CREATURE VERSUS CREATOR
Chapter 9
MAMMON
VERSUS GOD (Part II)
“The
labourer is worthy of his reward”
Do you believe
that Almighty God spoke the Truth when He decreed that the labourer is worthy
of his reward? (I Timothy 5:18) If you are faithfully serving your Heavenly
Master by labouring for Him throughout your earthly life, then do you not
believe that during your stay on this earth that Almighty God will give you
each and every piece of mammon that you are worthy of, that you truly need,
that you justly deserve, and that He will give each piece of it to you at the
exact appropriate time? And do you not believe that He will freely give that to
you without you having to sinfully forsake living by faith in Him and in His
many promises of provision in the Bible? Do you not believe that He will freely
give that to you without you having to commit the sin of coveting other
people’s mammon and begging them for it? If you do not believe those things,
then just why do you esteem Almighty God to be so unfaithful and so unjust??? “For he is faithful that promised” (Hebrews 10:23) If
you do not believe those things, then you need to repent of the sin of being a borderline
atheist, and truly from your heart believe God, believe in God, believe
on God, totally trust in Him for all your needs, greatly glorify Him by such
strong, unwavering faith in Him, and cease from the sin of serving mammon and
commence to serving your Creator God.
“Heavenly
Father, show me just how much sin of unbelief dwells in my heart. Help me to
truly see it, truly have Godly sorrow because of it, truly repent of it,
forsake that terrible sin of unbelief, and wholly and fully believe Thee and
all Thy wonderful promises in the Bible. I pray this for Brother Richard and
for all other people also. Amen.”
“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse”
Pastors who
love, serve, and covet mammon typically love that verse in Malachi 3:10,
commanding all the tithes to be brought into the storehouse. Many
pastors (who may or may not love mammon) preach that now the church is the
“storehouse” spoken of in the Old Testament and that God requires all
present-day Christian believers to give ALL their tithes to their local
church. Most of those pastors have the custom of passing a money bucket under
the congregation’s noses during each church service and preach that all
tithes should be brought into the church (which is God’s storehouse) and should
be put into that money bucket. If you believe and preach that, then please
seriously consider a few questions and let God’s Holy Spirit thoroughly examine
your heart to see if you are being hypocritical in that matter.
“And all
the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit
of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord.” (Leviticus
27:30) Pastor, do you desire that your congregation bring that tithe of fruit,
vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, and such into the church house when they come
to a church service? Remember now, how you preach that all tithes should
be given through the church. “And concerning the tithe
of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the
tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.” (Verse 32) Pastor, do you want that
livestock brought into your church (storehouse) on Sunday mornings?
“Thou
shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed.”
(Deuteronomy 14:22) Do you want your church
members to bring a tenth of the produce of their farm fields and vegetable
gardens into your church house? “…thou shalt bring
forth all the tithe of thine increase...” (Verse 28) Pastor, if
one of your church members goes fishing on Saturday night and catches 20
catfish, do you want him to put 2 slimy catfish into your offering plate the
following morning when he is in church? If not, then why not??? These
Scriptures quoted above are clear commands of God for us to tithe on all
our increase. Just why do you preach that ALL tithes are to be brought
into your church house (God’s storehouse for ALL of God’s tithes), if
you do not want the tithe of the increase of the land, plants and animals,
brought into your church building and given to God as a tithe? Honestly let God
search your heart for any hypocrisy that may be there. Pastor, if you are to
serve God, it is a must that you do not serve mammon, do not love money, and do
not covet money belonging to others.
“And
that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and
the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the
chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the
Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our
tillage.” (Nehemiah 10:37) So, Pastor, when you preach
that God commands your church members to bring all their tithes into your
church (God’s storehouse for tithes), please do a thorough work with your
preaching by reading all these Bible references to storehouse tithing and call
on your flock to bring in the tithe of all these items listed.
“And
at that time were some appointed over the chambers for the treasures, for the
offerings, for the firstfruits, and for the tithes, to gather into them
out of the fields of the cities the portions of the law for the priests and
Levites: for Judah rejoiced for the priests and for the Levites that waited.”
(Nehemiah 12:44) Pastor, here are some more scriptural guidelines on tithing.
Please don’t overlook them and please don’t fail to carry them out, lest God
have to judge you as a hypocrite regarding your teaching on storehouse tithing.
From carefully
listening to and observing you pastors who preach that God requires all
tithes to be brought into the church, I sense that you actually do not
want all the tithes brought there, fruits, vegetables, grain, oil,
dough, wine, hay, livestock, fish, and other such increase. Usually it is
quite evident that you want the tithe of MAMMON only. Is that because you
are serving mammon instead of God? Is that because you love and covet money and
thereby are so desirous to wrap your sinful, greedy fist around every dollar
that you can? Pastor, I urge you to think on these things, allow God to show
you His Will concerning them, and get right about them. Judgment Day is fastly
approaching.
In II Kings 12,
we have the account of the temple being repaired, and Jehoiada the priest took
a chest, bored a hole in the lid of it and set it beside the altar for
receiving money. I like that scriptural method of receiving money for the
Lord’s work, as opposed to passing a money bucket under the noses of the people
who assemble in God’s house at church time. In the New Testament, in Acts 2:35
& 37, we see those believers bringing monies into their assemble and laying
those monies at the apostles’ feet. In I Corinthians 16:2, Paul instructed
those believers to lay by in store on the first day of the week as God had
prospered them. Other than those 2 accounts, I do not recall any other
descriptions of the collecting methods of monetary offerings in the New
Testament church. So it is only speculation on my part that I do not believe
they ever passed a money bucket under the noses of all the people assembled.
I believe the
custom of passing a money bucket in church comes from the pastor’s and church
leaders’ desires to get as much mammon as possible. The custom naturally makes
people feel obligated to put some mammon into the bucket and they are likely to
feel embarrassed if the other people around them see that they do not contribute.
