Mike's Very Own Proverbs To Think About For The Week

Mike Hosey, An Elder

We are told that investing in Heaven is greater than investing in any earthly material thing (Matthew 6:19-21). This is because Heavenly investments are eternal, and can be enjoyed forever, while earthly investments are always consumed, or rot, or are left behind when we leave the earth behind.  So how can we make Heavenly investments?

Well, instead of worshiping our wallets, we should worship with them. Consider the following proverbs:

All worship requires sacrifice, and since money is a profoundly important part of almost every aspect of our lives, sacrificing money is also a profoundly high form of worship.  

Sacrificing your money in Godly endeavors will grow your character, stretch your faith, and put you on the front row where you can see God doing miraculous things – with your money.

Growing rich means growing spiritually. Besides our own spirits, and our own knowledge, the only things that we take to Heaven with us are our relationships. Therefore, using your money to fellowship with others and grow Christian relationships makes you richer in Heaven.

It’s one thing to serve others with kind words. It’s another to put your money where your mouth is.

There are a lot of people in the world who are shackled to sin, and every time one of them is unshackled, the angels rejoice (Luke 15:10). Whenever you use your money to help unshackle those people by funding someone to take them the truth, you Amp Up the worship service in Heaven!

So take a moment and consider worshiping God with the money He’s given you. Pray and ask Him for guidance, and then give wisely and generously to those things that you know God is interested in, because it is a pleasing form of worship to God.

Would You Rather Have Rusting Treasures, or Eternal Treasures?

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Jesus teaches us that the greatest commandment of all is to love God with everything we have (Matthew 22:37).  The first of the Ten Commandments is basically the same.  It is there that God commands us to put Him first in everything. (Exodus 20:3).

This is one reason that giving to God from our wallets is so important.  It forces us to give something up which we believe we have earned, and to which we foolishly believe we have full rights. This notion that we have full rights to our wealth isn’t true, of course, because God is the one who gives us the ability to earn that wealth in the first place (Deuteronomy 8:18). When we are forced to give up that bit of cash on Sunday mornings, we are putting God first in our finances.  Having this kind of mindset forces us to put God first in other areas of our lives as well.

Interestingly, it will also force us to keep our finances straight. For instance, if you want to put God first, and be able to give to his purposes through your local church, then you will have to make sure you have money in the bank. You will have to make sure that you don’t overspend in trivial areas, and you’ll have to make sure that you keep yourself content with having your basic needs met. So loving God first instead of your own trivial pleasures will actually make your financial life more stable.  Conversely, loving your own pleasures before God will likely have a negative impact - practically speaking - on your finances. This is because you’ll pursue those pleasures at the expense of right living.  And that’s one of the major ways that people get into debt.

But there is an infinitely more practical reason why we should put God first.  The Bible teaches us that our hearts will naturally want to be where our treasure is (Matthew 6:21). And all treasure on earth becomes moth eaten, rusted, or stolen by thieves (Matthew 6:19-21).  But if we put our treasure on Godly things, well, that’s where our heart will be – on Godly things.  In the end, our wealth will be incorruptible if we prioritize it properly.  But if we choose to store up our earthly wealth at the expense of putting God first, then we run the risk of losing not only that earthly wealth, but something far more eternal as well (Luke 12:20-21, Mark 8:36).

Try Growing Watermelons From Okra!

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Paul (Galatians 6:7-9) teaches us a profound truth about life using a simple agricultural illustration.  He teaches us that whatever we plant, we will harvest.

If you plant corn in the ground, you are not going to get watermelons.  And if you plant watermelon seeds in the ground, you are not going to get okra.  Whatever you plant in the ground is what you are going to get.  And you usually get a greater volume of what you placed in the ground than what you actually planted.  So if you plant one okra seed in the ground, you are going to get many okra pods that are full of many, many seeds. And the greater care you take of the plant that sprouts, and the more you keep the weeds away, and the more you keep it fertilized, and the more you keep it watered, the more okra you are going to get.

Der Sommer, Abel Grimmer, 1607

This rule applies to every domain of life. If you plant seeds of discontent, then the more discontent you are going to get.  If you nurse that discontent, it will grow to monstrous proportions.  If you plant dissension, then it is a good bit of dissension that you are going to get. Have you ever noticed how nothing ever satisfies a negative person? That’s because his field is planted with row upon row of negative seeds, and so everywhere he looks are the branches and foliage of negative plants. Because it is a weed to the good seeds that God plants, such dissension chokes out all the light and love in a person’s life.  The reverse is true as well.  If the negative person plants seeds of love among his rows, and then begins to water them, and care for them, then they will grow and become weeds to the dissension! It’s really a matter of what you plant and care for. If you truly want love and light growing in your field, then plant those things.

Paul’s teaching was within the context of economic and spiritual generosity to the advancement and management of God’s kingdom and purposes on earth.  So what Paul was teaching (among other things) was that if you sow generously into God’s kingdom, then you will reap God’s generosity.

This is a very testable biblical truth. Consider what and where you’ve sown, and see what and where you are reaping.

Are You Discontented with Being Content?

Mike Hosey, Elder

The newspaper columnist, Doug Larson, once expressed a profound biblical truth – though he probably didn’t know it.  Observing the humanity all about him, he noted that, “The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment.”

What Larson was noticing was that people will chase after something they can’t have, and which may not even be achievable -- like “spectacular happiness” -- and by doing so, they scorn the happiness of a contented life of enjoying the good things they already have.  Such truth is captured in many different scriptures, but one that stands out is Ecclesiastes 6:9, which teaches that chasing after desires and appetites, instead of enjoying what you see and have, is like chasing after the wind.  It’s meaningless.

The enlightenment era French philosopher, Voltaire, once argued that the good is the enemy of the great.  In some respects this is true.  For instance, one can miss out on greatness because he’s too lazy to seize the greatness right in front of him.  But more often, I’ve witnessed the opposite of Voltaire’s statement. I’ve seen people so caught up in chasing the great, that they’ve missed out on the good wife, children, job, friends, life or whatever you want to fill-in-the-blank with, because they were chasing something that even if they caught it, they wouldn’t even be able to hold on to it. In fact, the greatness they were expending so much energy trying to catch was the enemy of many good things.

Unfortunately, the modern culture in which we live tends to foster this sense of discontent. Commercials, billboards, and all manner of salesman pitch to you that what you own is old, or worn out, or no longer shiny, or doesn’t do enough for you. Then they show you their new, shiny, slicer, dicer, depression reducing, anxiety restraining, cancer killing, lawn mowing, baby-sitting smart phone that you just must have.  And you’re hooked.  After all, the only thing you have to do is work a few more hours, spend a couple of days away from home, get up a little earlier, go to bed a little later, handle a little more stress and you, too, can have it.

But that’s a trap. Instead, follow the path of Paul (Philippians 4:12-13) and be content with God meeting your needs, and then strive to align your desires with His.