Money - uncomfortable....
People are very uncomfortable talking about money. It makes them squeamish and no one ever talks exact numbers. I was raised in a super over-sharing kind of family, so I'll talk about anything, even money. (Yes, that gets me in trouble sometimes!) :-) If you're uncomfortable, I'm fine with you skipping this post.
In our James study the other day, we studied James 5:1-6. It is shocking, like most of James, as you read from my last post. It's mostly about how rich people are awful. There is one school of thought that it's not addressed to believers because back when James was written in the first century, "rich" people were the non-Christians who opposed/oppressed Christians. Christians were very poor then - mostly because all they had was stolen from them by those non-Christians - most of the time just because they were Christians. That may be possible, but assuming it IS talking to me, I better take it seriously. I needed a little help with what it was saying, and Beth Moore did a lot of research and tried her best to explain it. I'm sure there's more to it, but what I took away from it and have been thinking/praying about for the last few days is this....
James 5:1-3 "You rich people, listen to me. Cry and sob, because you will soon be suffering. Your riches have rotted. Moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver have lost their brightness. Their dullness will give witness against you. Your wanting more and more will eat your body like fire. You have stored up riches in these last days."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's telling us how temporary our 'earthly riches' are - they will be eaten by moths and lose their brightness/luster. We should be more focused on 'heavenly riches'. If our focus is only on 'earthly riches', we will be very disappointed (cry and sob) when they're gone. Okay, that makes enough sense to me. I can definitely work on this.
James 5:4 "You have even failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields. Their pay is crying out against you. The cries of those who gathered the harvest have reached the ears of the Lord who rules over all."
Not really sure how I can apply this to my life, but Beth Moore suggests we donate that which is excess to us. She suggests that keeping (and not using/needing) what others need is a way we withhold from others. This works well with my couponing because my shelves are super full and I can donate some of it. I also can donate clothes and other 'stuff' around the house. Praise God for making it so easy to donate. We get phone calls, bags in the mail, postcards, etc. all the time. Also, it takes less than 60 seconds to go online to purple heart or salvation army to schedule a pickup time. They'll come right to your front porch and pick it up for you - you don't even have to be home! If you ask me, there are no excuses. Declutter and get rid of things you don't need - because odds are someone else probably does need it.
James 5:5 "You have lived an easy life on earth. You have given yourselves everything you wanted. You have made yourselves fat like cattle that will soon be butchered."
Whoa! That is so me! I think that is 90% of people here in this great country. Not only do we certainly have enough, but we are SO driven to be consumers. Definitely something I've been working on. I have come pretty far, but I am aware enough to admit I will always need to be working on this.
James 5:6 " You have judged and murdered people who aren't guilty. And they weren't even opposing you."
Not sure how to apply this to my life. Anyone?
Beth Moore sums up these verses (which we studied in one day!) to make sure we don't get overwhelmed with the legalism of it and self-loathing. (Which is definitely where I could easily go.) Instead she said, make sure you live by "love your neighbor as yourself" and all the above should be taken care of. Not only love with emotions and mercy and grace, but with our money and stuff too.
I really felt convicted that day and appreciate the study. What do you guys think about this?
In our James study the other day, we studied James 5:1-6. It is shocking, like most of James, as you read from my last post. It's mostly about how rich people are awful. There is one school of thought that it's not addressed to believers because back when James was written in the first century, "rich" people were the non-Christians who opposed/oppressed Christians. Christians were very poor then - mostly because all they had was stolen from them by those non-Christians - most of the time just because they were Christians. That may be possible, but assuming it IS talking to me, I better take it seriously. I needed a little help with what it was saying, and Beth Moore did a lot of research and tried her best to explain it. I'm sure there's more to it, but what I took away from it and have been thinking/praying about for the last few days is this....
James 5:1-3 "You rich people, listen to me. Cry and sob, because you will soon be suffering. Your riches have rotted. Moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver have lost their brightness. Their dullness will give witness against you. Your wanting more and more will eat your body like fire. You have stored up riches in these last days."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's telling us how temporary our 'earthly riches' are - they will be eaten by moths and lose their brightness/luster. We should be more focused on 'heavenly riches'. If our focus is only on 'earthly riches', we will be very disappointed (cry and sob) when they're gone. Okay, that makes enough sense to me. I can definitely work on this.