I do not believe that God is pleased at all with church leaders putting such
pressure on people to give. One extremely detrimental factor involved here
is that typically there are some people attending church who are not Christian
believers. Therefore it is of dire importance that we convey to them that
foremost we care about their eternal welfare, and that we do not covet their
mammon, neither are we seeking their mammon. I believe that God is highly
displeased with us purposely trying to get money from unsaved people for God’s
work. I wonder how many lost people will choose to remain lost and
therefore go to Hell, because they had a money bucket stuck under their noses
when they attended church for the purpose of hearing the words of life.
In the late
l980’s, on several occasions I had opportunity to witness to a young Japanese
lady who was not a Christian and I urged her to attend church. Finally she did
attend a church service near her home. The next time I saw her, she was most
frustrated, telling me they had passed the offering plate and she didn’t know
how much she should put into it. That act of passing the offering plate was
such a stumbling block to her. I told her that she didn’t have to put anything
into it, because that was for Christians to give to God and not for her. She
told me that she had put a l000 yen bill (less than $10 US) into the plate
because everyone else was giving and therefore she felt embarrassed not to give
something. She was very strapped financially at the time, her husband having
left her for another woman, leaving his wife to take care of herself and their
daughter with no alimony from him. She told me that she could not afford to
come to church each week and put money into the offering plate. I begged
her to keep attending church and not to worry about giving money. But
apparently she didn’t go back to church again. Some church leaders will face
a most angry Judge on Judgment Day. It would behoove you to cease serving
mammon immediately.
A pastor in the
US wrote a book describing how to build a church. When I picked up that book
and thumbed thru it, I was disappointed to see that one chapter was titled,
“How to get Money.” In that chapter, he called on churches to make sure
that each time the collection was taken during church services, that they be
diligent to stick the money bucket under each nose present without missing a
single nose, the noses in the choir, on the faces of the music players, on the
faces of the ladies keeping the nursery, and such. Love money and serve mammon
to the fullest, doggedly determined to get all the mammon possible from people.
Such sin must be a retched stink in the nostrils of our Holy God, Who clearly
tells us, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
I read a
different testimony that was a great blessing. A pastor got convicted of
passing the money bucket and ceased doing so. Thank God. Instead, he set an
offering box in the church and people put into it totally of their own free
will. The result was that offerings increased when the pastor made that change.
“I am…thy exceeding great reward.” What a
miserable loser the person is, who chooses to serve mammon instead of our Lord
God. May God save you and I from being such unfortunate losers.
So many
Christian ministers have their eyes set on mammon and their minds are
captivated by what phenomenal things mammon has the power to accomplish. Their
minds are continually occupied with scheming, dreaming, and devising plans to
get more mammon. In order to glorify God, we must repent of this, cease serving
mammon, and instead serve God. Our minds should be focused upon having Holy
Ghost power upon our ministries. We should be praying without ceasing
for God to cause the people around us to hunger and thirst after righteousness.
When they do so, they will not need an overly costly, elegant church building
in which to assemble. In much of the 20th century, rural Russian
Christians were noted for having church services out in the forest, hiding from
the communist government officials who sought to persecute them. Those fellow
Christians stood in the cold snow throughout their church services in the
winter, and baptized new believers in icy streams. Why? Because they hungered
and thirsted after righteousness. May God give each of us such a heart and save
us from the sin of serving mammon. Instead of constantly scheming in your mind
to get more mammon, constantly intercede to God to make people hunger and
thirst after righteousness. Then they will not require an expensive palatial palace
of a steeple house in which to assemble to worship their Creator Who became
poor for their sakes.
“Heavenly
Father, please make me fully aware of the grave importance of doing
right in all these matters I have just read concerning mammon. Please show me
where I now stand with Thee regarding these matters, show me what I need to
change to get right with Thee in these things, and by Thy Grace, please help me
to get perfectly right with Thee regarding mammon. I pray for all Christian
ministers to do right regarding mammon. I pray this for all other people also.
Amen.”
In 1986, when I
visited a country church in rural Alabama, USA, and preached there on a Sunday
night, an elderly lady in that church told me; “My father donated this church
property and donated the trees for the first church to be built here.” But long
gone are the days when a church member donated a plot of land and the men cut
down nearby trees and built a simple church building with those logs or lumber.
Long gone are the days when much of the pastor’s pay was produce from his
church members’ farms (slabs of meat, vegetables, fruits, even a wagon load of
firewood, and such) instead of strictly mammon. As the kingdom of the devil
(the world) becomes increasingly stronger and more encompassing, everything in
everyone’s life hinges upon mammon. Tragically, mammon does become people’s
lives. Now, few Christians bring fresh farm produce to their pastor. Likely
modern day pastors and their wives are more prone to turn up their noses in
disgust at it, preferring food ready to be zapped in a microwave oven and
preferring to eat out most of the time. Truly we need to be saved from loving
money, saved from serving it instead of serving God, saved from coveting it,
and saved from making it our life. We need to learn to truly love the lifestyle
that God ordained for His human creatures, tilling the ground, which requires
no contact with mammon.
Almighty
God, please teach me all I need to know regarding these matters
concerning mammon and lead me and help me to do right regarding them. I pray
this for all other people also. Amen.”
“Thy exceeding great reward”
A few pages
back, I used the term “borderline atheists” when referring to believers (?)
with scant faith. I did not use that term lightly. “But
without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must
believe that he IS, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) May God give us strong faith to believe
that He DOES exist forever with neither beginning nor end. May we always come
to Him diligently seeking Him, asking Almighty God for what we need, asking in
unwavering faith believing that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him so. Then may we be content and most thankful for all He gives us both good
and bad (blessings and hardships), knowing that all things work together for
good to them that love God. Oh what a most blessed life it is to arrive at that
spiritual plateau. May God help each of us to set our eyes on such a goal and
to get our eyes off of mammon.
Always bear in
mind those most important words to Abram. “I am thy exceeding
great reward.” He will gladly give us much more; exceedingly much
more than finite man can ever give us. Therefore, forsake begging man for
his little pittance of mammon. Trust wholly in your Lord God, and look for an exceeding
great reward in return. I look on them with pity when I see ministers, with
their hopes ever so high, wearing themselves out begging mere human creatures
for money. And then those ministers sink into such low despair when they see
the mere pittance that people give to them in return for all that effort of
begging they had put forth. “Ye CANNOT serve God and
mammon.” By all means, serve God fully and wholly look only to Him in
unwavering faith for Him to give unto you in accordance to His Will. And
thereby come to know what a wonderfully and marvelously rich thing it is for
Almighty God to become “thy exceeding great
reward.”
