Neither rich nor poor...

Just a reminder to self (and you)...

I have noticed that we as groups move between extremes when it comes to dealing with issues. It seems that finding the middle ground is difficult. Yes, I do realize that often people choose the boundaries themselves, so they look like they are moderate or fair. I hope I am being on point and not extreme today, and this brings me to what the scriptures say about the rich and the poor.

First, if we look at scripture being neither rich nor poor is a comment about the character of the person. We see both very rich and very poor who are faithfully serving God in the pages of the Scriptures. Being one or the other doesn’t make you a better or a worse person (Proverb 22:2).

Second, we also see both rich and poor people as being corrupt and evil. There are dangers in either, which could lead us astray. This is why Proverbs 30:8-9 records the prayer of a man who says, “First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.”

Finally, we are commanded not to give preferential treatment to anyone poor or rich. Truthfully, the rich are frequently treated better but that is not because they are better but because people hope to get something from them. A poor person can’t give you what they don’t have. However, scripture makes it clear we aren’t to show preference because they are rich or poor. Nowhere is clearer than Leviticus 19:15, “Do not twist justice in legal matters by favoring the poor or being partial to the rich and powerful. Always judge people fairly” (NLT).

Depending on which group you are in I’m amazed at the people who condemn either the rich or the poor. You would think that the poor would condemn the rich and the rich the poor, but it isn’t always the case. I’m also amazed at how people define rich and poor. For most people in America or the West, we see rich as people who are millionaires or billionaires, whereas the rest of the world would see nearly all of us in the West as being rich. What is the difference between 10 million and 10 billion? If you’re the one with 10 million, you see a big difference. If you are making $2 a day, the difference between $35,000 a year and 10 million only means one has a little bigger house because both are rich.  

So, what does all this mean? How does this apply to us? We need to treat all people right no matter what is in or not in their bank account. We also need to be honest about ourselves. For me, CS Areson, in Western terms, I’m poor or perhaps in the low middle class, but in terms of wealth as history and most of the world looks at it, I’m rich. So, according to Proverbs 30:8-9, I need to watch out I don’t dismiss God and his teaching because it will be a danger.

Now look at yourself. If you can read this you’re probably rich too so watch yourself.

Why do we want church growth?

So you want growth? Why?

 On December 7 of the fourth year of King Darius’s reign, another message came to Zechariah from the LORD. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech, along with their attendants, to seek the LORD’s favor. They were to ask this question of the prophets and the priests at the Temple of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies: “Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction, as we have done for so many years?”

The LORD of Heaven’s Armies sent me this message in reply: “Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting? And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves? Zechariah 7:1-6

Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. James 4:2b-3

This week Selma Church Church has been studying James on Wednesday nights. As I read the passage from Zachariah in my personal devotional time it hit me that these two scriptures went together. The people were morning and fasting for all the wrong reasons. They were doing it for selfish motives. The loss of the Temple was horrible but how they were responding was according to God only for selfish motives. 

This reminded me that we can also be praying and fasting for good things but have impure motives. We might say we are doing it for a good reason but the real reason is selfish. It's like the person who says that they are praying for people to start coming to church but then later confess that the church needs more money, teachers, and prestige, just to name a few. 

Church growth is a good thing, right? Maybe, if it means more faithful servants of God, but if it means anything else then all we have is a club that gives people the illusion of spiritual security. What if what we end up with is what Jesus warned the Pharisees about when he said that their disciples became "twice the child of hell you yourselves are!"   Matthew 23:15 Ouch. 

Let's admit here that if the ingredients in a recipe are poison the product will be poison. Yes, God can and does do miracles in churches that had wrong motives but a miracle is always an exception and not the rule. 

So why do we really want church growth? 

Are we willing to accept what that really means? More immature Christians in the church, More work not less, sharing power, disagreements, change... 

On the flip side, if it's godly growth, it means making a bigger impact for God in your community, seeing more people commit to God, encouraging, testimonies...

At the end of the day, growth is God's job, our job is to be faithful and to have the right motive.

 Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Killing potential

If you believe...

 John Maxwell in his book Developing the Leaders Around You says, "When a leader does not believe in us. success is very difficult for us to achieve." As I thought of that I how deep that principle goes? After a few minutes, I thought it went far further than most in leadership realize. 

There are times when people are given places of leadership and the person struggles. The person who places them there will sometimes tell themselves and others, "I knew they couldn't make it." Yet, is it completely true? If someone really believes in someone they will invest in them and do what they can to help. However, they will not give that to someone they believe will fail. In the end, they are proved right, but perhaps in truth, they helped make it so. They might have done it without even consciously thinking about it. They don't remember the encouragement and help they gave the "winner" and equally forgot how they discouraged the "loser." 

I can't help but think about situations I have seen a leader put someone in charge of something and say, "Try not and make it worse" and then disappear. On the contrary, calling, encouraging, and in small ways supporting another person saying literally or figuratively, "Knock it out of the park, I know you'll do great." Surprise of surprises the leader gets exactly what they expect.

Perhaps in leadership development, it's also true, "If you think you can or think you can't, you'll get what you expected."

As leaders let's not kill potential by working toward failure in others.

One Simple Word

All you need is the right word.

