Drunken Mystic

The last one … finally!

Today I want to address concerns people might have. Let’s say you believe this craziness I’m saying … what do we do?

We have large portions of our economy that preys on people’s lust and greed. Billions are spent on advertising each year, trying to convince us that what we have isn’t good enough (godliness with contentment is great gain) or our lack of something is unacceptable.

Wouldn’t the downturn in certain markets lead us into a recession, or even a depression? (Possible markets this could affect: entertainment, sports, luxury goods, etc)

I’ll tell a story. Jesus went to this town and a possessed man was uncontrollable. The Legion of demons asked to go into a herd of pigs and throw themselves to their death. Jesus allowed this. Later on, the townspeople saw the possessed man in his right mind and asked Jesus to leave.

Don’t you think the of a large herd of pigs hurt the economy of that little town? And what were Jews doing with pigs anyway? Aren’t they unclean?

They probably had pigs to sell to the Romans and other tradesmen that traveled throughout the Empire (making money off of the Roman oppression of the Jews). Either way, Jesus didn’t seem too concerned about their economy. He was more concerned with getting rid of the unclean things in their midst: demons and pigs, all in one stroke.

Do you really think that if we, as Christians, bought less and gave more that God would cease to provide for us? The economy may be affected, but we would see more supernatural examples of provision than ever before. Real book of Acts type stuff.

(There’s also the story of the possessed girl in Acts; Paul exorcised that demon and ruined her master’s livelihood … Paul also ruined the economy of the magicians and idolaters in other towns … he caused riots and was persecuted just as Jesus was.)

I really don’t think it would make that big of a difference, though. Maybe this is me being cynical, but remember, this thing is a NARROW way. Getting people to actually change their hearts and live radical lives for God (opposite of the culture that surrounds them) proves who really follows Him and who doesn’t. Those who scoff at a God who would ask them to do something radical just to follow him don’t serve the true God anyway, only a God of their own imagination. Definitely not the God of the Bible.

So the next concern becomes: what do we do? If we believe the truth that, as Christians, we are called to live way below our means, what do we do if we own a house that is too big or cars too luxurious or whatever?

Do whatever is necessary to live far below your means. First, get out of debt. All debt if you can as quickly as you can. Sell the things that you own that you are making payments on and buy a used car or two, owning them outright. Sell your house if it is too big for your family and live in something smaller or ask other people to come and live with you or find people for you to go and live with (I would suggest people you are in fellowship with). This way everyone pays less for housing, saving money for you and them.

Stop buying books, CDs and DVDs. Get a library card. Part of your taxes go for that privilege anyway. Stop going to $10 movies. Go to the $1.99 movies or rent from Blockbuster … maybe even do something online like Netflix or BBuster online where you never even have to see the inside of the store and get sucked into the “new things.” Get rid of gaming systems and computer games that take up too much of your time anyway, removing the need to even spend money on those games. Get rid of your cable or satellite. Catch the news on the radio or internet and rent your favorite shows from the video store or library after the season is over.

Buy just what you need at the grocery store. Buy clothes you need at a thrift store or as cheaply as you can find. Give half of your clothes away. I bet you don’t wear half of what you have anyway. Go through all the stuff you have in storage. Sell it on Ebay or Craigs List (this can allso help you get out of debt or have money to give away) or just give it to Goodwill.

Now you’re on the right track. Think of how much money you are not spending by doing all of those things I just mentioned. But you can’t just stop with getting rid of stuff. That’s not the point alone. Find an outlet to give more money and time to those in need. Uniteus.com has some great ways to get involved through some major churches in Gwinnett and links to co-ops and other things. Volunteer (yes, you might not watch as many movies or spend as much time on self-entertainment) or give money and resources of some sort. Find ways to give as much as you possibly can and still provide basic food and clothing for yourself.

If there is any luxury that your first reaction is, “I can’t get rid of that!” or “I can’t do with less in that area!”, you don’t have control over it. It has control over you. That is , and God’s people are called to be free.

Be free from this perverse generation and its materialism.

Peace.

Let’s look at the scripture on the subject. First of all, like I said before, thou shalt not covet is in the main ten rules, up there with and stealing.

Ever wondered why covetousness and stealing are two separate commandments? Stealing deals with wanting stuff that is not yours, too, only we take them through some inappropriate means.

That means that, in the eyes of God, wanting something that does not belong to you is the same as stealing it. When you for other goods, you might as well be a thief.

You think I’m exaggerating? Well, let’s look at Paul. He was kind of a big meanie with ual , let’s see how he views covetousness. In Ephesians 5:5 He says no covetous man will have “any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” In fact, Paul says that a covetous man is an idolater. In other words, wanting things you don’t have or don’t need means you worship them. You might as well be putting a big Hindu statue in your living room and bow down to it.