“Heavenly
Father, please help weak, unbelieving, doubting, wavering me to do just that.
Help me to truly believe that You exist and rule and reign forever by Thy
Unlimited Power. Help me to forsake looking to man for my needs and to
diligently seek Thee to supply all my needs. Help me to keep my eyes, heart,
and desires always focused on Thee and on Thy Exceeding Great Reward, and on
that alone. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”
“Thou shalt not covet”
Not only do
ministers weary themselves by begging for mammon, but they also greatly weary
the people they target with their begging. So tragic that many Christian
ministers appear to regard their calling primarily as a license to beg people
for their money. Thereby they portray to the whole world our Heavenly Master as
a poor, needy beggar thereby robbing God of glory, when they should be making
Him their exceeding great reward instead. In 1985 while in the U.S., I
visited an elderly, godly lady in a nursing home. During her life, God had
blessed her somewhat financially, and in return, she had given generously unto God,
giving to several different ministries. How did those Christian ministries
reward her for her kind generosity to them? By regularly filling her mailbox
with letters begging for more money. Folks, such ought not to be. It
brings spiritual leanness to the one who does it. It brings God’s curse instead
of blessing. It fatigues that giver instead of making the receiver a blessing
to them. I had never met this elderly saint till that day I visited her in that
care facility. Therefore I wasn’t well aware of her years of giving to many
ministries. When she made some comment about a stack of letters on the small
table there, I replied, “Well it must be nice to get mail.” I said that,
knowing that life is often lonely and boring for a person her age and living in
such a place. But when I said that, she heaved a slow, burdensome sigh and
replied to me in a faint, wearisome voice, “They all want money.”
That broke my
heart to hear. She was in her eighties and therefore not well able to endure
servants of mammon hounding her for her money, and solely because she had been
so good to them to impart some of her money to them. “Big name” preachers, to
whom God has so graciously allowed mountains of money to come their way, send
such beggar letters to elderly, godly Christians, tending to make them feel
somewhat guilty if they turn a deaf ear to their desperate begging. Most any
little thing can easily become a burden to an elderly person.
How great thou
art, thou servant of mammon. How proud you must be of yourself as your filthy
lucre loving heart thrills each time mammon regularly flows to you. Do you ever
stop to consider that you are never completely satisfied tho, no matter how
much money is given to you? Do you even take notice of how your spirit of
thanksgiving steadily wanes, and instead, your mind becomes increasingly filled
with scheming ways to better appeal for mammon in order to get more of it? “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver.”
“The love of money is the root of all evil.” Therefore I conclude
that God forbids us Christians to love money even when our goal is to use it in
God’s work. First and foremost, serve God with your “being” that He created
and unceasingly call on Him to save you from serving mammon and constantly
scheming on ways to get more of it for His work.
After that
elderly saint in that nursing home let me know how ministers heavily wearied
her with their many beggar letters, I left there sorrowing over how those
“ministers’” sins burdened her so. She had not known me long and had never
given to me financially. So thinking on what many ministers had done to her, I
decided to do the opposite for her. A few days later, I wrote her a nice
letter, telling her how I enjoyed visiting with her. And as best I recall, I
enclosed a $20 bill inside my letter. I wanted that dear and precious saint to
get at least one letter from a minister that would be a joy and blessing to her
instead of being a burden. (Also that gave her another $20 to share with some
beggar preacher.) Oh how loathsome is the sin of serving mammon. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Along about
that time, I visited a Christian man who gave generously to various ministries.
I sat in his living room with him as he went through a stack of mail and then
commented wearily to me that those many letters were appealing for money. Where
is the Christian who will serve God instead of mammon? Where is the minister
who will truly live up to his title by ministering to others in any and every
way that he can instead of coveting others’ money and begging and hounding them
for it? Where is the Christian minister who is willing to be Christ like by
becoming poor in order to make many other people rich? That is the kind of
Christian I want to be. Please pray for me that I will be.
At a different
time, a different lady in the U.S. wrote to me here in Japan. I had been
sending my newsletters to her and writing personal letters to her for some time
in reply to her writing personal letters to me. She wrote to me saying, “You
are a blessing. You never ask for money.” How I thank God, and give Him the
glory, that He made me such a blessing to her. Please pray for me, for God to
continue to keep me from coveting other people’s money and begging them for it.
“But Brother
Richard, ministers have to do that in order to get money to run their
ministries.” That is a lie, and down thru the ages many men and women of God
have proved it to be a lie. Read of George Muller feeding many orphans by
always only asking God to supply and never asking or begging man to give. Read
of the Apostle Paul making tents in order to not be a financial burden to those
to whom he ministered. Thank God that history is full of believers who chose to
serve God instead of mammon. Purpose in your heart that you will be such a believer
also, and thereby greatly glorify God. You are totally without excuse for
choosing to serve mammon.
“Heavenly
Father, please help me to do that. Save me from serving mammon. Help me to
serve Thee instead, and thereby be a great blessing to the people around me
instead of being a burden to them by sinfully coveting their money and begging
them for it. Help all Thy Christian ministers to cease serving mammon. I pray
this for all other people also. Amen.”
“Freely give”
Previously, we
looked at Luke 9 to see Christ sending forth 12 disciples and commanding them
to “take nothing for your journey.” Now let’s
look at Matthew 10:8 to see another very important thing our Lord commanded
those servants to do. “Heal the sick, cleanse the
lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely
give.” From Whom did they freely receive? From their Lord. Now He
commands them to follow His Example and to freely give. What did they freely
receive, and therefore what are they commanded to freely give? It is of dire
importance that we clearly discern and accurately understand exactly what we
are commanded to freely give in order to obey this clear and simple command of
our Lord.
