Friends

One day I felt neglected, sad, because a friend had acted bad,

You see this friend had turn to go when she had said her bit and though

I wanted to be heard myself, my words were put back on the shelf.

"Oh God, do people treat you so?" I wailed out as I watched her go,

"And do they ever turn away before they hear what you would say?"

"Oh yes my friend" was his reply and inwardly I knew twas I.

Again my heart and pride were sore at acts that I could not ignore.

While I had walked through the other's glee, no part of it was shared with me.

I was ignored while others shared and both their joy and sorrow bared.

So I again to God returned and asked if he was ever spurned

By those who's road he'd often share, while they act like he isn't there.

"I have," he spoke and pierced my mind. Again, I knew that I've been blind.

If he is God and loves me yet while I ignore, neglect, forget

And still I claim to know his grace and understand his secret place,

How can I hold disdain or rave against the ones he came to save.

He loves me yes, and yet I see that others he loves just as me.

With man or God when on this earth, I must not undermine their worth.

For now I see, when all things end, I do not want to be that friend.

DW 2018

The Gospel according to prosperity

Several people have commented, questioned or posted about the prosperity preachers in the past while. I've avoided even commenting on most. To my daughter's post I simply said that my belief about that would take more time than a facebook comment.

First let me reason about being openly critical of preachers. In the book of Jude, it says that Michael the archangel wouldn't even rail on Satan but said “The Lord rebuke you.” “But don't we have a responsibility to uphold and defend the truth?” you ask. Yes we do. Defend the truth. Don't condemn the preacher. If they are wrong, the Lord will rebuke them. If you can fix others, do it to your best ability, but in doing it, remember they serve God not you.

I do believe that many scriptures speak of physical blessing and prosperity for those who love and honor God. Some people need to spiritualize that. I don't. The same Paul that said he had learned to be content in every situation and that he knew how to be in want and how to abound, also said I earnestly desire that you would prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. He said that God was able to make us abound in all things for every good work.
In the list of heroes of faith are amazing stories of blessing and intervention by God. They are stories of blessed fidelity.  And yet the last 4 verses of Hebrews 11 are about people who were not what we consider prosperous. They were destitute, persecuted, killed and yet the writer insists the world was not worthy of them. 

Jesus pulled money out of a fish's mouth because Peter was self-conscious about taxes. He had the disciples save the leftovers when he fed 5000 and when he fed 4000. Let me say here that neither Paul nor Jesus was condoning the carnal western concept of prosperity. Build a bigger barn and fill it for retirement was not Jesus' plan.

When Paul said he desired that they would prosper, he wasn't talking about an expensive car and a big house in the best part of town or about the right to eat in the posh restaurants and wear the high dollar clothing. I'm not condemning people who do those things, I'm just saying that the mind set that considers those things prosperity as a right to the children of God is clueless. Enjoy what you have been given or acquired but realize these are not the stuff of eternity. In my mind, money is not a measure of prosperity. But in the western world most people equate the two.

What about the poor people in India and Africa who follow Christ and have no access to finery or money? If you make minimum wage in the US you are more wealthy than about 90% of the people in this world. If you live on minimum welfare, you're still monetarily wealthier than most of the people on earth. That does not make us prosperous.

Many people are persecuted because they believe in Christ; they barely subsist. There are children in Africa dying of aids. They live in a dark part of the world controlled by ancient evil, yet they are the people of Hebrews 11 as well. We have a true story movie about 2 kids who traveled over 100 miles dragging a homemade coffin with the body of their mother, who died of aids, inside. They passed many perils and yet were spared and reached their destination unharmed. There with relatives who barely had enough, they grew and were educated and learned about the grace of God. As minor as it may seem, they prospered! I know not all stories end that nice. We live in a fallen world.

What is prosperity about? Is it about a vacation home or a nicer vehicle or finery and gluttony? It is not. I am not judging people who have 'stuff.' I have friends who have 'stuff' and adopt families to provide various needs. I believe their prosperity is about the ability to help and bless much more than their well suited cabin and very nice vehicles. I don't think God is offended by their clothing or their cruises. I think he is blessed by their willingness to get their hands and their money in the mix. And he prospers them with earthly wealth as well.

God has blessed us greatly. He doesn't bless us because we do for others, he blesses us so that we can do for others. I cannot judge why God does or doesn't bless people with as much as he has blessed us. I know that he is merciful and incredibly loving to all he has made. 
How God's love shakes down, I do not know. True prosperity is 'good news.' I believe in a prosperity gospel. It is not so that you can buy more stuff -that's part of the earth side of us. As Paul said, “God is able to make us abound in all things that we may abound in all good works.” That's the prosperity gospel. God created us from the earth. Until our change, we will be earthlings with earth appetites and earth understanding. I know he knows that. But once the gospel enters, we are to be heaven minded.

And that's the opinion of the woman in the Woodall Cave of Wonders.

To Will and To Do

Three things came together a couple mornings ago to give me a new revelation of an old knowledge. When I was reading a devotional the verse that says “the Spirit works in us to will and do God's pleasure” stuck in my mind. The second was the verse “his mercies are new every morning”. The third was a more carnal item -a sweepstakes entry- with a spiritual interpretation and it was very effective.

