What message did Jesus preach on how to boost your earning or status in the natural world?
Jesus messages always placed the focus on spiritual things. We must be
careful not to err when we attempt to apply his message to natural
life. His message was not about the kingdom of men, which is natural. His message was always about the Kingdom of God
which exists in the spiritual realm.
The first spiritual then natural concepts have allowed many to inject their
personal or denominational interpretation of the scripture.
God had already blessed mankind in the book of Geneses with the
blessing of prosperity. To make churches services more attractive the promise
of prosperity was injected into the message. People could grasp the prosperity issue better than they could the
pie-in-the-sky-bye-and-bye concept.
Jesus did not come to
address the prosperity issue; he came to address the decaying
spiritual nature of man. He came to warn us to repent for the kingdom of heaven was at
hand. When asked to address natural issues, he had very few words.
Render unto Caesar the things of Caesar, and unto God the thing of God. It is not that
what goes into a man that defiles a man. He explained the ‘seek’ in
Matthew 7:7 as, Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and all things will be added. When Jesus was speaking these words, he referred to the lilacs
of the field and the birds of the air, which neither toil nor sow and
the heavenly Father takes care of them. He has provided everything
needed for the grass, lilacs and the birds to
survive. He did the same thing for mankind. God has already
provided everything mankind needs to be prosperous. Not only did he
provide man with everything he needed to survive, he blessed him with
a spirit of prosperity. (Gen1:28) We need to get up off our
hind part and take advantage of the blessing that God has already blessed us with. Again consider the fowls
of the air, if they sit in the tree and refused to fly around and get the food
that God has already provided them, they will starve.
I take no issue with a pastor or church
teaching people how be prosperous. It is a needed service, so are many other community
services. It is when we forget the message of Luke 13:1-10, unless you repent, you
all shall likewise perish.
I talked to a young lady, who had lived a high
profile life and was now having trouble finding a
husband. She had been married several times, and each one was
not what she was looking for. A preacher told her to turn from her sins and
start going to church and God would provide
her a husband. He used the
most misunderstood statement in the Bible. The
Bible said, “Ask and it shall be given, Seek and ye shall find, Knock and the
door shall be open unto you.” If there were such a thing
as a greater sin I wonder who would be guilty of it. When she failed to find a
husband she began to lose her faith. The message
that was given her caused her to lose faith in the word of God. Then there
is the question of ‘if’ it existed at the
time of her so-called conversation. She attended church, worked in the
church and paid her money, but she did not get what
she came looking for.
Many young, educated people have failed to
grasp the relevancy of Christianity in modern day living
because the message has been presented to them by self motivated messengers
who did not take the time to get the message right. The self
motivated preacher realized that the masses was running to and fro
seeking and/or enjoying prosperity,
and Jesus did say, “Ask and it shall be given.” Now the message is taking
shape, if you want prosperity you must ask God for it. For God to grant your request you must be in the right
frame of mine. Now comes the sucker punch, Jesus said, “It is more
blessing to give than it is to receive.” Now we have the basis for a
beautiful message, “Getting what
you want from God.” The smart Preacher or Teacher that can develop this
message and presentation in a forceful manner, with the hooping and hollowing
in the right place. They can attract a crowd from miles around. The
key to getting is giving and everybody wants to be in on the
getting. Somewhere in the process of enjoying God’s blessings and getting our praise
on the message of Jesus is forgotten. The reason God said, “let us make
man” has also been forgotten.
The younger generation sees the Rap Star, the Athlete, the drug
pusher and just the plain old hard working sinner who doesn’t attend church and they are prosperous.
These observations provide the fuel for the religious disconnect. The The
church tries to match the pleasures of the world by telling you that God wants you to
have all of these things. To
achieve all of the benefits of the natural world all you got to do is pray.
Christians are being taught that the mission or purpose for man is to praise and worship
God. Have you ever considered how purposely it would be for God to create
man for the purpose of praising and worshiping
him? This would make our Heavenly Father seems like an egotistical
maniac. This is far from the truth. Praising and worshiping God is something we should do because
God is the one and only God and because of the covenant that he has
made with us. We should praise and worship God because of what he
has already done for us. We should praise and worship God because we fear him.
To approach God with our hands outstretched in a gimmie position is not an
act of respect or reverence. Seems more like the action of spoiled brats
who want everything they can get their hands on. Somewhere in all of
this there is a mission or message that is being
overlooked.
What is the message being presented to our
young people? What is the
message of Christianity? What is the message of the churches? What good
is a message without a mission? What were the message and mission of Jesus
Christ?
Was it necessary for Christ to come and die on the
cross so that we could have stuff? God forbid that he should die so I
could ride in a new car. Did the father send his son so ministers and pastors could strut around like stuffed
peacocks, adorned with Gold and Silver and living of Gods people? As one lady
remarked after returning from a national meeting,
“It is getting harder to tell the preachers from the pimps.”
There was a time when the churches raised an offering
for a visiting minister. Now we raise offerings for ministers who don’t have the time to visit.
Many churches are coerced into supporting meeting
and organizations that have no benefit to the community or church. The only benefit
is derived by the ones who are conducting the meetings. I suppose there
are those who say a Sheppard is suppose to fleece his flock.
If God were to answer all of our requests,
then all Christians would be rich and all sinners would be poor. Christians
would live forever and sinners would die. Sinners would look at the Christians and say.
“That's what I want to be.” Soon there would be no sinners. The churches would be full of people serving and praising
God for the stuff that they were getting, and not because they loved God.
Serving God for his richness is the wrong
reason. Can a rich man find true love in a community of poor people?
The pastors of many churches have done their homework; they know
what it takes to pack a church. A beautiful message of prosperity, a television camera, a movie or recording star, and
an expression of financial success will fill any house. The title is important
to; it is no longer fashionable to be called a Minister, Pastor or Reverend.
Apostle, the
Superintendent or Bishop tend to
evoke more respect. To be successful the title must indicate that you are
elevated above your peers.
On any given Sunday thousands of people
nationwide will pack football stadiums to be
entertained. They will pay their dues for a good seat and the weather is
not a factor into the decision to attend and be
entertained. They do not expect anything tangible in return; they just
want to be entertained and made to feel good.
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