I
believe that command pertains to the ministry of God’s word, every aspect of
ministering it. Throughout the Bible, God’s word was
primarily ministered by means of the spoken voices of believers; God’s
servants, prophets, apostles, disciples, preachers, teachers, and any and all
believers speaking of God to other people, living human creatures personally
imparting God’s living words with the voice of their own living being. I
believe that God ordained such to be the primary method of us spreading His
word. Think on the important fact that when we use that method that we are
the least prone to charge people money for it.
God commanded
Moses to write His ten commandments on stone. So, from about that time
on, in addition to His spoken word, God began to give us His written word,
written on stone, papyrus, paper, and such. It is regrettable that we are more
prone to charge people money for God’s word when we impart it to them in
written form. Because both of these methods of imparting God’s words were used
in the Bible, I believe they are both ordained of God. Essentially both methods
can be employed without touching Satan’s kingdom, the world. In particular,
both methods can be employed without buying and selling. “But Brother Richard,
one would have to buy paper and ink to put words in writing.” Oh, no. At the
start, people made their own papyrus, ink, and the brushes for writing all from
plants that God created, without buying any of those materials. Most of us
have lived all our lives in the devil’s world, using the things of the world,
becoming entrapped in the system of the world, coming to love its convenience
and its power and glamour, causing us to easily forget how things were on this
earth when the Lord God finished His creation and declared, “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it
was very good, And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
(Genesis 1:31)
Present day
Christians, deeply entrapped in the devil’s kingdom, make much use of man-made
devices to artificially record audio and video and impart God’s words with
these means. I believe that all such of these devices come from the devil’s
world. (It certainly is easy for me to see that they do not come from
God’s earth.) I do not believe that it is necessarily a sin to use them. But
when we do use them, we touch the world, the world that God commands us not to
love. And to touch the world is inherently dangerous, making it so easy for
wrongdoing to follow. Normally, it costs money to impart God’s word recorded on
audio and video devices. So it leads Christians to sinfully disobey our Lord’s
command to “freely give,” and instead, to sell
those words imparted by means of worldly devices. This is most regretful and is
detrimental to the work of the Kingdom of God. If we choose to impart God’s
words by any means that costs us money, we should bear that cost personally,
trusting in God to supply all our needs “according to
his riches in glory,” and we should “freely
give” those words to the people who receive them. I have learned from
years of experience that it is easy to do right if you will just set your heart
to do so from the very start. How I thank God that from the very start of my
ministry, He led me to always “freely give” through
days of poverty when I would not eat for days in order to buy Bibles and
literature to give free. I give God the glory that He has enabled me to give
away tens of tons of Bibles and literature, all free. What a rich and blessed
experience it has been. Truly I can testify that my Lord is my exceeding
great reward. If you fail to let Him be your exceeding great reward, you
will miss out on the best of life. Do serve our Lord instead of serving
mammon.
Once, a senior
missionary here in Japan, who makes a practice of selling God’s words, urged me
to sell my books at a low price that would just cover the cost of printing and
shipping. He touted the positive aspect of that being a very low cost to the
receiver. But I replied, “No way.” Christ didn’t command us to sell His words
at the low price of our cost only. He commanded us to “freely
give.” WHAT IS WRONG WITH OBEYING OUR LORD? Why are so many of
His servants so dead set against obeying God??? I believe that the answer to
that is, because they have already set their hearts and minds to serve mammon
and are strongly determined to never change regarding that.
The “best” of Christian
ministers set themselves against their Lord’s command to “freely give.” Recently I read what a preacher who
sells God’s words wrote about that command. (And he is a good preacher.) He
spoke much about the fact that Christians who obey that command and also call
on others to obey it, typically fail to do the other 4 things Christ commanded
in that same verse. “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers,
raise the dead, cast out devils.” Well, does failure to obey some of
Christ’s commands make it best for us to be consistent by going ahead and
purposely disobeying all of them? God forbid. How many of God’s commands in
the Bible have you disobeyed during your lifetime? (The answer is “Many, likely
most all of them.”) Well, does that much disobedience call on you to be
consistent by purposely setting out to disobey all of God’s commands? Ten
thousands times NO. I thank God (and give Him the glory) that He has healed
some (not all) people that I have prayed for to be healed, and has cast devils
out of some people when I commanded them in Jesus’ Name to depart. And if it
ever be His Will for me to raise the dead and cleanse lepers, I trust that He
will then give me the faith to do it.
While on earth,
Christ did raise dead people, but only rarely. That, and cleansing
lepers, are rare and monumental works that few people did throughout the Bible.
Nothing written in the Bible leads me to believe that it is God’s will for us
to heal every person that gets sick or raise back to life every person that
dies. But I firmly believe that He commands us to always impart God’s words
totally free of monetary cost to the receiver. (I
firmly believe I have God’s spirit in saying that, and I feel greatly blessed
to have those last 2 sentences on my record for Judgment Day.)
“He
that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that
is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true
riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who
shall give you that which is your own?” (Luke 16:10-12) There
is much food for serious thought in those 3 verses. One thing I want to bring
out here is the importance of us being faithful in that which is least, in
small things. “Who hath despised the day of small
things?” (Zechariah 4:10) That is exactly what our fallen nature tends
to do when we have only a small amount of money. We tend to despise that small
amount, craving to have much money, and to have it now. All stages of
spiritual that God ordains for each of us are direly essential. As we
Christians start out as spiritual babes, God entrusts us with small things to
see if we will be faithful in them. If we pass His test by being faithful in
those least of things, then He will entrust us with increasingly greater
things, all the while teaching us the great virtue of patience. But we are so
dead set on rebelling and on increasing (remember the first 3 chapters
of this book) that we want to bypass the small things and move on to greater
things as speedily as possible and thereby also miss the lessons on patience.
May God save us from such disaster and certain failure.
“Lord,
please save me from such self-willed disobedience. Please help me to be
faithful in that which is least and help me not to despise the day of small
things. Grant me patience to learn all the spiritual lessons Thou hast deemed
necessary for me. I pray this for Brother Richard and for all other people
also. Amen.”
