Don't Touch Their Money

It's easy to give yourself to Jesus and to church ministries, to be nice to people and appear meek, gentle and patient, until someone asks you your money. I have seen how people devoted to God and the church change expression and mood when you ask for their money or borrow. More so, when they're told to give up all their money for the poor. And their favorite escape route is to accuse you of promoting the prosperity gospel, thinking you're just after their money.

Photo above by Andrej Lišakov on Unsplash.

You're okay with them as long as you don't touch their money. If ever they give you some, they believe they gain some right to your life. They can tell you how you should act, live, what you should believe and where and how you should worship. They can lecture to you and you should listen and learn. They assume a right to speak over your life. In short, getting their money means they have bought you for a price.

A lot of people can serve God and devote their lives to him, but never give him their money. They won't even give back to God what belongs to him---the tithes and offering. If they do, they imagine themselves "givers" and "supporters" and that carries with it some entitlement. They think they become co-equals with the pastor and even tell him how to govern the church. If you give your tithes and offering, it does not make you a giver or supporter. You merely returned what belonged to God. You haven't "given" anything yet.

Giving your tithes and offering is good, but that's just the start. Giving does not end there. Jesus clearly emphasized giving up everything we have. If you are a true disciple of Jesus, you understand that giving is 100 percent, not just 10 percent. This is where majority of believers fail. Without getting this truth, all your worship, ministry, achievements, etc. are trash. Being unwilling to give up everything, though you think you serve God, is really serving money. You cannot serve both God and money. You have to give up one to serve the other.

So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own. [Luke 14.33]

Give Up 100 Percent to GOD, Not to Man

The Acts believers sold their properties and voluntarily gave all the proceeds to the church, at the apostles' feet, to be exact. They also sold "goods" and gave the sales to the church as well, not so the church could buy properties for its headquarters, local church buildings, bible schools and seminaries (or vehicles or facilities or sound systems), but to give away to those in need, "as every man had need." If we do this, we give to God and His church, not man or his church. We need to do this principle today, if not do it in exactly how the Acts church did it. 

And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. [Acts 2.45]

As each believer should willingly give up all their possessions to God, all churches and denominations have to give up everything they have. Unless they give up all their properties and incomes and give to the poor, they do not really serve God. Church money is for two purposes only---for the pastor's personal and family needs, and to share with the needy and marginalized. That's what Jesus taught and how the Acts church and the apostles did it. Nothing was spent for buying properties or building physical structures. Nothing for church buildings, bible schools or seminaries. Not even building rent, utilities and the like. Everything should be for the needs of the "least of your brothers," which include the pastors. This is real ministry as Jesus taught it:

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

[Matthew 25]

You see the words Jesus used here? "Then the righteous will answer him." Righteousness is by faith, possible only through the grace and mercy of God. But it has a mark, a fruit, an evidence. Jesus said, righteousness is giving to the poor, specifically, to "the least of these brothers and sisters of mine." The least. This means giving up and selling our possessions to give to the least. It's not just giving a pittance, or a one-time donation or a fraction of your money. It's selling your possessions and giving to the poor. It's giving up everything you have. 

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Maybe, we need to specify who the least are. They are those we think are not as blessed as we are. We look down on them because they have no money, and we think it's probably because they're not as prayerful or spiritual as we are, or do not give their tithes, fail to obey God, fail some standards (usually our standards) and displease God. We think they're lazy. And worse, we think we're better than they are, or God loves us more because we please him and the "lazy" don't. And we believe this just because we have money. People we see as nothing, zero, useless, small. These are "the least," the people we scorn and despise. And lots of times the pastor is among them. 

Whatever we think of or do to them, we do to Jesus. Just to give you an example to open your eyes, if a brother is in dire need of 10k and you have definitely more than that in your bank as your extra money, but you just give him 500 pesos or 3k, you actually do that to Jesus. Do you get the picture now? And remember, God wants us to give up all to HIM and give to the poor, not just your 3k. It's His spoken and written will in the bible. Now, imagine if you turn down a brother or sister in dire need even if God has enabled you to give. You do that to Jesus as well, even if you are a "tither."

Yes, uglier is if we don't fully help our needy brother or sister (although God has blessed us more than we need to be able to bless others) just because we're setting aside money to buy a new car or build a bigger house. Ugliest is to withhold money to the needy because we're saving for a church property or building or building a bigger and nicer one. We've been told that all these are according to sound doctrine, but they really go against Jesus' teachings. 

