Paul on Giving vs, "the other" and Accountability

A story in 2004 in the LA Times broke that shows once more how these men and in this case women fall right und the condemnation of those false prophets and teachers coming along even in the time of the Apostle Peter, John ,Paul and the rest. Here is short excerpt from it.

In the LA Times article alone, it was disclosed that Paul Crouch and his wife, Jan Crouch, earn more than $750,000 in salaries and have a collection of luxuries at their disposal, including a TBN-owned jet and some 30 homes across the US. TBN's response:
"Regarding the various real properties mentioned, all are owned by TBN, not Dr. and Mrs. Crouch, and they are used for multiple purposes, including program settings, and temporary housing for network guests, contractors and agents. In addition, such properties represent alternative investment vehicles that provide appreciably better returns then bank CDs, savings accounts, and bond funds, etc. Similarly, TBN's corporate aircraft is only utilized in the course of business. It is not unusual for Dr. Crouch, and employees traveling with him, to visit several different cities and stations over the course of a trip. The plane allows flexibility and effective time management, and avoids the impact of Dr. Crouch's status as a public person."
Are 30 homes, private jets and large salaries a good use of ministry funds? It seems to me that this is a hard-sell to the many people who give to a ministry in good faith, thinking their money is going to further the gospel.
Now there is a need for much truth to be told on the way so many of these anti-Christ bring hatred toward the true light of the Gospel.

How often these so referred as "called minsters" have quoted a portion of Corinthians out of context- specifically the passages found in I Corithians 9:9 -

"We read in the Law of Moses, " Do not muzzle and ox when you are using it to thresh the grain" Now is God concernead about the oxen" He ask a rhetorical question, Didn't he really mean us when he sadi that? Of course that was written for us- referring to the Apostles and none others- he goes on to say some very important things the wise would be good to recall- He says and lets go further so we gain the whole context of what he about to say.

I quote from the New American Standard Bible -

Yea, for our sake it was written:because he that ploweth ought to plow in hope, and he that thresheth, to thresh in hope of partaking. 11 If we sowed unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things? 12 If others partake of this right over you, do not we yet more?

Now none of what he has said are posed as statements of law- like all these false teachers would have you believe- rather he poses questions, we already know from reading other passages how both Peter and Paul warned against these "messenger's of light" that were running about- first off quoting law- forgetting what Paul wrote in Galatians- READ GOD's WORD instead of letting it collect dust on your dashboard in your car or in your home's. Most folks only dust it off for a Sunday morning meeting.

10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse:for it is written, Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them. 11 Now that no man is justified by the law before God, is evident:for, The righteous shall live by faith; 12 and the law is not of faith; but, He that doeth them shall live in them. 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

So that there pretty much sums up some so called law of Tithing from the Old Covenant

So we know already that Paul was not teaching a law of tithing but placing rhetorical questions before this body of Christ to show what the practice of the "true Apostles" was. Let's read further: Something you will never get these false teachers and prophets to do

-If others partake of this right over you, do not we yet more?

Here was the point- there were others taking advantage of them demanding a right to which wasn't there's truly because now Paul shows the way that is right to do, if we could but get the body of Christ to read the Word, instead of letting men interpret it to them, then there would be less shame on the Word of God, and how these minister's of Satan peddle the Word, they are likened unto Simon the Magician who wanted the power of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon him to do the miraculous to profit from it.

Let's read Paul's correction as always he sets the example whereby those called to preach the good news- which is each and everyone of us, now. He shows the example of a true Apostle that has a heart not of greed and profit, but one of sharing the GOOD NEWS of Christ.

Nevertheless we did not use this right; but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. 13 Know ye not that they that minister about sacred things eat of the things of the temple, and they that wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar?

Again he takes this legal question and converts it to the Grace of God.

14 Even so did the Lord ordain that they that proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel. 1

Once again the powers of the CATHOLIC CHURCH changed this to read as a statement when it is clear it is a rhetorical question that he will answer again in his next statement.

5 But I have used none of these things:and I write not these things that it may be so done in my case; for it were good for me rather to die, than that any man should make my glorifying void. 16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid upon me; for woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel. 17 For if I do this of mine own will, I have a reward:but if not of mine own will, I have a stewardship intrusted to me. 18

Note Paul makes very clear what His reward was from the Lord in his ministry- READ IT PREACHERS!
He answers now these rhetorical questions to once and for all to set the tone for his truth and how he always presents it with love for their correction.

What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel without charge, so as not to use to the full my right in the gospel.He closes near this last statement that these false teachers were doing to show their motive.

