Website Design, Hosting, Maintenance and SEO Provided By
Sparks Fly Internet Services
Sparks Fly Internet Services
Here's our text for Sunday, January 13, 2008:
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
In the 1920's famous American anarchist (one who proposes NO governmental controls on anything or anyone) Emma Goldman quoted the text above to a group of ministers she was addressing in New York City. Their response was to leave her shouting that she should be deported to Russia, then a new Atheistic - Communist state.
Can the Word of God so anger Christian believers that they will reject it when it is quoted to them? All the time.
Jesus turned over the money changers tables in the temple because they were charging extra-high rates for sacrificial animals and giving a kickback to the Temple Treasury for use of the sacred temple space for their market. Surely His action doesn't imply that I need to charge less for an item required by another to live just because it is in short supply.
Luke writes in Acts, chapter 2, of the early church and how it's members gathered together in each others homes to pray, and "shared all they had with one another" to be sure that no one among them was left destitute. Surely this doesn't imply that the dimes and nickels I place in the children's Joyful Noise collection each Sunday is enough for me to give to others in need, does it?
Last week we spoke of the employee's need to serve the employer well.....by working for our REAL boss, and best friend, Jesus Christ instead of the person who signs our paycheck. This week we discuss the responsibility employers, owners of businesses, and anyone who has more in his or her possession than they actually NEED (a definition of RICH), to care about the welfare of the remaining two thirds of the world who live below the internationally-accepted poverty line.
Yes. Two thirds of Earth's population live that badly. Almost 70%. See United Nations, World Bank and US Department of State documentation.
Come expecting to be challenged this week. Come expecting to be stretched. But please, don't deport me to Russia!
God's Peace,
Pastor Ken
NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, all Bible verses quoted in this website are from the New International Version (NIV). Any words from those verses that are in "red" are words spoken by Jesus.
Pastor Ken sends a Weekly Newsletter that includes his devotional message for the week and an update of the current happenings at Hope Church. If you would like to receive his newsletter, just click below and he'll add your email address to his list of subscribers.