your family and children in the future. If you just want to get more money for yourself and don’t do any good things to make up the Fortune Credit you spent, misfortune could come and take away your earthly fortune. That’s why Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasure on Earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)
Someone may think that charity is something for rich people. This is not the case. It doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor, or how much money you have. As long as you can do your best to share and help, you will gain positive Fortune Credit or Treasure in Heaven for future blessings, for God looks more on your heart than your property. Even the poor people should learn the importance of charity and donation so they could have more Fortune Credit, or Treasure in Heaven, to change their future.
Donation or charity is not just about money. You can donate your time and labor to help those in need or comfort those in sorrow. Some people just wait for other people’s help without doing anything to help others. But every time they receive help or donations from others, it costs their Fortune Credit in the future. It’s like receiving an advance against future paychecks. That’s why it’s important to help others when you receive help from others. Only when people are constantly helping each other will the future of this world be much better. For those who only want to receive help from others without lending help to others, they are just wasting the opportunities to improve their own Fortune Credit and increase their Treasure in Heaven.
However, when you donate something to help others, keep a low profile and do not brag about it. If you brag about it and try to gain some fame or good reputation, you just spend the Treasure in Heaven on earthly fame. That’s why Jesus said, “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:4). Therefore, keeping a low profile while you make donations can keep your Treasure in Heaven instead of wasting it on earthly fame. But sometimes it is good to use some of your donations as public examples to encourage more people to share and donate their resources to help others, as long as you don’t use all of them for public relations or worldly fame.
One of the important aspects of donation that I want to emphasis here is religious donation, which includes donating to religious organizations and sharing the Word of God with other. Some people may wonder why God needs money from us since He is omnipotent already. The fact is that God is not taking money from people. He is turning the earthly wealth into the Treasure in Heaven for people. Those Treasures in Heaven will bring more blessings and good fortune to people and their children in the future.
When I go to churches for Sunday services, I often see some people sitting there and listening to the preach carefully. But when the time of donation comes, they often pass on the tithing bags without donating any money. That’s a big mistake. Don’t go to the house of God empty-handed. That’s the opportunity to show your faith in God and turn your earthly wealth into Treasure in Heaven for more blessing from God. It doesn’t matter how much money you can donate, even a little donation from a widow can worth more in the eye of the Father than the big money from the rich, as said by Jesus in Luke 21.
By helping those priests and clergies preach the Word of God to people, you are helping more people to learn the Word of God. As it is said in an old adage, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Once people learn the Word of God, they will know how to create more Fortune Credit or Treasure in Heaven for the blessings from God. And you will also have your share of their positive Fortune Credit for your effort. That’s why it’s important for the religious donation to support those priests and clergies on their effort of preaching the Word of God. As Jesus said, "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." (Matthew 10:41-42).
However, be aware of the sin of material desires in today’s world. Some people use religion as the name for their scams to deceive people’s money, and also some of the priests or religious people are misusing the money from people’s donation. Some religious leaders use people’s donations to buy luxury mansions for themselves, draw large paychecks, drive fancy cars, and wear fancy jewelries. Some of them even use other people’s donations to pay off mistresses or to cover their sexual misconducts. These are shameful sins with great negative Fortune Credit. People should be careful on their donations to this kind of individuals or groups.
Some religious groups even use people’s donations to propagate hatred or discrimination against others. If you donate to this kind of group, you may even share their negative Fortune Credit. So be careful of which organizations you donate your money to and check on their usage of people’s donations and the way they preach. Only donate your money to those organizations that really help others or teach the Word of God with love and mercifulness. Those non-profit organizations should also be accountable and make it clear where the money goes. Those people who use other people’s donation for their own benefits or wrong purposes will face the severe judgment from God. It’s better for them to pay off the negative Fortune Credit with their own money before the judgment of God comes.
3) Indecent Behavior vs. Decent Behavior
Indecent behaviors are those behaviors controlled by the dark side of human nature against the teachings of the Word of God, like drunkenness or drug addiction, fighting and quarreling, adultery, promiscuity, and sexual immorality. They may not be as severe as the first two aspects, and some of them may not even be punishable by the secular law in some countries, but nevertheless, they will cause negative Fortune Credit, which will lead to misfortune.
The most noticeable misfortunes are drunk driving and drug addiction. Every year there are millions of people who die of drunk driving or are injured by drunk drivers. Many people are hospitalized due to a drug overdose, or even die of drug abuse. These are just the visible misfortunes. The lasting effect of these negative Fortune Credits may even affect their children and their next life.
“Like father, like son.” If the parents had this kind of negative Fortune Credit in the past, the children will often have the same problem and cause the same headache to their parents. Sometimes these kinds of negative Fortune Credit can cause severe consequences to their children. Many children born with birth defects were caused by their parent’s drug addiction. It has been proved by the modern science of medicine that bad life-style and habits of parents can directly impact children’s health. Therefore, it’s important to be aware of the effect of these negative Fortune Credits and prevent such misfortune from happening to their children and their future.
The other most common negative Fortune Credit in this category is adultery and sexual immorality. These can cause some major damage in people’s lives. Nowadays people often talk about love and freedom and commit sexual misconducts under the name of “love” or “chemistry”. They forget the warning of God and forget their responsibility and commitment to their spouses and families. Eventually they will hurt the other party and cause negative Fortune Credit, thereby hurting themselves. The negative effect of sexual immorality can often cause shame, financial loss and even death.