And I do all things for the gospel’s sake, that I may be a joint partaker thereof.

The question? Is the Gospel to be received by those that pay for it? Absolutely not!

Freely God gave and freely are we to give- and this doesn't mean tithing money to someone else who preaches, this means we are called to present the Gospel in such a way that no one can speak evil of us. By always presenting it without taking advantage of anyone in money or anything as far as that goes.

Let me show you Paul's efforts of accountability were when he was sending money (this gift) to the poor- NOTE: He wasn't sending this money to some "hot shot ministry" or "a pastor", or "a building fund" or "a program"- but to the poor Christians in Corinth-

Let's look how Paul avoided all aspects of false blame as well to come to them when they were going to have their gifts of love sent to Corinth what steps he took for accountabilty. You may read the Chapter ahead of this one and come to understand where and for what purpose this gift was to serve.

Note these passages - the money wasn't designed to go to a ministry, an organization or any one person- it was designed to go to the poor in Corinth and Paul being very accountable to God- he states the following:

But thanks be to God, who putteth the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus. 17 For he accepted indeed our exhortation; but being himself very earnest, he went forth unto you of his own accord. 18 And we have sent together with him the brother whose praise in the gospel is spread through all the churches; 19 and not only so, but who was also appointed by the churches to travel with us in the matter of this grace, which is ministered by us to the glory of the Lord, and to show our readiness: 20 Avoiding this, that any man should blame us in the matter of this bounty which is ministered by us: 21 for we take thought for things honorable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. 22 and we have sent with them our brother, whom we have many times proved earnest in many things, but now much more earnest, by reason of the great confidence which he hath in you. 2

Note: he not only sends Titus, he sends another brother in Christ as well, so NO ONE could accuse any one person of misusing or stealing or taking what wasn't theirs for their own use. TWO MIND YOU BRETHREN ARE SENT TO GUARD THE GIFT HE JUST TALKED ABOUT IN THE VERSES PREVIOUS TO THIS.
THIS MONEY AGAIN WAS MEANT TO SUPPLY THOSE WITH LESS THAN THOSE THAT HAD A SURPLUS- so that the body of Christ would share and have all things in common.

I would also have that in every case that Paul wrote a letter- if the letter was meant to be addressed to the top dogs, of an organization called a Pastor- he never once addresses any of his letters as - Dear Pastor- go tell your congregation these things!

Whoops! There goes the destruction of all of the baloney that is thrown out there to keep people under manipulation and to stir them to give their money to them- they never bother to read all of scripture and obtain the truth! Whose fault is it that these false Apostles and Teachers take advantage of them. It is their own because they are they are just too lazy to study the Word of God for themselves and generally the only time they crack open their Bibles is to read along with these False teachers in a meeting whereby he will proceed to twist scripture to manipulate the masses listening to give Him money, the program, the building or other. Such a small proportion of money taken in is actually provided to the lost and to the poor! 98% of all the money taken in is spent on the organization itself and very little to maintain the equality of material needs within the body of Christ. How many "churches" have those within their own congregation, who may be materially suffering even now.
There are those that are in the so called ministry- that surely have much more than all those they pretend to minister too and then one must ask where is the equality that Paul talks about in the Chapter before this?
Not an equality in giving to ministers, he has nullified that idea right out front here, but giving to those who have less "that their lack will be made up by the others surplus?"
It doesn't exist today that I can see.
Lies are only believed because very few people seek the truth for themselves, so then they are easily persuaded by this ADVERSARY (SATAN) who comes even as an angel (messenger)of Light.

My prayer is that each one of you would take the time to read these verses and give it great thought and then trust God and men less, and study to shew thyself approved. Then surely the gifts of those who have much that they give from will put them at equal standing with those whose lack has been supplied by their surplus.
If Christians heeded the Word of God instead of listening to those false interpreters of it- welfare would probably become non- existent in this country who claims to be "a christian nation!"

It is important that every believer understand these passages written by John the Apostle of Christ -

I John 1: 24-

24 As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise which he promised us, even the life eternal. 26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that would lead you astray. 27 And as for you, the anointing which ye received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you; but as his anointing teacheth you; concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in him.

May God Bless You as you seek His truth and allow the Holy Spirit within to guide you in all things that are true and to reject the teachings of these Anti-Christ liars.

