BUILDING BIGGER BARNS
The Lord told this parable – "
The ground of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly...." when a man came to Jesus complaining that his brother wasn't giving him the correct share of his inheritance. Go ahead and click on the barn to read the rest of it! The point isn't that we should not have any "barns" – savings for the future – but that it must not be the focus of our lives. Look at verse 21 – "So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." We should be laying up our riches in heaven, not just on the earth. The second greatest commandment – "Love your neighbor as yourself" assumes that we love and take care of ourselves, but too often we focus exclusively on ourselves and ignore the whole world of hurt all around us!
Imagine that you woke up one morning and learned you had just won the Megabucks lottery: you have $200,000,000 in your account. What would you do with it? In Ecclesiastes 5:10-11, King Solomon wrote – "He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity. When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes?" To sum it up:
1. Those who love money will never have enough.
2. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!
3. The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it.
4. So what good is wealth – except to see it slip through your fingers!
So now that you've done it all and had it all... what's next? "As he came forth naked from his mother's womb, he shall go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand" (verse 15). I've never seen a U-Haul being buried along with a coffin at the cemetery!
"Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:34-37}
The Apostles and leaders of the Early Church laid heavy emphasis on not striving after riches. St. James, step-brother of the Lord, wrote in his Epistle (ch. 2:1-20 and ch. 5:1-5) decrying those who profess Christ but live in luxury while neglecting the poor, as St. Clement (2nd cent.) echos this in his essay "Who is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved?" (See www.Agape-Biblia.org/literatura/#rich-man-saved). The title of Clement's essay refers to the incident in Matthew 19:16-22 where a certain rich man came to Jesus asking "What must I do to be saved?" He was a religious Jew who kept all ten commandments, but not the second greatest one – "Love your neighbor as yourself" So Jesus told him – "Go and sell what you have, and give to the poor, and come follow Me!" This story is so important that it's repeated in Mark and Luke as well.
St. Basil the Great (4th cent.) composed his famous sermon "To the Rich" on this same scripture from Matthew, quoting the passage in full in the start of his sermon (See www.Agape-Biblia.org/literatura/#to-the-rich). St. Gregory the Theologian (4th cent.), considered by the Early Church as the greatest theologian since the Apostle John, wrote his essay "Love of Poverty" (See www.Agape-Biblia.org/literatura/#love-of-poverty). And St. John Chrysostom (4th cent.), called "The Golden Tongue" because of his many eloquent and compelling sermons, penned his "Sermon on Almsgiving" on this same subject (See www.Agape-Biblia.org/literatura/#almsgiving). These are considered to be the Three Greatest Church Fathers, whose writings are some of the most powerful expository sermons on the Scriptures.
In more recent times, the eminent theologian Protopresbyter Georges Florovsky, a Russian emigre' who fled to Paris after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, wrote "St. John Chrysostom: the Prophet of Charity" (See www.Agape-Biblia.org/literatura/#chrysostom-charity). Chrysostom wrote often about freedom: man is created in God's image with a free will to choose and rationality to choose freely what is best, not merely to satisfy one's own desires. To conclude:
"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 'The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Head of God's creation, says these things: "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, 'I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing,' and don't know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me. He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.' He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Revelation 2:14-22).
"You can do something. You can't do everything, but that's not an excuse to do nothing!" So far, people have given almost nothing for Vision Complex's ARC (Agape Restoration Community) project in Tanzania. Our small non-profit has given over $10,000 to start laying the foundation for the ARC, but now we're almost broke. So we've sent $100 for them to raise and sell chickens and eggs. We need your help! Can you donate some chicken feed? Please go to https://Agape-Restoration-Society.org/Vision-Complex and do what you can!
A Personal Note: C.S. Lewis is considered by many to be the greatest author of the 20th century. Shortly before his death, he wrote a short essay "Willing Slaves of the Welfare State" – (www.Agape-Biblia.org/literatura/#Lewis") describing mankind's fear of a horrible death, either by nuclear war or by abject poverty, starving to death in the cold. So the Welfare State comes along to promise free healthcare, free housing, free grocery credits... a chicken in every pot! As Margaret Thatcher wrote – "Socialism can only survive until it finally runs out of other people's money." During the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Lenin rustled up mobs of people promising them "Land, Peace, and Bread" if they would join him in overthrowing the Tsar. But instead, the Bolsheviks confiscated their land, they got several more years of civil war, and they starved to death. Privately, Lenin called thes mobs his "useful idiots" – fools who believe the impossible promises of the Revolution and its Welfare State.
This next week is the election for the next U.S. President and Congress. Both candidates are making vast promises but are not exactly shining examples of virtue and honesty. One's sexual misconduct and shady business are trumpeted by the MSM (Main Stream Media), but the other's bedding down with the San Fran mayor is hushed up by the same MSM. That mayor was a great supporter of the communist Jim Jones who later moved to South America and gave his followers Kool-Aid laced with poison in his utopian communist village there: hundreds were killed.
The former is frequently called a "fascist" and a "nazi" by the MSM, but the latter's particpation in "progressive" (socialist) mass-protests starting from her childhood onward – sometimes violent and deadly – are scrubbed from the Internet. Among the leaders of one these anti-war protests broke out at U. of Wisconsin in Madison was Professor of Marxist Economics Dr. Donald Harris, the latter's father, who led the Black Students Association in these riots, which resulted in the death of a graduate student when the mobs blew up a campus building. I found this on the Internet this summer, but since her nomination, this incident has been scrubbed from the Internet. (BTW, the word "nazi" is the German abbreviation for "National Socialist" – both German Fascism and Russian Marxism are nationalist and socialist, so both fit that "nazi" description.)
I graduated from U. of Colorado with a B.A. in Russian and Soviet history and politics, so I studied the Marxist takeovers in Russia and later in Central Europe: infiltrate the press to indoctrinate the masses so those "useful idiots" will join the socialists in protesting and overthrowing the government, voting in a Marxist regime that takes control of the police, military and legislature, and arrest the opposition politicians... or "assist them" to fall from a fifth-story window. After graduating, my wife and I moved to Madison, WI to begin my doctoral studies in that same area in 1967. A year or so later, the anti-war protests erupted in Madison. I was an army veteran who became a pacifist, so when the "Veterans for Peace in Vietnam" began participating in these protests, I visited the home of one of the organizers: his bookshelves were filled with Marxist books: I and others there were being recruited as "useful idiots" to grow the mobs! I recognized from my B.A. studies what was going on, so I got out of there pronto! Please do not let yourself be duped into "drinking the Kool Aid" – becoming a "useful idiot" for the Manchurian Candidate.
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