Shalom All,
Greeting in the Lord’s Name!
When I read the Romans 1 verse 18 - 20, “The wrath of God being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them”. Some people wonder why we need missionaries such like us if people can know about through nature. Although people know that God exists, they suppress that truth by their wickedness and thus refuse a relationship with Him. We sensitively expose their error and point them to a new beginning. People may believe there is God, they also refuse to commit themselves to Him. We help persuade them, both through loving words and caring actions. Moreover, we try to convince people who reject God of the dangerous consequences of their actions and helping the church obey the Great Commission. The most important, through nature reveals God, people need to be told about Jesus and how, through Him, they can have a personal relationship with God. By knowing God exists is not enough, people must learn that God is loving. They must understand what he did to demonstrate his love for us. They must be show how to accept God’s forgiveness of their sins.
In the 1 Corinthians 9 verse 1, “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?” Our changed lives were the evidence that God was using us. Does our faith have an impact to you? We can be a life-charger, helping others grow spiritually, if I dedicate ourselves to being used by God and letting him make us effective. At the verse 4, “Don’t we have the right to food and drink?”. We gave up our everything with the right hospitality to win people to Christ. When we focus is on living for Christ, our rights become comparative unimportant.
The purpose of the God’s Work in Luke 10 verse 7, “Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves their wages”. When Jesus told his disciples to accept hospitality graciously because their work entitled them to it. We, as a ministers of Gospel deserve to be supported and your responsibility is to make we have what we need. There is the way to encourage the people who serve God’s Work. First, see that the serving God have an adequate salary and supported emotionally. It is also to lift our spirits with special surprises from time to time and giving it cheerfully. Everyone have the responsibility to care for spiritual leaders and missionaries. It is also everyone duty to see that people serving full time for God in the ministry are fairly and adequately.
We must always alert ourselves. In the James 5 verses 1 - 6, “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you”. When James proclaims the worthlessness of riches, not the worthlessness if the rich. Today’s money will be worthless when Christ returns, so we should spend our time accumulating the kind of treasures that will be worthwhile in God’s Eternal Kingdom. Money is not the problem. Christians leaders need money to live and to support the families,, missionaries need money to help on spread the Gospel of Christ. It is the love of money that leads to evil and cause some people to oppress others in order to get more. This is warning to all Christians who are tempted to adopted worldly standards rather than God’s standards as well as an encouragement to all those who are oppressed by the rich.
Paul gave the some guidelines to follow in 1 Timothy 6 verse 10. We must realize that one day riches will all be gone, be content with what we have, monitor what you are willing to do to get money, love people more than money, love God’s work more than money and freely share what you have with others.
Almighty God has good, pleasing and perfect plans for his children. He wants us to be transformed people with renewed minds, living to honor and obey Him. Because He wants only what is best for us, and because He gave His Son to make our new lives possible, we should joyfully give ourselves as living sacrifices for His Service. Amen!
God Bless!
Blessing,
Rev. Steve Peter H S Kok