Dr. J.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

This morning I was talking with a Christian friend of mine by telephone. We were sharing our need for an income and our desperate job hunts, that have not been successful.
Since November of last year, I know that I have applied for or sent out nearly a 100 resumes and applications. No response, or whatever response, they never followed through. I have even used networking as they suggest trying to obtain a good position once again. All to no avail, as of yet. As we ended our conversation, we had come to that place reminding each other, that God has promised to give us "our daily bread". I wished only those around us understood these things.
It is hard to make others understand the plight you feel you are in, when they just seem to think, that you aren't trying. They think surely you would have been hired by now if you were really looking. Just look at all the job ads in the newspaper.
I have attempted to gain positions at the bottom rung of the ladder as well as those that I am qualified, skilled and experienced at, to no avail.
I was even beginning to believe I might have a former employer for whatever reason that may be black balling me from obtaining future employment. I went so far as to obtain someone to do a reference check on me, to find that my employers were providing me an excellent reference.
The only reason I can conclude that I am not receiving calls is my age. Now, you ask, "how do they know your age?"
It is easy to ascertain that from a resume or application by looking at your education and when you graduated.
I will in 11 days be 54 years old. August 12, 2007, I will have lived long enough and grown wise enough to recognize pure and simple discrimination by age.
It is one of the most exercised discriminatory unwritten policies of HR departments today. Many men my age find themselves losing jobs even to only find out later they hired someone to replace them that are much younger.
Furthermore, the latest practices of HR departments is to run a credit check and in some cases they manage to even obtain your health information. If you have reached my age, and have perfect health, you have been blessed by God. If you reached my age, and don't believe in the credit of this world, and yet somehow you obtained a good credit reference check, then you are blessed beyond what is imaginable in this day and age of high medical cost. I have some poor credit, and I will admit it.
My credit was wiped out in 1996, when my first wife became ill with a problem that she was born with that is called "AVM's" or "Arterial Venous Malformations".
I have a good friend who understands this malformation of veins in the brain. This is not a very well known problem by most. He understands because he will be crippled the rest of his life because of it. It results in strokes and aneurysms. He has the full extent of this rare defect one can be born with and what it results in.

I had credit in those days, because I like most had fallen into this world's enticements, for things material beyond our needs.
I was unemployed due to our office shutting down with WorldCom's mass assimilation of taking all the small companies they had acquistioned and moving them into one big location far away from where I lived. We were struggling with threats from the IRS on our taxes and being harassed by those we had obtained loans from. We had no choice but to file, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to find relief. It has ruined my credit since. Though in less than two years we had it discharged to try to pay the bills we owed again once we had both gone back to work. You never recover once you are under the slavery of debt. My bad credit is still there. Why any of us, ever get conned into playing God, I will never understand. Thos offering credit ask us to play God, as if we know what tommorrow will bring, as if we know whether we will be alive, working, earning the same amount of money the day we signed on. It doesn't matter how small amount or large amount, if you owe it and can't pay it because we can't control our future, they want it and they want it NOW! Thus Jesus told us not make oaths, but to keep our yea, yea, and our nay, nay. Thus the whole Word of God tells us not to be in debt. There is a difference in having to pay our electric or our water, or telephone on a monthly basis. These an be argued though that they too are not necessarily basic needs. The Word tells us to be content with food and clothing because we brought nothing into this world and we can't carry anything out. When one lives on this basis, knowing God will provide, we will not be anxious for tommorrow. We will thank God for what He provided today. We will just work today for our daily bread and not live our lives for our future greeds or those things that have so enslaved us to them now. We are to live the simple life described in Ecclesiastes, as anything beyond that is greed and results in a life of vanity of vanities.
To enjoy the fruit of your labor and to fear God is the wise mans conclusion. All else is useless and leads to an unhappy life.