A good example of this kind of negative Fortune Credit is one former President of the United States. He was a capable man but had a rich history of adultery, or, in a nicer way, called “affairs”. He may have some positive Fortune Credit for what he did for people when he was the governor of a state; therefore, his negative Fortune Credit didn’t show its effect until he became the President for a second term. But if the effect of negative Fortune Credit was deferred and accumulated, when it comes, it comes really hard. He was brought to shame in front of the whole world because of an “affair” with an Intern, and was almost impeached from the presidency. Besides the shame of being the laughing stock of the whole world, he also suffered a huge financial loss on legal fees, and was barred from practicing law forever. That’s the misfortune caused by the negative Fortune Credit of adultery.
But his misfortune was quite small compared to that of another former president of the United States and his brother, also a prominent politician. They both had an affair with a sexy movie star, who also committed adultery with other men. And soon misfortune happened. That famous actress died mysteriously, and one year later this president was assassinated. A few years later, his brother was also assassinated. But the misfortune did not end there. Thirty years later, the sons of both brothers also died separately in accidents. The effect of negative Fortune Credit could cause devastating misfortune and tragedy to the whole family, like an unbreakable curse. Of course, there could be more factors to cause these tragedies, but the negative Fortune Credit of adultery and sexual immorality was definitely one of the major causes that started this chain of misfortunes.
In the Bible, there is also a similar case of misfortune and family tragedy originating from adultery. King David committed adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11), so he sent her husband Uriah to the frontlines to be killed by the enemy. He thought he had covered his sin of adultery, but there is no secret in front of God. By covering it up, David committed more serious sin and caused more negative Fortune Credit for himself and his family. Therefore, God send the prophet Nathan to rebuke his sin and notify him of the punishment. The first punishment was the death of his first son with Bathsheba. Then he was overthrown by his own son Absalom and driven out of Jerusalem; and his ten concubines who stayed in Jerusalem were also humiliated in front of the public. All these misfortunes and tragedies began with his negative Fortune Credit of adultery.
In history, there were numerous misfortunes and tragedies, which happened due to the sin of adultery. Don’t take it lightly when God gave His commandment, “Do not commit adultery”. Adultery may be not against the law of this world, but it is against the Law of God. That’s why most people who commit adultery, or have extramarital affairs, often experience misfortune or even tragedy. So please don’t use “love” or “chemistry” as an excuse for adultery. It will lead to misfortune and disaster due to its negative Fortune Credit. If the marriage has problem, work it out first. Whoever puts extra effort to save the marriage will gain positive Fortune Credit and be rewarded from God later. If it is still not working, separate first before starting another affair; otherwise, the misfortune for the negative Fortune Credit of adultery could be very severe. People can either learn this lesson from the Word of God and history, or learn from their own misfortunes and tragedies.
When adultery and promiscuity become common place in society, then the negative Fortune Credit of individuals will combine into the common negative Fortune Credit of society. That’s when misfortune becomes disaster. In the 60s, when people started to abandon God and followed the illusion of Satan and Beasts, the youth quickly fell into sexual promiscuity and drug abuse; even the sexual transmitted diseases couldn’t stop them from falling. Then the deadly disease emerged -- AIDS. Hundreds of thousands of people died of AIDS and millions carry the HIV Virus. These are the results of the common negative Fortune Credit for society, just like what happened during Noah’s time of the “Great Flood”. Even some innocent people are also infected through their partners. But those innocent people with positive Fortune Credit will be saved by the Father in heaven and sent to a better place for the next life.
Now people are asking for more eligibility of medicine for AIDS, which is important to defeat this deadly disease and save more lives. But the medicine is just a temporary solution for this problem. The main problem of this deadly disease is the negative Fortune Credit of sexual immorality and promiscuity. If people don’t listen to the warning of God and only follow their own lusty desire, then the negative Fortune Credit could cause more problems than AIDS. The virus of AIDS originated in the body of monkey. Who can guarantee that there are no more deadly viruses in other animal’s bodies? Even the AIDS virus can have some powerful mutations, which go beyond the capability of current medicine. Therefore, it’s more important to take care of the negative Fortune Credit of sexual immorality than to find a temporary solution through medicine.
The best way to avoid this kind of misfortune is to follow the Word of God and to be responsible for your behavior. Don’t let your sexual desire take over your mind and lead you to adultery and promiscuity. It will cost too much. Read the Word of God frequently and practice some meditation and fasting, which could help people resist temptation from Satan. There are more important things in your life; don’t waste the opportunity of this life to improve your Fortune Credit and spiritual development. If you have this kind of negative Fortune Credit now, turn your heart to God and repent, for God will forgive those who repent and come back to the right way. Otherwise, the next life through eternal life could be quite “uncomfortable” due to these negative Fortune Credits.
These are the effects of Fortune Credit in the category of Deed and Behavior. There are also some other Fortune Credits in Word and Mind categories. Only after people learn the complete details of all three aspects of Fortune Credit, will they know how to change their future for more blessings and rewards.