"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Luke 16: 13 NKJV
I heard a radio preacher this week proclaim that the largest owner of gold in the entire world is not the U.S. government. It's not some criminal organization. No, the sole owner of most of the worlds gold belongs to none other than the catholic church. Now, at first I approached this with skepticism, but after considering everything which I know about the ornate appearance of many churches, I am inclined to believe this claim. Indeed, we all have seen the stately appearance of many of the churches we encounter. For me, it does not matter how you decorate your church, as long as the fundamentals of Christ are taught within its walls. When I look at the majority of catholic churches today, I see many cathedrals decorated with the finest man can buy, yet the truth of Jesus is rarely taught. What is the truth of Jesus? Well, the apostle Paul spoke to that subject in Galatians when he described Jesus living in him {Galatians 2:20}. Keep in mind that Jesus is all too aware of these ornate temples that we claim are to glorify God. Tell me, how is God glorified when His Son is not glorified? Yet we will heap mountains of glory upon the very mother of Jesus without mentioning that it was the Father who orchestrated it all. So it seems that there is a price of admission for being a believer in Jesus. The proceeds from these gate receipts most certainly go to maintaining the appearance of the church. Now, obviously not all houses of worship are so ornately decorated, but there are certainly many of them. As I said, you can decorate your church however you like as long as long as the truth of Jesus is taught there.
"If you had know Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him. Philip said to Him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.' Jesus said to him, 'have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, show us the Father?"
John 14: 7 - 9 NKJV
The truth we see about Christ Jesus is that He is not distant and removed from us, but very much in us today. Paul referred to this teaching as the "mystery among the Gentiles" {Colossians 1:27}. We're all too often taught that Jesus, upon rising on that third morning, ascended into heaven to be seated next to the Father. We accept this as true without also accepting the truth of Christ in us. This is the disconnect in modern theology. Are we to ignore the words and teachings of Paul in order to carry on ages old teachings? I would say no. Is it wrong to be rich? Not at all. Yet, what is the Father asking that you do with your wealth? If we hold tight to the view that we and we alone are responsible for achieving our own success, then we've missed the entire point of who the Father is. God is not one who created all that we see only to erase His fingerprints once man inhabited the earth. No, God created all. God is all in all.
~Scott~
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