DO NOT READ FURTHER IF RELIGION OFFENDS YOU...
>>1. Give your entire heart to the one and only true God. The Living
God and king of the universe. His name is I AM THAT I AM.
2. Ask Him to cleanse your heart of greed and love of money or power
or pride.
3. Learn His Word for in it is wisdom and with wisdom all things are possible.
Remember Solomon ask for wisdom and with that he got everything..... along the
way he let his flesh start to rule.<<
sounds good so far...
>>4. Help others more than yourself. Be a giver to the poor, those in need , those in
prison, those in other countries that really would beg just to be the poorest of the
poor in the USA.<<
this is truly a godly endeaver...
>>Give 10 % of your income to a good church or synagouge and
another 10% to poor and missions.<<
steve, i'm assuming that you get the 10% figure from the old covenant tithe. i'm not sure where you get the two annual tithes. perhaps this is your own twist to the tithing concept.
due to my religious background, this throws up a red flag, even though it may not be a big deal to most. i know a church that went from old covenant (ritualistic, legalistic) to new covenant (grace, faith) in a fairly short period of time. the one concept they couldn't release completely was tithing. you see, they wanted the money (TO PAY THEMSELVES SALARIES SO HIGH THAT THEY WON'T TELL ANYBODY HOW MUCH THEY MAKE). for decades they told everyone to have faith in god and not worry about being poor b/c the church required (legalistic) 2 to 3 tithes.
now that the tables have turned their apparent hypocritical attitude has been exposed like the proverbial king with no clothes. you see, it was good for the lay people to be poor and have faith - but not the ministry.
my point? tithing is an old testament concept and is no more relevant to the new covanent than phylactories, seventh day sabbath (saturday) keeping and a host of other regulations that pointed to and were superceded by christ.
that being said, all christians have an obligation to support the needy and their ministry as they are blessed. this is between the person and god. it is emphatically not up to any third party (minister or anybody else) to tell another christian what to give.
if 10% is good then so be it. others may be 20%. still others may not have any to give due to their circumstances.
>>5. Commitment yourself to a life of prayer and seeking God's will everyday for your
life
6. Have faith that you can walk in the supernatural. God can do the impossible
through people who have Faith. Most people think that they
need to be a holy clergy or pastor to have this kind of faith. But, Jesus tells the story
of the Centurion in the bible Mat 8:1-10. This was the everyday person who didn't
even know alot about God.
But, Jesus said that He had never seen faith like the Centurion in anybody. Jesus
commended him for his great faith.
The everyday person like you and me is capable of greater faith than the priest or
pastor...this story proves this.<<
the only "supernatural" that counts is a god who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that we may be freely given spiritual salvation as a completely underserved gift from god.
incredible wealth, moving mountains, physical healings, etc add up to nothing in the BIG PICTURE. spiritual protection is infinitly more important than physical protection. just ask stephen who was cut in half for being christian.
btw, many get confused about god and healing. sure, god can heal miraculously. more often than not, though, he works through the physical world that he created. i know of parents who refused medical treatment for their daughter. why? they were told by the ministry that IF they had FAITH their daughter would be miraculously healed.
their daughter ended up blind for life from a disease that would have been wholly curable if they sought medical attention. of course the ministry blamed the parents for not having enough FAITH. spiritual abuse is rampant...
i'm aware of others who have died b/c they refused medical treatment for the same reason.
let me draw an anology. being ill and refusing responsible medical treatment (with lots of prayer and requests for guidance from god) to get well is like demanding a big income from god and refusing to work for it because you have so much FAITH.
how arrogant of a human being to dictate to god how and in what way god MUST heal them!!!!
i mention this because many are confused about it and the consequences are so great.
>>7. I want to enphasize 2 again.. Make sure that you can take prosterity. God cannot
bless you with anything that will draw you away from Him.<<
many wealthy people have no faith in god. many poor people have tremendous faith. the inference in your statement is that, if you have wealth then you can handle it.
wealth then can be construed as a "sign" of your faith and favor with god (after all, if i couldn't handle it god would not have given it to me). i want to clear this confusion up. many poor people who will never know what wealth is have faith extraordinaire. wealth, as a root of evil, has felled many a righteous man.
the rule is that the more ruthless you are the more wealthy you become. on average, there is a direct correlation. this is played out on a daily basis.
god is god and he does what he does and doesn't need our approval. he can allow satan to tear down job (yes, god did it through satan - if you use a gun to shoot me the bullet (satan) technically did it but you (god) are guilty of murder because you (god) pulled the trigger), a righteous god fearing faithful man. his family was killed. his wealth was taken. horrible diseases plagued him. his friends drove him nuts...
this was all part of god's plan for job AND HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH JOB DESERVING SUCH TORTURE. satan had to ask PERMISSION every time he wanted to afflict job. GOD GAVE SATAN HIS EXPLICIT APPROVAL BECAUSE IT WAS ALL PART OF GOD'S PLAN. there is no way around this...
all of job's friends "knew" why this was happening to job - job did something wrong and just wouldn't admit it. job, a man of great faith, didn't believe them and asked god to tell him why tragedy had befallen him..
god never told him and job's friends were reprimanded because job DID NOTHING TO DESERVE THIS TRAGEDY..
we humans want cause and effect. i'm wealthy because i have faith. if... then... if only life were so simple. my experience tells me it isn't.
the bottom line for christians? continue to accept god's grace, grow in grace and knowledge and work very hard toward righteous goals - all the while knowing you have been given victory in the real battle - the spiritual one. amonst all the pain we endure daily - this is the only goal that truly matters.
good luck... |
