JESUS CHRIST DIDN'T VISIT POOR PEOPLE
Abutu Richard@richardabutu760441
3 days ago
While reading 1st Thessalonians 2, I was inspired by the life of Apostle Paul. By the time I came to verse 17 of that chapter, I reached a conclusion: the wealth of a shepherd is his sheep, the wealth of a pastor is his congregation and not his material wealth. Then I continued reading, by the time I got to verse 19, I got my answer in plain sight, it reads "For who is our hope or joy or crown to boast of before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not of course you?"
And verse 19 makes it more open, it says "For you are our glory and joy!"
When a pastor alludes to wealth and it points to materialism and not his sheep, it raises questions. The gospel of Jesus Christ is NOT the gospel of materialism but of salvation and the prosperity in the gospel is the prosperity of our souls. How do our souls prosper? We prosper in our souls by having our lives sold out to Christ and for Him alone. It's a living where the only thing that matters is to know Him and the power of His resurrection. A sold out soul knows that his or her wealth has nothing or little to do with earthly riches. He prioritises godliness over gain, righteousness over riches and piety over prosperity.
The church of Christ is a glorious church and we grew in relevance over the years not by making financial boasts but by winning the world through the love and faith of Jesus Christ. We left our doors open to the poor and bereaved, we gave them succour and strength, if we, who are supposed to welcome poor people tell them that we don't make friends with the poor, where is their hope? If we despise the poor for their poverty, we are driving them away from true riches to become slaves of the possessors of an unrighteous mammon.
I earnestly pray that the custodians of the gospel who have swayed from the teaching of salvation regain their sanity and get back to the gospel that saved us from the wrath to come and the imminent corruption of this world. We are god's people, we know that what suffices for us is being able to feed, dress and sleep under a roof, and if we are blessed to be rich beyond these, we ought to extend to people who are less privileged amongst us.
We do not trust in uncertain riches. And when we are blessed to possess them, we do not hoard them, we sow them into the lives of people, because we know that he who lends to the poor lends to the Lord and that we are storing our treasures in heaven beyond the reach of marauders.
Jesus Christ didn't despise the poor. When he met a wealthy man, he told him to go and give out his wealth, the man went home sad. The master said that it will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to inherit God's kingdom. If the gospel that Jesus preached wasn't about how to prosper on earth, where did the prosperity gospel of our day come from? It's not from Jesus Christ or the Bible.
I earnestly pray that the fathers of modern church correct their errors before leaving earth, may they not hand over the crumbs of the gospel to the next generation of church leaders, because if we inherit crumbs by the time we are leaving the scene, we may have nothing to pass to the next generation. I say this with passion and a strong reason because the gospel that was handed down by the first century apostles is not the same gospel being preached in many quarters of Christianity. That gospel has been truly diluted, that's why we don't have many spirit drunk believers again. Is it not someone who is offered strong wine that gets drunk; how could someone be drunk by hearing that Jesus Christ never visited the house of the poor?
I am Richard Abutu #HighOnWORD.