God ordained
that we primarily do His work with our living being. If and when He allows
mammon to come our way, may we carefully seek His Will in its use, be faithful
in it and thankful for it, no matter how small its amount. At the start of my
ministry, I would use some of the little mammon I had to buy Bibles and
literature to give away free. The Lord steadily blessed that by increasing my
supply, so that since the early 1970s He has enabled me to give out tons of
God’s words printed on paper without ever charging the receivers anything for
it, not even charging for the cost of sending it to them. How I praise My
Wonderful Lord for being my “Exceeding Great Reward”
and for supplying all my needs “according
to his riches in glory.” Oh what an abundant, all-sufficient supply.
Please always bear in mind the means by which He will supply all our
needs; “according to his riches in glory.” Almighty
God is the Only Being Who has the means to be our “Exceeding
Great Reward.” Other human creatures
do not have that means. So why chase after them, sinfully coveting their mammon
and begging them for what little pittance they will throw at you? May we
Christian believers truly be believers by always looking to God’s supply and by
not loving, serving, and coveting mammon, and by not selling
God’s words for any reason at all.
“Heavenly
Father, please help me to do just that. I pray that Thou wouldst help all
Christian believers to do just that. Please impress upon us all the grave
importance of honouring Thee by not serving mammon. Amen.”
“Thou art rich”
In the early
1980s, a pastor read the first edition of this book and was apparently highly
displeased with a lot of what I am writing in this chapter. The next time I
visited his church on Guam, he called me into his church office and lectured me
soundly on many good things we can do with mammon. (But God gives us no
license to love money with the aim to use it in God’s work.) We must always
keep that thought foremost in mind, or else we will come to love mammon, serve
it, and chase after it, and thereby our lives will become terrible testimonies.
Toward the end of his stiff lecture, he asked me if I equate poverty with
holiness? Let’s look at what God’s words say about that. I do not find words in
the Bible that exactly equate physical poverty to “holiness.” But let me tell
you what I do find in the Scriptures relating to that.
My Lord and God
warned us all that, “It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
God.” (Matthew 19:24) That clearly teaches riches to be a hindrance in
entering into the kingdom of God. “Hearken, my beloved
brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs
of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?” (James
2:5) These Scriptures make it most clear that a poor person is much more likely
to be saved from going to an eternal Hell and instead spend eternity in God’s
blissful Heaven, than a rich person is.
“Blessed
be ye poor: for your is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for
ye shall be filled…But woe unto you that are rich! For ye have received your
consolation. Woe unto you that are full! For ye shall hunger.” (Luke
6:20-24) These scriptures “equate” poverty with God’s blessings and riches with
God curse.
That pastor
asked me if I equate poverty with holiness. About the closest thing to that
equation I can find in the Bible is God equating physical poverty to spiritual
riches, and vice versa. “And unto the angel of the
church in Smyrna write…I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but
thou art rich).” (Revelation 2:8-9) Upon speaking of their physical
poverty, God immediately proclaimed them to be rich; spiritually rich in good
works on earth and rich eternally with much treasure laid up in Heaven.
“And
unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write…Because thou sayest, I
am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not
that thou art wretched, and miserable, AND POOR, and blind, and naked.”
(3:14 & 17) Each and every time your mind is drawn to dwell on all the
things you can do for God with mammon, think also on these important scriptures
in Revelation. These Laodicean believers boasted of being rich, of being
increased with goods, and of having need of nothing. You can readily see that
their hearts are set upon their earthly riches and are far from God. So God has
that angel declare unto them that in reality they are wretched, miserable, poor,
blind, and naked.
Throughout the
Bible, earthly riches are spoken against in several various ways; in connection
to spiritual poverty, as a hindrance to spiritual riches, or some other similar
fashion. On the other hand, earthly poverty is often associated with spiritual
riches. I already quoted that in Revelation 2:8-9. Now look at what Paul says
about himself in II Corinthians 6:10. “As sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and
yet possessing all things.” Meditate on those paradoxes. Isn’t that
glorious! Read the previous verse. “As unknown, and yet
well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed.” (6:9)
Oh how I love that passage!
“As
poor, yet making many rich.” Paul also told us that he learned to be
content in whatever state he was in. May God help us believers to arrive at
that spiritual plateau. May we be content in physical poverty, even rejoice in
it because it tends to spiritual richness. May we make God our exceeding great
reward and joyfully give all that reward back to Him for the work of His
kingdom, choosing to stay physically poor and spiritually rich. It would be a
“rich” Bible study for you to look at the words, “rich” and “poor” in your
concordance and read every scripture in which either of those words appears.
In late 1983, I
finished writing my first book manuscript and wanted to have it printed. But I
didn’t have the money to pay for that. So I sought employment and found 3 jobs
that I worked at the same time for about 3 months. Most days I worked 2 of
those jobs each day. One day I worked 24 hours straight, getting paid an hourly
wage for 24 hours non-stop. Usually, I would work those paying jobs from 8 to
16 hours a day and then do evangelistic work for 2 to 4 hours each day. (It
made for full days, to say the least.) I saved those wages to put down on the
first printing bill, and soon got that first book printed in 1984.
While on
furlough in the U.S. in 1985, each place I went to preach, I put those books
out for people to take free. When preaching at a missions’ conference at a
small Bible college, I put out stacks of books and those young men and women
snatched them up, happy to get something free, being money strapped Bible
college students. Some students took extra books to give to friends. As they
stood there at that table, talking to me and marveling at the stacks of books
disappearing from off the table, one of the young men remarked to me, “You must
be rich.” I just smiled, thinking of the many days I didn’t eat, and of one
time working 24 hours straight to get money for printing those books. And I
rejoiced in how rich I actually was. “I know
thy…poverty, (but thou art rich).” “As poor, yet making many rich.” It
was so easy for me to make those money strapped students feel rich. All I had
to do was simply obey my Lord’s command to “freely
give.” What do you have against obeying that glorious command of your
Lord???
By the way, the
retail price of books is about 10 times the cost to print them. A book priced
in a bookstore at $20 probably cost about $2 to print. The author and publisher
share about $8, with the publisher getting most of that mainly for promoting
the book to make it sell. So the bookstore buys it for about $10 and doubles
the price, taking that much in profit to put it on their shelf, ring up the
sale, & sack it. What a system. That system of the world is so different
from “Freely give”.