Okay, I mean "word" here as a message, not one singular word. However, as you read there are times when just one word may be enough. So here I go.

As I write this, I am spending part of the day working on a writing project that has been sitting on the back burner for some time. Correction, it wasn't on the back of the stove waiting to be dealt with, it was more like in the back of the refrigerator waiting to spoil. In the last couple of months when I wasn't doing my regular jobs and moving to a new home, I have worked on it. Now that things are settling down, I can guess that the project will be completed before the end of the month. 

YES!

So, what changed? First, I do have more time with only working one job now (long exhale), but besides that, it was the words of one person saying, "I would like a copy of that." One statement which affirmed what I write and specifically this project was worthwhile. 

Today, I might encourage you to give a word of encouragement to someone. Make sure the words are absolutely true. I've had people say, I would love to read that, and then never did or did only after I reminded them. That kills motivation, but sincere praise/encouragement is huge. Proverbs says that life and death are in the power of the tongue so go use your power...wisely.

Side Note: There are some people who need more than a word of encouragement no matter how sincere. So don't give up if you don't see results. Also, it might just take time.

 

Go To Them, (but it's their problem)

 I am not inspired to write today, but nearly every person who teaches about writing says that if you are going to be a better writer that you have to write, even when you don't feel inspired. This is where I am today. I have lit my candle, a subtle reminder to myself that I need to focus on writing and here I am. I am going to look through my notes on possible subjects for humorous/ironic Bible thoughts and we will see where it goes...

As I write this I am preparing a message for Sunday about the root cause for murder. It is our attitudes and what is in our hearts. In Matthew 5:21-26, Jesus talks about how our words and deeds will get us in trouble with the courts but it's what's in our hearts that gets us in trouble with God. 

In the middle of this discussion on murder and attitudes, Jesus says if "Your brother has something against you...go and be reconciled to your brother." What stands out to me here is that it doesn't say if you have done something wrong, which is actually covered in verses 25-26, but if the other person is offended. This puts the responsibility on us when the person with the attitude problem is someone else. This just doesn't seem fair. It's their problem after all, right? Not according to Jesus.

If someone has something against us even when we are innocent, we have a responsibility. God doesn't want just us to be right with him but others also. We are our brother's keeper. The selfish motive is if you resolve the issue the chances of being murdered are reduced, even if it's just killing our reputation. 

I will mention here there are people in our lives that if we go to them it will make everything worse, then I believe God would not want us to go. This is where I agree with AA's step 9, "Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."  There are people who if we go to them will actually make them even angrier, so going to them would cause them to sin more, therefore we shouldn't do something which would cause them to sin.

Yes, it would be easy to say, that's their problem, but it's not that way in the kingdom of God. I think this is ironic and a little funny especially if you think about it this way: You want not to be murdered? then try and have a good relationship with those around you. Yes it seems obvious, but we don't always do it, which is ironic. 

If you love her, die.

She's the Queen.

 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. Ephesians 5:25-27

The verses before this are often argued over, misused, and misinterpreted. However, I don't want to focus on women's submission but the radical thing Paul is saying to husbands. Paul says husbands need to do one thing for their wives, die. Oh yes, lots of guys say they are willing to die for their wives to protect them but they won't die to themselves and help change the diapers or listen to her talk. Men often want to talk about being willing to die but are they really willing to die like Jesus? Remember all that Jesus gave up. He left heaven, he worked with some really hard-headed people and those were the disciples, and he took abuse that was not deserved without retaliating, I hope you get the picture. I have said this before in other posts, but if men are going to claim the wife submit they had better first be dying (sacrificing) to make the woman all she can be. This means helping her be the greatest mother, teacher, CEO, congresswoman, president, author, etc that she can be, not the greatest thing you want her to be. You, husbands, are the servant, not her. Servants don't hit their masters. They don't yell at them and they certainly don't expect to be served hand and foot after a hard day's work.

Oh, for those who think Paul hated women? Read your Bible without bias and you will find God through Paul had a real sense of humor. Paul first tells men that their wives are to submit to their own husbands (not someone else's) in the Lord (doing what is right). But then, tells the men, "Oh, by the way, you're really the servant here."  

I'm sure this really went over well in the Roman patriarchy. 

It's kind of funny when you think about it. She, the wife, is really the queen. You husbands aren't the king. 

After Weeping...

 Last week I talked about how unfair things are. However, as much as I hate, and I really do hate and fear the anxiety that comes with these unexpected and unwelcome panic attacks.

However, we live in a fallen world and as much as I yell unfair, I really don't want fair. I want part of someone else's good life and none of someone else's bad life. When I yell unfair what I really yell is I want more. Because if I really wanted fairness, I could give up a lot of the security and even what little (in American terms) money I have so I could make my life more equal with the rest of the world. But that's not what I want when I yell out "Unfair." I want someone else to give up.

I want someone else to give up money, security, or fame.

I want God to give me, what I want.

Now to be honest, I believe we can make the world a better place and we should strive to do so. The first step as a Christian is after we have had our moments of grief, fear, anger, and yes, panic. to go back to God and just continue to follow Him. 

There is coming a better world where we will understand and where things will be made right, but until then let's just follow.

OKAY, next week I'll try and get back to finding funny or ironic things in the Bible.