Welcome to Brandon’s therapy session.
Over the last couple weeks, as Snoop Doggy Dog would put it “I’ve had my mind on my money and my money on my mind.” Not just my money though, but money in general would probably be more apt. Nonetheless, I felt it was blog worthy as it is so integral to our society to the point that we come up with trite sayings like “Money makes the world go round” and what not. Not to mention money and personal finances are topics readily found throughout the Bible. It must be important. The only thing that Jesus talks about more than money in the gospel accounts is the Kingdom of God. That’s right, he talks more about money than he does about love, salvation, repentance and so on. Yeah, I’d say its quite important.
I was hanging out with Shawn the other day and we had some really good conversation as we tend to do. One of the topics, as one might suspect, was popular Christianity. Specifically we spoke at length about two individuals, one of them being Joel Osteen. He is undoubtedly the most prominent figure of the “prosperity gospel.” His book titles include Become a Better You, Its Your Time and Your Best Life Now. I don’t intend to bash another brother, I want God’s will for his life. However, I have a few reservations with the message he portrays. Mr. Osteen read the Bible and gave his life to a homeless first-century rabbi who told people to die to themselves before He Himself was tortured and murdered. Somehow, after this, Mr. Osteen landed on believing that God’s will is for us to be rich and indulge in treasures on this earth, even though they’ll rust and destroy as Jesus said they would.
When I write a book, I'm doing the same pose for the cover. Cover via AmazonI watched a Larry King interview with Joel Osteen a while back and they showed video from his house and his church. Very big, very fancy, very expensive. He definitely lives out the gospel that he preaches. By his own definition, he has become a better him. The problem that I see with this view of money that many Christians believe in is two-fold. One, I find it unbiblical (as you could tell from the previous paragraph). I think that Mark Driscoll puts it well that when the message is “get rich, get healthy, be happy, that’s the equation… what we are saying is that as Christians we have nothing to offer that is any different from non-Christians or other religions.” Our life in Christ has the same end as that of those in the world: our own prosperity, as opposed to God’s glory. The prosperity gospel is the Christian American dream. Those are American ideals on those book covers, not biblical ideals. “Your,” its about you, its about the individual, “Best Life,” be all that you can be, humanism, health, wealth, indulgence. “Now,” immediately, don’t wait, don’t be patient, why sit down in the booth when you can get it from the drive-thru?
Secondly, and this is the one that I’ll hit on more from my experience, I find the prosperity gospel doesn’t work out pragmatically. Do you have the kind of cash that Mr. Osteen has? It is a scary proposition when your faith is measured in dollar signs. Fortunately for Joe Christian like me, its not. I believe that God is a God of enough. He is gracious, He gives abundantly. He knows that we require some material things to survive and He has blessed not only the global church, but really the entire world with more than enough. The problem is that people (Americans for certain) horde. They don’t heed Jesus parable about the man that built the bigger barn to hold all his stuff (Luke 12:13-21). Furthermore, peoples’ eyes are bigger than their stomachs and their security and comfort become dependent on the things they own as opposed to the Lord. When this happens, some people wind up with way too much money and others, who might have faith through the roof, end up on the short end of the stick.
The sad thing is that the prosperity gospel can be rejected on the surface with our minds, but when we choose to indulge ourselves at the expense of others, we are choosing to live a life that isn’t much different; we are choosing to just please ourselves as opposed to God. It is the less flashy, more common version of the prosperity gospel. Its predicated on the age-old “there’s nothing wrong with stuff” and “the amount of money you have is a gray area.” And yet a gray area to you, is black and white to people like impoverished Indians… or Shane Claiborne. And if stuff is good, which I think it generally is, then lack of stuff must be bad, which is what billions of people in the world suffer from everyday. They just happen to lack stuff like clean water, nutritious food, school materials and shelter, you know stuff like that.
When people ask about the treasures, one thing that I often say is that God is a good Father and He’ll take care of His kids. People realize that we are funded on what is given to us and in this economy that must have gone down, which it has. But because God is a good Father and He has plenty to give, He does take care of our home, as it is a home that is dedicated to Him. And yet, there is no surprise that there is such incredible poverty in Tanzania. Its not because it lacks natural resources, quite the contrary. But rather people are making money off the God-given land and robbing others of their natural due. Its selfishness and that’s sinful.
