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Life's Journey, Purpose and Meaning, Relationship, Spiritual

Discipleship – The Cost of Discipleship (Part3 of 3)

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Introduction

This post is partially extracted from the video link – https://youtu.be/lpiQdRd9DSc and blended with personal insights. The video is about Getting into Word to produce disciples of Christ, Part 1. This post, The Cost of Discipleship, is part 3 of 3. The other two parts defined and described what is spiritual maturity and what is spiritual apathy.

Spiritual maturity is the goal, but the poison of spiritual apathy runs deep. What is the antidote for the heart poisoned by deception, discouragement, and distraction? Without this antidote, the goal of being a disciple of the Lord Jesus is jeopardized. Unfortunately, the video does not offer solutions; these “solutions” are my thoughts.

The following antidotes to the 3 heart conditions foster spiritual maturity. It paves the way and is part of the cost of discipleship, which involves the carrying of their cross (Luke14:27), forsaking self (Mat16:24), forsaking earthly relationships for the Lord (Luke14:26), and submitting to God’s will (Mat10:24).

 

The Cost of Discipleship

 

Antidote for the Deceived Heart

The deceived heart does not subject Himself to God. It is closely related to the distracted heart. The deceived heart is poisoned by pride that rebels against God. This pride is their heart’s treasure. It is a form of self-idolatry. Mat10:24 says, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.” But the deceived heart desires to be above its master.

Solving the challenge of the deceived heart requires one to reduce, manage and eliminate their pride in themselves and towards life (1Jhn2:16).

Scripture offers the following guidance to reduce pride

  1. To love the unlovable and the undesirable, even one’s enemies. (Luke6:32-35)
  2. To esteem others better than oneself (Phil2:3)
  3. This love and esteem are not mere words or state of mind but to look after the interest of others ahead of oneself (Phil2:4) and to serve (Jhn12:26, Mat20:26-27).

In this way, the prideful, deceived heart is subjugated by the cleansing experience of meekness and sincere love towards God and man. The flesh will resist with all its might against this cleansing.

Be mindful that this spiritual war of Eph6 with the deceived heart takes place in the minds of man as explained in Rom12:2, 2Co10:3-5, and Phil4:7. It is a war with two dimensions – internal with one’s carnal flesh and external with the evil spirit. This post focuses on the internal battle.

See the posts about Spiritual Warfare against the external spirit –  https://sincerelawrence.com/2022/08/23/spiritual-warfare/

Watch and pray to draw divine strength that fortifies the willing spirit to guard against human weakness in the flesh. By watching and praying, the soul has the resources to win the battle in the mind. Watching and praying is Lord Jesus’, the Lord Yahusha’s advice to His sleeping disciples in the garden of Gethsemane before His arrest and subsequent crucifixion.

 

Antidote for the Discouraged Heart

The discouraged heart is poisoned by brokenness and grief (Mat5:3-4). Often life circumstances are the source of brokenness and grief. One’s allotted lot in life is designed by God’s purpose and will. The 4-part post-series about the Will of God helps one make sense of suffering and pain. See part 1, The Will of God – Nature of God’s Will, via this link – https://sincerelawrence.com/2022/09/15/gods-will-nature-part-1-of-4/

 

The antidote to the discouraged heart is God’s comfort, as mentioned in Mat5:4. What does it mean to be comforted by God?

 

God, Abba Yahuah, comfort the discouraged heart in the following ways.

  1. The comfort comes from the inestimable value of the resurrection hope of 1Pet1:3 that Paul said one might earn, by inference as a disciple by suffering and death, in Phil3:10-11 and to earn the eternal rewards of good works mentioned in 1Co3.

 

  1. The comfort is derived from the significance of being broken-hearted and mourning, which is the eternal value of emulating the Lord Jesus as the salt of the earth and the light of the world that pleases Father God (Mat5:3-16). This value is grounded in an intimate and empathetic relationship with God.

Earthly temporal suffering is also meaningful as payment for the significant eternal rewards. Therefore, it imbues senseless earthly suffering with eternal purpose. With eternal meaning, significance, and purpose, one can endure with patience for things outside control and preserve in areas within control.

There is a fierce struggle to let go of the familiar brokenness and grief. While they are poison, familiarity can be more comforting than submitting to an uncertain future-hope rooted in faith in the Faithfulness of God. The soul’s and body’s cries for swift earthly justice can be overwhelming for some.

In such cases, the heart is poisoned by both discouragement and deception. The deception is the pride of being a victim. Having lost so much, the heart hangs on to the dignity and identity of victimhood. The pride of victimhood, dignity, and identity poison the heart.

 

The antidote must draw from points raised for the deceived heart and, simultaneously, from the points raised for the discouraged heart. There is one significant factor that needs addressing. It is the issue of forgiveness.

The thorns and briars of unforgiveness growing from the fertile grounds of bitterness-hate are the strong men to the heart poisoned by deception and discouragement.

The topic of unforgiveness is a deep and broad topic that deserves its posts. Due to the need to limit the scope of this post and prayer, which I have not done, I will leave this elephant in the room as a reminder that to win the battle is not a simple wave of a wand.

 

Antidote for the Distracted Heart

The world’s distractions draw their power from the treasures in the heart that is not God. The Lord Jesus said in Mat6:21 –“ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” This describes the issue of struggling to serve two or more masters.

The distracted heart is poisoned by the reign of another master that is not God.

 

I would go on a limb to say that all humans suffer from the poison of the distracted heart. By the time one becomes aware of God, the call of spiritual maturity, and the dangers of spiritual apathy, the contamination of the world would have taken place to vary degrees.

This awareness and admission are critical to the journey of a pure heart towards God and man. See this link about the pure heart toward God – https://sincerelawrence.com/2022/08/31/sincere-love-and-sincere-faith/.

If this awareness is dim and admission a struggle, the heart is also poisoned by deception. But the guardians of this deception are not the simple matter of one’s sense of pride that plagues the deceived heart. These pride guardians are empowered by their masters (evil spirits) of the heart’s treasures and co-conspirators of the carnal flesh that loves the world (lust of the eye, lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life of 1Jhn2:16).

 

Dethrone the False kings

Therefore, it should be apparent to dethrone these false sovereigns of the heart is no easy matter. I would claim that this war against these faux sovereigns is waged till one draws their last breath.

To wage this war, one needs awareness of which category these pretender sovereigns fall into-

  1. The lust of the flesh.
  2. The lust of the eye.
  3. The pride of life.

 

After identifying their realms (categories- there are usually many of them existing in all the 3 categories), one needs to wage a spiritual war of attrition with them (the evil spirits). For thoughts about this, see the post about Spiritual Warfare. Perseverance in watching and praying is key to winning this spiritual war.

Then one needs to examine the areas these evil spirits continue to take advantage of to perpetuate their reign. The soul and flesh are tempted to sin in these areas. The obvious solution is to avoid these areas; flee youthful lust, as advised in 2Tim2:22. This fleeing may involve quitting one’s career, moving homes, and surrendering some free will to others with their interests at heart. These areas qualify for the act of perseverance, to make that crucial life-changing decision to remove themselves from the dangers of these temptations.

But where life circumstances compel one to remain tempted, e.g., in a marriage, in a family setting, immobilized, then, on-top of perseverance, one needs to be patient, looking away from these temptations and focusing on the points raised in the discouraged heart.

Because of proximity to the temptations, the person naturally will struggle with their sins. But do not give up hope. Repentance for most is a long process, and some are short. There is no meaning to comparing; let each season present itself as another opportunity to pass the test of discipleship. Celebrate the failures in the confession-forgiveness of 1Jhn1:9 and restoration of the full assurance of faith of Heb10:22 and confession-empowerment of Jam5:16.

See the link for the benefits and power of confession to God and man to support the challenges of being close to temptations – https://sincerelawrence.com/2022/09/12/benefits-of-confessing-to-god-and-confessing-to-man/.

Gradually, over time, these harmful desires will lose their stranglehold on the soul; by the willing spirit and cooperative soul, and going thru the cycles of forgiveness-restoration-confession, the new man’s divine immunity will mature, being led more consistently by the Holy Spirit of Yah.

Celebrate success in meekness and sober-mindedness. Whether in failure or success, offer both with thanksgiving and praise to the whole counsel of God; Abba Yahuah, His Son, Yahusha, and His Holy Spirit.

 

Enthrone the King of Kings

The cost of discipleship concerning the distractions of the heart requires the sincere believer to remove any treasure from the heart that is not God Himself, which is the personal relationship with Him.

In this way, the distractions that stem from the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of richness will not sway the heart. Practicing this solution requires one to honor God’s will with your wealth and submit to His will with a Submissive heart to melt the cares of the world and the lure of riches. It is not easy to overcome this struggle, the rich man of Mat19 failed to pay the cost of discipleship.

Honoring God with one’s wealth has been controversial, mainly due to the prosperity gospel, which I am not in favor of. In my observation and experience, the prosperity gospel magnifies the distractions of the heart.