Beginning in v. 7, Paul says, “Therefore, do not be partakers with them. For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light …”

Earlier in v.3, he says, “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints.”

So, twice Paul mentions covetousness with fornication. Neither should even be mentioned among us who call ourselves believers, “as is fitting.” It is basic, not mature.

Okay, moving on from that meanie Paul to Jesus. Uh-oh … What is He gonna say?

Matt 6:19-24: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, your heart is also.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either he will the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches.”

This is from the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus continues in v.25 to talk about never worrying at all about material provision, which Jesus defines as food and clothes.

In the Jewish culture, if someone was greedy, they were said to have an “evil eye.” This makes sense, becasue they want the things they see. So, completely in context, Jesus was saying that greed causes darkness in the whole body, fills you with a great darkness.

Just before that, we’re told why. You either lay up for yourself treasure on earth OR treasure in heaven. You can’t have it both ways. Jesus does not give a third option. “Where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.” You heart cannot be focused on the eternal riches and earthly wealth at the same time.

Jesus further addresses this truth with the following statement. “No man can serve two masters.” He wasn’t talking about God and the devil. He was talking about God and earthly wealth! And again, no third option is available.

We have a whole generation that finds it acceptable to serve God and earthly wealth, gaining treasures for ourselves on this earth, as long as we say our hearts are not focused on them. Some even teach that seeking earthly wealth is a godly thing. Remember, Jesus was speaking to Jews, the only people with the law and ability to serve the one true God.

If you think you can serve two masters, you are wrong. You are serving riches and not God at all, no matter what your argument might be. And according to Paul, this makes sense, because God considers our covetousness as abominable as idolatry. “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” A child of god does not even associate with such abomination, and yet our modern Christianity is rife with it. “How great is that darkness!”

You have to go to seminary and learn some creative interpretation to come up with something different.

Now, we easily dismiss all of this by pointing to the fact we must support ourselves and our families. I agree, this is a godly thing, but we must be careful because deception has crept into this teaching, as well.

First of all, as Jesus and Paul both explain, food and clothing are promised provisions from God; God’s provision doesn’t necessarily include housing as a valid need. Remember, Jesus said that even He “had no place to lay His head.” I don’t know exactly what that means, but it seems to seriously place our suburban idea of need in relation to housing in serious doubt.

Secondly, all provision comes from God, which was Jesus’ next subject in the Sermon on the Mount. You might work, and the paycheck might have your name on it, but you did not provide for yourself and the money is not yours. As Christians, we understand that our Father is our only provider, and as men, we need very little and can own nothing.

Does this make it a sin to earn lots of money? Absolutely not. But it does make it a sin to live like it. We so easily justify a life of materialism because we can afford it, and God gave us all this money — He must want us to spend it on ourselves, right? Wrong. A true Christian — and this, biblically, is basic faith — lives way below his means in order to give as much as he possibly can to those in real need. Why?

To have reward in heaven. This is the “good eye.” The healthy eye. Remember, you cannot have a nice suburban house, nice cars, all the latest in home entertainment AND reward in heaven. According to Jesus, its just not possible. Those who live for their own pleasure have their reward already. Choosing to live below your means so that you may give to those in need is how you get reward in heaven.

I could go on, but I will stop here for today. I have a notebook full of scriptures (140 written pages) that I copied out of the Bible that deal with such things … tomorrow I will conclude and I will be done … for now … discussing the one taboo subject in American Christianity: our greed.

Peace.

Okay, so this one will be in three parts … and I’m sure it will make a few a little angry … but read to the end before you get too offended. You might actually see what I’m saying.

Most reading last weeks rant on sexuality would probably agree that our culture’s views and norms are not godly. We have popular books like Every Man’s Battle that deal with the destructiveness of our sexual lusts and practical ways to deal with it.

Where is the book about our material lusts? Where are the prophets that point out the destructiveness of our greed? Those men are seen as weird or fringe if listened to at all, but we definitely don’t see it as a common problem.

If I watched a TV channel that did nothing but try to get me to after other women (and they exist), most of my Christian brothers would see that as a real problem. My wife would be seriously wounded that my eyes were glued to the nakedness of other women.

We can kind of understand this because of what we discussed last week. But “do not covet” is also one of the Ten Commandments and Jesus deals with our materialistic heart in the Sermon on the Mount … not long after His dealing with sexual lust.

So then is it okay to watch a channel (pretty much all of them) that does nothing but try to get me to want things I don’t need or have? Why is it less sinful to bombard our brains with covetous thoughts?

I remember watching TV as a child … a lot. Every toy commercial that came up every five minutes, I told my brother or my mom, “I want that!” In fact, most of the kids shows I loved in the ’80′s WERE commercials themselves! GI Joe, Transformers, He-Man, you name it. Saturday morning and weekday afternoons were covet city.

