The Culture of "More" and Micah 6:8

This is something that the Lord has convicted me about and I would like to share it with you ladies, in hopes that it would inspire more to “act.”Sometimes we don’t need another sermon, sometimes we just have to “act!” We have to hear the heart cry of those exploited across the world, and make a way to assist those in need! We can no longer be content to pursue our own goals and interests. It can be so subtle that we fail to realize it in our selves but we are missing it.  We believe we have good works, but we do not if we do not truly expend ourselves for others. Christianity is not a means for career and personal advancement. Christianity is about loss.  If you are not careful, you will miss this in your own lives.  We have to truly lay down our lives.  This is pure religion before God!! To look out for the distressed widows and orphans, and remain undefiled by the world. James 1:27. We must be careful not to seek more to make ourselves excessively more comfortable in this world…and we mustn’t use religion as a tool for personal advancement in this world…but pure religion, seeks to pour out itself for others.

In this culture of “More” we begin to miss it.  Somehow this culture of “More” has inundated the church, to  the point where we worship for “more”, we fast for “more”, we give for “more.”  To the point where Christ is no longer the “end” but the “means to the end.”  What happened to giving to find more of him.  Fasting to find more of him.  Giving to be more like him. It’s easy to miss if you don’t acknowledge it, because who have been programming to believe that we do all those things so that God can bless us.  No, God blesses us anyway!  Because we are his people.  Because we do what is right.  Because we do Micah 6:8.  Act justly.  Love Mercy.  Walk Humbly.  Our worship, praise, and devotion to Christ should only be based on one “More” and that is a hunger and a thirst for his righteousness.  In scripture really, where, show me, where has he once ever told us to seek after personal advancement?  Or does it say look after the needs of others, and bear ye one anothers burden?

Paul once told Timothy, that “Godliness with contentment is GREAT gain”.  But contentment is not a word that we hear anymore in Christian circles.  We feel “entitled.”  I am speaking about myself here, but I always wanted the best job, the best position, the best house, the best spouse, the best church, the best pastor! All because I felt a sense of “christian” entitlement.  It’s couvetousness.  We should be content with the daily bread that God gives us.  And it doesn’t mean you don’t work hard or try hard, or that you aren’t motivated.  It’s a heart condition.  And the heart condition is one of humility…that you accept what God gives you with thanksgiving…and you use the gifts that he gives you to advance his kingdom.

There are people who are overseas who are working basically for wages consistent with slave labor, young women who are held captive and held as prisoners for sex trafficking, these people have no lives!  There are young women and men being abused in their homes, raped on a daily basis, and they have no lives.  People who have no food and water on a daily basis, and they have no lives.  Yet we have everything, every need provided for, and we still complain.  Can you imagine, God observing what these people are suffering through and to see us complaining when we have it all!  Or upset because our neighbor has slightly more than us?  We are not content.  We cry out for more!  We want to be the best!  What we have is not enough.  God gives us the seed of faith that produces the 30, 60, and 100X. And we wonder why we never see the 100X…it”s because faith that moves mountains is for God’s Kingdom, not for personal gain.  You want to see God do the impossible, take up a cause for those  that suffer.  It’s not just for man’s self interest.  He says, you have not because  you ask not, and when you do ask you ask to expend it on your own pleasures.  We’re missing it!!  We have to hear the heart cry of the people who are truly in need…and break the bonds of injustice.  When we cry out for those who have nothing, I believe God will provide the 100X and nothing shall be impossible to us as the scripture says!!

It’s so easy to get distracted and side-tracked when you have your own cares…but I keep having this thought…what if we were meant to lose ourselves in this life, so we can gain the next one?  What if by trying to gain our lives in this one, we lose the next one?  Scary thought right?  I believe God is calling us to do more.  It’s good that we pay tithes and offering’s, that’s good.   But guess what, everything belongs to the Lord.  All we have belongs to him anyway.  We are not doing him any favors by giving what’s his back to him…he’s allowing us to participate in the blessedness of giving.  But God is looking for more than charity…charity gives.  God wants us to do justice, and that is to change the problems.  To undue the yolks.  In the book of Luke, it states  that if you lose your life, you will find it in this life and the one to come.  We can’t be content with our righteousness…God isn’t looking for More religion.  He’s looking for some people who are going to untie yolks, undue bondages, and set the captives free.  We’ve spend enough time on ourselves, have we not.  We must do what the Lord expects us to do.  In order to do this have to die daily.  We have to choose what is most excellent, and that is Love.  It’s not about spiritual gifts, it’s about having the love to see and need and meet it.  We have to expend ourselves…to expend means to use yourselves up and occupying ourselves with good deeds.  Only then will you find life.  This is pure religion, let’s choose that!  That’s is what good is looking for.  Let’s go out and loose the chains and injustice and help someone else.  Don’t worry, God will more than provide for your needs.  He is not asking anyone to be paupers, he is just looking for contented hearts.

Let’s walk humbly with our God. When we are arrogant and boastful, we become like the enemy.  Jesus was meek and lowly heart-ed.  WE have to esteem others as better than ourselves.  Do we really think that any of our righteousness is good?  So let us not provoke eachother but be quick to show mercy, knowing that we ourselves need mercy from the father.  If you give no mercy, you get no mercy.  Let’s be slow to anger and quick to forgive…and faithful…the Lord loves faithfulness!

Act Justly.  Love Mercy.  Walk Humbly. Micah 6:8
…this is the new direction I will be going in…and looking into hunger, poverty, sex trafficking and providing info for your ladies on the blog.  And hopefully get input from you on how you are changing your church and your community. Please share your ideas with me, if you would like to post articles on the blog about such issues let me know if you are interested. Love you ladies, God bless you!  Let’s please God and “Act.”  Let’s give good some pure religion!!!! Let’s please the King!

Hosea 6:6
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

*This website is dedicated to glorifying God by servicing “the least of them.  In doing so, we will fulfill the ultimate commission set forth by our Father in Isaiah 58, which encourages us  to “loose the chains of injustice, ” set the oppressed free,” and “break every yoke!”  It’s about ” sharing food with the hungry,” “providing the poor wanderer with shelter” and “clothing the naked.”  The heart cry of every exploited individual should be answered by our willingness to serve others.  We should feel compelled to do this because the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof!  We should freely lend to others because what we have belongs to God anyway. Psalm 50.

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