We are Fearfully Made

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

 

Psalm 139:15 “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.”

 

My wife and I went to see her neurologist to see how she was doing with the medicine regarding her aneurysm and consequent stroke but also because of the malseizure. I was somewhat disappointed to learn when the doctor said that the first six months of improvement would be as far as she would go in her development. I was disappointed because it did not seem to align with Scripture. For example, it says in Romans 12:2 that we are transformed by the renewing of our mind.

 

It would seem that our neurologist has the old thought that the brain is a ‘fixed hardwired machine.’ However, it now seems that scientists are catching up with the Bible and beginning to realize that ‘change’ can happen in the brain even in the most ‘challenging neurological situations.’

 

One of our prayer partners put us in contact with Dr. Caroline Leaf who wrote a book called: Switch on Your Brain. This has been very enlightening to both my wife and I as we begin to see that change can happen no matter what the neurological situation of the brain might be, or how old we are; that our brain can be transformed.

 

The important aspect of ‘change’ to take place is in the ability to ‘choose.’ This is one of the most precious things that God has given us: our free-will to choose. So what do my wife and I choose?

 

Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.”

 

When Jesus started His ministry and spent 40 days in the desert fasting it says afterword’s that “he was hungry.” It was at that time, when Jesus was most vulnerable, that Satan came with his temptations.

 

This was also happening with my wife, because of the brain damage caused by the aneurysm and consequent stroke. She was vulnerable to Satan’s attack. It was very important for us to choose life according to God’s Word, and not simply accept what the doctor said.

 

Every morning when she woke up I would ask her: What day is it? I was not referring to the day of the week, but the Scripture: “This is the day that the Lord has made and we will be happy and rejoice in it.” We were choosing to believe God’s truth. God did not make bad days, but we can make them bad by what we choose. We were doing our best to keep out any negative thoughts and when they did arise we would rebuke them and command them in the Name of Jesus to depart. Like I said, we can choose and what we choose has tremendous consequences.

 

In the Indiana Jones movie: THE LAST CRUSADE – THE HUNT FOR THE HOLY GRAIL, Jones meets the knight guarding the Holy Grail who says: “You must choose, but choose wisely.” So, it is with us. We make choices every day, but we better choose wisely – choose life.

 

 

 

 

My Thought Life

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

Colossians 3:1-2
Set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits, and think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

When life and politics are getting you down, it is because we are not thinking this way.

The Proverbs 31 Woman – Chapter 35 – Bread of Truth

Posted by & filed under Carols Blog.

The Lord calls the devil the “father of lies,” and everyone that rejects Christ and His truth has Satan as their spiritual father. Many truths in the Bible are hard to understand or even accept without the indwelling Holy Spirit, but before we reject what the Bible says we need to talk to someone who has personally experienced what God has said.

 

I had to apologize to my adult first-born son for not seeing what God was trying to show me in His Word about my children when he was in the third grade of public school. I believe this was the time when the public schools were beginning to teach more than they should, and the Lord was trying to get this across to me – through my son since I wasn’t getting it from my reading in the Bible.

 

The school bus stopped right out in front of our home where our son got on it, but this particular day the bus didn’t stop. I went out and found him hiding around the side of our home. I asked him why he didn’t get on the bus and he told me he didn’t want to go to school. I asked him why but he couldn’t give me a reason, he was just afraid to go. I kept him home that day.

 

I had to take my crying son to school the next day and walk him up to his classroom teacher asking her if she knew why he was afraid to come to school. (He had never done this before.) I asked her if she knew anything that had happened to him in the classroom or out on the playground. She didn’t have a clue. Every morning my husband and I prayed for him, over him, and to the Lord about him. We spoke God’s Word over him; we did everything that we knew to do to calm his fear.

 

The principal even checked in with the bus driver and there was nothing we could find that could’ve happened on the bus. The principal and I agreed that I would drive him to school and leave him with her and then she would take him to his class after he had calmed down. This went on for weeks. I can’t tell you how this broke my heart to have to leave our son in that place day after day. But, why did I believe I had to? Why was I convinced that “public” school was where all four of our children should be?

 

After some weeks our son didn’t fight it anymore, or cry about going to school. We never figured out what was wrong that he would carry on that way. It was a complete mystery to us all.

 

About thirty years later the Lord revealed it to me: God was trying to show me that I was to teach them at home. So I asked the Lord why He didn’t just come right out and say that to me, back then?!

