morning brain spill

It's been a couple of days since I last checked in. Listening to the radio this morning I heard what is perhaps the stupidest marketing line ever devised: "The more you spend, the more you save." I suppose that's a bit of a misnomer - it's quite possibly one of the smartest lines ever created and people fall for it all the time. But it really chaps me. It's a twisted lie. If you're spending - you're not really saving at all! Saving is the opposite of spending. But it is in effect also true in that if there's a discount you do "save" more if you buy more but in actuality, you're still only getting the same percentage off...nevermind. I'm boring myself, and besides, any of you who graduated 4th grade could easily figure out for yourselves what I'm trying to say.

"The more you spend, the more you save." Unfortunately, I think there's a lot of church ministries out there that have adopted this marketing line as their spiritual motto. They have the fanciest buildings and the best special interest programs. They dress in the finest clothes and bring in the best worship "shows" with the mindset that if they can convince the world that being a Christian isn't as bad as they thought, they'll buy into it. Make it attractive! Show them they can live well and have great entertainment, too! (oh yeah, and they get to go to heaven... if they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior) It makes me wonder -- how would it have made my wife feel if when I proposed I had told her she wasn't so bad so we might as well but I was mostly in it for the benefits. I don't think I'd be married today if I had done that. But when I expressed to her that I thought she was the most beautiful woman in all creation and I wanted to spend my life with her because I loved her and couldn't imagine being happy with anyone else in the world and in fact no one in the world could fill that void even close to perfectly, it made her happy to accept my proposal. That's where we need to be! Christ doesn't want us to settle for him -- he wants us to come into a love relationship with him.

What makes cancer treatment attractive? Is it the hours of radiation and chemo? Is it the nausea that follows? Is it the cool new hair style? No, of course not. It's the fact that the treatment could potentially cure your cancer. We should come to Christ the same way recognizing sin and our sin nature as a cancer - incurable without the knowledge of and intimate relationship with Christ Jesus! The word says we are all dead in our transgressions, but God by his great love for us and his mercy, he made us alive in Christ. It is by grace( his unmerited favor) that we are saved(Eph. 2:4-5). Christ is the cure for our cancer of sin.

What happened to the days of investing time in God's Word to learn his promises so that we can have an effective means of presenting his gospel? Investing in missions? Investing in the study of apologetics? When the rich want to save money and grow wealth don't they invest? It's not the same as spending. To invest is to commit something in order to gain a future return. To spend is to pay out, use up, or waste wealth. Seriously - look it up: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=spend&x=16&y=17

Wow - I really didn't mean to go all the way here. In fact I attend a church that has all the finest things, and great special interest cells, and the greatest worship in the city, and a tv ministry and all that and I see nothing wrong with that, and while that may sound contrary to what I wrote above, it's not. Our pastor does us a great service in making sure that our primary focus remains Salvation, Deliverance, and Healing -- it's the theme of our church. There's nothing wrong with prosperity, but seek first the kingdom of God...and then all these things will be added to you. But you've got to keep it in the right order. Otherwise you end up thinking "the more you spend, the more you save." The truth is "the more you invest, the more you save."


BTW - thanks for stopping by. I was suprised to see there are a few of you who return regularly. Thanks. And drop a line sometime.