POVERTY
WHICH CAN ISSUE FROM PROSPERITY
BREAD
9 People
who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and
harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 1
Timothy 6:9 (NIV)
27 A greedy man brings trouble to his family, but he who hates
bribes will live. Proverbs 15:27 (NIV)
20 A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished. Proverbs 28:20 (NIV)
22 A stingy man is eager to get rich and is unaware that
poverty awaits him. Proverbs 28:22 (NIV)
10 Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves
wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. Ecclesiastes
5:10 (NIV)
24 “No
one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or
he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God
and Money.” Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be
on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the
abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15 (NIV)
1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV)
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (NIV)
1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV)
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (NIV)
BUTTER
“The
Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this, and could not contradict him, but
they sneered at him. Let us consider
this as their sin, and the fruit of their covetousness, which was their primary
sin. Many who make a great profession of
religion and abound in the exercise of devotion, are yet ruined by the love of
the world. These covetous Pharisees
could not bear to have that touched, which was their Delilah, their darling
lust; for this they derided him, they turned up their noses at him, or blew
their noses on him. It is an expression
of the utmost scorn and disdain imaginable.
They laughed at him for going so contrary to the opinion and way of the
world. It is common for those to make a
joke of the word of God who are resolved that they will not be ruled by it.” Matthew Henry
“The Christian way is different: harder and easier. Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much
of your money and so much of your work:
I want you… No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a
branch there, I want to have the whole tree down…Hand over the whole natural
self, all the
desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked – the
whole outfit. I will give you a new
self instead. I will give you
Myself: My own will shall become
yours.’” C.S. Lewis
“Being generous
with your money is a personal quality of someone that the grace of God has
gripped. Why? Because the essence of the
Gospel of grace is generosity. Jesus
Christ gave up the Greatest Treasure in the world. He gave away his treasure when he left the
most affluent gated community in the universe, heaven and all its glory, became
poor, so that we might become rich. He
gave up Ultimate wealth—Himself, for you.
‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’, he said and lived. He also said you cannot serve God and money,
it’s impossible. You have to choose. Only by the power of the Gospel of grace
can you begin to be generous”. Tom Wood
“‘There is no fear
in love’, writes the apostle John, ‘but perfect love drives out fear…’ He goes
on to point to the source of that perfect love: ‘We love because He first loved
us”. In other words, the cure to fear is
not a change in circumstances, rather a deep grounding in the love of God. I ask God to reveal His love to me directly,
or through my relationships with those who also know Him—a prayer I think God
takes great delight in answering. When I
get depressed about my present failures, I ask God to remind me of my true
identity: one who will be made perfect and has already been forgiven. ‘You’ve
got to go deeper’, said the nun to my burned-out pastor. ‘Sink the well into a water table that never
runs dry’…Thomas Merton conceded that everything in modern city life conspires
against such surrender. We worry (fear)
about money, about what we need to have and to know, about whom to compete with
and what is slipping out of our control…(he) found the secret to true
freedom: If we live to please God alone
(the One who loves us), we set ourselves free from the cares and worries that
press in on us.” Phillip Yancey
“The
entertaining of any worldly lust, and indulgence of any known willful sin, is
an accursed thing, by which we are deprived of the power of God, and cannot
stand before our enemies. Behold,
therefore the severity of God, and be more earnest. Make all haste to flee from the lust of the
world, especially from the lust of the eye, which is the love of money. Examine thyself closely in other things, and
whatever sinful lust harbors in thy breast, be faithful to put it off, and flee
from it, else you must not wonder at your being so weak in spirit. He that does not resist the sinful motions of
his heart, will very easily give a loose to his hands and tongue; but he that
immediately subdues the inward corruptions, will certainly be preserved from
their breaking out in any sinful actions.
O Lord, deliver me from all accursed things, and keep my heart always
under thy closest inspection and discipline.
Amen.”
K. H. Von Bogatzky
“What is the basis
of our security? When we start thinking about that question, we may give many
answers: success, money, friends, property, popularity, family, connections,
insurance, and so on. We may not always think that any of these forms the basis
of our security, but our actions or feelings may tell us otherwise. When we start losing our
money, our friends, or our popularity, our anxiety often reveals how deeply our
sense of security is rooted in these things.
A spiritual life is a life in which our security is based not in any
created things, good as they may be, but in God, who is everlasting love. We
probably will never be completely free from our attachment to the temporal
world, but if we want to live in that world in a truly free way, we'd better
not belong to it. ‘You cannot be the slave both of God and of money’ (Luke
16:13).” Henri
Nouwen
“I’ll never forget being prayed for by Ray, a friend whose
world is one filled with material poverty, homelessness, setbacks and empty
hands. Ray prayed strong and spontaneous – that I, the pastor of the big church
from Nashville, Tennessee who writes books and has a blog and lives in a comfy
house and has never been concerned about missing a meal and has always been
able to pay his bills – would know the security of the Father’s care, the smile
of the Father’s love, the freedom of the Father’s grace, the intimacy of the
Father’s arms, the friendship of the Father’s family, and the abundance of the Father’s provision. Ray
prayed as a man who, possessing close to nothing, possessed all things. He
prayed as a man with empty hands but a full heart. He prayed as a man with
abundant gratitude, as if he had a secret treasure stored up in a world that I
had only heard and talked about, but perhaps had not yet seen. In that moment, I began to wonder
which of us was really living large and which was living in scarcity. I began
to wonder which of us was running with two legs and which of us was running
with one. I began to wonder which of us was carrying the aces and which of us
was carrying an empty hand. As Luther
aptly said, ‘We are all beggars, this is true.’” Scott Sauls
HEART SAVOR
·
Money
itself is not inherently evil rather the insatiable lust for more of it is. That’s called greed.
·
God
richly provides us for everything for our enjoyment yet we are to balance this
with not living self-indulgent lives, being willing to share with those in need. It’s all His and we are going to one day be
accountable stewards for what He has entrusted to our lives. This, of course, includes more than
money. It is our time, possessions and
all gifts He has given us. Remember, as
well, we can be poor and still greedy with our gifts. God loves a cheerful giver.
·
My hope
is in Jesus not in my possessions.