The wealth stewardship I favor is based on a personal relationship vs. an impersonal institutional relationship, one that is based on mutual trust and respect for each other vs. an unequal relationship between patron and recipient. Wealth stewardship is a means to support the eternal goals of soul salvation vs. pursuing the earthly pursuit of social justice to alleviate suffering.

The topic is too broad for this post—a ten post-series, Christian and the Money Series, attempt to describe this topic. The first post of this 10-part series can be found at this link – https://sincerelawrence.com/2020/11/11/christians-and-money-reality/.

 

Conclusion

The perspective of the 3 heart conditions helps to identify the aliment, but in practice, the heart is plagued by all the 3 aliments of deception, discouragement, and distraction. It will be challenging to anybody as it presents the imagery of being besieged by surrounding enemies.

Wisdom from the leading of the Holy Spirit of Yah is indispensable to navigating the treacherous terrain poisoned by deception, discouragement, and distraction. At this point, it may seem that the battle, much less the war, is impossible to win. These thoughts are flawed. It is God that wins the battle, for it belongs to Him.

The person needs a willing spirit that sincerely seeks God in their troubles. Posts such as these are meaningless without this desire to seek God. Even it is God that supplies the specifics of the navigating. Having knowledge of the heart conditions that draw from His word and revelations that puts them into practice, it is hubris to call the proposals written here antidotes. God, Himself is the true antidote. Abba God Yahuah was the one that has paid the greatest cost of man’s right to discipleship by the crucifixion of His Son, Yahusha.

End Times, Wealth

Gold and Silver

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Gold and Silver have been money for a few thousands of years. But today, we do not appreciate them in the same way anymore.

Nonetheless, these precious metals have been referenced in the Bible as valuable items.

If one intends to own some gold and silver, what amount should one buy? While there is no perfect or universally correct answer, the profile of existing precious metals owners may offer some clues.

These 3 videos estimate the amount to be within the top 20%, 5%, 1%, and 0.1% (for Silver only) precious metals (PM-coins and bars) investors in the world.

This video is not financial advice. These key statistical estimates give some insights into the general profile of PM investors.

1. https://youtu.be/vthprFLyPNY

(World 20%, 5%, and 1% @ silver)

2. https://youtu.be/UXENdkmapAY

(the USA vs. the World, top 1% and 0.1% @ silver)

3. https://youtu.be/BUHpbIyHCLc

(World 20%, 5% and 1% @ gold)

Purpose and Meaning, Wealth

Christians and Money Series- Natural Applications 2 (Sacred Cows): Part 8

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Introduction

Post 7 of the Christians and Money Series framed Man’s economic realities and shared economic baselines. These natural realities and baselines frame money stewardship. Post 8 aims to slaughter two sacred cows used as excuses and reasons to sustain wealth stewardship’s current status quo, which is self-serving.

The Sacred Cows of Social Giving and Inheritance

The Mina parable exposes the 1st sacred cow of social giving as the least favorable of positive outcomes.

The second sacred cow is the holy cow of inheritance.

These 2 sacred cows have a long history and deep backing from society. The evidence of the lofty positions occupied by these 2 sacred cows shows Man’s failure to reciprocate to God’s appeals (see Post 4) to value RELATIONSHIPS (see Post 5 and 6).

 

The Parable of the Minas

Minas Parable (Uploaded from http://www.lambsongs.co.nz.)

The parable of the Minas in Luke 19:12-27 involves 10 servants, one Master who goes on a long journey, and the third servant was the unfaithful servant. The 4th to 10th servants were not involved in this parable.

Notably, Matthew’s parable of the Talents (Mat25:14-30) parallels the Minas with similarities and significant differences. The comparative study of these two parables yields many diverse and sometimes nonagreeing views. This post has interpreted the Talent’s parable as relevant to the Jews while the Minas applies to the Gentiles. This distinction is partially due to the traditional view that Matthew has a distinct Jewish slant(see link – https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/matthew.html) vs. Luke takes a more gentile flavor (see link- https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/luke.html).

The second reason is the nature of punishment present in Matthew is more aligned with the old covenant terms corresponding to the Jews. In contrast, punishment for the unfaithful servant is absent in Luke’s account of the Minas due to the new covenants “grace” nature.

 

 

 

Luke Minas’ parable offers relevant insights as follows.

 

  1. The parable has the context of a master going on a journey and returning.

The Master is Jesus (Scott, pp. 220,1990), who has on a journey (ascended) to a far country (heaven), gave instructions to do business till He returns and returning to hold His servants accountable in His 2nd coming (Mat25:19).

 

  1. The parable focus on the faithfulness of the first, two servants

All the servants were given one Mina each and instructed to do business.

 

The master rewards corresponded to the servants’ business profit. The Master rewarded the one who earned 10 minas with 10 cities and rewarded the servant who earned 5 minas with 5 cities. One Mina is equivalent to 3 months’ wages. (http://www.orthodoxyork.org/the-parable-of-the-talents.html)

 

  1. The parable focused on the unfaithfulness of the third servant and the Master’s bottom line.

The unfaithful servant had a negative image of the Master as exacting and harsh but spoke His mind, either foolishly or hypocritically, to make this negative image known to his Master. If this image was correct and this 3rd servant believed it, he would not have neglected his stewardship by placing his Mina in a handkerchief, a picture of neglect and uncaring attitude that did not value the Mina entrusted to him.

The Master forfeited the 3rd servants’ Mina by giving it to the 1st servant, but his punishment went no further. The Master also rebuked the 3rd servant that he could have at the very least placed the money in the bank (a 3rd party) to earn interest rather than keeping it “hidden” in a handkerchief (Luk19:23).

 

The above supports the following lessons on money stewardship.

  1. Jesus left instructions for His believers to do business during the period He has ascended to heaven. This business involves

 

a. Jesus gave each person a mina. In this parable, Mina is 3 months’ wages. For this post’s natural application, this Mina represents a person’s lot in life. This lot consists of a person’s life history gifts, handicaps, opportunities, and threats presented in life circumstances. It is more than just money or wealth.

 

b. Jesus has expectations that each person acts in faith to use the Mina to do business with the world. This faith is one that expects Jesus’ return that requires accountability on the individual’s part. This faith also requires one to engage actively with the world to multiply that one mina into many minas.

 

  1. The reward far exceeds the effort of doing business. 10 minas, which is equivalent to 30 months of wages, is far inferior in value than the reward of 10 cities.

God’s Bottom-Line
Photo by Hild Nordal on Stockvault

3. Jesus presented God’s bottom line with regards to stewardship

                                                                         

a. Doing nothing (in this case, hiding the Mina in a handkerchief) is not acceptable. The punishment is a rebuke and confiscation of the Mina earlier given. Jesus gave no further penalty. Note the servant was not mentioned together with the slaying of the city’s enemies (Luke19:27).

 

b. The next best thing to doing nothing, deemed neglecting ones’ stewardship duties, is giving the Mina to a 3rd party to do business on their behalf to earn interest on the Mina. This post interprets this 3rd party as the institutions mentioned earlier- charitable organizations, Churches are the most commonly recognized. These institutions are 3rd parties because the end-user (person in need) most likely remains a stranger to the individual who has given that Mina. The mina owner has not exercised direct love-based Faith in God (1st Commandment) using the Mina to connect relationally (2nd Commandment) with the end-user with sincere love.

 

This post coined the terms passive stewardship (passing the Mina to a 3rd party to do business with) vs. negligent stewardship (hiding the Mina in a handkerchief)

 

Social Giving

Passive stewardship is a type of social giving that is impersonal to the end-user and profit-seeking. The profit gained is the appearance of having done business but devoid (similar to the caution in 2Tim3:5) of the risk, uncertainties, and effort arising from the complexities of active relational love with God and Man. That is the self-benefit of placing one’s Mina with the charitable organization or with the organized Church (be it in the form of tithes or offering). Social giving is akin to subcontracting out the 2nd Commandment.

 

This norm of social giving has gained such momentum that it has become the gold standard to demonstrate love and faithfulness to God and Man. This outcome has effectively supplanted the pure form and substance of the 1st and 2nd Commandments. Love and faith have been socialized and industrialized.

 

This Christian and Money Series focuses on prioritizing direct giving with the elements of mutual relational faith and sincere love engagement with the person or persons receiving help. However, it does not mean an anti-social giving position is adopted. What it means, a larger proportion needs to be in direct giving as the primary focus, and a relatively smaller balance is in social giving as the secondary focus. The slaughtering of the sacred cow is by prioritizing this focus.

 

Post 9 will explore guidelines to formulate this proportion according to one’s boundaries and God’s will.

 

The Sacred Cow of Inheritance

Slaughtering the Sacred Cow of Inheritance

After 7 cycles of 7 years per cycle, where each cycle at the 7th year is a Sabbath year, the 50th year is very significant. This 50th year is called the year of Jubilee. Jubilee marks the land’s return to the original landowners and freedom for any Israelite sold as servants/slaves (Lev25:8-13). God’s resetting land ownership and servant/slave ownership. Although Israel has abandoned this practice since 600BC  (see link – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_(biblical)#:~:text=The%20biblical%20rules%20concerning%20Sabbatical,been%20observed%20for%20many%20centuries.&text=Thus%2C%20with%20the%20exile%20of,Jubilee%20has%20not%20been%20applicable.), God has the intention to disrupt the unimpeded accumulation of wealth in the hands of the powerful minority. Doesn’t this intention resonate with the natural application of post 7?