Every morning I get 2 chances in my email to enter a sweepstakes to win an $800,000 Lake retreat. I used to always enter these (you cant win if you don't enter), but I got to the place where I just said to myself “what's the use? I don't ever win these and I am very blessed anyway.” But somehow the sweepstakes caught my mind and I signed up for daily reminders. Putting the entries in costs me nothing except a minute of my time. There are days when I get busy and I just don't do it, but there are days when I do it and it's done and I'll go on with my life. It hasn't meant much to me but I've felt I should, until that morning when the Spirit awakened these other two witnesses in my mind and spoke to my spirit.

Each day, each moment God's Spirit gives us the will and the ability to do his good pleasure. It's a good pleasure.

First he gives the will. This is a gift, he's always working to give us something we need, something we don't have: the will to do God's good pleasure. On my own, desire to do what is best can be iffy. If I think of it, I concede that I should always want God's good, but the world is such a distraction and many other things are offered to the human want basket. They get thrown in before I accept the gift from the Spirit.

Also he gives the ability to do God's good pleasure. There are many things that I want to do, want to be, want to give, learn, attempt and so forth but I don't always have the ability to do them. Yet here is the gift: the 'to do' God's good pleasure. It is good pleasure and I have the 'to do' through the Holy Spirit and yet sometimes I ignore that beautiful fact. That awesome chance goes by without my thought.

As I went through my e-mail that morning, I saw it had been 4 days since I'd looked, 4 days that I didn't enter the sweepstakes. I realized that on those days when I didn't do anything with it, it was gone. Yes for the life of the sweepstakes there will be another chance tomorrow but then that day if I don't see it or use it I don't get to go back the next day and use it. The sweepstakes isn't a big deal to me, but I would hope that the “to will and to do” is.

Each day has its good and evil; each day has things to avoid and to accomplish. The Holy Spirit is there to bring it to life. He wants to give me the will to do what I should and the power to accomplish what I must -two entries, if you will. It's an opportunity that I take or I don't that moment, that day.

God's offering does not end. His Spirit stays and does his job daily but if I don't accept that will and power, that thing I have to face is vulnerable to my flesh and to my enemy. And it gets easier to forget that the opportunity is fresh and new the next day. After a bunch of those build up, we start asking “Where are you God?” “Why have you left me so weak and open to the enemy?” For me he sends his witnesses, in this case two verses and a sweepstakes.

This is not a new concept, but it became enlightened within me that morning. “This is the day that the Lord has made.” “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

To Each His Own

I got pulled off teaching art into a philosophical discussion. At first the student began with the common combative faith questions. I gave him serious, sincere answers. He was responding very positively once he saw I wasn't giving stock answers but those I have accepted from a position of seeking.

After one question, I told the student "I sometimes say 'I do believe I'm always right. If I don't think I'm right, I change my mind and then I'm right.'" I told him I say it as a joke, but then, maybe not.

He responded "I get that. You think about things before forming your opinion and you're willing to change but only if you've thought it through." It surprised me. He really did understand what I was saying. I respected him more for his thought process than for his opinion of what I said.

I have a very strong ethic about teaching when I'm supposed to be teaching and what I'm supposed to be teaching. Most of the time, I'm paid to teach art. Integrity says I teach art. When his mother signed him up for my classes, she said she felt like I was an honest and stable Christian and since he is struggling some with his belief, if I wanted to get off subject with her son she wouldn't be offended. I looked at some of his questions on Friday after the fact, and some of my answers after the fact, and I'm not so sure she would have approved of all of them.

Yet I was honest even if not totally conventional in my answers. I know what I believe and I know why I believe it. I don't change easily. It's not because I'm against change, but change has to be for the right reasons. It's very easy to get on a bandwagon, to make snap decisions based on emotion, partial information or other people's opinions. It's easy to soften or even abandon our belief to placate or support someone we care about. It's just as easy to spout quotes and opinions of people instead of pursuing a belief we can get behind with our entire mind and heart.

We can search for truth, but because of our Humanity, our backgrounds, and our teaching, there are truths that we may never totally understand until we get to heaven and have an unclouded viewpoint. This young man is searching for his own truth. To a degree he's rejecting his parents' truth simply because it is his parents' truth and he sees some discrepancy in their lives. That discrepancy, of itself, has no bearing on whether their truth is true. The strange part that I see, is that there are parts of that truth that have been so ingrained in him that he is unwilling to give them up even if they create instability with his new “truth.”

I encouraged him to look for truth, to make it an honest pursuit, to not settle until he had uncovered a truth he could live from, a truth he was willing to die for. Personally, I don't think he's ready to do that. I don't think he has the stamina, the courage or the discipline to do that -yet. But at least I put into his head that he can and should find truth for himself.

I told him that my truth is based in my understanding and search for God and it is very personal to me but that I understand there are things I may never totally understand in this life but I have what I need to live and to die. He seemed to accept that -for me. But that's what faith and truth are really all about: my truth; my faith.

Some of the questions: How do you know you personally have THE truth? Do you belief in life on other planets? What do you believe about activism? Is one sin worse than another? What do you think about Black Lives Matter? There were more.

I recall one Sunday morning when I was praying for family and friends. A man in our church said. “This is your gift. Open your hands and receive the gift of God for you.” I told God I wasn't concerned with receiving the gift for myself. I want all the people I love to get that gift. God spoke very surely to my spirit. “It is your gift. You cannot share it, you cannot give it away.” I felt suddenly sad and tears welled up into an unspoken protest. But to my pain he replied. “You can tell others where you got it. I have enough for every person on earth.”