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| Topics What Is Christianity Explained Information? What Is Religion and Where Did It Originate? What Is the Bible, and How Relative Is It to My Life? What Are Messianic Prophecies? Who Was Jesus of Nazareth, Really? Why Are There So Many World Religions? Why Are There So Many Christian Denominations? What Is the Law and How Does It Apply to Me? What's All This About the End of the World and End-time Prophecies? Isn't the Book of Daniel a Closed Book? Revelation: How can anyone understand all that symbolism? Who or What Was Jesus' Mother, Mary? Didn't Darwin Disprove Creation? What's the Truth About Faith and Works? Christian E-mails: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Complete Directory of Articles/Studies
Title Abbreviations for Books of the Bible Genesis
- Ge | Abundant LifeHow many times have you heard televangelists tell you how God wants you to have an abundant life and the key to that is giving your money away . . . to them? Let's look at what Jesus said about abundant life. This verse has been abused mightly by those whose focus is on the worldly instead of the heavenly. God placed us here to have an abundant life, but abundant in what? Many televangelists would have you believe that you can "invest" money in God and he will return more money to you . . . and that is true to some extent. Those God-hearted people who give their means—whether it be money or time or the shirts off their backs—to help others seem always to have their needs provided for them, but God is not a stock market. The problem stems from preaching to the greed of humanity, and it is often done for personal gain. What may have started out as trying to gain funding for a valid ministry, usually ends up in fancy ______________________ fill in theblank (clothes, cars, homes, jewelry, hairdos, divorce settlements, etc.). While taking a portion of the funds for self is justified by those who do it using the above verse, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the disparity between the lifestyles of most televangelists and the homeless. How many of those who have more than their average neighbor are really follow Jesus's words? My guess is that no one wants to be perfect. They
just want to play at Christianity to feel better about
themselves.
The hearer of God's words must listen closely to understand that there's a catch to God's promises of abundance. We are instructed that we must give to receive. But who are we to give to? Matthew 19:21, above, says to the poor. If you study the history of the tithe, you'll find that at least a portion of that (God's storehouse) was to be used for the poor. And is it possible, when Jesus said that whatever you do for "the least of these" you have done for me (Matthew 25:40, 45) he was including giving your money to the poor? If we give begrudgingly, we will receive the same way. If we give generously, we will receive the same way. If we stop giving, we will stop receiving. And, most important, If we give just to get, we will be disappointed—eternally. If you study the context of the verses, you'll discover that this is a spiritual principle as well as a physical principal. I tell people all the time that "Use it or Lose it" applies to your talents, your finances, and your relationship with God. If you don't use them for the good of others, you will lose them. Luke 19 is the story of the servants who were given money by their master and asked to look after it while he was away. Those who used the money in a way that increased it for the master were given rewards. However, one servant was afraid that the master would be angry if he lost what he had been given, so he hid it away. He was surprised to learn that the master was angry that he hadn't at least attempted to use for the master's benefit what he'd been given. However, in Luke 12, the concept is obviously spiritual. After this warning, Jesus tells the parable of the man who had so much abundance in crops and goods that he ran out of storage room, so he made plans to build bigger barns to store it all. That way he could take it easy for the rest of his life. (Hmmm; sound familiar? Anyone else notice the proliferation of self-storage units in this country?) The quote, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." could have been inspired by this scripture (vs 19), in which the man died the very night he decided to keep all his increase for himself instead of sharing it with the needy. It seems fairly obvious that an abundance of things in this life on earth was not what Jesus referred to up there in John 10:10. He said he had come "that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly." We already have physical life! He was referring to abundance of understanding of and belief in His ability to give us eternal life. He was referring to resurrecting the relationship