In the January 14, 2000 issue of the Washington Times, there is the following report:

Jane Fonda has become a born-again Christian, enthusiastic in her newly found faith, and her conversion is making waves from Atlanta to Hollywood.

She’s regularly attending church services and Bible studies in Atlanta, and one friend calls her faith “very real, very deep.”

News of her conversion...leaped from Internet gossip to mainstream newspapers following the disclosure last week that she and her husband, Ted Turner, have separated...

Friends say Mr. Turner’s unhappiness with his wife’s enthusiasm for her new faith in Christ contributed to the split-up.

Mr. Turner, who turned a bankrupt Atlanta advertising company into media empire that grew even larger ... with the merger of Time-Warner and America Online, has been an outspoken critic of Christianity, calling it a “religion for losers.” ...

The key figure in Miss Fonda’s search ... may have been her chauffeur, who shared his faith with ... When her husband became upset when she began attending fashionable Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Miss Fonda “asked her chauffer where she should go.” The chauffer invited her to attend his church, the predominantly black Providence Missionary Baptist Church.

She accepted the invitation, and became a regular parishioner there..

Speculaton has grown in Atlanta that Mr. Turner might soon follow his wife in a search for his own discarded faith.

As most of you know, Ted Turner is owner of CNN and other giant corpor- ations and is one of the most wealthy men in the country and in the world. That makes his wife one of the most wealthy women in the country and in the world. I am sure that Jane Fonda lacked for nothing of a material nature, but evidently something was missing. With all her wealth and fame and power, something very important was missing.

Perhaps she learned the lesson King Solomon discovered when he was maybe the richest man in the whole world. In the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon explained that he wanted to see what was really worthwhile for men to do during the few days of their life. So he tried a little bit of every- thing. He amassed great wealth. He bought all that money could buy. He denied himself no pleasure. He undertook great projects. But after all of this, he discovered that everything he had done was basically meaningless. It amounted to nothing. It didn’t mean a thing. Nothing was gained under the sun.

Jesus warned us about the futility of making money and possessions our great priority and goal in life when he said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where theives break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” In other words, Jesus warns us that if we store up all our treasure here, our heart will be here and we will be ultimately disappointed to have to leave it all here. But if we have treasures in an eternal place where we can utilize them after we die, we will not be so disappointed when we die. We will have something to look forward to then.

The great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy once fell into a lengthy depression because of his vision that everything he valued would die or othewise pass away. But through the teachings of Jesus he found something to value that would neither die (with him) or pass away. He found an eternal treasure. He acquired treasure in the heavens.

Maybe this is why one of the richest women in the world has turned to Christ. Maybe she realized as she grew older the depressing fact that everything she valued was either going to die or pass away. Maybe she wanted an eternal treasure, what Jesus calls the treasure in the heavens.

What about you? You have some treasures on earth? Do you have any treasure in the heavens? You are working hard for treasures on earth? Are you laying up any treasure in the heavens? Jane Fonda is a good e- xample for all of us if we will only take time to look. If the richest woman on earth was not satisfied with her earthly treasure, neither will we find ultimate satisfaction with ours.

For the church of Christ in Cherryvale, this is Stan Bryan, reminding you that Jane Fonda has found a treasure in God and so can you. There is eternal treasure available even for you.