Money Post (Pt 2)

This “Standard of Living” stuff set out by our fancy magazines and malls the size of cities and our selfish hearts are telling us to buy the brand new X because that’s all we need to be happy. But then there’s Y and Z to go along with X to make X look more fancy. But 1, 2, and 3 sit so nicely beside X so they are necessary too, but don’t forget to buy the insurance for X, Y, Z and 1, 2, and 3 else they brake and can’t be replaced and hey, what do you know! Your paycheck’s gone.

Then we whip out that nifty slice of plastic and swipe it away. Debt. And that just keeps crawling up there at the speed of a supersonic rocket. Then we look at the people who live in fancy houses and think, “If only I could live there, I bet they’re happy in that house.” Just to realize they have the same problem we all have, namely selfish hearts and a society that tells us to make ourselves happy with more stuff.

My point is that the rich aren’t the problem, sure they may contribute to the problem, but they aren’t the problem itself. The problem with the inequality of wealth in America is our selfish little hearts buying up stuff we don’t even need and sometimes don’t even really want…

These kids have stuff made of trash and their doing just fine. And Aldis is always selling cheap food and Goodwill has shirts for $3.49 and you can buy boots that’ll last you a lifetime for 7 bucks, but someone else wore them once.

My goodness people we can’t help but fall on our faces and worship some new something with all our money. Then when we go to church and when they ask for tithe we feel offended and affronted that some guy, let alone some God, would ask for our hard earned cash – but no worries I’ll burn that cash up on cigarettes (or some fancy meal) after service rather than see it used by God for God’s purposes. 

Our Constant Need

Do you know that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? The one that feels strangely similar to hunger but isn’t hunger at all? Maybe yours is that feeling in your heart, when it seems to free-fall to your toes? Or perhaps yours is the fogginess of the brain, where the simplest thought is the hardest of struggles? What do we need in these moments, what must we have?

Jesus. Not a man to give advice or a woman to listen to the issue, we need Jesus. We do not need to understand the nuances of the deepest theology we just need Jesus.

We need him… I need him to have lived a perfect life. I need him to have been beaten far beyond recognition as human. I need him to have been nailed to a torturous cross. I need him to have yielded up his spirit. I need the blood and water to flow. I need him to have been buried and more than that to have risen from the grave. I need him to be seated at the right hand of the Father on high interceding on my behalf.

Saying, “His debt I have paid and his heart I have won. I have loved him before the foundations of the world were set when You, my Father, gave him to me. He is mine and I will not loose him.”

More than self-help and self-worth and self-love we need to hear of Jesus, the perfect God-Man, doing what none could do and willingly dying for wretch’s sins.

And this we will always need, even when our stomachs feel the way they should and our hearts are stationed in their proper places and when clarity of thought is a breeze. We can never or will ever outgrow our need for the astoundingly simple yet infinitely complex beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ our Savior.

Demanded

This morning I read Luke 14:25-33. The section heading in my Bible is, “The Cost of Discipleship,” and it uses words like, “hate,” “bear your own cross,” and “renounce.” It made me think of an interesting theme, one that has been running through my mind for quite some time now.

I don’t like soft language. To be sure it is necessary at many times, but, also, many times call for the proper words to be used, words which might be considered harsh.

Take for instance this passage; many might say after reading this, “God wants us to sacrifice our lives to him.” WANTS? Or to say it another way, “God wishes us to sacrifice our lives to him.” For wish is the definition of want. To soft serve what should be the most threatening statement of a believers life? This is a tragedy (it’s far worse than thinking turkey-bacon is somehow comparable to real bacon).

He demands our lives. He demands we live as dead men walking. He demands our crosses be daily on our shoulders. He demands all else to be renounced and used for his glory. He demands our love for him to be powerful and so all-encompassing that love for family looks like hate.

Is this demand one that should be on all believers? Yes. Why? Because we are his disciples, it is the cost of discipleship. Yes, it is a hard cost to pay – but the beauty of the Gospel is it makes life unfair and the debt we owe is paid. And therefore, the demand, though it looks hefty is seen as light for our burden of sin was nailed to a cross and we no longer must carry our pain. We are free to be radical in the mundane.