 

Like most Christian mothers who still have the worldly culture in them that they grew up with, I needed God’s wisdom to raise my children up for Him. When the public schools no longer want children to learn or talk about the God of the Bible, and don’t allow any praying in the Name of Jesus – what should you do with and for the children God has put in your care?

 

I prayed for all my children as I sent them off to the public school each day. I was ignorant of what God wanted me to protect in my children. Children will believe anything they are taught until they have reason not to believe what they were taught. No wonder the devil is after children. It’s important that a child is fed the truth at home so they recognize lies and false information.

 

In the public schools today we have all kinds of people teaching children: homosexuals, pedophiles, atheists, communists, Satan worshipers, etc.; teachers with strong immoral and political agendas being pushed on kids. Public schools are to teach children the basics: reading, writing and arithmetic; the skills they need to go into their own interests of work and to become “skilled” in what they enjoy doing. Employers are finding less and less competent skilled employees – while employers are required to pay their employees more and more.

 

As a young mom I didn’t understand the right and the requirement that God gave parents to teach and raise their own children, or at least to make sure that those who are teaching your children every day are God-fearing, truthful about God and what He says is right and wrong.

 

It wasn’t until our third-born child (daughter) was in junior high school that I understood what my Father required of me, and I began home-schooling her and then our son who was two years younger than her. Our daughter bloomed once I took her out of that unholy system of education. It was extra work for me each day, but it was a good trade off. She has home-schooled her own children and so has our younger son’s wife their children.

 

If the school is teaching that which is contrary to the Word of God and contrary to your instructions for your children, then ask God to show you His way of escaping this destructive system and work with others of like mind and heart for the good foundation your children need. When they are older they can be educated in their own interests without compromising the truth and their faith in God.

 

Proverbs 23:15-18 “My son, if your heart is wise, my own heart also will be glad; and my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right and true. Do not let your heart envy sinners, but live in the fear of the LORD always. Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.”

 

The ideas and philosophies being fed to children and university students today is clearly the government requiring their teachers to assume the role of parents in teaching and training up children in the way the government wants to use it’s citizens. Sheer evil! As God’s people we need to do what is right for our children so they grow up in the truth and love of God, in the way we were created to think and live eternally with our Father God.

Money or Relationships

Posted by & filed under Franks Blog.

Most people tend to think that money and fame are the things that we need the most. However, the most important thing in life are our relationships.

 

As I look back on my time in Operation Mobilization the one thing that has been highlighted to me has been relationships that I have formed over the years with many in different parts of the world. That is worth more than all the money in the world.

 

Often, we think that we would be happier if we had more things in our life to enjoy, but this never brings true joy or deep satisfaction in our life. It is like Rabbi Daniel Lapin brings out that “genuine relationships with other people produce wealth. Wealth never produces genuine relationships.” A good example of this is the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis.

 

We see that Jacob honored his younger son greatly and the brothers were very envious of him because of that. So when they had the chance they sold Joseph as a slave and then we read in Genesis 37:26, “So Judah said to his brothers, ‘What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?’” What this brings out to me is that the brothers saw wealth more important than relationships. When the brothers came to Egypt (during the famine in their own land) to buy food from Joseph – Joseph returned their money. Twice this happened and it could very well be that Joseph was trying to teach his brothers that relationships are more important than wealth.

 

One of the things that we need to be working on is building ‘genuine’ relationships. When building relationships, it is not what we can get out of it, but how we can be a blessing to others. Like it was mentioned before, that in God’s language (as Rabbi Daniel Lappin calls it) some of the Hebrew words can be read forward as well as backwards, having different meanings.

 

The Hebrew for ‘wealth’ read backwards means ‘wicked.’  Isn’t that interesting. Wicked and wealth are connected.  We see this coming out when Paul tells Timothy, “The love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”.(1 Timothy 6:10) To me this brings out how wealth can be used for wickedness, or that wealth can be acquired by one’s own wicked ways; which in turn causes many sorrows in both cases. For many their faith in the Lord has been shipwrecked, they no longer walk with the Lord. People who had great wealth are known to also have had broken relationships in their marriage, family and friendships; all torn apart because of “the love of money.”

 

Our healthy relationships are the most important wealth there is to acquire in life. First, with our God. Second, within our nuclear and extended family, and within the family of God, as well as with our co-workers, customers, employers, etc.

