Posted: 2007-12-27 22:46
Some people try to twist the Bible and say Christians should live poor because of the below verse:
Matthew 19:20-24- The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."
Jesus was exemplifying in that passage that this young man was bragging about his good deeds, Jesus saw into his heart and corrected him. He was letting the man know that salvation is done through Christ, in other words, since this man challenged Christ in front of the others, Jesus made an example of his position for us to think, write, and talk about from that point forward.
Jesus said in effect, it is not by your works, but it is what is in your heart that I am after. Salvation is received by accepting the very spirit of God into your heart made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross.
The man was unwilling to put down his treasure and follow the only Son of God...money was more important to him than God, even though moments ago the man was bragging of all his good deeds.
It is not God's will that we all sell everything we own and live poor. God's will with money is that you tide 10% to the church, this is what God indicated the church needed. In addition, we should all pray in the Holy Spirit asking God's guidance if there is other things that he would like us to participate in financially, or even helping someone out.
Jesus came up with the camel through the eye of the needle example to show under that criteria NO rich man will ever receive salvation, yet when Jesus's followers questioned Jesus on this point Jesus told them that ALL things are possible through he (Jesus) that was sent by the Father (God).
So this parable, which actually happened, was Jesus's way to minister to us not that wealth is bad, but that many men worship money over God, which is a bad thing, even though this rich man did good things, his heart was still in bondage to his riches.
God does NOT disapprove wealth, king Solomon was the richest man on earth due to God blessing him. Many other Christians are blessed financially by God, the Apostles were not poor and they were never instructed to be.
It is the heart that Jesus is after. Jesus said "I have come that you have life and have it more abundantly" - abundantly in ALL ways, spiritually first, but sweating a car payment every month is not abundance. Jusus said "Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" - there are mansions and gold streets in Heaven, windows made of pearl, no, it is not in God's nature that we live meager, but God wants to demonstrate his blessings in our lives.
God instructed Adam that he should subdue the earth and all that is in it. Even in the garden of Eden there was a multitude of precious stones. God is a God of overflow indeed.
In fact, God had a lot to say about sloth as well. In many cases the so-called poor are in the condition that they are in due to NOT following the advice of God the creator, and not because hard workers are unwilling to give their money away to them.
Some people say that Jesus said to only pray in private.
That advice was given for men to check the motive of their hearts while praying, weather it be in public or in private.
Jesus is saying if you are praying for exaltation from other men then God advises your prayers will not be effective because your heart is untrue.
Keep in mind when Jesus said that he was speaking towards the Jewish religious power structure at the time which was very corrupt and all about status and a prideful hierarchy.
Jesus was not limiting us from praying in public. Prayer in public or even corporate prayer is very useful, such as group prayer before a sporting event, group prayer before a battle, group prayer before a surgery, etc.
Corporate prayer could be when a church gathers and the pastor prays before the congregation, the whole congregation is in agreement, and this is a very powerful form of prayer to God.
God advises in his word that when two or more people come together in in agreement prayer it is more effective. This is one of the benefits according to the Bible of a marriage between a man and a woman, corporate prayer.
Also, if there is prayer in public it can be a great form of leadership to others, or encouragement, because they may respect the boldness of the open communication to God, in a world that is not usually hospitable to the word of God.
Some people say the Bible is not true and they have the proof which is the verse in The Bible that says "Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.".
This was not referring to a literal 'mans' generation, this is going off a generation of the things of God, a generation to God with regards to 'man' may not be the length or duration of time one of our great great (x 10) grandfathers may have lived, but a gerneration of 'mankind' according to God is something that He is aware of and we may not be.
God did say that it will come as a surprise when it happens. And it is also true that even when all these prophecies come to pass before our very eyes, there will still be a great multitude of people who still do not believe. Don't forget, God has lived forever, so his calender is probably significantly differant that ours, what is a year to God?
Some people try to claim that Jesus would have been a "Liberal".