James 5:4 "You have even failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields. Their pay is crying out against you. The cries of those who gathered the harvest have reached the ears of the Lord who rules over all."
Not really sure how I can apply this to my life, but Beth Moore suggests we donate that which is excess to us. She suggests that keeping (and not using/needing) what others need is a way we withhold from others. This works well with my couponing because my shelves are super full and I can donate some of it. I also can donate clothes and other 'stuff' around the house. Praise God for making it so easy to donate. We get phone calls, bags in the mail, postcards, etc. all the time. Also, it takes less than 60 seconds to go online to purple heart or salvation army to schedule a pickup time. They'll come right to your front porch and pick it up for you - you don't even have to be home! If you ask me, there are no excuses. Declutter and get rid of things you don't need - because odds are someone else probably does need it.
James 5:5 "You have lived an easy life on earth. You have given yourselves everything you wanted. You have made yourselves fat like cattle that will soon be butchered."
Whoa! That is so me! I think that is 90% of people here in this great country. Not only do we certainly have enough, but we are SO driven to be consumers. Definitely something I've been working on. I have come pretty far, but I am aware enough to admit I will always need to be working on this.
James 5:6 " You have judged and murdered people who aren't guilty. And they weren't even opposing you."
Not sure how to apply this to my life. Anyone?
Beth Moore sums up these verses (which we studied in one day!) to make sure we don't get overwhelmed with the legalism of it and self-loathing. (Which is definitely where I could easily go.) Instead she said, make sure you live by "love your neighbor as yourself" and all the above should be taken care of. Not only love with emotions and mercy and grace, but with our money and stuff too.
I really felt convicted that day and appreciate the study. What do you guys think about this?
Comments
I donate to a lot of causes and I usually donate to causes if asked - however, if donating will make my life uncomfortable (i.e. I have to take money out of savings or I only have $50 in my account and need to grocery shop) I won't donate because I feel like I can't. But really, I can, I will just have to go without something...something that will make me uncomfortable.
And to me, this is an important factor and something I'm trying hard to work on. Donating shouldn't be easy (time, money, effort, etc.). I donate old clothes and stuff to Lupus all the time - but those are things I don't need. It isn't hard to give those things away. I don't feel like that makes me a better person in God's eyes. Jesus suffered for us, right? He didn't have an extremely painful terminal illness that was going to kill him in two days. If so, his sacrifice wouldn't have meant nearly as much. And I think it's the same. Giving away our old stuff, donating $50 that we don't even miss, donating ten minutes of our time when we have nothing else to do - that's not really a sacrifice. So how much is that really worth? That is not necessarily giving up what you don't need - it's giving up what you don't want or need anymore. And this is what I think James 5:4 is saying. We all love cheap things, but what about the people who make those things or pick our fruits and vegetables - how are they living? How many people are willing to pay more money so they can feed their families?
And as for James 5:6, my interpretation is he is talking about judging (literally) and murdering (not necessarily literally) people because they are poor. I see this all the time - people are judged on their socioeconomic status all the time. I hear comments about "this school isn't good because a lot of apartments feed into that district". Why isn't it good? Because poor people live in apartments. Rich people own their own house - a school district with mostly single family homes most likely has families that make a lot of money therefore their kids are better taken care of and more disciplined - they won't bring guns to school or disrupt the class and they will be more intelligent. Well, I live in an apartment! I am well educated! However, so many times people decide things based on socioeconomic status - people on welfare are lazy, people in section 8 housing are violent, the homeless guy on the street is just going to use the money to buy drugs, etc. In my opinion, that is the type of judging and murdering James 5:6 is talking about.
Now, after all that, I struggle every day on how I can be a better person. It is HARD to give up things that make our life better or stop judging. It is hard to donate time or money when it will truly make your life uncomfortable - when you (and these are all general yous, not actually you Jessica) will actually have to go without (i.e. pass on an amazing trip or new clothes or going out to eat, etc.). It's a new level of suffering. However, in my heart, I believe that that is the type of suffering Jesus deserves and the type of suffering Jesus wants us to experience. And he doesn't want us to judge and murder people just because they are poor (which sounds obvious, but is harder to actually do).
However, this is really all my opinion. And I PROMISE I am not accusing you of any of this or passing any judgment on you. PROMISE, PROMISE. I have just thought about this a lot and felt like sharing. I hope I didn't offend you or anything. I love you!!!