 

 

 

The Proverbs Woman – Chapter 34 – Bread of Idleness

Posted by & filed under Carols Blog.

“….and does not eat the bread of idleness.” What does God mean by this?

 

One might think the definition of “idleness” is to do nothing or to have nothing to do, but to actually do nothing is not at all possible. We are always doing something otherwise we do not exist or we are in a comatose state of mind and on our backs being cared for.

 

Learning and eating have one thing in common: they both meet the needs we have for our purpose in life. The physical and spiritual are connected. You are what you eat!

 

Bread has a bread-maker. The Lord is giving us the insight here in that we learn to be idle. From the moment a baby starts to hear and see – the baby becomes active, and all the more active as their mind and body becomes stronger.

 

Idleness has a teacher, and it is not God or any of God’s ‘faithful’ servants. We can be very active in meeting our own needs and expectations and yet never accomplishing our true purpose in life. We can have big goals and have self-discipline each day in achieving those goals, but if our goals have nothing to do with God’s purpose for our lives then we have lived a life of idleness.

 

What we are taught – is how we will think. How we think is how we will live, which in turn influences other people, especially our children. So then it is very critical in every aspect of our lives that we are learning truth and wisdom from God’s Word and Spirit.

 

Fulfilling our purpose in life requires sleep: resting our body and mind from daily activity. (Sleeping is not idleness for it has a good purpose.) Far too many Christians have come to the pit of burn-out because they didn’t listen to their body or to the Holy Spirit. I love that about my Father; that He truly cares about our physical well-being far more than we do. He’s not in a hurry, so why should I be in a hurry? He’s in control, so why should I try to be in control? He’s not worried about my future, so why should I worry?

 

It’s idle to go along with the thinking and ways of the world, which is under the control of the devil (temporarily). It’s astute to check everything out with God’s Word and Spirit before we “eat” what the world wants to feed us – because once it is digested – it affects us and others around us.

 

Idleness is self-centered. Mental depression and physical illness are symptoms of idleness, and so are broken marriages, addictions and poverty.

 

Idleness produces idols because an idle person is always thinking about himself and how to get all that he wants.

 

Jesus brought it all out this way: “For the idolaters eagerly seek all these (earthly/physical) things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” Matthew 6:32-33

 

I’m reminded of how Jesus spoke and taught everywhere He went with His boys (His disciples). Jesus referred to Himself as the “Bread from Heaven.” His teaching (bread) was so nourishing that it drew crowds of people wherever He went and they were not concerned about going without physical food when they were with Jesus no matter how long it was. He is our food, in a spiritual sense. His words satisfy our spirits and bring fullness of life.

 

Jesus told the woman at the well that His water would never let her thirst again. She of course took this in a physical way, while He was speaking spiritually. Jesus always taught the spiritual using the physical because they are very much connected. Until He gives us His Spirit we are limited in what we can see and understand. His words to her that day fed her soul and sent her running into town to tell everyone about Him, and people believed in Him as the result. This should also be our practice: sitting and talking to Him each morning, letting His words digest so that we go about our day accomplishing the will of God.

 

Jesus told His disciples that they knew nothing about His “food” because His food was to do the will of His Father who sent Him and to finish His work. (John 4:34) No matter what we do in life we need to feed on God’s Word each day and listen to God’s Spirit so we gain wisdom to know how to apply ourselves in doing His perfect and acceptable will.

 

People need to see true Christianity as it was with the first generation of Christ’s followers. As it is, what people see today of ‘modern’ Christianity is tasteless and unfulfilling. We need to keep to the “ancient path” of the perfect and acceptable will of our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

 

You might have a career that makes you feel good about yourself, but it’s an idle career if you are not living out God’s purpose for your life. You might be a high government official, but unless you use your position to support God’s eternal values and laws, you are idle and wasting your time and strength in that position. You might be a good soldier or the highest ranking officer in your country’s military service, and even winning a war, but you are idle if the purpose for the war is not noble by God’s standard (good overcoming evil). You might be a church pastor with thousands of active members and still be idle, and teaching idleness, when you keep your congregation on the milk of the Word, keeping them in an “infant” state of mind. (Babies are all about attention, comfort and having things done for them.) You might have spent thousands of dollars on a college degree, but if you don’t have the heavenly wisdom to know the right thing to do with that knowledge – then you have wasted that knowledge and all those years in college. You can become famous to this world for something or be the wealthiest of all people and still be living a life of idleness – because it’s all about you.