Don't worry, God knows your needs and his blessings are first intended for your real needs, plus a little savings perhaps. God wants you to have some money in the bank and to provide for your immediate family. But the rest of the extras are meant to be given away. Sometimes, the bank savings, too. 

What scares us (and especially churches and denominations) is the thought that the needy might keep coming back for more and other poor people might follow suit. The idea of "giving up everything we have" is poor stewardship to us, and we heard that from some smart Aleck in church in the past---how it's wrong to give people money just like that. They said it was sound doctrine to withhold money from needy people, especially to the "undeserving." But Jesus was clear:

"Give to anyone who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." [Matthew 5.42].

We can never change or delete this teaching. The Word of God is eternal. 

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SURRENDERING TO JESUS 

Ask forgiveness and repent of your sins. Believe God's forgiveness. It is promised in the bible. Receive Jesus Christ into your heart as your sole Savior and Lord. Then be assured of heaven, not because of anything you have or do (not your good deeds or religion or church), but because of God's grace and mercy through what Jesus Christ did on the cross. In Jesus alone is salvation. Jesus is: 

 ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4]

Surrender to Him by intently studying the bible daily (ask guidance from the Holy Spirit) and applying in life everything you learn. And then pray that God lead you to the right person who'd disciple you, one who is totally surrendered to Jesus and living His Word in the bible.

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The Poor Pastor 1

This is a series. It's about a poor servant of God--a poor church pastor--I juxtapose with the poor guy in Ecclesiastes 9:13-16. One day while reading, the passage came alive before me and I saw visions of a poor but anointed pastor and his conclusions about certain matters on life and ministry, as if like the Teacher in Ecclesiastes. Photo above by Finding Dan | Dan Grinwis on Unsplash.

13 I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: 14 There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. 15 Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.

Pastor Placido, or Ptr. Ido as members fondly called him, used to serve in a regular-size local church, with membership of about a hundred plus. The church makes a decent monthly income, making it the ardent desire of a number of his ministerial colleagues in the denomination. His first years were exciting, being a plain layman (just an active member of their young people in his younger years) voted overwhelming as pastor of the church. It was all too wonderful, a young people turned full-time minister. 

There was a touch of mystery to it. And that's what they needed, the people said. A plain pastor from their own ranks who could understand what the church really needed--unlike titled and degreed ministers who had too much schooling but understood nothing about the church.  A lot of titled and degreed ministers tried to "apply" but never made it. Ido was the church's favorite.

But as time went by--when honeymoon between pastor and church was over--the elders and church board began thinking smarter than Ido, which was typical of most church boards, especially when they felt more senior and smarter than the pastor, when they're among the so-called "givers" or supporters, and especially when the pastor had no bible school or seminary background as Ido didn't. They easily bullied the pastor into submission. They saw his simple layman-turned-pastor story no longer romantic but a ministry weakness. So they started looking into his credetials and many more lapses and loopholes to discredit him with.

To the extent that they started thinking he wasn't really a pastor--or at least he was yet an "incomplete" pastor due to the ministerial credentials he lacked, and that to them was pivotal. They reasoned that no one could explain or interpret the bible competently without formal studies at their seminary, especially studies in hermenutics and theology. So they figured, Ptr. Ido probably had a wrong understanding of Scriptures in general, especially when the members felt he was being a bit too offensive with his preaching. He needed to do it right and not unnecessarily hurt people's feelings.

Other pastors in the denomination agreed. They said "unprofessional"preaching like that was due to half-baked pastors uninitiated in formal schooling about ministry, ethics and theology. "He definitely needs to be in bible school and, later, seminary. Or else, he'd just keep teaching you wrong doctrines," the pastors added.

So everybody wanted him to get a title and degree as other church pastors had. They wanted to be proud of their pastor. It was not a suggestion. It was a demand echoed by the local elders and the district board.

But in matters like this, Placido believed the call should come from the Lord, not from the elders or church board or anyone else. He had prayed for it a lot--who knows, the Lord may be speaking through them who were urging him about it. So, to be fair, he sought the Lord. But after prayers, he didn't see any clear leading. Especially when what the board and elders wanted from the title and degree was to "take pride" in their pastor. They wouldn't be proud if he were just a plain pastor. And with the caliber of their local church, they deserved no less.

And also, that the pastor may have more confidence when meeting titled professionals like doctors, engineers or accountants. Or rich folks. How else would people respect him if he was just a plain pastor, compared to being, say, Dr. Rev. Placido Gallego. Then the church would have something to brag about.