By the way
again, I’m sure you have noticed that when Christians sell God’s words in book
form, they price a $20 book at $19.95 for the same reason merchants of the world
price a $20 item at $19.95, for the purpose of deceiving the prospective
customer into visualizing a lesser cost than actually is. “The deceived and the deceiver are his.” (Job 12:16)
May God save us from deceiving others. May God save us from serving mammon. May
Christ help us to obey His command to freely give.
Now that the
subject of Bible colleges has come up, allow me to preach about them briefly.
In the Bible, one of the closest comparisons I can find to a Bible college is
in II Kings where Elisha gathered the sons of the prophets around him and
taught them in a setting almost totally void of any facilities. That is quite a
contrast to the expensive facilities of modern day Bible colleges and Christian
universities. I surmise that Elisha charged those boys no tuition. That too is
in stark contrast to the high tuition of most modern day Christian institutes
of higher learning. If you provide lodging and meals, likely there is nothing
displeasing to God for you to charge the cost of that. But to “freely give” the words of God, you must make it
tuition free. “But Brother Richard, we couldn’t operate like that!” Then close
down and refuse to dishonour God by disobedience to His command to “freely give.” Why can’t your professors work another
job 8 hours a day for their living and still find time to teach young prophets
for 4 hours out of the 16 hours remaining in the day??? Please don’t bother to
answer me. I just would not be able to comprehend your answer, having worked 8
to 24 hours a day in order to “freely give.”
I never cease
to be amazed that any time in history when practically the entire body of
“Believers” come to the consensus that certain of God’s commands just have
to be disbelieved and disobeyed, that God never fails to raise up a few who
do right in the matter at hand and call on the vast majority to do right also. What
a thorn in the flesh those loners are. If God graciously allows me the
privilege of being used of Him in such a way, I would count it such a great
honour. I say, forget about mammon and “Freely give.”
“As poor, yet making many rich.” Oh how I desire to be like the Apostle
Paul in that regard. Please pray for me that I always will be.
“Heavenly
Father, please help all of us to be as Paul, as poor, yet making many rich. Amen”
“I
know thy…poverty, (but thy art rich).” On a chilly Friday
afternoon in November 1981, I strapped my box of Bibles, song books, slide
projector, tape player, and such onto the back of my bicycle and pedaled it the
3 miles or so to Senpukuji community hall to hold one of the several children’s
services I held there over a number of years. That morning, I had pedaled to
the grammar school there and passed out invitations to the children as they
walked into the school. And this afternoon, what a joy it was to see 24 of them
come thru that door, walk across an area of dirt floor, take off their shoes
and leave them on the dirt, and step up onto the raised straw mat floor section
of that old, dilapidated community hall. I played with them till starting time
at 4 PM and then had “Sunday School” for 50 minutes, singing praises to God and
teaching them clearly of salvation in Christ. I then gave them small gifts,
closed the service, and they straggled away when they wanted to. A few of them
stayed around a while longer.
Three boys went
to the small store nearby and bought instant ramen (noodles) there. The lady in
the store took the kettle off the small stove and poured hot water into their
bowls of noodles, and then the 3 boys brought their Styrofoam bowls of noodles
back to the hall and sat down to eat them with chopsticks. I was sitting there
talking to about 5 other children who were still there. There was no heat in
that hall and I sat there wearing my coat on that chilly fall day. The smell of
their hot noodles drifted over to me and smelled so delicious, mainly because I
hadn’t eaten in 3 days or so, mainly in order to have the money to rent that
hall, give gifts to the kids, and such. And as I sat there cold, in that
dilapidated, gloomy old building with a partial dirt floor, and with the warm
flavor of those noodles teasing my empty stomach, I suddenly felt so poor.
Nothing like being cold and hungry to make one feel blue. “I know thy…poverty.”
But then I
thought on what else was involved there. It is likely that never before, down
thru all of history, had a Gospel meeting been held in the Senpukuji community.
And that day, 24 precious souls had come there and I explained to them as best
I could, salvation in The Lord Jesus Christ. They had listened well, and now I
was doing follow-up. As I sat there on that floor with both of my legs straight
out in front of me (there were no chairs), a Japanese girl was sitting on each
of my legs. Both of the girls were listening intently and asking questions, as
I talked more to them in their own language of Christ’s love and sacrifice for
them. And suddenly I felt so rich. “But thou art
rich.” I was rich beyond measure. What a rich and glorious privilege
to be on the opposite side of the world from my home country, cold and hungry,
sitting on the floor of an old shack, to impart, free of charge, God’s words of
eternal salvation to those 2 precious, little souls (for
whom Christ died) who were being raised in heathen, pagan idolatry. I
was rich beyond compare. I am a child of The King, soon to be wearing regal
robes, feasting at the marriage supper of the Lamb, walking the golden street
of the Celestial City forever, never to be cold and hungry again. That is going
to be “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” And
if those two girls, who sat on my knees listening about Christ, are also in
Heaven, what added joy that will be. If multitudes more of precious souls like
them are also in Heaven because God enabled me to choose to become poor for
their sakes, how much more joy that will add. Since 1974, I have been regularly
experiencing such richness here in Japan. I pray that you are experiencing such
richness where you are. “As poor, yet making many
rich.” Serve God, not mammon.
Let us again
look carefully at Christ’s Perfect Example to us in this matter and
consider it most seriously. “For ye know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” (II
Corinthians 8:9) That this Rich King of Kings would become poor for my sake,
that unworthy I might become eternally rich, makes me want to love Him with all
my heart. It also makes me want to perfectly follow His Perfect Example by
becoming poor in order to bring as many other people as possible into the
unsearchable riches of Christ. “I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:8)
I take this greatest Love most personal, that God the Son, the King of Kings,
would gladly and willingly become poor for my sake, so that
through His poverty, I might be rich forever. Therefore, in this life, I want
to do everything I can for Him. What a privilege to be poor for His sake.
Do you also
take that personally, that the Lord Jesus Christ, tho He was rich, yet He became
poor, for your sake? If so, then just what are you willing to do
in return for Almighty God??? Get your eyes off mammon and its attraction,
allurement, and power. And instead, focus your sight on Christ’s unsearchable
(infinite) riches in order to save yourself from serving mammon and in order to
enable you to truly serve God with all your heart. Choose to become poor, for
His sake, in order to make many other souls rich for all eternity.