 

Since Man has a limited life span, earthly wealth accumulation is designated to maximize the inheritance quantum. The desire for inheritance is original with God and also encouraged (Pro13:22). However, this similarity breakdowns beyond this desire. God’s methods to realize this inheritance and what makes this inheritance valuable are at odds with Man’s.

The Christian, thru Jesus Christ, is God’s inheritance (Eph1:18). This inheritance is the relationship of being a son (Rom8:15) to God the Father. Unsurprisingly, this son-Father relationship repurposes the 1st Commandment, taking it from an impersonal level to familial status. For Jesus has fulfilled this Commandment’s demand on man’s behalf, reconciling man with God as Son and Father (2Co5:18).

 

God the father paid a tremendous personal cost for this reconciliation. This aspect is the first point to raise, which contrasts against man’s means to accumulate earthly inheritance. Man’s inheritance usually exacts the higher cost from others to build their estate. The second point is God values Man directly as His inheritance. Whereas, Man values their relationships using material possessions to express this value.

 

Considering Jubilee’s year and how God realizes and values His inheritance, the current inheritance goal to maximize quantum is NOT God’s will. This post asserts that inheritance maximization is the will of Mammon.

 

The New Wealth Redistribution Model

To fulfill the 2nd Commandment, loving oneself as one’s neighbor, setting aside an equal portion of as inheritance, and use setting aside a similar amount for the self would stand the scrutiny of equitableness. The above illustrates this redistribution of one’s wealth to align with the 2nd Commandment.

Post 9 will explore the difficulties arising from this simplistic division of one’s wealth.

 

Conclusion

 

The Stowaway Passengers of The Sacred Cows of Social Giving and Inheritance

Two stowaway cows detract Man from the wealth stewardship that God desires. These two cows have long gained residential rights and some level of authority over this stewardship. Taking stock of them is a crucial step to keep their jurisdiction at levels that make sense to the stewardship that God desires. Social giving and matters of inheritance are means for Man to realize the love RELATIONSHIPS and not for Man to serve them as Masters.

 

The clouds in the above visual are beyond Man’s control and experienced as an uncontrolled event.

The anchors are within Man’s sphere of control as they represent his life choices.

The following, based on the above visual, is in-partial control.

  1. The Shark of worry
  2. The Mermaid of the temptations of wealth.
  3. The Cows of social giving and inheritance.

 

This control is Man’s prerogative to exercise some measure of choice.

 

 

Purpose and Meaning, Wealth

Christians and Money Series- Spiritual Application: Part 6

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Introduction

Post 5 of the Christians and Money Series concluded RELATIONSHIPS issues are at the heart of Man’s helplessness to serve two Masters, God and Mammon.

This Post 6 frames the spiritual application of the Christians and Money Series. Due to each post’s word limit, there will be a Post 7 to articulate the natural application to support Man’s goal to serve God and not Mammon.

Post 6 is content-heavy. Further aggravating readability, the subject matter is complicated and abstract, which challenges clarity to see how the parts are gathering together as a whole. It is challenging to feel comfortable in a big forest with diverse flora and fauna.

 

The first section, Awareness and Creation out of Destruction, clarifies that the goals set out in Post 1 were met by seeding awareness to create the required focus and shift in values to support God’s Alternative that restores the RELATIONSHIPS. See Post 3 and 4 for details of these RELATIONSHIPS.

The second section, Individual Hope vs. Collective Hope, reveals money’s spiritual application, which is the individual’s goal of soul salvation. God uses money and RELATIONSHIPS as the context to test Man’s soul to save the soul. This section explains the nature of spirit, soul, and body salvation to avoid confusion among them. This section also describes how the new covenant’s soul salvation is different and more valuable than the old covenant in-terms of approach and outcomes.

The third section, Soul Salvation and Money, offers why soul salvation is essential to fulfilling God’s and Man’s core interest.

I found Post 6 very challenging to narrate compared to the other posts. It is foreseeable that Post 6 will evolve as a live document to reflect these challenges.

 

Awareness and Creation out of Destruction

Post 1 mentioned that this series has 2 goals. It will be helpful to see how the previous 5 posts have supported these 2 goals.

Awareness is the Seed of Realization and Intention

  1. The 1st goal mentioned in Post 1; These series create awareness of the deceptive relationship with money. Man can avoid the eternal consequences that the current norms bring.

In-summary Posts 1 to 5 have shown that, instead of focusing on the RELATIONSHIPS, Man has created surrogates, such as money, to substitute the RELATIONSHIPS God offered. Men find comfort through these surrogates to free themselves from the worry of the future and provide a sense of purpose and meaning on earth, albeit temporal, hedonic, and suffer marginal utility. Man’s choices carry the weight of eternal consequences.

Realizations Sift the Chaff of Man’s Realities from God’s Realities (Photo by TUAN ANH TRAN on Unsplash)

This new awareness seeds new realizations. This seeding is possible because awareness sifts the chaff of Man’s realities from God’s. For the chaff has deceived Man’s senses with an apparent value that’s temporal and pleasure-seeking, diminishing the eternal value of RELATIONSHIPS.

The clarity of this awareness helps Man to look away from future worries and focus on God’s promise to provide for their future needs.

This approach draws from the same truth of the parable of the sower in Mat13. These series are sowing seeds in the heart of readers.

Breaking to Create

  1. The 2nd goal mentioned in Post 1; This series supports the Christians’ walk to break out from the world economic system’s mold. It is making stronger connections between scripture, societal stance, and personal practical application.

In-summary Posts 1 to 5 have shown that surrogates dominate Man’s relationships through institutionalization, affecting the secular, religious, and personal domains. These institutionalized relationships being bureaucratic and social, are transactional and profit-seeking.

Breaking the existing mold supports the shift from what the heart used to value, which is the temporal pleasures of this world, but instead to appreciate the eternal rewards and divine glory. Often money is the means to attain these temporal values. Likewise, God uses money as the context for achieving His alternative to restore Man’s broken RELATIONSHIPS.

This idea of creation emerging from Destruction is original with God (John12:24).

 

Individual Hope vs. Collective Hope

However, Post 5 ended on a despairing note of the unavoidable Age of acute mortality of Mat24:7 and Luke21:10-11, naturally posing the question – Why may one ask, what is the purpose of this Christian and Money Series since the bitter end appears inevitable?

Individual Hope vs. Collective Hope

Notwithstanding the grim events of Mat24:7, this new focus and shift in values are the foundations to support SOUL salvation, which is the spiritual application of money. It is needful to recognize that soul salvation is an individual experience and not for collective humanity.

Humanity lacks the collective will to change its current trajectory of self-harm and destination of self-destruction. Therefore, humanity foreseeably continues to meander in its self created domain of darkness.

 

Born Again Spirit-Saved Soul-Resurrected Body

 

What is soul salvation? Post 3 briefly introduced the concept of Soul salvation. Firstly, God has offered Man three types of salvation that correspond to Man’s spirit, soul, and body. Collectively, they represent God’s plan for Man to attain divinity.

John3 explains spiritual salvation occurs when the spirit is born again begat by the Holy Spirit (John3:6). Spiritual salvation is a gift of God (Eph2:8-9), obtained by confessing that Jesus is the savior (forgiveness of sins) and believing in His resurrection, according to Rom10:9 and Heb10:12. Spiritual salvation guarantees a place in heaven. See the post “Once Saved Always Saved: Proof” for a deeper understanding of the scriptural basis to substantiate this claim of a heavenly membership guarantee.

Paul introduced salvation of the body in 1Co15. He calls this saved body a spiritual body. This body’s nature is eternal (undying), incorruptible, imbued in power, and glorious. This body is preserved in heaven by the power of God (1Pet1:5).

Peter calls this spiritual body the living hope of believers (1Pet1:3). The spiritual body’s promise is the source of hope for believers on earth, so they do not despair in their earthly suffering. Because God “owes” Man the body, He (God the Father) offered the Holy Spirit to each believer as a promissory note (IOU) (2Co1:22) as an assurance of the promised spiritual body. God gives the spiritual body in the 1st resurrection mentioned in Rev20:5, which marks Jesus’ conquest over death (Rev20:10) on behalf of Man.

In-summary, both spiritual salvation and body salvation are gifts from God. Man’s part is to believe God at His word. However, the matter is very different for soul salvation.

The Complete Salvation of Man- Pathway to Divinity

 

Peter, in 1Pet1:9, describes soul salvation. Soul salvation is highly variable, where each believer has a different degree of soul salvation. Jesus has perfect soul salvation (Heb2:10,5:8-9) among all the sons of God.