I was fed, clothed, had a warm place to sleep and plenty of toys already, but I just had to have THAT ONE! It is horrible what this teaches children. God bless my mom for at least denying me (for whatever reason) and telling me to go outside and play.

But we never grow out of it. We have a warped sense of need in our culture. As soon as some item does not measure up to a new standard of luxury and convenience, we NEED a new one.

I’m dealing with this now, to a degree. One of my good friends graciously gave me an old computer that he had sitting around. It works fine and does all I want most of the time. But it is slower than the newer ones and has a chink here or there, so I feel like I NEED a new one. But I don’t.

Our whole capitalistic system is predicated upon convincing people to buy things they don’t need by making them feel they need it. Untold gobs of money is spent upon advertising because it works.

We also give into our greed with having luxury in the things we do need. We need a car, but we buy a newer car that stretches our budget (but we can afford it) and looks nice and has all the comforts we want instead of settling for something that may be cheaper and older but just as functional. We live in houses with way more room than we need, but we justify it with the fact that it’s in a nice neighborhood or was a great deal or we didn’t like all the minorities moving into our last neighborhood and bringing the property values down (another form of we don’t really talk about). We pay more for our food at nicer restaurants than eating at home or more cost effective solutions. Some people get new coats and clothes every year and fill their closets with clothes they never wear.

To sum up, we try to find luxury even in the things we need. Then we add a generated need for entertainment that causes us to want and spend even more. Pretty soon we have to trust God even to “tithe” and apologetically tell people we just don’t have the money for giving, not to mention the crazy hours we have to work (many times both parents) to afford it all. Then the public schools and day care raise your children and give them s when you’re busy making money to afford a higher level of luxury.

I haven’t even mentioned the material abomination that Christmas has become. People go into debt every year trying to supposedly honor the Son of God that heralded the poor.

Just as every man and woman deals with ual , we all deal with material greed, and it is more insidious becausee we don’t see why we should even address it.

Before you completely write me off, stick around for tomorrow and see what the scripture actually says.

Peace.

And with many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Acts 2:40

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Ephesians 5:11

At the end of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost, the people cried out in conviction, “What must we do?”

Peter’s response was to “repent and be baptised.” But he kept preaching, telling them what to repent of … this perverse generation. In fact, his whole theme in preaching was, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”

Not “be saved from hell” or “be saved so you can go to heaven” but “be saved from this perverse generation.” Why? Because Peter knew that the call to repent would work itself out in how they lived in the present world. Peter knew that the whole generation, only days before, had cried “crucify” and chosen a er over the Lamb. And Peter himself had participated in their rejection of Messiah by his own denials.

Peter knew from experience that the current generation was doomed to hell and needed to repent. Peter could also recall the teachings of Christ. Jesus had consistently spoken of an evil or wicked generation.

But was it just for that day two thousand years ago? Does the message still apply today?

I believe that it does. In many ways, our culture bears the same weaknesses as the Hellenistic society of the early Church. In other ways, we may be different, but we could easily exalt America as the pinnacle of Western Civilization and our Greco-Roman legacy.

I also believe that it is our call to be different, set apart, from the culture in which we live. We should possess a unique testimony of an eternal Christ in a temporary world. This will naturally cause us to be at odds with this world.

The scripture defines three interrelated entities that obstruct our pure relationship with Christ: the devil, our flesh, and the world.

We are called to be in the world but not of it, living a life of love visibly different from those around us. John 1 clearly explains a world of darkness that rejects the encroaching light sent to it. Why does the world reject the light? Because they love the darkness.

So let’s pare this down, limit our discussion to make it more practical. What darkness does our American culture love so much that it rejects the Light? There are four (at least) that I will discuss over the coming weeks to hopefully give some practical application to the phrase “be saved from this perverse generation.”

While we may be uncomfortable with such a focus on sin, I believe it is necessary to do so for two reasons:

First, to know what we must repent of, which requires exposing the darkness. If I was bound by a worldly idea that restrained by full pursuit of Christ, wouldn’t it benefit me to know it, to examine it at least? Of course it would. The first step of addressing a problem is admitting you have one. As GI Joe used to say, “and knowing is half the battle.” And as Ephesians states, “have no fellowship with the deeds of darkness, but expose them.”

Second, once we have been set free from such in practice (not just in head knowledge), we can intercede for the world out of love. Daniel and Ezekiel, while both righteous men and prophets, held themselves responsible for the sin of the nation and wept before a holy God. Christ intercedes before the throne for His Church. Who intercedes for the world? The Church does, but she must do it as one separate from the world in righteousness, just as Christ did, else our own sin hinder our prayers. Hence we become “little Christs.”

This is sure to offend many, since before we can reveal Christ as a prophetic nation we must get to the point of saying, “I am a man of unlcean lips in a nation of unclean lips.” The coal of repentance burns, but the resulting revelation is worth it all.

Peace.