“Blessed
are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew
5:3) Here again is that dreaded word, “poor”. But Christ calls it blessed.
To be “poor in spirit” means to reckon one’s self as being nothing and as
having (owning) nothing. That is how that we, in return, become poor, for
Christ’s sakes, in order that our Lord Jesus may be greatly glorified and that
many other human creatures may be made rich for all eternity.
“Heavenly Father,
please lead me to become truly desirous to daily live this spiritually rich
experience of being “as poor, yet making many
rich.” Please help me to truly desire for Thee
to save me from serving mammon so I can serve Thee wholeheartedly. Lord Jesus,
help me to know the full extent of Thy Love to me in that, tho Thou wast rich,
Thou willingly became poor for my sake. Help me to take that unfathomable Love
most personal. Please help me to be most willing to be poor for Thy Sake, and
to gladly do anything for Thee during my life here on earth, in order to make
other people rich forever. Help me to truly become “poor in spirit,” reckoning
myself to be nothing and as owning nothing. Help me to come to regard my
Creator God as the Sole Owner of my being and all my possessions. I pray this
for all other people also. Amen.”
“Filthy lucre”
Please meditate
deeply on what God’s Holy Scriptures say about “lucre.” We don’t commonly use
this word in our daily conversation. So I now looked in my dictionary to see
its definition of lucre: “riches; money: chiefly derogatory.” So do keep in mind
that “lucre” is a derogatory way to refer to money. My concordance shows
only 1 reference to lucre in the Old Testament. I Samuel 8 tell us that when
godly Samuel became old that he made his sons judges over Israel. “And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after
lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.” (Vs. 3) Instead of
walking in Samuel’s godly ways, those sons did something entirely different by
turning aside after lucre. This sin of choosing to serve mammon led them on to
further sins of bribery and perverting judgment.
“Lucre” is
mentioned 5 times in the New Testament. I will write those in order here. Each
time in the New Testament, it is called “filthy.” Do meditate on that facet of
it, regarding us Christians who are to be clean, holy, and pure. “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife,
vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not
given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a
brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children
in subjection with all gravity.” (I Timothy 3:2-4) This position of
bishop in the church is today commonly called the pastor or minister. “Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not
given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre.” God forbids
these church leaders, bishops and deacons, to be greedy of filthy lucre. They
must be void of greed of filthy lucre in order to qualify for those positions
of leadership. That makes me wonder just how many present day bishops and
deacons qualify for their positions.
Titus chapter 1
again lists the qualifications of a bishop, one of them being, “not given to filthy lucre.” (vs. 7) After
listing the qualifications for a bishop, that chapter then gives this warning. “For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers,
specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert
whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s
sake.” (Verses 10-11) How regrettable and deplorable it is that when
considering what ministry to go into, where to minister, what church to pastor,
and such; one of the foremost thoughts of some “ministers” is “How much money
will it mean to me?” Another thing some “ministers” do is to exercise care to
preach and teach in such a way that will be conducive to mammon coming their
way, “teaching things which they ought not, for filthy
lucre’s sake.”
“The
elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the
sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by
constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.” (I
Peter 5:1-2) We should rejoice and glory in being “as poor,” in order to make
many souls (including ourselves) rich for all eternity. We should not be
feeding the flock of God with a goal of receiving money for doing so.
While Christ
ministered here on earth, I do not believe that He ever touched a piece of
money. I believe the main reason He did not, is because it is filthy lucre.
It has its origin in the devil’s kingdom, the world. Therefore my Lord Jesus
had absolutely nothing to do with it. In II Corinthians 6:17, we are commanded
to “touch not the unclean thing.” That
passage of scripture does not clearly specify what this singular thing
is. But because the word “lucre” in the scriptures is almost always preceded by
the description of “filthy,” I wonder if “filthy lucre” is “the unclean
thing” referred to here.
“Heavenly
Father, please teach me just how filthy in Thy Sight is lucre, money, mammon.
Lord Jesus, please help me to keep my eyes on your Perfect Example of never
touching it during Thy ministry, and help me to desire to be Christ like in
this important matter. Please teach me exactly what is the unclean thing that
Thou commandest us not to touch. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter”
When we talk
about the “economy” (of the world, or of a nation, or such) we are
referring to the monetary condition of that place. And basically we are talking
about the condition of the devil’s kingdom, the “world” that God forbids us to
love. (God’s true economy is the human creature tilling and working the
ground to obtain his life’s needs.) Think on how nations’ monetary
economies grow with time, becoming more powerful with a steady increase in the
amount of mammon in circulation.
A GNP (gross
national product) that doesn’t increase is considered stagnant and
unacceptable. We are taught that the GNP must steadily grow. So everyone
involved puts maximum effort into fueling that growth. By doing so, in reality
what we are actually doing is building more onto the devil’s kingdom to make it
stronger, more powerful, more dominating and controlling, and more destructive.
Think on how the devil has brainwashed us to go all out to build his kingdom
by programming us to keep the GNP growing. That is a most powerful and destructive
force. And consider how that God’s true economy essentially needs no growth.
Each human creature just keeps tilling the ground every year to obtains his
basic needs, being content with food and raiment. Of course, as the population
grows, there will be more people doing that. But still, that is completely
different from the growth of the world’s system with money supply increasing,
and such.
Presently, the
kingdom of the devil (the world God forbids us to love) has grown to mammoth
size, thanks to the vast majority of nations’ populations (up to 98%) forsaking
their Creator ordained estate (tilling the ground) and instead laboring
furiously to build the kingdom of the devil for the reward of mammon they get
in return. Presently, it is astounding what large rewards of mammon are
available to most anyone who is foolish enough to choose to serve mammon and
chase after it. In the first 3 chapters of this book, as I preached against
“increasing” and “rising,” I preached against competition. Think on what large
rewards of mammon fuel the intense professional competition among human
creatures on this planet, in pro sports, and many such areas of competition.
Mountains of money are paid to an individual just for him or her to compete.