I believe that we are to pray “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” I believe that that includes releasing people from poverty and disease. But to just focus on that as the goal begs the question. The inherent situation is that there are circumstances in our life and on this earth that are not heavenly. In regards to money, we do ungodly things with it and then suffer from un-heavenly results. I would like to say that I’ve gotten the Midas touch and that everything that comes to me, I’m able to master. Or that we don’t have any struggles with our finances or health for that matter. The Kingdom of God is certainly at hand and thus accessible to me, but I do live in the tension of the Kingdom being now, but not yet fully here.
So for those of us that aren’t rolling in it while following Jesus, what are we to do? First off, as we discussed with Shawn and Becky during pre-marital, we are to give our first fruits to the Lord. That’s not negotiable and the Bible calls for radical, sacrificial generosity not leftovers. At the same time, the truth is that we often find ourselves in a bind. After seeing fellow believers in India and Tanzania, I must qualify that by saying our binds don’t match their bonds. But nonetheless, things get tight. I get that. It sometimes seems as though anything out of the ordinary could send us over the edge. I feel like Melissa and I just about hit that today and that’s the impetus for this post as much as anything. I share this for the sake of realness in my writing. Beyond that writing is cathartic. That’s why I said this is my therapy session. There is no other reason than that, so don’t get any ideas, my pride couldn’t take it. Disclaimer aside…
Can you imagine if sin, poverty and sickness weren’t in this world? Or if people lived the way the Bible tells them to? That would have made my day a lot easier.
After many prayers asking the Lord to heal Melissa, I took her into to get her eye operated on this morning. We were really hoping that He would just heal her outright - she’s dealt with a pterygium on her left eye since she returned from a missions trip in Kenya back in 2008 - but alas, we went into surgery. Its only gotten worse over the last few years and with the wedding and move coming up, it was time to do something. Our doctor was a very nice man, a Christian, and he and the surgery center gave us a big discount which was most helpful. Nonetheless, it was a bit steep and its not just paying for the surgery, but for the pre-op appointment, pre-op physical, anesthesia, post-op radiation treatments and post-op medicine as well. Sure would be nice if Melissa had insurance, but she doesn’t. Praise God, Melissa’s folks helped us, but we paid quite a bit as well and more than we planned on. It was a hit, but knowing about it beforehand helped and there’s no question about spending money when a loved one has a health problem.
The surgery went fine and while Melissa is in pain in the room, she’ll recover. Praise God. The thing that put us on edge (especially me in more than one sense) is a big absent-minded mistake of mine this morning. After taking her and getting her settled in to the surgery center, I went out to get breakfast at Carl’s Jr. Somewhere between there and my return to the surgery center, I dropped something very important (and expensive). Right before Melissa went into the room she turned around and handed me her engagement ring to hold on to during the operation. I put it in my sweatshirt pocket and couldn’t find it after she asked for it following the operation. I’ve never felt worse. I drove around San Luis and Arroyo Grande, I turned our car upside down and dug through the trash at Carl’s Jr. No luck. One thing that I have thought about over and over is the price that potentially just got added on top of the medical bills.
As much as that hurt, as I was telling Melissa, it would have been easier to swallow on any other day than today. After she went into the room and before I lost the ring, I was sitting in the lobby when the nurse came back to me. She told me to come back to the pre-op room because Melissa needed some “boyfriend time.” I corrected her, “fiancé time.” She smiled. I went back and found Melissa in her gown and hair net with an IV in her. She was scared. Eye surgery takes a brave person, and she is just that. I crumbled to see her crying there and I tried to reassure her. I’m glad that I could be there, but it tears me up to see her upset. Because I love her. I want her to be happy. More than thinking about the price of replacing the ring, I thought about how happy she was when I surprised her with the ring after she picked me up in Long Beach when I got here in January. Money couldn’t buy love, but that ring showed her my love for her and that means the world to me.