But Ido had always suspected the idea--the need to "take pride" in someone or something. Pride and self confidence like that was never from the Lord, he told himself. It's work of the flesh. All the church needed was to take pride in their God. He remembered how Moses was taken to the desert for 40 years to be downgraded from being powerful in speech and educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians to being a lowly, lowly shepherd. Yet, God didn't think he need to "take pride" in himself or anything he could accomplish, except take pride in the I Am to face Phaorah. 

He had once explained this to the district elders and pastors, but all he got was mocking. "Are you Moses?" they asked.

It was then Ido remembered the Ecclesiastes 9 passage. A city weakened by its neglect of wisdom making it easily conquerable by an invading king, which Ido thought, in his present situation, was worldly principles creeping into the church he was pastoring. Worldliness is like a "powerful king" against an unspiritual local church. Much as he avoided the idea, but he couldn't help thinking of himself as the poor hero in the passage, the key to victory and yet disdained by the people he was to save. Just because he was poor.

Not really financially poor, but in the sense of being looked down on for his poor credentials for the job, or so some people thought.

If a church's priorities are like that--priorities that cater to the flesh--it is weak. Ido had always believed that. And what the church needed was not a titled or credentialed pastor but open spiritual eyes to see GOD and take pride in HIM. He once preached about it, but it mostly fell on deaf ears. Some visitng pastors at the time just shook their heads in dismay. They murmured: "Uninitiated." But wrong spiritual priorities, said Ido, made the church easy target for even the weakest attack. "It's not theology we need," he stressed. The more people didn't listen.

Then another king would rise up and take over and grab the church from the Lord. When people are not able to advance spiritually and unable to see what heaven puts real value on--but see only what is earthly--it has been surrounded spiritually by the enemy and "huge siege works" have been built against it. Ido shook his head in disappointment. In the Old Testament, when siege works were built against a kingdom, that kingdom could not see anymore beyond its walls. It had lost connection with reality. It failed to see the real goings-on outside its walls.

And Ido wondered why no one saw that happening--worldly standards creeping into the church. They all thought titles and degrees were the dire needs of the day. He had to be "ordained" so he could add the prefix "Rev." to his name, and that would make his church proud of him. Being simply their "Pastor" was no longer enough for these people. He had to be like this and like that. They decided what's good for their pastor. 

Nothing wrong with ordination, Ido reasoned to himself. It's a confirmation of your special call to a particular Kingdom task, with an accompanying specific anointing for spiritual equipment. This is initiated by the Holy Spirit on the body of church elders genuinely filled with the Spirit of God. That was the ordination he learned from the bible--a prophetic utterance from the body of apostles and elders declaring a ministerial anointing on his life and ministry, pretty much what Moses did to Joshua and what the prophet Samuel did to kings. It was something supernatural and had nothing to do with titles and degrees from man-made institutions. Definitely not for "taking pride" in the flesh.

Everything should be the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, Ptr. Ido insisted.

That was his upbringing from his late dad. His dad had stressed that everything in life and ministry should be through the leading of the Holy Spirit alone. "And nothing of the flesh--meaning, the sinful nature--can be part of God's work," his dad had insisted. "God may speak through other channels, like other people or circumstances, but he'd do it with anointed circumstances or people, not those led by the flesh or who subscribed to the systems of the world."

His dad was not a pastor or active church member. "I simply study the bible and rely solely on the Holy Spirit," his dad had said, adding how you'd get more from God that way than from being active in church today. Church in the old days, perhaps, was good. But today? "All they have are good programs." His dad had murmured. "You can't know more about the Spirit's power with good programs."

Ptr. Ido smiled as he remembered how his dad had looked as he emphasized those things to him. He had always been emphatic on this topic but also quite funny. Ido knew his dad was really spiritual though other people saw him as a heretic, or something of an anti-church. A rebel. Even an envious fault-finder. But his dad had always maintained that he was all for the glorious church of Jesus Christ, which was without spot or wrinkle or any blemish. "If a church isn't like that--or at least doggedly pursuing this--I want nothing of it," his dad declared. "It's not Jesus' church, in the first place."

Ido sighed deeply. That was about a decade ago, a few months before the Lord took his dad home. And the way God took his dad was like how HE took Enoch home. Anyway, some years after--and when honeymoon with his local church was over and people and their denominational leadership was forcing him to go to seminary for titles and degrees for pride--Ido decided to leave the church for good. 

But not without saving it first from invasion by a king.

Continued..