[Cord #1/3]
Just HOW badly does God want you & me to be rich?
'Gather up the scraps!'
Note: What follows is a threefold cord of reasoning explaining why God wants His children (born-again Christians, the seed of Abraham) on earth to be rich, and just how fervently He desires for us to embrace this truth— today! Beginning here with fold #1. Enjoy.
Date: 1/27/22 5:37am
Author: Kiwi
2 Corinthians 8:9 KJV
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
Revelation 5:12 KJV
Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
Firstly let’s assert that Corinthians was written by Paul, and Revelation by John; meaning “…In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2 Cor 13:1). A threefold cord may not be quickly broken (Eccl 4:12), but when it comes to a word, established means established— you can take that to court!
Now, continuing on: To not take hold of a benefit of Christ’s perfect work at the cross would be to waste it. Jesus didn’t just die in the process, He endured the greatest of shame, degradation of His divine and Royal dignity, and unparalleled torture— when He didn’t have to.
So to understand how God feels about His Son’s most holy efforts going to waste in the lives of those ignorant of His precious sacrifice, we first must comprehend how the Father feels about waste in general…
Matthew 14:20 KJV
And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.
Matthew 15:37 KJV
And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.
Mark 6:43 KJV
And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes.
Mark 8:19-20 KJV
When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.
The verses above make reference to the two events detailed in the Bible, where Jesus miraculously multiplied a meager bit of food into enough to feed thousands of people until their satiation. After which He had His disciples gather up the leftovers so that NONE would go to waste.
Oh, my~ how conservative, LORD.
Think about that; even though God/Christ can snap their fingers to make an unlimited supply of bread and fish manifest from thin air, His divine mindset is that none of it goes to waste.
But wait, let’s go even further: Whereas the earth and everything in it was created by God’s speaking, and man by God’s hands and breath… for God to subsequently redeem man, He had to do much more than speak— He literally had to bleed!
Loaves and fish can be supplied on a whim, but the blood, sweat, & tears that went into the work of Jesus was a once-and-for-all deed, NEVER to need repeating. And yet, scoffers, mockers, and naysayers would waste the divine efforts of such an ordeal by suggesting that the riches He died to transfer to us are anything but a holy & righteous endeavor by an omniscient and almighty God…?
God —who is the same yesterday, today, & forevermore— is even MORE unwilling to co-sign the wasting of His precious Son’s wealth-endowing efforts, than He is to waste the leftovers of an easily-inexhaustible supply of food that He can whimsically make manifest at any given moment. Let that sink in…
If you don’t want what our LORD died to secure for us, cool! I’ll gladly claim your portion. But don’t believe for a second that you’re doing God —as well as yourself and anyone who could’ve been blessed by your abundance— anything but a cruel disservice by taking a squat on the blood-bought gift promised to us in 2 Corinthians 8:9.
Mammon means money, but money doesn’t mean mammon. Funds are necessary for all things (Eccl 10:19), and the poor cannot help the poor (Matt 7:3-5, 15:14).
Ecclesiastes 10:19 KJV
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.
[Cord #2/3]
The Life that Jesus Calls Us to NECESSITATES Our Wealth & Abundance
Proof? How you begin is how you are to continue…
(2/2/22 AMs—1:58pm)
Galatians 3:1-7 KJV
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Now… how did Jesus begin His ministry— what was the first miracle He performed…? That’s right, He turned water into wine. A miracle not of desperate bodily need or even immediate necessity of safety/protection, but of luxury and celebration of joy— where even the ordinary instruments of that joy (the early wine) prematurely ran dry, was replaced with a substitute (water), and that substitute miraculously transformed into extraordinary (the latter wine) to take the place of the previous ordinary! All for what? Merely to prevent shame!
Shame (Merriam-Webster)
- A) a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety
- B) the susceptibility to such emotion; ‘have you no shame?’
- C) a condition IGNOMINY of humiliating disgrace or disrepute; the shame of being arrested
- D) something that brings censure or reproach
- E) something to be regretted : PITY; ‘it's a shame you can't go’
Shame is a humiliatingly regretful state of a painful lack of Grace due to sin-consciousness creeping in from having missed the mark (“sin” = to miss the mark; ‘hamartia’). What voids grace? Hint: it isn’t sin; where sin increases, grace superabounds. What voids grace is the Law…
Romans 5:20 KJV
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound…
Galatians 3:21 KJV
Is the same law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
1 Corinthians 15:56 KJV
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
Romans 3:19-20 KJV
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
1 Timothy 1:9-10 KJV
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine…
Romans 4:14-15 KJV
For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Jesus’ first miracle was abundantly deeper than simply wanting to make sure the bride & groom’s guests had enough wine to commemorate the occasion with; the guests’ enjoyment and the couple’s dignity & honor were both more toward the shallow end of what Jesus was actually demonstrating here. The deeper meaning here seems to differentiate the territory of Grace from the territory of the Law. —the territory of life from the territory of death (2 Cor 3:6).
Essentially, God wants you rich to the same extent He wants you partaking of sonship under Grace (Rom 8:15, Gal 4:5); ABOVE the weak & beggarly elements of the Law (Gal 4:1-9) and the shame it inevitably breeds in the lives of morally-bankrupt man. The slavish spirit of bondage was once upon a time your correct mode of relating with God, under the old covenant of the Law, and that’s where poverty was appropriate. But the death of Christ on the cross reversed that curse, exchanging all we had under the old letter of the Law with all that Jesus painstakingly bled to give us in the new covenant of Grace.
Ecclesiastes 10:19 KJV
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.
Jesus began with reproducing a richer outpouring of merriment where merriment had been depleted, preventing the shameful pain of sin-consciousness and sorrow. If how you begin is how you’re to continue then His concise declaration seen in John 10:10 is absolutely appropriate:
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
[Cord #3/3]
The Poor & Needy Are the Responsibility of the Bride of Christ —the Church— And NOT the World’s
Bill Winston is talkin’ right! He knows his Bible.
(2/2/22 7:00pm)
Proverbs 29:7 KJV
The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it.
With such clarity there, what more really needs to be said? Okay, how ‘bout this…Jesus said that the poor you’ll have with you always. Translation: For as long as you’re a righteous man you will always have a reason —yes, YOU! It’s what princely people do, as greed is beneath us— to break off a piece of what God has blessed you with to share it with someone less fortunate. Translation of the translation? The richer the righteous man is, the better off the poor will be!
If God wants the poor well provided for and taken care of (which He does), then God wants to make sure the Church —in other words, the Bride of Christ— stays filth... uhh, cleanly rich! No more convincing than that should be necessary, but here’s a little more anyway; the Virtuous Woman depicted within Proverbs 31 is a picture of the Bride of Christ (the Church). Let’s ogle Jesus’ beloved lady for a moment (it should feel as if you’re merely checking yourself out in the mirror)…
Proverbs 31:10-31 KJV
Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
14 She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
17 She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.
19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
25 Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.
26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.
Regardless of how it may appear to man’s eyes, wealth and promotion come from the LORD and not by our own doing. However, you can clearly see the Church’s ‘hands’ are hard at work anyway. Essentially, you can rest assured that any wealth God places into the palms of the righteous man ends up there without error, and for His divine purposes.
Never find yourself believing that a Christian is supposed to be living a life that doesn’t partake of the wealth and abundance Christ died to transfer to us (John 10:10). For as long as He is our Shepherd, we shall never lack (Psa 23:1). Additionally, the more we have to spare, the more it punctuates God’s establishment of His covenant —through us— with Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob…
Deuteronomy 8:18 KJV
But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Yes & amen <3 ,Kiwi