 

“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear….For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ.” 1 Peter 1:14-19

 

Idleness is passed down generation to generation and all it produces is the empty life.

 

 

The Importance of Speech

Posted by & filed under Franks Blog.

One of the things that we find out about human beings is that we hate silence. We can see this coming out in social media. How often we have found that we had put our foot in our mouth and find ourselves in more trouble by speaking than in being silent.

 

As humans we naturally resist silence. We see this whenever a conversation falters, somehow, we feel the need to speak up. Trained negotiators will often use silence to create an awkward moment with the purpose of making a person speak who is being interrogated.

 

We know that without speech we cannot build and maintain relationships which are so important in bringing us into the fulfillment that God has for us. It is said that under communism or other tyrannies of governments, or with slaves that the casual conversation is hardly heard. Even with the Israelites under slavery in Egypt they had a breakdown in communication until redemption set them free.

 

It is interesting to see how in God’s language (Hebrew) many words revolve around speech. For example, the word for the feast of Passover can be read in two words: talking mouth.

 

This is why the Jews, when they celebrate the holy day meal of Sedar – have a script called the Haggadah, which translates: “the telling,” where they talk about the Exodus out of Egypt.

 

Rabbi Daniel Lapin brings out that the Israelites first campsite coming out of Egypt was called, “the mouth of freedom.” (Exodus 14:3)

 

“Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi–hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal–zephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.” Exodus 14:2

 

It is also interesting when the Hebrews wandered in the desert for 40 years that the word for desert is “talking” or “speech.” It was seen that the desert was a good place to bring people into conversation.

 

When we are surrounded by silence we hear more. There is an interesting book called, “The Awesome Power Of the Listening Ear” which brings out how important it is to listen. In any conversation these two will always go together, the ability to converse and the ability to listen. This is why it is important with small children to have participation in talking as well as listening.

 

Asking questions is a very good way to get a conversation going. When my oldest grandson was small we would get in the car and go to McDonalds and get a milk-shake and french-fries. We would sit in the back and then I would say to him: “Let’s talk.”

 

However, it is important to keep in mind (according to James chapter 3) that the out of control tongue is like a raging fire. Much destruction can come from an uncontrolled speech or loose tongue. Biblical wisdom teaches: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it – will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21) “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7

 

Dr. Caroline Leaf, in her excellent book called, “Switching on the Brain” says that “good thinking = good choices = healthy thoughts; toxic thinking = toxic choices = toxic thoughts.”

 

One of the most powerful things that God has given to us is the ability to choose. “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy 30: 19).

 

We are made in the likeness and image of God and when we come to Christ as our Savior, we can have the ‘mind of Christ.’ We need to bring every thought into obedience to Christ. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

 

 

Intimacy with God

Posted by & filed under Carols Blog.

Do you ever inwardly feel ashamed or foolish for constantly running to God for every little thing that happens or that you hope will happen, or that you don’t want to happen? Do you think you should only go to God for the most critical things, or when you are in a crisis or in great loss of some kind – hoping that He’s real and that He cares about you?

 

Father God wants us always conscious and convinced that He is favorably present in our lives, and waiting to be active by our dependency and trust in Him. This fulfills our Father God and it fulfills us.

 

Jesus said to His first disciples (who wrote down what He said to them so we could also have what He said) that they would start asking “the Father” in His Name after He leaves them and sends them His Holy Spirit in His place. Jesus told them that because they had seen and known Him – they had therefore seen and known the Father. Jesus was very personal and intimate with His first disciples and this taught them that the Father would be just as personal and intimate with those that He fills with His Spirit.

 

If you don’t read the Bible, you won’t really know the kind of relationship the Father wants to have with you. In God’s Word to us – we see His intimate involvement with His children. We see His mercy and forgiveness. We see His acceptable will for us, His anger with our disobedience and His discipline with our stubbornness. We see His faithfulness in directing us, protecting us and meeting our needs. We see His longing for fellowship with us, His pleasure and generosity with our faithfulness. We see His promoting us and prospering us, His positioning us for His use, and we even see His punishing of us – as a true Father who loves His children must do.