Faith is the raw ingredient to support Man’s soul salvation. God the Father, the impartial Judge (1Pet1:17), tests this faith to validate Genuity thru fiery trials of wrongful suffering doing good expressed in sincere brotherly love (2nd Commandment) mentioned in 1Pet1:7, 9 and 22, 1Pet2:19 and 1Pet3:17. Soul salvation is commonly known as the Holy Spirit’s sanctification (1Pet1:2) by faith works cited in James2 to respect Man’s free will by offering Man choices in life.

Confusion, debate, and controversy commonly emerge when one fails or refuses to distinguish between spiritual justification-salvation, a gift of the born again spirit, and soul justification-salvation, which requires Man’s effort as the primary component.

 

Why is human effort key to soul salvation? God values and honors free choice, even above the salvation of Man. The power to wield free will resides in Man’s soul. God the Father presented Jesus the option in the Garden of Gethsamane to die at the cross or abandon ship (Mat26:38-39), and this choice grieved His soul. Jesus’ SOUL was perfected in the weakness of submission when He obeyed His Father’s will to die at the cross (Heb2:10,5:8-9). Man who calls Jesus, Master (John15:20), are not exempted from the soul salvation test of suffering to perfect their soul.

Peter reminded Man of this truth when he presented Jesus as the model example for Man to emulate in this regard (1Pet4:1, 2:21). Because soul salvation requires suffering, Peter in 1Pet4:18 recognized the difficulty of soul salvation by saying, “If the righteous one is sacredly (with difficulty) saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”.

Apart from preserving Man’s free will and perfecting the soul, Soul salvation has the goal to produce eternal glory (2Co4:16-18, 1Pet4:14) and satisfy the charge of the hypocrisy against Man’s professed sincere faith and love for God that was laid by Satan against Job (and Man) in Job1:9-11.

This eternal glory is the final unit of measure of each person’s degree of soul salvation. To support this view, Paul, in 1Co15:41, recognized that glory is unique between individuals. Glory being the unit of measure, stems from the relationship between soul salvation and glory. Soul salvation produces glory, according to 2Co4:16-18. Therefore evidence of the degree of soul salvation can be inferred by the quantity of eternal glory the soul possesses.

 

The correlation of soul salvation and glory holds great significance for Man than this simple correlation. The new covenant soul’s salvation glory is different and more valuable than the glory that Adam and Eve received from God in Eden. Man forfeited their glory (Rom3:23) when Adam and Eve sinned by partaking the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen3). In the New Covenant, God cannot confiscate Man’s glory, like what happened in Eden due to sin. There are two reasons for this.

  1. This glory is different because God does not give this glory as Man’s soul produces it as part of Man’s soul salvation process. Therefore original ownership resides with Man.
  1. In the old testament, the power of sin is the reason for soul death (Eze18:20), and this does not apply in the new testament. This claim is an observation. As for why this is the case, probably, Jesus, God’s only Son as the sin sacrifice (John3:16), and the nature of His death (suffering on the cross willingly) were overpayment for Man’s sins. They over satisfied God’s Justice and justified Him to make this shift in this matter of Man’s soul. This glory of the soul salvation is more valuable than the Edenic glory because it required payment of Jesus’ blood and suffering.

This lengthy introduction is necessary to explain soul salvation as the basis for spiritual application with wealth-money as the context.

 

Soul Salvation and Money

Man’s Heart Follows His Treasure

God recognized the power of treasures to captivate Man’s heart. Mat6:21, Jesus framed this by saying, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be (reside).” God wants Man to realize and value RELATIONSHIPS as true treasures so that Man’s heart chooses to reside in a relationship with God. The 2 commandments of Love (Mat22:36-40) embody God’s Word, All the Law (His purpose), and the Prophets (His will).

RELATIONSHIPS have an actual value similar to money or wealth on earth. The two posts dedicated to exploring this value are as follows.

  1. The Currency of Heaven is Glory- https://sincerelawrence.com/2020/10/31/currency-of-heaven-10min-read/
  2. Wealth Ranking in Heaven- https://sincerelawrence.com/2020/11/04/wealth-ranking-in-heaven-10min-read/

Notwithstanding what these two posts have covered, It is needful to reiterate two aspects to support this post 6’s narrative.

God’s Justice (1st Commandment) and God’s Love (2nd Commandment) Hanging in Perfect Balance

 

  1. The first aspect is about satisfying God’s two most basic needs. The first need is God’s intrinsic nature of love, revealed in 1John4:16. So if God was posed a question and asked, “Who are you?” God will respond; I am love. The 2 Commandments of Love in Mat22:36-40 describes the scope of this love.

 

1st Commandment and 2nd Commandment-

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

And He said to him,” ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’

“This is the great and foremost Commandment.

“The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’

“On these two commandments depend (hang) the whole Law and the Prophets.”

 

God gave these two Commandments to Man, but He has also imposed these same 2 Commandments onto Himself as evidenced in the giving of His Son for Man’s salvation. God’s sense of Justice demands that both Man and God fulfill these two Commandments alike.

The second need of God is to perform His role as the impartial Judge mentioned in 1Pet1:17, which James says is also the only One that can save or destroy in Jam4:12.

With the above understanding, Mat22:36-40 needs rephrasing to account for God imposing these Commandments onto Himself.

 

1st Commandment rephrased, the “I,” “My” and “Myself” is God referring to Himself

– “I SHALL LOVE MYSELF WITH ALL MY HEART, AND WITH ALL MY SOUL, AND WITH ALL MY MIND.’

The 1st Commandment is a demanding love. In the original form, God is demanding Man’s, undivided love. In the rephrased form, God requires that He honors His Self-Love. Thus God as Judge is upholding both the 1st and 2nd Love Commandments’ sanctity.

In the old covenant, God imposed this demanding loving on Man’s soul that carried the death penalty due to sin (Eze18:20). Although the new covenant has absolved Man from eternal death due to sin, God’s Justice to uphold the 1st Commandment demands that Man’s soul does not receive the same “scott free” treatment as the born again spirit or resurrected body. But instead, the soul (including Jesus’ soul) needs to suffer wrongfully (1Pet2:19) and be tested by fiery trials (1Pet1:7). Money and wealth play a central role in providing the context for these wrongful suffering and fiery trials.

 

2nd Commandment rephrased ‘I SHALL LOVE MAN AS MYSELF.’

The 2nd Commandment is a giving, sacrificial love. In its original form, God is demanding Man love his fellow man as himself. In the rephrased form, it is God demanding Himself to love Man as Himself. This sacrificial love was given as a gift with no contribution needed or desired of man (Eph2:8-9). The blood and body of Christ paid for this love gift for God to fulfill His 2nd Commandment towards Man.

God accepted Christ’s blood as the payment for the forgiveness of sins (Eph1:7). The blood also provided the medium similar to the shedding of blood during natural childbirth for the Holy Spirit, like a mother, to give birth to Man’s born again spirit (John3:6). I am aware that this view is unorthodox, but the elements come together naturally validated by childbirth’s natural experience.

God accepted Christ’s earthly body as the medium to construct the resurrected divine body of God (Col2:9). God retained Jesus’ earthly body as a medium for the resurrected body of the risen Jesus still bears the piercing scars (John20:27).

The Saved Spirit-Soul-Body of Man Ruling with Christ

  1. The second aspect is about satisfying Man’s legitimate need to stand out for their uniqueness and showcase aspects valued by their kind (self-worth). The soul has the innate desire to be respected and appreciated. Humanly speaking, this desire to receive social accolades is the reason for social comparison that breeds jealousy and envy. Money is often the means to fulfill these desires. Man’s desire to realize this need is legitimate. The issue lies with the means.

This need for social recognition emerged in the prodigal Son’s parable when the elder vented his frustration over this matter in Luke15:29-30. God, Himself demonstrates this trait. This observation is not surprising, given that God made Man in His image (Gen1:27).

God used human terms to describe His desire to engage with Man relationally. He uses the relational words such as Father (Mat5:45), brother (Mat28:10), bridegroom, a friend (John15:15), and lover to express (the Book of Song of Solomon, Eze16:8) His uniqueness and desire to be valued in those roles. Therefore, for this reason, Man’s desire for uniqueness and worth is legitimate in the eyes of God.

Tragically, instead of receiving reciprocated respect and appreciation, Man spurns and despises God’s sincere, repeated pleas. The Book of Ezekiel Chapter 16 is one comprehensive example of Man’s unsightly response invoking God’s wrath.

 

Through soul salvation, God has created the means for Man to differentiate themselves uniquely from one another in terms that both God and Man values. Notably, the soul salvation that produces heavenly wealth on earth and the eternal rewards of 1Co3 are often earned in-tandem due to the soul salvation experiences.

The eternal glory indicates how much the transformed soul of that individual is similar to Christ, Christ-likeness. Christ is the supreme ruler of the 1000 years earth rule mentioned in Rev20:6. In this verse, believers raised in the 1st resurrection will co-reign with Christ during this period. It is my view that God confers greater authority to those who have significant eternal glory as this glory commensurates with their degree of Christ-likeness.

The parable of the Minas in Luke 19 provides the basis for this claim. This parable is known for describing the 2nd coming of Christ in Rev20. In this parable, God rewards faithfulness in MONEY matters by giving cities to the said person to rule. For the person with higher monetary returns, God will correspondingly give more cities. Post 7 will discuss the natural application drawing from this parable.