Another brief
example of mountains of mammon is all the money the various entertainment
businesses throughout the world take in to poison billions of people’s minds
with worldly and sinful entertainment, eternal human minds that God created and
ordained to meditate in His Law day and night. Fewer and fewer are the people
who serve God instead of mammon and who do not love money. What an evil,
sinful, and idolatrous generation we have become regarding that. How we need to
call on God to save us from those sins.
“Almighty
God, please save me from worshipping, loving, and serving money. I pray this
for all other people also. Amen.”
It is common
that people of the world greatly delight for the flow of money to increase in
amount, because that increases the likelihood of more mammon flowing thru their
money loving, mammon serving sinful hands. Therefore they are prone to do all
they can to increase the flow of money in society, and they are also most
prone to look down on, scorn, and ridicule people who do not love money and do
not serve mammon. In the late 1960’s, I was a student at Auburn University,
which was a quite conservative school at that time. Also, their football team
was quite strong and therefore went to a bowl game some years. I recall my
sociology professor (with light ridicule and scorn) telling how that the cities
that hosted football bowl games detested to have the Auburn team come there to
play. The people of those cities would scornfully say, “The Auburn fans arrive
at game time with a sack lunch and leave as soon as the game is over,” meaning,
of course, that they spent no money in that city. Those city leaders and
merchants want sports fans to come who will spend 2 nights or so and spend much
money in their city. They scorn people who love and serve God instead of loving
and serving mammon.
Back in the
1950’s, a certain large Baptist denomination was quite conservative and
fundamental at that time. Each year, they would hold their annual national
convention in a different city in the US. The “city fathers” and merchants of
those cities scorned and ridiculed (usually lightly) those conservative
Christians who flocked to their annual conventions because they spent very
little money when they came to town. It was scornfully said of them, “They can
come to town with the Ten Commandments and a twenty dollar bill, and not break
either of them.” Sinful, money loving, mammon serving merchants and city
leaders have little use for such people because they don’t release much money
into the flowing current. They want people to break many $20 bills when they
come to town. And most of those cities provide unlimited sinful opportunities
to break an unlimited number of God’s commandments, for a monetary cost of
course. Turn your cities into cesspools of filthy sin because of the filthy
lucre it will bring in, and then soon stand covered in all that filth before
Almighty God your Judge. The Judge of the Universe will have much punishment to
meet out, come Judgment Day. Those who love and serve money will reap a Big
Payday, but tragically not to their liking.
My fellow
Christian believer, if you please your Creator by not loving and serving
mammon, do not let it catch you by surprise that the devil’s crowd (and money
loving Christians also) will scorn and ridicule you, trying to make you ashamed
of doing right. By all means, do not let them intimidate you. Because
your Creator is most pleased with you and is also most glorified by your
obedience to Him. Also, never forget that you are rich for all eternity.
Rejoice that God has so blessed you by saving you from loving and serving
money. Therefore, proudly stand before the filthy lucre crowd as a saint of the
Living God who loves and serves his Creator instead, thus giving God much
glory.
“Lord
God, please help me to do just that. Help all other people to do it also. Help
us all to do right. Amen.”
In Acts Chapter
3, we see the pitiful lame man laid daily at the gate of the temple begging
alms from those who entered the temple, likely just to buy a little food to
keep from starving. “Who seeing Peter and John about to
go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with
John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive
something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as
I have give I thee; In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and
walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his
feet and ancle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked,
and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.”
(Acts 3:3-8) That pitiful lame man was made much happier than he would
have been by receiving silver or gold. Let’s serve God with our created being, by
His Great Power, and look to Him in faith to see Him work such great works
through us, all for His Great Glory.
I believe that
the desire to be rich in the things of this world stems from our fallen, sinful
nature. But the basic desire to be rich may not be innately wrong, because God
desires that we be spiritually rich. We just mistakenly and tragically
set our affections on the wrong riches, worldly riches that are of the devil’s
kingdom. “Set your affection on things above, not on
things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:2) Believe me when I say that the
most dire poverty you can possibly experience in this life is to serve mammon,
instead of serving Almighty, All Sufficient God and letting Him be your
Exceeding Great Reward. May God help you to totally believe that and to
choose to love and serve Him instead of choosing to love and serve mammon,
money, filthy lucre.
“Almighty
God, please create within my heart a sincere desire to serve Thee only and to
not serve mammon at all. Please help me to truly believe that Thy spiritual
riches are the only true riches. Please save me from setting my affections on
things of the earth, and help me to set them on things above. Teach me
everything I need to know regarding what is written about mammon and money in
Thy Holy Bible. Help me to learn what I should from these 2 chapters about
mammon in this book also. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”
Keep in mind
the reasons I have given you for being in God’s ordained estate for us human
creatures, that of living on the earth and tilling the ground. 1. God ordained
it. 2. We must have food in order to live in this life. 3. It preserves the
human family God created. And in these 2 chapters, I have given you another
important reason. 4. It is our Creator ordained alternative to working for
money, loving money, coveting money, serving money, touching filthy lucre,
being destroyed by money, and building the devil’s kingdom on this earth.
Let us think seriously on these things and listen intently to what God’s Holy
Spirit speaks to us regarding these most important matters.
“But Brother
Richard, I just can not instantly drop all the things I am presently doing and
just go out and start living on the land.” I know the truth of that. And I know
the truth of how deeply we all are entrapped in the system of the world, the devil’s
kingdom. But the most important thing for you to do is to stop loving the
world and stop loving money. AND YOU CAN DO THAT INSTANTLY. YOU CAN GET YOUR
HEART RIGHT IN THIS MATTER INSTANTLY. You have no excuse for not getting
your heart right concerning mammon right now. May God help you to do that.
“Almighty
God, by Thy Unlimited Power, please help me to get my heart right concerning
mammon right now. Save and deliver me from loving money and from desiring to
serve mammon. Create within me a genuine love for the lifestyle Thou didst
ordain for us human creatures, that of tilling the land to obtain the
necessities of this life. Help me to be content with food and raiment, and in
Thy time, guide me into the lifestyle Thou wouldest have me to live on this earth.
I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”
(This
is the end of Chapter 9 of “Creature Versus Creator”)
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