I think that’s where I want to land this thing. The world wants to tell us, overtly or subconsciously, that money will buy us happiness and that money brings security. That’s a lie. Love based in God is happiness. Only God is strong enough to be our refuge. I’m so frustrated with myself for losing that ring, but that won’t help me find it. I may not have the money to get another one right now. But God will provide for me and Melissa. He’s faithful. His financial blessings only lead to true happiness when we do what He wants us to do with them and that’s blessing others in a loving relationship. I could kick myself for quite a while over this, but in light of my shortcomings it makes me all the more thankful to find happiness in such a wonderful and beautiful woman that the Lord has given me. She still engages me in a loving relationship, even when I fail. That’s priceless. The Lord is our provider and our joy, for this we give praise.
Over the last couple weeks, as Snoop Doggy Dog would put it “I’ve had my mind on my money and my money on my mind.” Not just my money though, but money in general would probably be more apt. Nonetheless, I felt it was blog worthy as it is so integral to our society to the point that we come up with trite sayings like “Money makes the world go round” and what not. Not to mention money and personal finances are topics readily found throughout the Bible. It must be important. The only thing that Jesus talks about more than money in the gospel accounts is the Kingdom of God. That’s right, he talks more about money than he does about love, salvation, repentance and so on. Yeah, I’d say its quite important.
I was hanging out with Shawn the other day and we had some really good conversation as we tend to do. One of the topics, as one might suspect, was popular Christianity. Specifically we spoke at length about two individuals, one of them being Joel Osteen. He is undoubtedly the most prominent figure of the “prosperity gospel.” His book titles include Become a Better You, Its Your Time and Your Best Life Now. I don’t intend to bash another brother, I want God’s will for his life. However, I have a few reservations with the message he portrays. Mr. Osteen read the Bible and gave his life to a homeless first-century rabbi who told people to die to themselves before He Himself was tortured and murdered. Somehow, after this, Mr. Osteen landed on believing that God’s will is for us to be rich and indulge in treasures on this earth, even though they’ll rust and destroy as Jesus said they would.
When I write a book, I'm doing the same pose for the cover. Cover via AmazonSecondly, and this is the one that I’ll hit on more from my experience, I find the prosperity gospel doesn’t work out pragmatically. Do you have the kind of cash that Mr. Osteen has? It is a scary proposition when your faith is measured in dollar signs. Fortunately for Joe Christian like me, its not. I believe that God is a God of enough. He is gracious, He gives abundantly. He knows that we require some material things to survive and He has blessed not only the global church, but really the entire world with more than enough. The problem is that people (Americans for certain) horde. They don’t heed Jesus parable about the man that built the bigger barn to hold all his stuff (Luke 12:13-21). Furthermore, peoples’ eyes are bigger than their stomachs and their security and comfort become dependent on the things they own as opposed to the Lord. When this happens, some people wind up with way too much money and others, who might have faith through the roof, end up on the short end of the stick.
The sad thing is that the prosperity gospel can be rejected on the surface with our minds, but when we choose to indulge ourselves at the expense of others, we are choosing to live a life that isn’t much different; we are choosing to just please ourselves as opposed to God. It is the less flashy, more common version of the prosperity gospel. Its predicated on the age-old “there’s nothing wrong with stuff” and “the amount of money you have is a gray area.” And yet a gray area to you, is black and white to people like impoverished Indians… or Shane Claiborne. And if stuff is good, which I think it generally is, then lack of stuff must be bad, which is what billions of people in the world suffer from everyday. They just happen to lack stuff like clean water, nutritious food, school materials and shelter, you know stuff like that.
When people ask about the treasures, one thing that I often say is that God is a good Father and He’ll take care of His kids. People realize that we are funded on what is given to us and in this economy that must have gone down, which it has. But because God is a good Father and He has plenty to give, He does take care of our home, as it is a home that is dedicated to Him. And yet, there is no surprise that there is such incredible poverty in Tanzania. Its not because it lacks natural resources, quite the contrary. But rather people are making money off the God-given land and robbing others of their natural due. Its selfishness and that’s sinful.
I believe that we are to pray “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” I believe that that includes releasing people from poverty and disease. But to just focus on that as the goal begs the question. The inherent situation is that there are circumstances in our life and on this earth that are not heavenly. In regards to money, we do ungodly things with it and then suffer from un-heavenly results. I would like to say that I’ve gotten the Midas touch and that everything that comes to me, I’m able to master. Or that we don’t have any struggles with our finances or health for that matter. The Kingdom of God is certainly at hand and thus accessible to me, but I do live in the tension of the Kingdom being now, but not yet fully here.
