“Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
“Do you believe that I am able to do this?” ( Matthew 9:28 ).
Gen. 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day.
Gen. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
“The word “good” here comes from the Hebrew “tov”. It is better translated as “delightful” or “fat: or ”incredible“ …this world can be improved by no human work-it is abundant, satisfying, magical.” Ched Myers
Rather then focusing right now on what went wrong, I want to dwell here in “good”. This is where we are going, ultimately. To good, to God’s good pleasure, to complete. this is what I understand the word glory to be. The reality of God’s ultimate intention. God himself is good. His purposes are good. The end is good. Even the word we translate saved or salvation (Gk. sozo) is healed, delivered made whole, good. We enjoy this goodness, because of what he did as us for us.. Life, love and laughter and joy flow out of good. Thanksgiving flows out of good. This is where we begin…good. Nothing is to wonderful to be true, is my mantra. We were created for life, goodness, joy, love and peace. Hope. there is hope. and we get to trust. Faith is the fuel, hope is the road and love is the being.
It was very good, and God rested.
It is in this rest we live and move.
Acts 17:28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Since we are made in the image and likeness of God…Can we rest?
I enjoy what I do for a living, I’m told I am good at it. However asking me to rest takes some doing, getting me out of rest once I am in it takes work. I primarily work these days to pay my mortgage and feed my family. I took out a mortgage thinking I was investing in the future for possible retirement and to have an inheritance for my kids. As a result of the recent financial downturn, I am basically renting the house from my mortgage company. So, I work now with the understanding that all the sweat and money we have put into our home to improve it is the property of a bank. a gift. All my labor is now in service to the same.
Thus I have had to re-examine my relationship with money vs my relationship with God and how it effects resting in Him. Because what has resulted is a far cry from resting in Him. Much like the Jews in the Exodus I grumble and complain. Slavery robs us of rest. You cannot serve both God and money.
Prov. 22:7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Meanwhile on a global scale;
“American Child Sex Slaves Are Being Arrested, Not Rescued“ July 9, 2009 headline.
Kids turn to sex for money…
From “Whom Do You Serve?
by Marva J. Dawn – borrowed from sojo.net.
”Why does money have such control over us? Before I read French theologian and social critic Jacques Ellul’s Money and Power, I thought money had little or no influence on me. I had grown up with just enough to have all I needed without getting spoiled by superfluous luxuries. Since college my life has since been filled with a passion for the hungry. Surely money wasn’t a problem for me?
But it was—and is. Ellul’s writing made it clear that we all make some kind of a god out of money. Perhaps we have too much of it and therefore hoard it. If we have too little of it, we no doubt covet it. Or—and this is the stickler—we have the right amount and are such good stewards of it that we are not generous.
That was my problem—and one of the three might be yours. Money sneaks its way into our thoughts and desires and takes over more of our time and attention (or affection) than it ought to have. There is no such thing as another god beside the one true God (1 Corinthians 8:4), the apostle Paul insists, but he also admits that “in fact there are many gods and many lords” (8:5), and money easily becomes one of those gods in our lives.“
I am going through a personal revolution in my attitude towards God and money.
I am a businessman, a social- entrepreneur. I developed and operated a (on purpose) non profit restaurant for 5 years with varying success. The Cafe opened with no debt, no investors, no capital expenses to depreciate. No rent. We were given everything we needed. Later we were given more…what happened? We stopped resting.
The cafe closed.
”Do you believe I am able to do this?” Jesus
“I’ll wait for you.” U2
But do we? wait?
Heb. 4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” 5 And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
Heb. 4:6 It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7 Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.
… 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
About money:
We have been seduced out of rest by our view of money. God created sabbath and jubilee. we created weekend sales and credit cards. God created rest and faith, we created budget and poverty. God created generosity and abundance, we created hunger and greed. We systemized the whole thing and as a result have failed to rest. We took over management of the economy from the one who fed the 5000 with loaves and fish or the four million everyday for 40 years…in the dessert.
Money and wealth has created an alternate “sacred” culture, many of us have our feet firmly plated in both camps. Accountants replace the pastor, CFO replaces the elder, The Wall Street Journal and spreadsheet is the new scripture, money is blessing. Poverty has become an inconvenience rather then a travesty. We wink wink nod nod at the problem as we tuck ourselves in at night. But God forbid the Dow falls below 10,000 points. Banks are the new church. Even churches are burdened by debt and become slaves.
Prov. 19:17 He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.
“The 20th century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing. ” John Berger
“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity“. George Bernard Shaw
26,500 children die each day of hunger. Do we care?
I love living in America in the 21st Century, my children have never been without. I know where my next meal is and when it is, I will most likely cook it myself. But I have become apathetic to the death of so many kids. It doesn’t seem real of relevant. The United States has donated millions and millions to hopefully stem the tide of AIDs in Africa…Yet…
Ezek. 16:49 “‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
This often quoted verse is almost never heeded.
We fear hell because of sins like lust and we turn a blind eye or at best a few minutes to the heart of the Lord.
All the while Jesus asks…
“Do you believe I am able to do this?“
God is not a God of systems, God is the God of redemption. It’s His job and His desire. We just cooperate out of rest. He will manage the details.
I will attempt to pull these thoughts together in the next post.
Wealth in itself is not a bad thing at all… ”…the Chosen people stopped recognizing God’s glory in the form of wealth and started thinking of wealth as valuable in itself“ Ellul
Wealth like sin is a result of something else.
i look fwd to the next post