When money is a curse

I'm currently reading a book entitled The Magic Lamp: Goal Setting for People Who Hate Setting Goals. On page 19 there is a quote in it that mirrors what I have said about what life has to offer:

You don't get what you want from life; you get what you are.

I've stated before that I don't want to win the lottery because life is more what you make of it than what it gives you.

Booker T. Washington said something similar :

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

But there's more. It's not only that it's better to get what you are out of life than have it handed to you. It's also that having handed it to you can lead to ruin. On almost the same day I read the passage from The Magic Lamp, I read Proverbs 10:16:

The wages of the righteous bring them life, but the income of the wicked brings them punishment.

Have you ever seen people who actually are worse off the more money they get - people who know they are getting a bonus so they get stuff they don't need on credit two months ahead of time? Their blessings become curses because their focus is on material things.

Don't let circumstances dictate who you will be; don't let the fruits of your labor be a punishment. Be the force in this world that changes you.

When Jesus rebukes

Ever notice how there are few times in the Bible Jesus rebukes people? Ever notice how almost everything out of His mouth is encouragement?

But He did rebuke. He rebuked Peter for wrong motives. He also rebuked the Canaanite woman who wanted her daughter healed from demon-possession. (This rebuke I personally believe was simply so she could show her faith).

But these rebukes were rare. Until it came to the pious leaders of the day. He often had a few choice words for these "blind guides". His anger was evident. Here were the "gatekeepers" to heaven: the ones who people looked to for spiritual leadership and the ones who made it unnecessarily hard to get close to God and, more importantly, were more concerned with themselves than with bringing people close to God.

Matthew 23:13-32 is one place where Jesus let them have it:

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. [Some manuscripts: Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Therefore you will be punished more severely.]

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

"Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!

They had all the power to lead, yet they chose to just look to the rules day by day until the rules became more important the the law and the reason for the law. To really know Jesus means to know that His rebuke was few and far between. To garner this much rebuke, and to be almost the only group that received this rebuke, showed how out of touch the religious leaders were from God.

Always remember: make sure the rules of man you follow are accomplishing the wishes of God. Don't fall into the trap of routine until the routine becomes your salvation. Jesus is the only way.

The sheep and the goats

I love this passage and the rendition by Keith Green. It's been in my playlist for as long as I can recall.

It's a powerful part of the Bible that pulls no punches. Jesus made it very clear here what is expected of us. It follows along with the principle of loving others as we love ourselves.

It seems most people want to either love others more than themselves or less than themselves, but the hardest of all is loving people as ourselves. As is says in the King James: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Here is the entirety from Matthew 25:31-46 in the NIV:

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Vision, faith, and hope

When I was young, I always struggled with Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Actually it was worse because the Bible I was using was King James (Hebrews 11:1 KJV)

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

I would roll that over in my mind and could never piece it together. Today, I finally get it, but I see even further. I believe faith is connected to two other traits: vision and hope. This is how I see it.

Vision is what keeps you motivated. It is the image of the spring when you are in the desert. It is the picture of justice when you are fighting injustice. It is the near tangible thought of victory when you are feeling defeated.

Faith is the belief that your vision will be a reality. It is eyes with which you see the vision, as 2 Corinthians 5:7 says:

We live by faith, not by sight.

It is the voice that tells you that the spring in the desert is real and the water is potable. It is the encouragement that says that you will win because your fight is just. It is the mental blinders that shields you from the negative only to see the victory straight ahead.

Hope is the gasoline that powers faith. You have to have hope that the spring with be real or you cannot have the faith to proceed. You have to have hope in justice in order to have the faith to fight for it. You have to have hope in victory in order to have the faith to achieve it.

Vision sees the goal, faith is enables the goal, hope pushes us toward the goal.

Friendship as shown by pearls before swine

I firmly believe in finding the good in everything. Here's a great bit from Pearls Before Swine that deals with a subject I've covered before: mourning with those who mourn.

What do you do when someone is hurting? Typically nothing, nothing more than being there. Keep your friends close, even when they are going through the fire.

Do you have a narrow view of things

In Matthew 18 Jesus talks about forgiveness to his disciples. Interestingly two parts of the passage almost seem contradictory. It starts in Matthew 18:15-17:

"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

But it almost seems contradictory as Jesus has just said to ostracize people and then in the same passage he says to forgive everyone continually (Matthew 18:21-22):

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."

Notice it's Peter again, not afraid to ask questions or even look foolish. I still find that an admirable trait.

The real question is, can you see the distinction? I can't tell you how many times in my adult life I see people take a jump from point a to point b realizing there is no logical connection.

Notice here that treating someone as a pagan doesn't mean you don't forgive them. Likewise treating someone as a pagan doesn't mean you don't love them. In fact, it's better for them to be treated as a pagan.

The Bible says you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You should always do this. But sometimes this means not being their friend, not helping them out, firing them, etc.

If someone is being abusive at work, they should be reprimanded and if they don't fix it, they should be fired. If I was abusive at work, that's how I would want to be treated. I wouldn't want to come back older and wiser thinking how many people I wronged during that time. I would want to know that the firing was the jolt in the arm that made me reevaluate what I was doing.

Make sure when you read the scriptures you are reading them thoroughly and not glossing over them. Sometimes the message maybe deeper than you think.