with God that was present at the creation of mankind, where mankind wore a robe of righteous light instead of Versace and Gucci. He was referring to reinstatement of our understanding of God so that we can learn to trust and love him and overcome the genes of mistrust and rebellion we inherited from Adam and Eve.. God has always been fair with mankind, though we, standing on the outside looking in, not knowing the hearts of the people he's dealing with or the ultimate outcome of God's actions, often cannot see that. The Bible is a history of the different ways God has attempted to reconnect with mankind short of forcing himself on us, something he will never do. Every excuse we dream up to justify our inability to follow God, is demonstrated somewhere in scripture. For instance, we say, "If we were not exposed to unbelievers, our faith would be greater." Yet God swept away the unbelievers before the Israelites, giving them their "promised land" free of Gentiles, only to have them go astray anyway--many times. Before that, he went so far as to destroy the world except for Noah's family, yet almost immediately sin rose up again. You probably are familiar with the concept that "2 heads are better than 1"? At Babel God had to confound the languages of the people to disperse them and slow their sinfulness. Their activity in attempting to build a "monster tower" proved that they 1. didn't trust God to keep his word to never again destroy the world by a flood, and 2. thought they could save themselves so they wouldn't need to obey God's laws or depend on his mercy to survive. He gave them the opportunity to develop on their own, probably in families instead of tribes, so they couldn't claim that some other people more sinful than themselves led them astray. Each "culture" had no one to blame for the development of their doctrines and theories but themselves. If you believe this happened, you can see why almost all world religions have similar elements in them: they all evolved from Noah. Modern Repetitions of Ancient SinsWe say, "God, if you would do this or that miracle for me, my faith would be greater." Yet many of those who saw Jesus' miracles accused him of performing them through the power of Satan. When God performs miracles in our lives—like letting us avoid accidents though we're not paying attention to our driving or are even engaging in road rage or make-up application—we don't appreciate them as miracles. When we're cured of disease, we readily give the glory to the doctors, who readily accept it, instead of all of us praising God for providing the education and skill to them. Like Lucifer, we don't see our powers, talents, and abilities to fix things as being gifts from God. When we save the world, or at least our little corner of it, we take all the credit. Yep, we did it. The fact that God gave us the brain to figure it out doesn't enter our thoughts as we bask in the appreciation—read: worship—of others. Worst of all, when we read the Bible, we ignore those teachings that interfere with what we want to accomplish in this life. We refuse to acknowledge that we will be judged not just by what we do but also by what we know and yet do not live by.
The abundant life has less to do with money and more to do with the Holy Spirit than the televangelists would have you believe. In their lessons, giving your money to them equates to you getting more money. In scripture, everything you receive, not just the power to generate wealth, is from God, and the more you receive, the more you should use to help others. Ever wonder why the televangelists charge so much for tapes that cost a dollar to reproduce and books that cost anywhere from 1-5 dollars apiece to publish—and could cost much less as just CDs you can read onscreen or print yourself? Jesus never had a pillow on which to lay his head; his disciples often worked a day job to survive. Do the televangelists strike you as the same? They'll tell you they make their living from preaching the Gospel because of 1 Corinthians 9:14.
The obvious question is, "Are they really preaching the Gospel?", but that's another study. What they are not doing, however, is acknowledging that the one who wrote 1 Corinthians 9:14 did not do it. Here's the full context so you can judge for yourself.
Paul didn't take advantage of his position to ask for anything for himself or his ministry. The collections he took up were for other, less affluent churches. I'd be willing to bet he took what was offered to him (he wasn't perfect), but he didn't preach that he needed money to keep his ministry on the road. He simply took his love for and service to Christ seriously and did what he felt was necessary for his own personal walk with Christ, come what may, feast or famine. In Scripture, giving your heart to God equates to God giving you everything you need to survive—and maybe even enjoy—life.