The spiritual application shows faithfulness in money produces eternal glory. This glory is rewarded by God with more significant amounts of authority to co-rule with Christ. Therefore God’s plans for Man are practical, for it satisfies Man’s desire for uniqueness and enhancing their worth in the eyes of their kind, and more importantly, with God.

 

Conclusion

Money is the context, the battleground, and the means for God to test Man’s soul for its professed sincere love for Him and others. God has offered Man eternal incentives of eternal glory and rewards to incentivize Man to focus on Him by not worrying about the future and not to succumb to the temporal pleasures of this world.

God has gone thru great trouble with high stakes in-order that both God and Man fulfill and experience the fullness of the balanced RELATIONSHIPS of the 1st and 2nd Commandment.

Post 7 natural application, although more concrete and practical, is similarly content-heavy.

Purpose and Meaning, Wealth

Christians and Money Series- The Alternative: Part 5

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Introduction

Visual Recap of Post 1 to Post 4 of the Christian and Wealth Series

This post is Part 5 of the Christians and Money Series. Suppose you have followed from post 1, congratulations on reading about 5500 words. It is a praiseworthy effort worthy of admiration.

The above visual illustrates “Where” and “How” of wealth and coping among Christians and non-Christians presented from post 1 to post 4. To frame the 4 posts into one sentence, Man has a RELATIONSHIP issue with God, within themselves and between men. Money is the battleground, the context where Man wages their wars. This war consumes most of their lifetime and energy with significant and, at times, irreparable collateral damage to the RELATIONSHIPS.

This post 5 examines both non-Christians and Christians’ current direction to address the wealth gap. This direction correlates with the internal and external factors that sustain the growing wealth gap. With this emerging understanding, the post will connect the direction’s shortfalls and these factors to the core issue of RELATIONSHIPS.

Finally, this post will account for the covid-19 pandemic as a relevant event and God’s RELATIONSHIPS models revealed in the new testament.

Mindful of the word limit, the personal applications that address the RELATIONSHIPS issue will be in post 6.

Humanity’s Challenge with Wealth

The Helplessness of Humankind

This post asserts that governments and religious groups’ primary strategies to combat wealth inequality are overwhelmed by the task’s enormity and the strategy’s innate flaws. This observation is not a statement of condemnation but to draw attention to the humanities’ helplessness. The statistics are grim and glaring in contrast. At the poverty end of the spectrum

  1. About 15,000 children (2016 data) below age 5 die daily from malnutrition.
  2. About 800 million hungry, and 2 billion suffer from micronutrient deficiency.
  3. About 785 million do not have basic clean water, with about 829,000 deaths annually due to health issues arising from this lack of clean water access.

One needs to bear in mind that these grim numbers have already benefited from China’s effort to lift most of her population from poverty. In comparison to the poverty-related data, globally, at the affluent end of the spectrum, about 600 million adults have diabetes. About 1.9 billion adults fall within the category of overweight and obese.

For the above data, see links- https://www.worldhunger.org/world-child-hunger-facts/#:~:text=In%20spite%20of%20the%20importance,%5BWHO%5D%2C%202016) and https://globalnutritionreport.org/reports/2020-global-nutrition-report/inequalities-global-burden-malnutrition/#section-2-2

Three aspects frame the effort by both governments and religious groups to fight poverty. There is the system, the process, and strategy. The system builds on the institutionalization approach. The process is fronted and executed by representatives of the impersonal bureaucratic institution where the decision-makers in these institutions and the aid recipients are strangers. These institutions can be governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, churches, charitable organizations, and the like.

For the sake of efficiency and expediency, broad-brush policies dominate this landscape. They also share the associated coping strategies by kicking the can down the road and avoiding the problem head-on by varying degrees of compromises, denial, and indifference.

This post objective is not to cast a negative light on these institutions’ excellent and necessary work. They remain necessary. However, the statistics are symptomatic of more serious underlying issues than just a failed redistribution of resources from the wealthy to the poor.

This post posits that humanity needs an alternative system, process, and strategy that operates alongside these existing ones.

Internal and External Factor Sustaining this Growing Wealth Gap

The In-adequacy of the Existing System

Before delving into this alternative, it is needful to appreciate the underlying internal and external factors that perpetuate this wealth inequality.

Post 4 revealed this internal factor. This internal factor is the privilege of the wealthy that their wealth status is a sign of divine blessings, while the poor and their poverty status are a sign of divine chastisement-curse. From henceforth, this internal factor is called Bias. This Bias is an intrinsic value adopted by the wealthy and poor to legitimize the coping mechanisms of hypocrisy-condescension of the wealthy and self-victimization of the poor and reconcile their conscience.

Post 4 also mentioned this Bias emerges as a social behavior rather than verbalized. This social behavior creates gates to separate-insulate Man from the ugly and inconvenient realities. The social behavior of cliques and crowds make invisible gates formed along social-economic status lines, often in symphony with racial, cultural, and religious notes. These invisible gates blind the wealthy and poor from seeing beyond their immediate biased realities and the spectacle of their coping mechanisms.

Steinberg (2017) sheds light on cliques and crowds’ nature. Cliques are small groups between 2 to 12 bonded by a common interest, shared activities, and personal relationships. Jesus and His inner circle of the 12 apostles barely qualify as a clique by this definition. Clique dynamics drive the wealthy and poor to intragroup behavior and pull away from one another. It is noteworthy that the inclination to join a clique is more persistent over time than the tendency to join crowds.

Crowds are large groups that comprise groups of cliques that aggregate because of shared identity such as race, religion, culture, and social-economic status. The relationship is impersonal, and the crowd identity bonds people together.

The combined effect of cliques and crowds social behavior perpetuate, promote and sustain the Bias. Thus, the Bias may not be verbalized as often but lived out in the social behavior of clique relationships and crowd identity.

This Bias is a RELATIONSHIP problem with God-Man and Man-Man. There is a misalignment between God and Man. While Man’s conscience is under the spell of a self-inflicted enchantment (see post 4 for the 1st and 2nd Commandment discussion)

The external factor is the diminished human solidarity underpinned by the shared destiny that values interdependency fostering trust, compassion, and empathy. Man’s short life expectancy in the late 30s until the late 1800s sustained this shared sense of mortal destiny and healthy interdependency.

Instead, the current life expectancy of the 70s to 80s in 125 countries out of 185 created the rise of social solidarity underpinned by the individual’s desire for independence that is profit-seeking fostering mistrust and indifference. See link for the research that shows trust between man in decline – https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ctx.2005.4.1.40

See link for life expectancy by country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy#:~:text=Worldwide%2C%20the%20average%20life%20expectancy,according%20to%20The%20World%20Factbook

Social solidarity has eclipsed human solidarity, as seen in the following. A simple internet search would reveal these observations to be true.

  1. Deepening and multiplying forms of discrimination,
  2. The incursion of the rights of the few over the majority’s rights,
  3. The observed overall trend of rising divorce rate, rising crime rate, especially in the severe categories, and increasing domestic violence are evidence of the breakdown of human solidarity.
  4. Celebration, and even worship an individual’s obscene wealth.

Social solidarity and social comparison are bedfellows that have created a shift of Man’s wants to become Man’s needs. Recall in post 2; the social comparison is an engine of hedonic adaptation? Man’s needs traditionally are food, water, shelter, and air. However, now Man’s needs include personal liberties, internet connectivity, right to inheritance, and healthcare. Some wants that are morphing into needs may consist of online social approval, getting the latest gadgets, or fashion. These new needs are alien to God’s intention to free Man from the slavery of Mammon. Any goal to weaning Man from these newfound needs is a pipedream.

It is noteworthy that this Christian and Money series was never under the illusion of offering solutions to humanity’s problems. The conclusion section will cover this aspect in more detail.

Social solidarity is a problem between men related to the 2nd Commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. It is a form of institutionalization of the human relationship creating a social caste system. It has a relationship, but this relationship is impersonal, indifferent, and profit-seeking.

God’s alternative seeks to address the above factors embedded within the institutionalized relationship system and restore broken relationships.

The recent global event has turned the world upside down or instead locked down the world. The current covid-19 pandemic has attacked the heart of social solidarity. The mantra of social distancing has thrown a wrench into the gear works of the unstoppable social solidarity. No one country could derail globalization at this scale and pace until this virus did the impossible. Border closures and airlines facing their extinction events are daily realities.

Due to the harsh economic fallout, humanity is suffering the double jeopardy of worry about their future and withdrawal symptoms of diminishing social solidarity. The lockdowns have hollowed out the once much desired social comparison experience and cast a giant shadow of mortality over the sparkling lure of wealth. Where are these observations and narrative headed? The conclusion section will elaborate on this.

God’s Alternative Offer

God’s alternative can only attend to the broken state of the 2nd Commandment. The 1st Commandment is more cut and dry. Man has to decide to value what God values or to pursue value framed by worry and lure of wealth. The 4th post listed the 7 appeals of God to Man to value what’s essential from His perspective. Failure to do so brings self-harm and face the risk of eternal consequences of not winning the faceoff against God.