The question is, what does credit have to do with work ability, skills, devotion, job experience? Why is it this world thinks that if you are one to enslave yourself to credit cards and other debt that makes for a good employee? Why has this world become so enamored with the idea of being enslaved to jobs from daylight to darkness to have things that don't matter? Why does this world think it is a wonderful thing to sacrifice relationships with others for the sake of the dollar? More relationships are destroyed over wanting more or thinking you don't have enough of something than one an imagine. More divorces and family break ups are over the worshipped dollar more than anything else.
Even in the car insurance industry, credit has become a criteria for obtaining lower rates versus, higher insurance rates. What does that having to do with driving skills, experience, longevity as a driver without accidents, etc.?
Our world has become sin sick with greed, money and power. The more you subscribe to these things the more likely you are to be a good job candidate. You better go in there on the interview and tell them you want to be a huge success and make a million by the end of the year or you just shot your opportunity at a job. You better go into an interview and tell the world what they want to hear.
Figure that one out! It isn't hard to conclude why.
I do my best to live on less than $120.00 per week. Sometimes less, sometimes just a little more, very little more. I get by, but only by the grace of God and other's help for shelter, some help me with my special needs like purchasing my medication, but they can't always help. I have Diabetes 2 (not under control), nerve deafness in my hearing, damaged kidneys, swollen prostrate like most older men. I also have had diverticulitis since age 45, and have had two heart attacks since than as well,Atrial Fibillation, and I also suffer from Crohn's Disease and Post Traumatic Stress, Fatigue Syndrome and at one time my physicians had me on 27 pills a day.
I quit everything but a about 3 medications. One, I couldnt afford them, two I couldnt function on them, and three, I did something outside of prescription treatment to help myself. I am still working on that to eliminate the three other mediations. However, the physical damage already done is done. Some of the problems are do to our lifestyles when young and many others are just flat due to we live in a world where everything we eat along with the air we breathe and the water we drink is polluted with chemicals and cancer calling agents.
For example I got my Crohns disease under control by no longer drinking milk. I did this because research has shown that though milk is homegenized and pastureized, it doesn't kill paratuberculosis which attack the small bowel resulting in infection in the lining of the bowel. Milk also has hundreds of antibiotics and other induced chemicals that can cause all kinds of serious illnesses. I quit it and it worked.

My little check I earn each week feeds me, and purchases gasoline to go to work or where I need to go when told by the Lord to do so, like visiting friends in need, helping the children, taking a friend to the doctors or wherever it may be, I still limit any travel for just my self. There are no pleasure runs, or driving around for fun or going to the store on a whim.

Yes, I have applied for even the minimal jobs, like working as counter help, cashiers, driving a vehicle for deliveries, even tossing news papers.
All to no avail.
I have begun to believe there is an unwritten rule that old people should be shot and put out of their misery or just left alone to die in loneliness. Whatever the prevailing attitude is, it is for real against the elderly worker in this country.

So, what do you do, you do what Christ told us to do, you pray "give us this day, our daily bread". You smile, you go on doing the best you can, you don't give up hope, and you thank God for every little gift he gives you to sustain your life.

My friend reminded me, of this when we spoke. We recalled that God has promised nothing more than our daily bread. Jesus taught us not to be anxious over these things, and taught us that God would provide our needs. I have to admit He does provide for my basic needs. I am not living under a viaduct, like many Americans are, I am not on the soup line, like so many Americans are, I am not having to panhandle for my daily bread. God brings it to me, and I am thankful for it.

Here is my prayer which can be found in two places in the Bible:

Lord do not make me so rich that I would forsake you,
but don't allow me to be so poor that I would steal.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us Lord of our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.

These last words from the Lord's prayer, provide us with much more wisdom then all the world could ever offer. I pray everyday that I live my life accordingly.

Today, I pray with emphasis, Give "US" this day our daily bread.
Not just in the physical sense Lord but what we need most in the spiritual "to forgive others who have sinned against us."
Give us your spirit of grace and mercy toward everyone we encounter in this life. Be it friend or foe, teach us Lord, that your bread provided contains nourishment for all areas of our life. Emotionally, spiritually and physically. Remind us that you are the great Creator of heaven and earth and all that we see or can encounter here, belongs to you and that nothing for you Lord is too hard.
Thank you this day, for giving me this day, and Lord let me do my very best with it, for your glory and not mine. Help me Lord not to be discouraged but to find encouragement by encouraging others in this life. Let me encourage all my brothers and sisters in all that I do and say this day.
Amen

Everyday is difficult, but our God never promised us a "rose garden" without thorns.
The Word of God says, "that through much tribulation we enter the Kingdom of God".

That sure blows the Health, Wealth and Prosperity teachers theology away- doesn't it?

Also for those that believe that theology, they would have no need to pray "Lord give us our daily bread" if it is ours by faith in faith rather than faith in God.
If we can lay claim by words as if we were a god to prosperity materially, and demand from God something he never promises, then where does the tribulation ever come in? God isn't there for our beckon call on greed. He is there for our care and nourishment as His creation. We are not gods, as Copeland likes to tell everyone.
Kenneth Copeland fell for the oldest lie told in the garden of Eden which started this whole mess in the first place.

No, my prayer is "Give us this day our daily bread" That means dependence on a Sovereign God,a Holy God and not a little god that I control in my toy box for my sake and fleshly pleasures, like so many of these false prophets proclaim.

"Give us this day our daily bread"

Dr. J.