Spend It or Invest It: A Life Well Lived Leaves a Spiritual Legacy

By Jerry Evans and Becky Evans

Spend It or Invest It is written to encourage, challenge and instruct the reader in living in such a way as to leave a spiritual legacy. It is filled with scriptural teachings and heart-warming and sometimes gut-wrenching personal experiences that lead the reader to seek to identify and define what a life well-lived would look like. For our lives here on this earth to have meaning and purpose, we must decide whether we should spend our lives or invest them in the lives of others. How do we want to be remembered by our children, friends, associates, relatives and others? When we leave this life, we will leave a legacy. Will it affect others in a positive, God-honoring way?

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512771350

Jerry Evans

Jerry Evans was born and educated in Cambridge, UK, always being interested in both conservation and writing children’s books. He studied Geography at university before having a busy career as an investment banker and more recently as a teacher. He took up writing again when he needed to tell his two sons lots of bedtime stories.

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Copyright © 2017 Jerry and Becky Evans.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-7136-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7137-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7135-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016921627

WestBow Press rev. date: 1/10/2017

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Acknowledgments and Dedication

The idea for this book came as an outgrowth of thanks to God for showing us over the years that we wanted to invest our lives and not spend them. We recognize that our lives are a legacy from many people, some are with the Lord, and others are still serving our Great God. It all began with our parents and grandparents, Dallas and Doris McClendon, Ella Joiner, (Becky’s parents and grandmother) Otha and Hellon Evans, Irving and Della Sears (Jerry’s parents and grandparents and a great aunt, Lillie Mae Sears. Those are the people who passed on the legacy that continues in us today.

Next, our memories recall the man who recruited Jerry out of college to an electronics company in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Charlie Batsel actually hired Jerry and was his supervisor. We responded to his invitation to the church he and his family attended where he was an elder. He lived what he believed at work as well as at church. He was often teased by some of his peers as well as people from the corporate headquarters in New Jersey about his faith in Jesus, but that didn’t dampen his spirit and he never blew his testimony. Other Christians within that company, Bob Day, Mac Roby and others lived what they believed and influenced our lives.

I think about couples who took us in as we joined the church (Sandia Baptist) re-committing our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. Glen and Margaret Witt, Bob and Charlene Giles, Bob and Mildred Day and many of our peers extended their friendship and we saw them growing in their faith. This was a testimony to us.

Two men who poured their lives into us were the two Senior Pastors who served at Sandia while we were members there, Dr. Doyle Winters and Dr. Darrel Rains who are with the Lord, both dying in midlife. Suzanne Rains set the example for us as a pastor’s wife. Also Harold Walker, our Worship Pastor, influenced our lives in many ways. Then, there were pastors I worked for over the years when I went into full time vocational ministry, Paul Taylor, Gary Miller and Joe McKinney.

I think of men who Challenged us as we sat under their teachings, read their books or commentaries, listened to them speak in person or on recordings that made an impact on our lives. That legacy will live in others after we are in Heaven. Some of these men we have met and had one-on-one conversations with them, while others we know from a distance from reading their books and listening to recordings. Howard Hendricks, professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, Pastors, Chuck Smith, Charles Stanley, John MacArthur, Chuck Swindoll, and Adrian Rogers are those who come to our minds.

We dedicate this book to the people mentioned here and acknowledge their influence on our lives and their contribution to our legacy. Without these people, this book may not have been possible. Their legacy lives through us and those who are in Heaven are living through our lives. My friends that is what is called leaving a spiritual legacy! We will always love these people and thank God for their lives and legacies.

Jerry and Becky Evans

Contents

Plan of Salvation

Introduction

1   Leaving a Legacy

2   Beginning at Home

3   Living with a Holy Discontent

4   My Motivation—My Life Verse

5   Why Write about Leaving a Legacy?

6   Teaching by Principle

7   Teaching by Pattern

8   Leaving a Legacy by Weathering the Storms of Life

9   An Opportunity to Leave a Legacy through a Personal Crisis—1998

10   Another Major Crisis—2014

11   Six Reasons We Can Rejoice through Difficult Times and Leave a Legacy

12   Passing Our Faith to Our Children—Our Most Important Legacy

13   The Importance of Teaching Children and Grandchildren

14   Open Letters to Our Children—William Nicholas Evans

15   Leaving a Legacy Is Reproducing

16   Leaving a Legacy through Discipleship and Mentoring

17   The Need to Leave a Legacy

18   Leaving a Legacy Requires Genuine Love for God and Others

19   Leaving a Legacy Requires Passion

20   Passion in Action

21   Creating Space to Meet with God Each Day

Plan of Salvation

You’re not here by accident. God loves you, and He wants you to have a personal relationship with Him through Jesus, His Son. Just one thing separates you from God—sin.

The Bible describes sin in many ways. Most simply, sin is our failure to measure up to God’s holiness and His righteous standards. We sin by things we do, choices we make, attitudes we show, and thoughts we entertain. We also sin when we fail to do the right things. The Bible affirms our own experience: There is none righteous, not even one. No matter how good we try to be, none of us does right things all the time. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23 NIV).

Many people are confused about the way to God. Some think they will be punished or rewarded according to how good they are. Some think they should make things right in their lives before they try to come to God or just by believing in Him. Others find it hard to understand how Jesus could love them when other people don’t seem to. But I have great news for you! God loves you more than you can ever imagine, and there’s nothing you can do to make Him stop! Yes, our sins demand the punishment of death and separation at death from God. But because of His great love, God sent His only Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8 NIV).

For you to come to God, you have to get rid of your sin problem. But with your own strength, you cannot do that. You can’t make yourself right with God by being a better person; only God can rescue you from your sins. He is willing to do this not because of anything you can offer Him, but just because he loves you! He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy (Titus 3:5 NIV).

It’s God’s grace that allows you to come to Him, not your efforts to clean up your life or work your way to heaven. You can’t earn it; it’s a gift. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8–9 NIV).

For you to come to God, the penalty for your sin must be paid. God’s gift to you is His Son, Jesus, who paid the debt for you when He died on the cross. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23 NIV).

Jesus paid the price for our sin by giving His life on a cross on Calvary, just outside of the city walls of Jerusalem in ancient Israel. God brought Jesus back from the dead. He provided the way for us to have a personal relationship with Him through Jesus. When we realize how deeply our sin grieves the heart of God and how desperately we need a Savior, we are ready to receive God’s offer of salvation. To admit we are sinners means turning away from our sin and selfishness and turning to Jesus. The biblical word for this is repentance—to change our thinking about how grievous sin is so our thinking is in line with God’s. All that’s left for us to do is to accept the gift Jesus is offering us right now.

That If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans 10:9–10 NIV)

God says that if you believe in His son, Jesus, you can live forever with Him in glory. For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16 NIV).

Are you ready right now to accept the gift of eternal life Jesus is offering you? If so, say, I acknowledge I am a sinner in need of a Savior; that is to repent or turn away from sin. I believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead; that is to trust that Jesus paid the full penalty for your sins. I confess Jesus as my Lord and my God; that is to surrender control of your life to Jesus and receive Jesus as your Savior forever. —that is to accept what God has done for you and in you—what He promised.

If it’s your sincere desire to receive Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior, talk to God from your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer.

Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and do not