God’s Alternative Blending with Man’s System

God’s alternative offer seeks to reinstate the near-extinct human solidarity. Jesus offers three relationships that restore human solidarity, the Neighbour, Jesus’ Model, an Inn Keeper (Luke10:25-37). God recognizes that Man needs to draw boundaries between themselves to create a functioning society. God Himself defines His roles in both the new and old testament to creating these boundaries Himself. These boundaries give the form that stabilizes the relationships with each other.

Thus God is supplementing the impermeable barrier of social solidarity with a semi-permeable barrier of human solidarity. The use of the metaphor of form and substance is useful to support clarity. The social solidarity barrier is the form component of the relationship. This form provides the structural stability of boundaries. In comparison, human solidarity is the substance component of the relationship. The substance comprises of sincere dealings between parties. A relationship with all form is sterile and profit-seeking. A relationship with all substance is overwhelmed with emotions and starved of reason. Both are required for the relationship to flourish.

The organized institutions can and should continue to operate predominantly form-based while individuals engage primarily substance-based. Notably, whether it is the organized institutions or individuals, the goal is to get the appropriate proportion of form-substance commensurate with the context.

Incidentally, collectively the 3 relationships, the Neighbour, Jesus’ Model, and Inn Keeper, are described as the Wayside Ministry. It is a wayside because the relationship occurs within the chance meeting or encounters, by a lot of life, in the ordinary course of daily living along the wayside.

The Neighbour

  1. The Neighbour

Luke10:36-37 provides the guideline to be a neighbor. The essential requirements are:

    • The neighbor can find the person in need of help within his life circumstances.
    • The neighbor offers help despite His rejected social status and to love another without expectation of reciprocation. His help offer is sincere (1Pet1:22).
    • The neighbor is in a position (resources) to offer actionable mercy and kindness.
    • The neighbor develops a committed patron-client relationship.

Zacchaeus climbed up into a sycamore tree.

  1. Jesus as the Model

Jesus went about doing what His Father presented to Him (John5:19). Jesus developed the relationships on the go, in His daily dealings. The relationships usually honored the downcast and people rejected by society.

They were brief but meaningful relationships such as the Samaritan woman who had 6 male relationships at the well (John4), Zeccahues the Tax collector (Luke 19), His relationship with Nicodemus the Pharisee (John3), and the woman caught in adultery (John8).

The type of help rendered by Jesus’ model is occasional and circumstantial. There is no long term commitment. The support is sincere, and there is an open and respectful relationship between the patron and the client.

The sign of Longfellow’s Wayside Inn at autumn, Sudbury Massachusetts- Jay Yuan /Shutterstock.com

  1. The Inn Keeper

The Bible is scarce on details about the Inn Keeper. Luke10:25-37 offers the following.

    • The Inn Keeper has presumably located his Inn along the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. The Inn is situated deliberately to attract patronage.
    • The Inn Keeper has a formal relationship with the Samaritan and injured Jew. The Samaritan is the patron who pays for the Jew’s stay in the Inn. The Jew has to abide by the terms of stay in the Inn where Inn Keeper cares for him. This formal relationship endures as long as the other two parties stand by their commitment.
    • The Inn Keeper and the Inn have public visibility. A certain level of appearance upkeep is necessary to remain in business.

In practice, the Samaritan, Jesus’ model, and Inn Keeper roles do not exist in their pure forms. Post 10 dealing with the application will explore how these 3 roles are blended.

Table Comparing the Status Quo Against God’s Alternative

Table Comparing the Status Quo Against God’s Alternative

The above provides the comparison between God’s alternative that goes in tandem with Man’s status quo. God’s option restores the human solidarity aspect of Man’s relationship with each other; God is restoring Man’s humanity.

Conclusion

The failing RELATIONSHIPS is at the core of the wealth inequality issue. It may be within reason to claim that this is also at the heart of Man’s general challenges.

Christian faces double jeopardy when dealing with money compared to non-Christians.

Firstly Christians and non-Christians contend with the worry of the future, and the lure of wealth, which arouses Man’s lust and pride.

Christians also have to contend with their sense of entitlement that comes with salvation by grace, apart from works, that encourages them to behave morally worse than non-Christians. See post 3 for the scriptural evidence. A carnal Christian odd as it sounds, is the central struggle of Christianity today.

These challenges are insurmountable in and of themselves, whether for Christians or non-Christians. Christians live a life trusting Jesus’ salvation work to reconcile continually in their backslidings until death. The exact dynamics of this reconciliation process is complicated and exceeds the scope of this post.

In summary, the realizations emerging as the result of these 5 posts cannot abate the forces that sustain and expand this wealth gap. In-fact God has recognized this outcome and presented the bitter solution in Mat24:7 and Luke21:10-11. Jesus said these events need to occur before the appearance of His return to start the 1000 year rule.

Bitter Solution: Mat24:7 and Luke21:10-11

Mat24:7

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences,[fn] and earthquakes in various places.

Luke21:10-11

Then He said to them, the nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

“And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.

This solution is bitter to Man because it ushers in the age of acute mortality by war, hunger, plagues, and natural disasters. God has recognized that the gentle nudges by the Holy Spirit, since the death of Jesus can only go so far in its efficacy. Tragically only the ominous sentence of imminent death will shock Man out of His collective self-delusion of deification and Masters over their destiny.

Why may one ask the purpose of this Christian and Money Series since the bitter end appears inevitable? The next post will reveal the answer.

References

  1. Steinberg, L. D. (2017). Adolescence (11th). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Purpose and Meaning, Wealth

Christians and Money Series-Serving Two Masters: Part 2

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Introduction

 

 

Christianity – What Went Wrong?

 

 

  1. Once Saved Always Saved- This post offers evidence of secure salvation that does not take the conventional route to examine the book of Hebrews. Instead, it will adopt three independent approaches. Check it out!

https://sincerelawrence.com/2020/10/27/once-saved-always-saved-10min-read/

  1. Faith and Work in Harmony –Read this post to support the Once Saved Always Saved post as it is complimentary. Check it out!

https://sincerelawrence.com/2020/10/27/faith-and-work-in-harmony-4min-read/

Before I accepted Jesus as savior, I held prejudices against Christians. Without hard evidence, the sensing informed that Christians were sanctimonious and hypocrites. My father-in-law and mother-in-law are atheists. The Christian English speaking peers discriminated against them in the work environment for their speaking mandarin background and inferior command of the English language. The government policy perpetuated this discriminatory work environment in the 1970s and 1980s that promoted English and suppressed mandarin use.

Till today, these experiences stumble them from seeing the love offered by Jesus. Unsurprisingly they share the same prejudice once held. I still have this prejudice. The reasons for them will naturally reveal themselves in this series of posts.

When it occurred to me that I am as guilty of this same indictment, this is one reason that motivated me to start blogging and adopt changes to reflect the truths that God has revealed that illuminate my soul.

I was heavily exposed to the “hyper-grace and prosperity gospel” of Joseph Prince Ministries from 1996 to 2012. Therefore I am no stranger to the influences of wealth and material blessings legitimized through such preaching. I am opposed to such teachings as they test God’s will with a carnal mind. Please refer t the link below, which is a related post about testing God.

https://sincerelawrence.com/2020/11/07/test-mock-god/

The above raises the query, Is there truth to the indictment of sanctimoniousness and hypocrisy by non-believers concerning Christians? This reflection aims to examine Christians and money as the context to support to answer this query.

In total, 12 parables (see Appendix A) regarded money with key roles illustrating money as a source of value and motivation. The value of money becomes glaring when it is insufficient to meet the basic needs and endangers life.

Money is a proxy of power and influence. It is of such paramount importance that Jesus recognized that man struggles to denounce their worship of money, which is necessary before one can genuinely serve God (Mat6:24).

The Hedonic Treadmill

Money fuels hedonic adaptation. This adaptation compels man to pursue after things or relationships to bring about happiness. Tragically this state of happiness is fleeting, not sustainable, and requires more significant pursuits to create the same pleasure.

One main engine of this hedonic adaptation is social comparison. Social comparison breeds envy and covetousness. These toxic emotions drive the pursuit of money that one imagines can give them what others have, bringing happiness. Hedonic adaptation and social comparison are both parts of the human condition of the flesh.

For more about the hedonic adaptation, watch the following video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXCol9vaPkY

 

Christians and Money

The link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_and_religion and https://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/14/the-religion-of-millionaires-.html show that based on the report by New World revealed the wealth distribution among different religious groups. Based on the data from this link, the ranking of the winners emerge as follow. Christianity is clearly in the lead in both categories, highest in global wealth as a percentage and the highest number of millionaires.

Winners of the Hedonic Race

Table: Global Wealth Ranking of Various Religious Groups

Table: Global Wealth Ranking of Various Religious Groups

 

Money and the World

The Wealth Pyramid Extracted from “Global Wealth Report 2013” by Credit-Suisse.com

The above diagram from the link https://web.archive.org/web/20150214155424/https://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/?fileID=BCDB1364-A105-0560-1332EC9100FF5C83 illustrates the severity of the rich-poor chasm.