 

God loves us more than we will ever fully understand. All through eternity we will be ever-learning of just how much our Father God loves His children.

 

The only reason our Father would have in completely rejecting someone and treating them as His enemy is if on our death-bed we CONTINUE to deny and reject Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, as our Savior and Lord.

 

“What enthusiasm some people have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with Himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their OWN way of getting right with God by trying to keep His law. For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in Jesus Christ are made right with God.” Romans 10:1-3

 

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

 

“Anyone whose name was not found in the Lamb’s Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:15

 

“Therefore, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. And anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced. Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the Name of the LORD will be saved.” Romans 10: 9 -13

 

“You have shown me the path of life eternal. In Your presence is fulness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Psalm 16:11

 

“Your kindness and Your mercies O LORD, pursue me all the days of my life, and I will remain in my Father’s house for days without end.” Psalm 23:6

 

Constantly running to the Father and continually calling on Him – truly honors Him. God is pleased with our child-like faith in Him, and even more pleased when we take His written words and apply them in our life. When I admit to Him my own weaknesses and confess my own faults – He is faithful to do what He says He will do, and eager to show Himself to us in great and mighty ways. Our Father God desires a very personal and intimate relationship with us; to just sit and talk about whatever – because His nearness – is my good!

 

 

The Birth of our LORD

Posted by & filed under Carols Blog.

While I was once again thanking Father God for His Son – it came to me that one reason Jesus came into this world as a baby being born, born of a virgin at that, is so that we all would have it not only recorded in history, but remembered each year and celebrated.

 

If Jesus was just a man then why would His birth be celebrated all over the world each year? Jesus was more than just a wise and moral man. He is not like any man that gets celebrated for what they did for people. Do we give gifts to each other on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday? Kids get the day off but I’m sure they aren’t celebrating at home for what this great American president did in ending slavery.

 

I’ve been talking to my Father God about His Son, asking when Jesus, after coming into our world, knew His mission for coming into the world. They all (the God-head) agreed in Heaven prior to Christ’s birth on earth, but I’m pretty sure that as a newborn baby or a curious toddler – Jesus wasn’t thinking about His death.

 

I wonder when Mary and Joseph started talking to Jesus about what God had told them about who Jesus is. When did Jesus first understand? Was it when He was almost 30 years old when He came to be baptized by His cousin John, and when the Holy Spirit (the dove) ascended on Him? None of us really understand our God-given purpose until the Lord anoints us with His Holy Spirit.

 

Did Jesus make the connection that He was the ‘fulfillment of the Scriptures;’ the Scriptures that Israel’s leaders read each Sabbath in the temple about “the Christ?” We know from reading the Gospels that Jesus once said to them that He was the fulfillment of what they had just read in Isaiah about the Savior of the world. We also know the reaction it got from the Pharisees and Sadducees because they “did not recognize the time of His coming.” These blind guides of God’s people (as Jesus called them), and Christ’s own brethren, called for His arrest and then felt relieved when Jesus died on the cross. For us it is a “bitter-sweet” taste because if Jesus wasn’t born, and He didn’t die as He did, then we would have no salvation and no hope for peace on earth – good will towards men. Doomed to eternal damnation!

 

I enjoy making a big deal over the birth of my children and grandchildren. To me their birthdays are very important to celebrate. And I also believe that Father God wants a BIG DEAL made over the birth of His Son each year; not with ‘material’ gifts but with our gifts of praise for what He’s done and still plans to do according to His promises. Giving Him our humble renewing of our vows to Him, because as sinful humans we tend to forget that Jesus is our “first love,” the most important person in our life. We give Him gifts every time we share HIS GIFT OF LIFE with others, and pray for people to believe.

 

Do you realize that there has never been anything or anyone written about – as much as Jesus Christ? Not one person has had as many books written about them as the Son of God has. Not any event that has ever happened on the earth has been written about as much as the life of Jesus Christ.

 

The one thing I simply love in how Jesus came into our sin-sick world as a helpless baby is that we get to remember Him each year for His ‘miraculous’ birth and how our Father God protected that whole process from when He seeded into Mary the physical life of His Son – all the way through to Christ’s resurrection back to His Father, after His death on the Cross.

