Tag Archives: money

Helping vs Helping At People

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Helping Versus Helping At People

Something we Christians do a lot, is we “help at” people which is not the same as helping people.

We give food baskets to the blind man and buy glasses for the lame, when that’s not their primary issue.

We want to do what we want to do, just to say we’ve done something rather than what they need done.

Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us”.

To help someone, we have to start with where they are and what they’re doing. We have to be with them. We have to expose ourselves long enough to SEE THEM, to see who they’d be, what they’d have and what they could do if the kingdom were to come to their life.

Then, we could come alongside them to help them walk in that reality.

We help people by first elevating our view, elevating their view and then elevating their circumstances to match that as it is in heaven.

We should be satisfied with nothing less.

That’s help.

#help #service #ministry

The One With The Most Fails

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - The One With The Most Fails

Imagine if God gave to us with the intent that we give to others, to the extent that when He comes to judge our work that is counted as a failure if we have anything still in our account!

I believe Jesus drops a truth bomb here:

Consider the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)

The Master gave varying amounts to three servants.

The only servant that failed was the one who still had what the Master had given.

But what about the two that succeeded?

They understood that they never owned what they were given. It was always the Master’s and they used it for His profit, not their own.

I repent!

My goal is to succeed and do likewise: to own nothing and use everything the Master gives me for His profit. And at His coming, my goal is for my account to be empty but for His house to be bursting at the seams.

The reward I seek is, “Well done good and faithful servant. Well done.”

#lookagain

The False Doctrine Of ‘I Earned It’

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Evil Eye

We feel justified living in luxury while people around us languish because “I earned it”.

We have made it a doctrine and enshrined it in our self-made American Judeo-Christian religion.

But, Jesus does not share our American ideals of capitalism.

If we belong to Christ we do not “work for money” or ourselves. We serve the Lord, so we regard money and prosperity differently.

The goal of gaining more is not to eat more.

The goal of gaining more is so that everybody eats.

Consider Matthew 20:10-15:

“But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius.

“And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, “saying,

‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them and said,‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?

‘Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.

‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’
— Matthew 20:10-15

Note that the landowner didn’t just go find workers, he sought people who didn’t have work.

This is in keeping with the point that Jesus is making about the Kingdom of Heaven: we all were without means of earning a living (eternal life) but I choose you and gave you that opportunity, and My heart was that everybody could live (good eye) while your heart was to have more than others (evil eye).

Being born again includes being given a new heart that looks at everything, including money with new eyes.

It is errant to save up treasure for yourself. See Luke 12:19-21

Because I’ve worked for it does not mean I can do with it whatever I please. I am the Lord’s.

Our approach to money and the power He’s given us to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18) should be seen as resources made available to take care of our Lord’s house and our fellow servants. See Matthew 25:44-51

Repent, with me.

This is an excerpt from one of three areas (identity, treasure, purpose) where the Lord is challenging lies I’ve embraced that hinder my receiving the “true riches”, and where He’s imparting to me the “things that make for my peace”.

#trueriches #money #thethingsthatmakeformypeace

The Deceitfulness Of Riches

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com The Deceitfulness Of Riches

For weeks, I’ve intended to:
visit a loved one,
sit with a dear brother,
put in quality family time,
write that note,
make that call,
share that word.

Why haven’t I?

Because I’m occupied with what I have to do to make the money to keep what I’ve got.

And, I’m preoccupied with what I have to do to get more.

“what I have to do…”

I’ve been in bondage.

The world says I can attain the good life if I somehow manage to get the right combination of things. But, Jesus teaches that the things that make for my peace are in knowing the Father and following Him, forsaking all else.

I know the truth, but at some point I again embraced the lie.

This deception offered me fool’s gold, robbing me of what matters most: precious time loving people who are dear to me and dear to God, in exchange for the worthless: a nirvana I might experience some day if I manage to get and do all the right things. (Spoiler alert: It’s a lie. Fulfillment never happens this way.)

Working for more stuff and living more life are in opposite directions. And, I’ve been going the wrong way!

My focus should not be on how to keep what I have or how to get more. My heart should be set upon attending to my Father’s house rather than seeking my own interests and pleasure. When I have the same heart as the Father (as demonstrated by Jesus, His only begotten Son), then my pleasure comes from seeing His house provided for and prospering.

So, I pray “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit with in me!”.

I’m on a journey now
to lay aside that which ensares me,
to divest myself of what weighs me down,
to sell what I have to share with those who lack,
to live with less so I have more to give:
to follow Jesus.

I repent.