The wealth pyramid shows that 8.4% of the world’s wealthiest segment of the population possesses 83.3% of the world’s wealth.

In contrast, 68.7% of the world’s poorest segment of the population possesses 3% of the world’s wealth.

The “middle class” that makes up 22.9% of the world’s population possesses 13.7% of its wealth.

Visual Disparity of Wealth Relative Ranking (To Scale)

For comparison, it is useful to adopt the relative ranking approach with the world’s poorest population as the smallest denominator. The denominator is defined as “% wealth/%population,” which gives the unit of wealth across the population’s particular segment. The following emerges.

No World’s Population

Categorized by Wealth

 % wealth/%population.” Relative Ranking
1 Poorest (68.7%) 0.0437 1
2 Middle (22.9%) 0.598 13.7
3 Richest (8.4%) 9.917 226.9

The above shows that the world’s most prosperous group is 226.9 times wealthier than the world’s poorest as a group.

The total wealth reported by Credit-Suisse is 240.8trillion exceeds the New World Report amount of 195trillion. This reporting difference is attributable to the ways wealth data were categorized, gathered, and accounted for.

The reasons for this reality are complex, and the webs of factors are involved. While no one individual, even the richest, can unravel this Gordian knot, the evidence shows that Christians as a whole have the largest stake that sustains the status quo of glaring wealth disparity.

The graph below shows about 20% of the world’s population lives in abject poverty; less than USD 1.90 a day. These are more than just figures. People’s lives revolve around these realities.

(By Max Roser – https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83581991)

 

Who is the Master?

The data does not reveal how much wealth in the top 8.4% belongs to Christians.

If one adopts the same proportion (55%) given by New World and applies this to the top 8.4% wealth in Credit-Suisse’s report, the millionaire Christians hold about 110 trillion. Using the 2013 global population of 7.162 billion (https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-countries.php), the average net worth for each Christian in that 8.4% segment is approximately $330,000.00.

Christian Wealth among the Top 8.4% of the World’s Wealthiest

Conclusion

This evidence embellishes the indictment that Christians appear to be serving two masters. In Ezekiel’s language, the prophet, this is akin to playing the harlot with the world’s economic system. Jesus says that this man will end up with a love-hate relationship with the two masters (Mat6:24).

The Human Condition Torn Between Two Masters

In reality, the love-hate relationship is not loyal to either Master. The soul swings like a pendulum. The soul is in this constant tension and conflict-torn between two spiritual Masters and conflicting inner desires.

This reflection ends on this sobering note. The following post will explore what the bible reveals about the harlotry of such nature.

Purpose and Meaning, Wealth

Christians and Money Series- God’s Appeal to the World: Part 4

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Introduction

This post is part 4 of the Christian and Money Series. Cultural, racial, religious, and social factors create a bias that stereotype people to explain their wealth or poverty statuses.

 

Editorial credit: StockPhotosArt / Shutterstock.com

 

In Jesus’ times (Scott, 1990), two such biases stem from cultural, social, and religious factors. Poverty was viewed as “divine chastisement“ due to sin, while the “ambiguity of wealth” was a sign of divine blessings. When Jesus shared the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16, it offended the rich of His day. The conclusion of the parable ran counter to the two biases. The poor beggar, Lazarus, had a reversal of eternal fortunes after his death while the rich man suffered in Hades.

These biases have held captive Man’s heart till today. I have heard accusations on specific groups of people that they deserved their poverty because of their cultural, racial, religious, and social disposition. They are poor for these reasons and deserve their lot.

Most people do not publically promote these private thoughts that dwell in their hearts. However, telltale signs betray these secrets found in Man’s social behavior. Post 5 will elaborate on the details of this social behavior. Suffice to mention, and for now, they are underpinned by hypocrisy’s coping mechanism in condescension forms, making light of the suffering poor. Conversely, the poor reciprocates by the coping mechanism of self-victimization mentality.

This 4th post in the series has two objectives. The first objective is to build the narrative to clarify man’s position and beliefs, using wealth as the context. This narrative is expansionary and inclusive of non- Christian’s beliefs and values. The second objective is to glean the new testament scriptures identifying God’s appeal to man concerning wealth.

 

Man and Money

Man has a conscience that is part of the soul. This conscience is man’s innate sense of right and wrong without formal instruction. Man’s conscience spans across the world’s belief systems. See link – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscience

Environmental factors such as cultural, social, and religious factors contribute to determining its unique expression forms, but the underlying elements are common. For example, man values loyalty, community spirit, self-sacrifice. Likewise, Man condemns betrayal, discord, and self-seeking behaviors.

 

Wealth Gap

 

See the following link for the above illustration – https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/#:~:text=The%20wealth%20gap%20between%20upper,has%20grown%20wider%20this%20century.&text=From%201983%20to%202016%2C%20the,from%2032%25%20to%2017%25.

Why then does man’s treatment of wealth or money seem to violate the conscience’s rules to accept such objectionable outcomes? One may ask, where is the evidence of this claim in this question? Part 2 of the post shared proof of the glaring wealth gap between the rich and poor. This wealth gap is only growing wider. The above illustration takes the USA data are emblematic of the rest of the world. In Jan 2020, the Guardian reports that 70% of the world’s population experiences this growing wealth gap. See link – https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/22/wealth-gap-widening-for-more-than-70-per-cent-of-global-population-researchers-find

This post posits that other factors have overridden Man’s conscience in the area of wealth. These factors are

  1. Worry about the future, and the need to control that worry through wealth accumulation.
  2. The lure of wealth is innately addictive. Remember the hedonic race in part 2? Wealth brings pleasures, such as enhanced social status, power, influence, physical enjoyments, and control over others.

 

Both the Poor and Rich are Terrified of the Future and Addicted to Wealth Alike

 

The irony is that both the rich and the poor have embraced these factors as shared aspirations. For this reason, the world does not descend into a brutal war between the poor and the rich, culminating into one global French revolution, or witnessing a global embrace of Marxism.

Both Christians and non-Christians, barring a minority in both groups, are mostly helpless to avoid violating their conscience to address this reality. The following posts will explore the application aspects of this minority group. For the majority, unless there is a shift of the motivating factors away from focusing on earthy goals to cope with fears of the uncertain future and to wean off the wealth addiction, money reigns as Master over Man in the constant battle against God’s supremacy.

The following section of this post shares the Christian God’s offer of these alternative motivating factors.

 

God’s Alternative Offer to Wealth

God has two main goals in mind when He offers solutions to Man’s slavery to money. God seeks to fulfill His two commandments: the source of His purpose and will (the Law and the Prophets, Mat22:40). Both commandments are concerning RELATIONSHIPS. This relationship focus is a clear indication that God values relationships above all else in His economy.

 

The Love Commandments

 

The first commandment is the relationship between God and Man. In comparison, the second commandment is a relationship between man and man (Mat22:37-40). The commandments bear the following intentions.

  1. God is appealing and demanding from Man their believing loyalty towards Him. (1st commandment)
  2. God expects Man to show love to their neighbor as oneself in contrast to indifference to their neighbors’ plight. (2nd commandment).

Believing loyalty is also known as loving-kindness, “checed” in Hebrew, which also renders faithfulness a more familiar term in the new testament vernacular. See the link for the word meaning of checed- https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H2617&t=NASB

The scriptures relating to wealth, especially the parables, are shared to support Man’s understanding of God’s salvation offered as a means to realize the 1st commandment. E.g., is the Good Samaritan (Luke15:11-32), the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price (Mat13:44-45), the prodigal son (Luke15:11-32).

The scriptures also reveal God’s expectation to love one’s neighbor, the 2nd commandment, in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke10:30-37 and the unforgiving servant’s story in Mat18:21-35.

God does not leave man without resources and guidelines to motivate Man to choose the love relationship as their new focus and abandon their old focus of worry and addiction to money. God’s motivating factors address both the worry of the future and the issue of the lure of money.

 

God Supplies His Motivating Factors

 

1st Motivating Factor – Solution for Worry

 

The Worry of Needs and Wants

 

Both Christians and non-Christians worry about the future. God recognized valid worries, categorized as needs. In this day and age, the needs of Man has grown to include wants. The final post will address this aspect. Nevertheless, God recognized man’s worry to meet his needs when Jesus identified this as the reason for Man’s shifting loyalties between serving God and Mammon in Mat6:24.

God promises that He will supply all Man’s future needs when he focuses on His will for Him and his identity in Him (Mat6:32). God designs His will into the life circumstances presented to that person. It includes the opportunities, the challenges, the waiting, the people in your life, the victories, the setbacks, the miracles, and the tragedies. God promises to supply what Man needs, even as he experiences His will. Man is to reciprocate in an active faith relationship with Him.

The other less recognized reason and solution offered by God in Mat6:34 is that the present has sufficient troubles on their own that demands attention. God wants to partner Man to address present challenges and appeals to him not to be distracted by worrying about the future. The experience of partnering with God in this active faith in the present is not straightforward and exceeds this post’s scope to explain.

