God vs Money, God or Mammon - 22 Mar 2017
I made more enquiry about Gastro was told it's some sort of lab if i understood well, and bill is like consultation fee of NGN1,500.
Bounced, mindset is get to office soonest so joy shall be on faces and in people's soul.
Continued studying PHP and helped Life Builders Initiative solve one or two problems with donation page at http://www.lifebuildersng.org/donate.php. Made it more sassy and attractive hopefully pls lets donate help the underprivileged amongst us. Upon leaving work around after 6pm, saw Biggie, Musty's brother was happy to see him. Since they moved out of the neighborhood, they became like petrol when it is scarce. A little girl played tiko tiko with me which i wasn't getting while Gabriel was at the corner near the Harrison's with Kaduna neighbors that handle our kunu and sobo needs.
While greeting with Musti's bro, a car pulled up in the Close, thought it was a black benz but lo and behold, Hyundai! They are at it again! My friend said this people love to copy. I strolled judiciously to the front for closer inspection and indeed everything about the car looks a copy of benz.
Reflected during the day how the Germans are great engineers - automotive and civil. They built a good percentage of the FCT, the main structures to my knowledge. Julius Berger did it and i heard they are not even top 10 in their country.
Earlier, i saw a stadium built in Germany that changes color, from blue, white and another color. WOW! My guy Dele who loves football and has passion for it gingered me to research about the premier league and i eventually learnt that Bundesliga, which is German has the most sittings in the world. Premier league falls behind. Premier League is the biggest earner in the world, heard their power came from deals they made with broadcasting; boosting their revenues to the point was heralded by the Leader of the Kingdom.
We need to work on our broadcasting prowess. Bundesliga, though have bigger sittings, aint too popular as such cos of lower promotion. African league, should i laugh at that? hell no, Africa, Naija is coming up.
After work, a search, God vs Money. I felt i needed money to uplift my lifestyle. Was flexing living large before. Felt if i add 'more good to my soul', i could up my output, spiritually too. Anyway, researching about God vs Money gave me an interesting masterpiece. Where the Author shared some of this on the blog https://livewithoutlovingmoney.wordpress.com/ -
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
(I John 4:16)
One of the most shocking teachings of Jesus I can think of is the choice He gives us in this verse:
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24)
Consider this verse for a while. The word “serve” is used twice, and it implies the concept of working for someone. You can’t work at two different jobs at the same time, right? You can either work at the restaurant, or you can work at the clothing store. But you cannot possibly work at both of these jobs at the exact same time.
Jesus uses very strong, clear, expressive language here to really bring this point home to us. Why would Jesus place God and Money at opposite ends of the spectrum?
Most people who have any rough idea of some of Jesus’ teachings assume that Jesus would say it was a choice between us serving God or the Devil. But no, that’s not the choice we are presented with here. Again, we have to really wonder, WHY? A lot of religious folks try to interpret this saying of Jesus to mean something like: “Well, you gotta put God first in your life.” True. But then these same people will try to further soften the impact of this amazing teaching by stating things like: “You know, ANYTHING can become an idol in our lives, and God sees it all the same.” To some extent, there is some truth here as well. If someone, most often a professing Christian, tries to put forward this argument to me, it really does seem like they are trying to do everything they can to avoid dealing with the straight forward choice Jesus is giving us in this passage. It bears repeating: NO ONE can serve (i.e., work for) God AND Money. According to Jesus, we HAVE to choose, working for one or the other, remembering that God is LOVE.
If we understand that “serving” is typically defined as “working for”, how do we choose to work for God instead of money? For example, can you serve Satan without working for him? In the context it’s clear that “serve” and “work for” have the same meaning.
Think about how we have come to accept that working for money is simply a fact of life. We spend time at our various jobs, and are then given a certain amount of money in order to compensate us for services rendered. This seems so unbelievably natural to us, doesn’t it? But the amazing truth is that the idea of working for money is a system that humans designed for themselves. And now we are enslaved by this very ideology.
People usually respond to us at this point by saying that there is no other choice; this is how we have to survive these days. But is that really true? Jesus lived in times similar to what we live in now, with regards to people working for money. He obviously knew exactly what money meant to the world around him. However, if one is perceptive enough, they will take note that Jesus had no job as he spent those three years as a wandering Teacher. Moreover, He even told those who wanted to follow Him that they would have to quit their jobs as well! He taught His followers that God would feed and clothe anyone who chose to let go of their own lives, and begin working for God.
Compare these two verses:
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals.” (Luke 10:2-4)
“Then Jesus asked them, ‘When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?’ ‘Nothing,’ they answered.” (Luke 22:35)
And then there’s this:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t plant or harvest or gather food into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. You are more valuable than they are, aren’t you? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet [King] Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? Don’t worry and ask yourselves, ‘Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?’ Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:25-34)
What if we seriously believed that a loving God would literally take care of all of our material needs (not wants, but needs)? We have found that trusting God to take care of our needs is well worth the leap of faith! Of course, this necessarily implies that instead of wasting our lives working for money, we are now free to spend our time working for God. This can take on many different forms, but the bottom line is sharing the Teachings of Jesus with a world that is desperate for real answers.
And believe us, serving God is infinitely more rewarding than serving Money. Another benefit is that there are plenty of positions available to begin working for God right now, and you don’t have to ever worry about losing your job when you work for the Creator of the universe!
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Before then was recounting on a song i made years ago with friends about Money. I shared Money is like a second, as a wife is second to her hubby.
Reading the article above from the blog, helped me mold my resolve firmer to go to full time ministry as an evangelist, a missionary and a witness for Jesus Christ.
May God help me with my resolve and may i find amicability to deal with family, friends, and current fellow workers.
Not fully passionate about the current work am doing.
My prayer is the organization finds the most qualified and motivated person to fill that role and take them to the peak.
In the evening i met my brother David from Living Faith; we had fruits, watermelon and Pineapple which we made salad out of and it was good. Was blessed by Anthony with a wonderful plate of rice and beans and stew. We dined we were happy. We shared about the faith and visions for progress. To get the model of church like after pentecost, it had be good if we the church could improve on our sharing.
David suggested making Ogbono. He mixed with egusi, moringa, crayfish and other things. We were dining with Anthony and kept a special reserve for the other Anthony.
We shared the meal with the other Anthony while leaving the building to escort David. Upon returning got my phone. Prepared for meeting with my Bigger neighbor so we have an evening house fellowship. Anthony was able to pause rice to partake. In we where and on tv was news about Doctor which committed suicide, cops were analyzing. Had a driver, a car, but just decided on exit. Learned also a friend of mine Bitrus passed away; at a point was often wondering what is the point of life.
May God help us all and may we all learn to be our brother's keeper, and escape illusions of worldly achievements and focus on brotherhood and kindness and love in Jesus name as we check on one another and endeavor each of us is doing fine and going higher.
Evening devotion was about change. In Christ, we are new creatures and old things have passed away, new has come. Change, change and change, we are always changing.
Even Easterners of old attest to this, a famous Philosopher observed he is always a changed man. The he that stepped into the water was different from the one coming out of the water.
Important question: when people are observing us, will they see and say we have changed more christlike?
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