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“The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who
LEADS THE WHOLE WORLD ASTRAY. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” (Rev. 12:9)

“…in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” (2 Cor. 2:11)

“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” (Eph. 6:11)

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer
from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native
language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ” (John 8:44)

Folks, we’ve been had! We’ve fallen prey to the schemes of the serpent…

The problem is, that “earning a living” is the way of the world. (And who is the prince of this world?–
John 12:31,14:30 and 16:11)

The way of the kingdom of God is “producing wealth”! I realize that some of this may sound a little
far-fetched to a lot of people, but if you’ll hang in there a little longer, you may start to see where this
thing is heading! Jesus really did set us free…it’s just that we’ve been blinded by deception for so long
that it’s hard for us to break through and see the truth!

Question: What can a man do to earn salvation? Nothing. It is a gift from God (Eph. 2:8)

What can a man do to earn healing? Nothing. It’s a gift from God. What can a man do to earn ANY
blessing that God has in store for us? Nothing. They are all gifts…freely given by our Creator. Check this out:

“But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:19)

But MY GOD shall supply ALL your needs according to HIS riches in glory by Christ Jesus! God said
HE will provide for ALL our needs…so why do we think we have to EARN a living? Because of
2 Thes. 3:10, which basically says, “if you don’t work, you don’t eat”! What we fail to realize is this…
Paul said we need to WORK to eat…he didn’t say anything about “earning a living”! And in the next
post we’ll take a closer look at this! 

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one
who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” (2 Thes. 3:10)

The problem here is, we humans tend to think this applies to “earning a
living”. NOT! If you’ll bear with me….

“But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability
to produce wealth…” (Deut. 8:18)

God has given you and me the ability to “produce wealth.” Again, it is a
God-given ability. “Earning a living” and “producing wealth” are two entirely
different things! For most of us, “earning a living” is just barely squeaking by.
“Creating wealth”, on the other hand produces exesses of wealth that we can
share with others. What’s the difference and what can we do about it?

Most of us were raised with the mindset that “earning a living” means getting
a job, working hard, competing for pay raises, eventual retirement and so on.
I’m convinced our well-meaning parents THOUGHT they were doing us a
valuable service, but I’m also convinced they were wrong! (Said with all love,
guys!)

The internet marketing world uses the word “job” as an acronym for Just
Over Broke. For most of us, that’s very true…we’re Just Over Broke, while our
employers are producing wealth at our expense! I also find it interesting that “job”
and Job (the suffering servant in the Bible) have a lot of similarities and parallels for
a lot of people! MOST honest and hard-working people are actually in a state of
“suffering” induced by “earning a living”!

Think about it next time you’re stuck in traffic. Look at the peole around you…at
their faces. Stress. Tension. Anger. Why? Because they’re running late, trying to get
somewhere they don’t want to be in the first place…their job. They are suffering!
Why? Because they (like us) were taught they had to “earn a living”…to just get by.

Another interesting point…have you ever stopped to consider that we (as employees)
are nothing more than hired servants? Paid slaves? We are told when to arrive, when
to leave, how to dress, what duties to perform, how to act…there is no freedom in
“earning a living”…and yet, Jesus came to set us free! (John 8:36)

Jesus came to give us life more abundantly (John 10:10)! Yet, here we are enslaved,
suffering and Just Over Broke for our efforts! Even more cruelly, we have been convinced
that this is the Christian way…

“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” (Prov. 14:12)

So, what’s the real poop on wealth for Christians? It is ok, or is it not?

Short simple post today.

“But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.” Deut. 8:18

Why would God give us the ability to produce wealth if it is evil? Abraham was a wealthy man. So was Jacob. David and Solomon. Job. There’s a HUGE list of wealthy people of God in the Bible.

“The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.” Prov. 10:22

One of the blessings of the Lord is wealth. Wealth is a BLESSING of the Lord. I could fill the post with nothing but scriptures on wealth, but if you’re not willing to RECEIVE it, it’s a waste of time for both of us. Wealth is not evil…it’s not bad…it’s not a sin. It’s our ATTITUDE toward wealth that can be sinful. In a perfect world, there would be no poor Christians…but many of us are. And this isn’t a perfect world. It’s NOT God’s fault! It’s His intention to pour out wealth upon His kids!

Some of us are poor because of some bad decisions we’ve made in the past. Some of us curse ourselves into poverty. Some of us lack faith. Some of us seem plagued by things beyond our control. Weather, thieves, sicknesses, accidents…there are an awful lot of reasons that the world has poor Christians. But we don’t have to STAY poor. And even in our “poverty”, we are far richer than many in the world today in terms of wealth.

If you have clothes, be thankful. Many don’t. If you have food, be thankful. Many don’t. Do you have a pot to cook in? A chair to sit in? A computer to read this post on? A phone? A car? Lights, radio or television? Then you have more than a lot of folks in this world. You have more than a lot of people who really and truly are poor. While you are busy being poor today, thousands will die from true poverty.

It’s disturbing to see so many that want or need a financial change, but refuse to do anything to try to change it. God has given us the ability to produce wealth! Why? As a part of His blessing! So we can help those who truly ARE poor…but many of us don’t or won’t take the initiative to try to change our circumstances. We’re always going to have poor people to help (Matt. 26:11), but how can we help them when WE don’t have it ourselves? We’d rather sit around complaining about our woes and letting someone else gather His bountiful blessing!

“I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” (Luke 16:9)

I can tell you, that if you take a little worldly wealth to one of those dying from poverty…and if you use it to save and then change that person’s life…YOU are going to have a friend! Not the kind that chases after you because of what you have, but a true friend. And when you share with them why you did it, you’re also going to find yourself with a treasure in heaven someday…because that person will have met Jesus through you. There are reasons to seek a degree of wealth. It doesn’t HAVE to be because of greed….

How about this? “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Tim. 5:8). Are YOU providing for your household? Or is the government providing for your household? Now, I’m not against those who get help from the government…that’s not the point. The question might be asked in a better way…are you TRYING to provide for your household and accepting assistance until your circumstances change? Or are you simply taking what you can get from the system because it’s “free”? Everybody needs help sometimes.

Then again, if we, as Christians, were doing our part in being generous, how many government programs would we need? Probably not nearly so many as we have today. But it’s hard to be generous with what you don’t have…which brings us back to God having given us the ability to produce wealth. Are we using our God-given ability? Or are we accepting where we are and what we are?