Thoughts on "The Creature from the Cash Lagoon"
The message from April 9th ("The Creature from the Cash Lagoon") brought to the forefront for me, the thoughts/perceptions people have of money.
Speaking to people about finances or money can be very difficult as our attitudes about money can reveal allot about ourselves. So therefore, talking to someone about money is a VERY dangerous prospect. Our self esteem (or lack thereof) risks being fully exposed. To my experience people are galacticly unaware how much effort they daily put into "looking good", or how they appear to others. To discuss money freely requires a level of vulnerability not often seen.
In this post today, I hope to identify the true villain in the age old battle between man and money. To do this best, I want to clarify something that has been believed for a very long time, that is not accurate. "Money is the root of all evil!" Ever heard this phrase/quote? People have been quoting the Bible as saying MONEY is the root of EVIL for who knows how long? What the Bible ACTUALLY says is:
1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
It is the LOVE OF MONEY, not money itself.
I believe this succesffuly shows just how irresponsible we can be as people. We always want someone or someTHING other than ourself to be responsible for evil or things that go wrong.
We want to blame the advertisers for being so good at playing into our self esteem, our sexuality. We want to blame our parents for not showing us better. We want to believe/pretend that we are powerless to the brilliance of the marketing/media machines of this day. Why? because it is much easier to to do this than it is to take full responsibility for ourselves.
The Bible says:
James 4:7
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
This requires something of us. We must first embrace humility before God, which equips us to be vulnerable to each other. We must then CHOOSE to resist. If we don't, who is responsible for that choice? God says the devil WILL FLEE if we resist. It is a certainty.
When we let our fears of sharing our financial "brilliance" with others take control, we are handing our checkbooks over to the devil. We are disempowering ourselves. If you are not good with money, all it "means" is that you are not good with money! Thats it! But many of us, (myself included until some time ago), make it mean FAR MORE!!! PLEASE DON'T. It is what it is. If you don't know how to fix a car, you don't make it mean that your character as a human is somehow flawed. You take it to a garage.
But back to our responsibility, please do not blame money. Money is not evil. Why would Jesus use a parable involving investing money, to illustrate a point if HE felt money was evil. It is in the fertile soil of our attitudes, our relationship with money, where the seed of evil dost germinate.
Ed Young today said "money is leading you around", but what he was referring to, was how your heart is chasing after money, not the Lord. Look again at what the verse in Timothy says about where it leads you to. (see above)
It is easy to blame money, but understand your creditors judge you based on your choices. Your financial state is merely a reflection of your choices. The first step to changing your financial situation is to look at what your relationship is with money. What do you honestly think about money? Do you believe it is evil? If you do, you are going to have difficulty with it, and you will likely fall prey to judging people who have loads of it, and you will likely fall prey to being led by it.
However, if you look at it as a tool whereby people can be blessed through its use, and that you are a steward of it, you will begin to see transformation in far more than just your bank account.
When push comes to shove, it is paper, metal, and plastic. But lets face it, we make it mean FAR more than that.
Let us transform this world by being good stewards of what we have. Remember this: you got what you got, you don't got what you don't got. AMEN
His kingdom can't come until our thingdom goes.
So who is the villain? The love of money, and our reluctance to be fully responsible for ourselves.
So who is the hero? Christ every time. (what did you expect me to say?) ;-) He tells us to carry each others burdens, to share with one another and care for each other. But if our committment is greater to "looking good" and how people percieve us, how can we genuinely care about each other when we don't even know who the real us is?
Come let us reason together.
Love Always,
The WebGodFather
Speaking to people about finances or money can be very difficult as our attitudes about money can reveal allot about ourselves. So therefore, talking to someone about money is a VERY dangerous prospect. Our self esteem (or lack thereof) risks being fully exposed. To my experience people are galacticly unaware how much effort they daily put into "looking good", or how they appear to others. To discuss money freely requires a level of vulnerability not often seen.
In this post today, I hope to identify the true villain in the age old battle between man and money. To do this best, I want to clarify something that has been believed for a very long time, that is not accurate. "Money is the root of all evil!" Ever heard this phrase/quote? People have been quoting the Bible as saying MONEY is the root of EVIL for who knows how long? What the Bible ACTUALLY says is:
1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
It is the LOVE OF MONEY, not money itself.
I believe this succesffuly shows just how irresponsible we can be as people. We always want someone or someTHING other than ourself to be responsible for evil or things that go wrong.
We want to blame the advertisers for being so good at playing into our self esteem, our sexuality. We want to blame our parents for not showing us better. We want to believe/pretend that we are powerless to the brilliance of the marketing/media machines of this day. Why? because it is much easier to to do this than it is to take full responsibility for ourselves.
The Bible says:
James 4:7
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
This requires something of us. We must first embrace humility before God, which equips us to be vulnerable to each other. We must then CHOOSE to resist. If we don't, who is responsible for that choice? God says the devil WILL FLEE if we resist. It is a certainty.
When we let our fears of sharing our financial "brilliance"
But back to our responsibility, please do not blame money. Money is not evil. Why would Jesus use a parable involving investing money, to illustrate a point if HE felt money was evil. It is in the fertile soil of our attitudes, our relationship with money, where the seed of evil dost germinate.
Ed Young today said "money is leading you around", but what he was referring to, was how your heart is chasing after money, not the Lord. Look again at what the verse in Timothy says about where it leads you to. (see above)
It is easy to blame money, but understand your creditors judge you based on your choices. Your financial state is merely a reflection of your choices. The first step to changing your financial situation is to look at what your relationship is with money. What do you honestly think about money? Do you believe it is evil? If you do, you are going to have difficulty with it, and you will likely fall prey to judging people who have loads of it, and you will likely fall prey to being led by it.
However, if you look at it as a tool whereby people can be blessed through its use, and that you are a steward of it, you will begin to see transformation in far more than just your bank account.
When push comes to shove, it is paper, metal, and plastic. But lets face it, we make it mean FAR more than that.
Let us transform this world by being good stewards of what we have. Remember this: you got what you got, you don't got what you don't got. AMEN
His kingdom can't come until our thingdom goes.
So who is the villain? The love of money, and our reluctance to be fully responsible for ourselves.
So who is the hero? Christ every time. (what did you expect me to say?) ;-)
Come let us reason together.
Love Always,
The WebGodFather
posted by Daniel Hewton at 4:23 p.m.
1 comments