 

Each year we get to celebrate Him. How many birthdays of any of our dead loved ones are celebrated each year? I don’t know anyone who celebrates the birth of a dead loved one. Most people ‘remember’ the death of their loved ones but they don’t ‘celebrate’ the day. But we do celebrate the death of our blessed Savior, and why? Because He opened the way through His physical life, His death and resurrection for those who honestly and fully believe in Him, to live with Him forever.

 

We all love remembering the birthdays of our loved ones, but how much more should we show our JOY and PRAISES over the birth of the Savior of the world? Imagine how it hurts our Father God to hear us make such a BIG deal over Santa Claus and to go into debt buying gifts for each other, without ever acknowledging His Son as He deserves.

 

I love what this Christmas card says and it’s ours from Mike and I – to you all:
JESUS – No longer a babe in a manger low

Not just a figure from history….

No longer the Nazarene carpenter

Nor just that teacher from Galilee….

For Christ is risen and reigns on high in glorious majesty!

So now His redeemed shall worship Him throughout eternity.

Celebrating our glorious coming KING of Kings

with you this Christmas season!

Importance of Money

Posted by & filed under Franks Blog.

Matthew 25:14-18 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.”

 

To do what we have got to do in the world today – we need money. To evangelize the world, to be involved in the cultural mandate that God has given us – it will take money. So when it comes to money we cannot be neutral.

 

We know from Paul’s teaching that the love of money is the root of all evil. However, money is essential to get by in this world. We know that money is important because we see how often money is mentioned in the Word of God.

 

Do we work for money or do we have money work for us? There is a big difference. There is a proverb that says, “Under the mattress stash is a recipe for financial disaster.” And Jesus told us to put our money to work.

 

The word for money in God’s language (Hebrew) is the word “Keceph.” It consists of three letter’s: Peh, Sameech and Kaf. According to Rabbi Lapin the first letter ‘Kaf’ and the last letter ‘Peh’ together mean ‘both the palm of the hand and the sole of the foot.’ Interesting!

 

In other words, this brings out the two methods of adding value to an object or money. With the hand we work, and with the sole of our foot we transport. These two would go together in adding value to an object. However, the middle letter for the Hebrew word ‘money’ brings out how to maximize its value.

 

It is interesting Rabbi Lapin brings out that this middle letter “Sameech” does not appear until the second chapter of Genesis regarding the rivers surrounding the Garden of Eden. In other words, this letter shows up with a word meaning “encircle, or surround.”

 

Genesis 2:13 “The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush.”

 

What does this mean in regards to money? We are to circulate money and not put it under the mattress which is “a recipe for financial disaster,” as the proverb states. In other words, money gains in value when it is circulated: loaned and invested, like it says in the New Testament we “put it to work.”

 

God is showing us how the world really works regarding money. When money is hoarded instead of being put to work it leads to a slowing down of the economic system and brings about low unemployment, the bread lines for the poor, recession (economy beginning to collapse), which leads to a ‘depression’ (collapse of economy) that often lasts for several years.

 

So, money that is given through subsidies (socialism) is not putting money to work, but working towards what is known as “egalitarianism” (equal outcome, classlessness). It is the distribution of money which is not wise because it does not put money to work. In socialism government works to be heavily involved with the people’s money because it will take a strong power to take from those ‘who have’ to give to those ‘who do not have.’

 

My question is: Is socialism biblical, or godly, in regard to how money is used?

 

With ‘capitalism’ it is different than ‘socialism,’ because little government is involved in how our money is used, and property is privately owned and protected by law. Capitalism is driven by self-interest, and the people putting their money to work. Like Adam Smith, the 18th century philosopher and father of modern economics said: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”

 

Competition is a key element for putting money to work, and brings about social welfare benefitting the producers and consumers. A key element in capitalism is the freedom to choose and compete. One of the most powerful things that God has given us is a ‘free will’ and the power to ‘choose.’

 

I go back to what the Hebrew word for money means and Jesus’ interpretation of it in Matthew 25:14-30. The disciples that put their money to work received praise from the Lord, but the one who does nothing with what God gives him received condemnation.

 

 

 

 

 

True Meaning of Christmas

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

The true story of Christmas, written around 700 years before His birth.

 

Isaiah 53:2-12 NLT:
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected- a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

 

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave. But it was the LORD’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the LORD’s good plan will prosper in his hands.

 

When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

 

So this Christmas when you are opening gifts, stop and think of this gift that Jesus gave you, and ask yourself this question, “Have I forgotten to receive His gift of salvation?”