But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
James 3:17
You can build a house quick if you don't deal with the foundation. But the foundation I have heard from builders is what will keep the house from crumbling under pressure.
If you build your faith on the strength of religious activities and not grace you are going to be disappointed.
If you build your faith thinking that wealth is a fruit of the spirit you are going to be disappointed.
If your faith is resting in what Jesus has already done for you then you are on the right road to solid.
Where is that place that God has desired for all men to be?
With Him.
Let me tell you what takes faith.
It takes faith to in the face of all opposition, say what God told you to say and do what God told you to do regardless of opinion.
This place of producing for God begins with reaching maturity.
The Lord is coming back for a meek and mature church.
Our failure to set a good example among those who don't agree with us is our spot and blemish.
We can't shame or embarrass people into submission or greatness.
The Lord continues to talk to me about the parables that he spoke in to His disciples and I am going to share what Holy Spirit is saying to me today.
Don't spend time reading this blog if God has given you an assignment to be preparing for His work.
It is a disservice to the people that God has assigned you to to not take time and prepare for what He would have you do and it shows that you don't have your ear to His mouth but that you have become distracted with justifying your self.
I am doing what God told me to do.
Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.
And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores,
and longing to be fed the crumbs which were falling from the table; besides even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.'
But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here and you are in agony.
And besides all this between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over fro here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'
"And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house--
for I have five brother's-- in order that the may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.
But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
But he said, No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!
But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.
I have heard it said that even people who don't believe in God are blessed as a result of operating in Biblical principles, like giving, building homes for the less fortunate.
It's good and it's noble and it should be done.
The blessing of God is through Christ.
You can give until the cows come home and even say that God gave you the ability but nothing comes to God or from God to us except it come through Christ the mediator.
Psalm 37 teaches us to not fret because of evildoers; neither be thou envious of the workers of iniquity.
The little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked.
We know that Moses chose to leave the wealth of Egypt and live in all modesty rather than eat bread at the kings table.
Don't be frustrated about where you are at financially based on what someone else is doing.
Movies stars and wealthy celebrities don't understand that the blessing of God is His long suffering so that they might see and understand that it is His goodness that leads to repentance.
The rich man is mentioned often in Jesus parables. The lawyer in Luke 10, He spoke of the rich young ruler in Luke 16.
I'll look at him tomorrow because it ties in to this.
I'm not saying that we are supposed to be poor or that Jesus was poor or that God has not the ability or desire to prosper His people.
I'm saying look at how defining the blessing as material wealth can choke out the Word of God making it fruitless.
When God blessed men by no fault or doing of their own in order to show them His grace, mercy and that He is able to do it.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that leads men to repent.
I want to talk to you like someone may have talked to the rich man in Luke 18.
I'm not dead, I'm not an ordained preacher, I'm not an angel, I'm not a miracle.
I am a servant of God and I am a sower and I do sow the Word of God.
You may be wealthy and I don't want your money and God doesn't want it, God wants you.
Everything that you have achieved has not merely been done based on your hard work and dedication.
It's not only been who you knew and the doors that any man could open for you.
It hasn't been through favors and affiliations.
It hasn't been your education.
It hasn't been your good looks or your gift that you half hearted thank Him for.
It's been through God wanting to move you to the place of blessing when you didn't have time for Him.
When you didn't seek to know who He was.
When you disagreed with what He has set as truth in His Word about His Son.
He blessed you with health, wealth and fame when you did wrong and knew you were doing wrong.
When you took His platform and used it for tirades, He continued to bless you.
Because He is long suffering.
And God Blesses men not because of what they do but because of who He is.
When you get this revelation nobody ever has to bully or guilt you into giving to or doing God's work.
They will respect that you have heard from God and do accordingly.
You do have to do something.
That rich man had the opportunity while he was alive to have compassion and be a blessing to the man at his gate but he didn't.
God doesn't do that you.
When you are there laying at His door covered in all sorts of stuff God doesn't ignore you.
I thank The father that He is not a God of exclusion and rejection, you are wanted by God the Father and by Jesus Christ the Son.
God will not ostracise you He counts you worthy that is why He has blessed you to see these words today.
People may love to make you feel left out because they may believe that they have more to offer you than you have to offer them.
But God doesn't believe that He has more to offer you than you do to Him.
Having with you and having you live in His Will gives Him pleasure.
Folks may try and make you feel invisible and unworthy of attention, but instead I say that you are important enough to be the object of their inattention and God's total attention.
Come to Jesus.
Because His eye is on you and you may believe that you are blessed in your own deeds but God has blessed you to show you how he cares for you and How He has not forgotten or closed the door on you.
There will come a day just like the day for us all just as the day that Lazarus and the rich man had, where we will all go to our places after physical death and we can't cross over then.
Cross over today.
Understand that your blessings are God's long suffering grace that He has bestowed upon you so that you can examine your self and repent of all sin.
1John 1:9
There are folks in the church and outside of the church who don't get this, I am so not hating on your wealth.
I know where it comes from and what it's purpose is.
Repent and turn back to God.
The devil would love to snatch from the pulpit as much as from the palace, the prison, or the pimp.
BLESSED
Luke 18:9-34
Love Y'all
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