At this juncture, the imagination of what God supplies can run pretty wild. The Bible does offer some guidelines to understand what God supplies. The following post or posts will cover this in more detail. Suffice to say. God supplies wisdom, “time and chance” that relieve the pressure that would have exceeded the breaking point, His divine power, and circumstances to support His will for Man.

 

Personal Testimony

The Fool Who Became King

 

Mind-blindness (autism) handicapped my social and emotional perception until age 49. God had shown and proven His loyal faithfulness as Father over my life since my dad passed away when I was 11 years old.

These handicaps lead to situational unawareness. I grossly underestimated the environment’s harshness and overestimated my capacity and capabilities. I recklessly resigned from full-time employment and was self-employed twice, at age 29-30 and 32-50. Due to personal reasons and adequate resources,  undeservingly, I have decided to retire at age 50, 2020. God has protected me from the hostile business environment and my foolish unawareness for the past 25 years as a working adult.

My lack of awareness blinded me to future worries. Given a temperament that is resilient and determined, I do not complain and worry about my future.  The “success” did not come by fervent prayers, never fasted, and was never diligent in reading the Bible (this only started in 2019). In-fact until 2019, I have never read a complete book in the Bible.

God’s mercies have protected me from an unreasonable environment and marauding competitors. The material success came because I blindly did whatever was presented to me and did the best of my abilities every time without worrying and complaining. Unknowingly just by attending faithfully to my lot in life, I did God’s will.

 

2nd Motivating Factor – Shift in Values

In today’s materialistic culture, the motivating factors offered by God has lost much of its luster. It is not the fault of God, for Man has chosen to deify themselves by proxy. Elements that supported man’s deification are mainly due to their sense of mastery over their destiny. The following fostered Man’s sense of mastery over their future and shifted Man’s values away from God’s values.-

  1. Man has more than doubled the life expectancy from the late 30s in the late 1800s to beyond 70s by the early 2000s. Singapore’s life expectancy is in the 80s. See link – https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/SGP/singapore/life-expectancy#:~:text=The%20current%20life%20expectancy%20for,a%200.26%25%20increase%20from%202017.
  2. Man has mastered their physical environment (notwithstanding the irreparable damage done to nature) and a pseudo mastery over their biology. Genetic engineering is one of the new frontiers for humanity.
  3. Man’s sense of personal agency has shot through the roof, bolstered by the relentless rise of individual liberties.

God’s Appeal to the Alternative, Reimar/Shutterstock.com

 

Tragically, This pandemic of self-deification affects both Christians and non-Christians alike.

God beckons Man with seven appeals to support Man’s shift from the additive lure of money-wealth to fulfill the two commandments, to restore the RELATIONSHIPS-

  1. God is appealing to Man’s senses to value His Fatherly love, offered to save humanity in the form of the death and resurrection of His only Son, the Lord Jesus. (John3:16, Rom10:9). The Father’s heart is appealing for His children to return to His bosom, the prodigal son narrative offered on an epic scale.

 

  1. God appeals to Man’s senses to value the true incorruptible treasures more than the temporal earthly pleasures, relationships, and possessions. The true treasures are the relationship with Him, His eternal rewards, the gloried incorruptible body, the eternal glory, and reunion with Him and all the loved ones that have embraced the family of God. Valuing the true treasures is the crucial battleground of the soul. For where the treasures are, there, the soul will take residence (Mat6:21).

 

  1. God appeals to Man’s senses to recognize that their body is temporal, suffer aging, physical death, and eternal death. What will it profit to Man to accumulate and hold tightly to things that lose all value in the afterlife? (Mark8:36)

 

  1. God is appealing to Man’s senses to recognize an afterlife where judgment and sentence await (Mat25:46). This appeal to many seems like a threat. God’s hands are bound in this regard and helpless to circumvent His sense of justice. God’s justice demand this outcome (Rom2:12-16,1Pet1:17).

 

  1. God is appealing to Man’s sense to choose forgiveness apart from the works pathway in Christ (Eph2:8-9), where the favored judgment is merciful, and the verdict at worst is forfeting the eternal rewards and the soul’s eternal glory (1Co5:5, 1Co3:15, 2Co4:16-18).

 

  1. God appeals to Man’s sense to avoid the impartial judgment pathway, where the sentence is likely an eternal staycation in Hell.

 

  1. God appeals to Man to choose His Son. By doing so, He frees Man of worry of the future on earth, as Man finds rest for their soul on earth in the work of His Son (Mat11:28-30, Heb4:11).

 

Conclusion

The world operates by the power paradigm. The powerful determines the Laws of the land and wields the power of life and death over others. Humanity recognizes this Law and obeys the rules set by the powerful. Democracy veils the ordinary senses to this Law, enchanting the human sense of agency with an illusion that the power lies with the individual because they vote the powerful into power.

Such naïve notions are put to naught when the next crisis hits. The covid19 pandemic is but an appetizer of the Law in operation. War seems a distant memory since the last World War in 1942. It seems to escape notice, but the elements that catalyzed such atrocities are the same; humanity is the source of these atrocities.

 

Daring and Taunting God Does Not Seem to be a Sound Strategy

 

It seems inconceivable while Man can recognize and subject themselves to human authorities, Man dares to taunt God by spurning His appeal and invitation.

Christians deem the Christian God as the most powerful entity across all time and space. But this God is dismissed as the King of charlatans by other religious beliefs and non-existent by an atheist or a choice, among other valid alternatives.

It may turn out that these reasons to ignore God are correct. Still, the stakes appear unacceptably high for a reasonable person to place a wager against God, who has offered such favorable terms to achieve divinity. The only cost on Man’s part is the belief in Jesus and after that best effort at obedience until death. This free lunch for Man exacted an unspeakable price from God the Father who paid dearly for this offer.

This post ends on this note. The next post will explore further how Man’s attempts to solve this wealth gap have failed, why it has failed, and the root cause behind these failures. Post 5 will also examine God’s alternative to address this failure.

 

References

  1. Scott, B. (1990). Hear then the parable (1st ed.). Fortress Press.
Purpose and Meaning, Wealth

Christians and Money Series – Reality Check: Part 1

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Introduction

 

This post is part 1 of the series “Christians and Money”.

This post is an introductory post to the wealth series that will span five parts, including this post. These wealth series share the common theme, “Christians and Money.”

The introductory post is Part 1 provides a flavor of what is to come.

Part 1 to Part 5 of the series has the following themes. As each post is limited to 10min read, there may arise the need to increase this series by one or two more posts. Look out for these posts issued weekly.

  1. Christian and Money Part 2 – This post examines evidence that shows Christians may have two masters., God and Mammon.
  2. Christian and Money Part 3 – This post examines the old and new testament scriptures to understand the consequences of serving two Masters and the evidence that Christians are serving 2 Masters.
  3. Christian and Money Part 4 – This post examines new testament scriptures to identify the root cause of money’s enslaving power over Christians and non-Christians alike.
  4. Christian and Money Part 5 or more – This post supports the personal application. It draws from the previous post’s clarity to offer a paradigm shift that breaks away from serving two masters’ status quo.

 

This wealth series is not about taking Christians on a guilt trip. It has the following goals.

  1. This series create awareness of the deceptive relationship with money. Man can avoid the eternal consequences that the current norms bring.
  2. This series support the Christians’ walk to break out from the mold of the world economic system. It is making stronger connections between scripture, societal stance, and personal practical application.
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God does not condemn the rich for their wealth. But for their boastfulness (Jam4:13, 16), oppressing the disadvantaged (Jam5:4, 2:9), and trusting in hoarded riches instead of God (1Tim6:17, Luke12:21).

 

Neither it is a sin or God’s punishment to be poor, for both the rich and poor operate within the purpose and will of God by the life opportunities and life challenges presented (Jam2:5, 1Tim6:18-19).

 

Self Check

 

All are encouraged to perform the following three exercises that frame the unique wealth position of each individual.

  1. This link is an Income Percentile Comparison Calculator by Age. It gives the standing among the population based on declared annual income and age group.
https://personalfinancedata.com/income-percentile-calculator/?min_age=30&max_age=100&income=330000#results
  1. This Wealth Rank Calculator. It gives the standing among the USA population-based on total net worth.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2019/10/06/are-you-in-the-one-percent-heres-a-wealth-rank-calculator/?sh=692b3b16331f

 

Net Worth Calculator

 

  1. Determine, X = Monthly Disposal Income/(National Means Test for Social Aid x 2.0 x no of persons in the household)

The national means test for social aid is the disposable income an individual has a month below, which qualifies for social assistance. This amount varies and depends on the cost of living of one’s location.

The factor of 2.0 adopted is an arbitrary figure that can vary between 2-3 to account for a lifestyle that eats at home or spends about SGD20 per day on food and transport. This X value reflects how lavish one’s lifestyle above one that is in financial lack.

These three parameters in the back of one’s mind make reading the posts in this series more meaningful.

 

 

Income and Expense – LifeStyle Standard

 

 

Enjoy the journey!