EXCUSES

Matthew 8:21-22
Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.”

I have written much about the message of salvation preached by many in the context of financial prosperity and other types of affluence. Just yesterday I listened briefly to a preacher preaching in a market place: "...you have been selling and your business has not been moving, customers seems not to be coming to your shop, come to Jesus amd He will. . ." etc.

Now, there is a spiritual favour that causes one to prosper, that is in no doubt, there is a favour from the Lord that puts you above others, that is also not in question. When we read the record of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon and Daniel among others we see the power of God's favour in the life of a man.

Now when Christ was revealed, prosperity takes a different perspective, we hear the Lord say things like "... sell all you have and give to the poor and then come follow me...",  is it saying that the believer doesn't have financial prosperity. NO!

it simply means that when you are in Christ money losses its value, (listen, dear ones, money is a god!)

Let me remind us that there was only one thing Christ compared to the Heavenly Father, that is, what can take His place in our lives:

Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Thus Christ did not come to save you so that you can have money, Hello, He came to give you eternal life, both here and in time to come.

I always say this, every human has been created to prosper by default!

Revelation 4:11
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

So what is your excuse not to follow Christ?

The believer follows Christ no matter what he or she faces. It is a divine marriage, in marriage we say words like "for better for worse" though some new day preachers will say we should remove the worse: hello, who is deceiving who: Listen to Christ:

John 16:33
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

This is not negative thinking, this is true.

So we must be careful not to preach a strange gospel, some call it the prosperity gospel, know that we also have the poverty gospel, the lukewarm gospel and the radical gospel. Can we let go of all these sentiments and preach the one and only true gospel.

John 3:16
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Acts 4:12
There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

John 3:3,5,7
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.
So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’

Please listen:

1 Peter 1:21-23,25
Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.
You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.
For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.
But the word of the Lord remains forever.”And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.

See, it is natural to want to prosper, that is how God created you. So if you work and want to earn, you do business and want to profit, you invest and want to get good returns, it is normal that is how the Heavenly Father made things. When you sow seed, in due time you expect the harvest.

Genesis 1:22,28
Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

God has made growth/prosperity a default!

This is not the reason for salvation, if not, the rich and wealthy would not need salvation. Check!

So, what is your excuse?

We must know the truth, teach the truth and live the truth, enough of all these errors, promising people what Christ did not promise them. If you want to make money, work, do business, plant, yes invest, there is no miracle money. We are not magicians or con men. Let young people do good business to earn. In all, let them not forget that they are here because of the Heavenly Father thus they must serve Him as His children and not for earthly gain.

Our walk with God is spiritual. No more excuses.

Jesus told the first man as we see in today's reading, I don't even own a house, even a rented place. He told the other man to leave the worrying about the dead to the dead. Hello, excuses have no place with the Heavenly Father, either you are for Him or not. He has no time for all these excuses.

So we wonder what churches are doing today? If you spend all your valuable time pointing people to wealth, building a very strong money consciousness, why do you wander that they just can't be spiritual. I am not talking about that short time "feelings" in the gathering of others. No, but that water that is bigger than the one that the Samaritan woman was drawing from the well. For when the living water flowed, she became instrument for the conversion of a whole city. Praise to God.

Enough of the excuses. Follow Christ.

So help us Good Lord.

He calls us blessed.

Love
@the watcher