Jesus Would not favor induced labor in order to protrude the fetus's head out of the mothers cervix in order to pierce a device into the soft part of the back of the head just above the neck in order that this device create a vaccuum sufficient enough to remove most of the brain matter of a viable baby.
Jesus would not favor homosexual marriage thereby presenting to our children that this is a perfectly viable standard in which to strive for even though His Father warned against homosexuality and hated it.
Jesus Would not be in favor of Welfare that has struck through the black community ripping apart their family structure in the inner cities and tearing away at their independence leaving away a multitude of fatherless children beginning after the first generation of Welfare recipients.
If Jesus is a Liberal then Liberals wouldn't be banning him from public schools and institutions.
Jesus would not favor the sexual revolution of the 1960's that is now being preached to our children by way of condom installation instruction in a government building on tax payers dime, he calls premarital sex fornication and His Father said He is against it.
Jesus would be against a psycho therapy pop-culture as evidenced by Jerry Springer, Dr. Phil, most Hollywood type lost souls because He said "I am the way, the truth, and the life", He wants us to turn to He and His Father through the Holy Spirit and by way of hearing the teaching of the Bible as the true path to freedom and not man's way.
Jesus would not favor the drug culture of the 1960's that is preached to our children by way of giving them drugs of all types and our society being awashed in prescription drugs of all kinds, in the Bible it refers to staying away form "magic", certain Greek translations has that word referring to drugs.
Jesus would not want our society to turn away from Him because He came here to save us all. He especially would not want the adults to minimize His influence in our society because he would want children of all different types of backgrounds to discover salvation.
The devil is a liar, here is whats to come: Revelation 20:10 (New International Version) New International Version (NIV) "And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever."
The end of the game is already known, the only question now is - 'who's team are you on'.
Some people say "Jesus never said abortion and homosexuality are evil in the New Testament, therefore it is fine and these Christians don't even know their own religion".
The Jewish 'authorities' tried to pin down Jesus to the 'letter' of the Law's, Jesus saw through their hearts. Oh yes, they were very good at bickering, for example, they tried to pin down Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, they said Jesus was working on the Sabbath.
They were experts on using God's own word for their own perverse goals. However, they were on the side of evil, same as those who don't know Jesus perversely try to use Him against Himself today.
The New Testament does not nullify the word of God in the Old Testament, Jesus is God, Jesus came that all might have salvation, but Jesus's resurrection to pay for all man's sins does not change the truth of Jesus's Father, God.
Jesus does not specifically refer to the practice of abortion in the New Testament, he refers to "life", and the enemy comes to "steal, kill, and destroy". Jesus does not specifically refer to Internet child pornography, but would you favor Internet child pornography?
Their problem is that they have not received the Holy Spirit made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus who is the world's Savior. They are still acting like the ones who wanted to persecute the Savior of the world to satisfy their own perverse desires:
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine, instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NIV). Y
They are exactly like the high priest attempting to entrap Jesus, or in this day, entrap his teachings to somehow make it look to favor killing babies and two men laying with each other.
This is the 'letter of the law' trick because they do not know the Son.
The synagogues back when Jesus was around used to sell small leather arms bands with a little leather box on them, this was to keep a very small scroll of God's word on their left arm to fulfill the Word of God which said "keep My words close to your heart", of course this is not what God meant, this is a perversion of God's word.
Similarly, the high priests would sell head bands for the people to buy and wear in public. The head bands would have God's word on it, to fulfill the teaching of God that said "Let them not go from your eyes", another perversion of God's teachings.
There are many more, including Liberals lying about their intentions: "We are not for abortion, we just don't want the government bla bla bla", "We are not against Christians, we just don't want the government bla bla bla", "We are not for homosexuality, we just don't want the government bla bla bla", yet they feverishly defend homosexuality and abortion but favor stifling Christianity in public whenever possible.
God may be witnessing their heart as they devise their argument towards death.
Their master is the father of lies and they are a willing apprentices. Little has changed in the last 2000 years. They hate Christ same as they did 2000 years ago, they try to mask that fact with cleverness.