Unfortunately, many humans—especially Americans—don't like the idea of being dependent on anyone else. On the other hand, they're more than willing to blame everything that goes wrong on someone else! It's amazing how many people aren't willing to pray to God in the morning for a good day in his service, yet they use his name in profanity whenever anything goes wrong. The perfect example of both our propensity to curse and God's propensity to give us more than we could ever think he will is Job. This man, though unhappy and in great pain, refused his wife's urging to "curse" God for all the tragedy that befell them when God withdrew his protection. The Hebrew word used in this verse is Barak. Confusion in translation
The fact that
this word can be translated both
as bless and as curse is at the very least confusing to us "regular
Joes and Josephines". However, it can be explained. A common problem that arose with the onset of e-mail communication is that words don't often convey the real meaning of the writer. The usual accompanying tone of voice or facial expressions that help listeners pick up on humor or sarcasm are missing. We compensate for that with "emoticons" (punctuation that looks like little faces) to show when we're joking. For instance, I use ;^> a lot for an impish grin or I just type (grin). In novels, you read things like, she said sarcastically. However, in scripture, no adjectives are given to describe how people speak; therefore, I can only assume, as the translators of this story must have, that context determines whether the word is used literally or sarcastically and thus has the opposite meaning. It seemed pretty plain that Job's wife was putting down his faith in God and tempting him to blaspheme or curse God and not bless him. At any rate, instead of cursing or blaspheming God, Job remained steadfast in his faith that God loved him, and he was willing to suffer whatever God thought was necessary. As a reward for that faith, God gave Job an even better life than he had before his troubles began. (And yes, I have sometimes wondered whether God gave Job a new wife or if the blessings Job received converted her heart.) Knowing who God is and what he has in store for those who really appreciate him leads to the truly abundant life: a life of peace, joy, and love--a life of contentment. You don't buy your way into it; you love your way into it. In fact, trying to buy your way into it could result in your eternal loss. When a man tried to purchase the Holy Spirit, Peter made him aware of his mistake in no uncertain terms:
Are earthly and heavenly riches mutually exclusive?Can a Christian be rich in worldly things and rich toward God as well? According to scripture, it's extremely difficult.
But, again, studying all of what scripture has to say leads one to all the truth.
Does that mean it might
be possible to lay up treasure for yourself and be
rich toward God? Is it the riches themselves that preclude
righteousness?
Again, knowing scripture saves the day. It is not having money or things that condemns one. It is one's attitude toward what they have. "Some have strayed from the faith in their greediness . . ." If one uses riches or money for others, to the glory of God, then God's will is being done. If one's means are used purely for personal pleasure or personal glorification, that's another story. In these last days, the fulfillment of prophecy has never been more evident.
It never ceases to amaze me that people are willing to trade a few years of pleasure on Earth for an eternity of joy, peace, and love in Heaven and the Earth made new. Paul says we cannot even imagine what God has in store for us! (1 Corinthians 2:9) Many don't understand the concept of pleasure. God gave us the ability to experience pleasure, so in itself, pleasure is not sinful. What is sinful is the ways we find to experience pleasure and the addiction to pleasure that many people experience that draws them away from doing the work that needs to be done for God. Why are some ways to experience pleasure sinful? Because they abuse the body and the mind, making it impossible to discern evil, to confess sin and ask for forgiveness, and/or to remain physically or mentally able to explain to others why we believe in God and why they need to at least consider seriously his existence. Physical and mental strength are the abundant life. What good does it do to have all the money in the world if your mind cannot grasp that or if you are confined to a wheelchair or bed and your wealth cannot cure you? We are here to benefit the world, not just ourselves. If only because we all die and cannot take our wealth with us, we should make sure what God gives us is given back to his children generously! I don't often repeat scriptures on the same page, but to help me remember that true evangelists of God are identified by how well their teachings stack up against Scripture, I'll repeat the following: and add this reassurance:
Abundant life, in this world and the next, is the Gift of God to those who see Him first, those whose focus is on getting to know God and on doing his will. True followers of Christ, our example, who was a conduit for the Holy Spirit and God's love to others, will be given more blessings than they can receive. | Related Links The Truth About Mary Magdalene
Scriptures: Within Text: John
10:10
More Study: name chap:verse-s
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