So for those of us that aren’t rolling in it while following Jesus, what are we to do? First off, as we discussed with Shawn and Becky during pre-marital, we are to give our first fruits to the Lord. That’s not negotiable and the Bible calls for radical, sacrificial generosity not leftovers. At the same time, the truth is that we often find ourselves in a bind. After seeing fellow believers in India and Tanzania, I must qualify that by saying our binds don’t match their bonds. But nonetheless, things get tight. I get that. It sometimes seems as though anything out of the ordinary could send us over the edge. I feel like Melissa and I just about hit that today and that’s the impetus for this post as much as anything. I share this for the sake of realness in my writing. Beyond that writing is cathartic. That’s why I said this is my therapy session. There is no other reason than that, so don’t get any ideas, my pride couldn’t take it. Disclaimer aside…
Can you imagine if sin, poverty and sickness weren’t in this world? Or if people lived the way the Bible tells them to? That would have made my day a lot easier.
After many prayers asking the Lord to heal Melissa, I took her into to get her eye operated on this morning. We were really hoping that He would just heal her outright - she’s dealt with a pterygium on her left eye since she returned from a missions trip in Kenya back in 2008 - but alas, we went into surgery. Its only gotten worse over the last few years and with the wedding and move coming up, it was time to do something. Our doctor was a very nice man, a Christian, and he and the surgery center gave us a big discount which was most helpful. Nonetheless, it was a bit steep and its not just paying for the surgery, but for the pre-op appointment, pre-op physical, anesthesia, post-op radiation treatments and post-op medicine as well. Sure would be nice if Melissa had insurance, but she doesn’t. Praise God, Melissa’s folks helped us, but we paid quite a bit as well and more than we planned on. It was a hit, but knowing about it beforehand helped and there’s no question about spending money when a loved one has a health problem.
The surgery went fine and while Melissa is in pain in the room, she’ll recover. Praise God. The thing that put us on edge (especially me in more than one sense) is a big absent-minded mistake of mine this morning. After taking her and getting her settled in to the surgery center, I went out to get breakfast at Carl’s Jr. Somewhere between there and my return to the surgery center, I dropped something very important (and expensive). Right before Melissa went into the room she turned around and handed me her engagement ring to hold on to during the operation. I put it in my sweatshirt pocket and couldn’t find it after she asked for it following the operation. I’ve never felt worse. I drove around San Luis and Arroyo Grande, I turned our car upside down and dug through the trash at Carl’s Jr. No luck. One thing that I have thought about over and over is the price that potentially just got added on top of the medical bills.
As much as that hurt, as I was telling Melissa, it would have been easier to swallow on any other day than today. After she went into the room and before I lost the ring, I was sitting in the lobby when the nurse came back to me. She told me to come back to the pre-op room because Melissa needed some “boyfriend time.” I corrected her, “fiancé time.” She smiled. I went back and found Melissa in her gown and hair net with an IV in her. She was scared. Eye surgery takes a brave person, and she is just that. I crumbled to see her crying there and I tried to reassure her. I’m glad that I could be there, but it tears me up to see her upset. Because I love her. I want her to be happy. More than thinking about the price of replacing the ring, I thought about how happy she was when I surprised her with the ring after she picked me up in Long Beach when I got here in January. Money couldn’t buy love, but that ring showed her my love for her and that means the world to me.
I think that’s where I want to land this thing. The world wants to tell us, overtly or subconsciously, that money will buy us happiness and that money brings security. That’s a lie. Love based in God is happiness. Only God is strong enough to be our refuge. I’m so frustrated with myself for losing that ring, but that won’t help me find it. I may not have the money to get another one right now. But God will provide for me and Melissa. He’s faithful. His financial blessings only lead to true happiness when we do what He wants us to do with them and that’s blessing others in a loving relationship. I could kick myself for quite a while over this, but in light of my shortcomings it makes me all the more thankful to find happiness in such a wonderful and beautiful woman that the Lord has given me. She still engages me in a loving relationship, even when I fail. That’s priceless. The Lord is our provider and our joy, for this we give praise.
When the righteous prosper the city rejoices.
ReplyDeleteLuke 6:20-23 Be encouraged brother. A+B
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