O, good grief!



At 10:43 AM 5/8/2007, you wrote:
>Well Phil,
>         There's no doubt about it, Jesus Himself said that the rich 
> would have trouble entering the kingdom of heaven because of their 
> love for their possessions.  As far as the behavior that you 
> described in the church that you attended for thirteen years, we 
> are told in James 2, that that sort of behavior is flat out 
> wrong.  You won't get any argument from me on either of those points.
>         What concerns me is the fact that the sins on the other end 
> of the wealth continuum are not often addressed as what they are, 
> sin.  I'm talking about envy and covetousness.  Through the people 
> that we work with at our church, I have learned that greed isn't 
> just a rich person's problem.  Greed is greed and poor people can 
> be just as greedy as rich people.  Rich people are just more able 
> to act out on it.  The heart desire is the same, however.  Sadly, 
> poor people are excused from being labeled sinners because, well, 
> its human to want more.  But,the Apostle Paul told us  that he had 
> learned to be content in all situations, in plenty and want, and he 
> tells Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain.  Paul 
> also tells us to press on toward the goal of Christ.  He says that 
> he beats his body and makes it his slave for the sake of 
> Christ.  None of this sounds like he is taking a casual  approach 
> to his faith or his Lord to me.
>         To me, this divisive thinking is the same sort of thing 
> that drives me nuts when conservative Christians jump all over a 
> brother or sister, in the Lord, for having a drink, but they think 
> nothing of their gluttony which has caused them to be 
> overweight.  I guess that, in short, it's easy to point out the 
> sins of others and give ourselves a pass. Lord forgive we 
> contancorous bunch of people who claim to have You in our hearts.
>Kathy
>
>
>
>At 12:29 PM 5/8/2007, you wrote:
>>Vinny and others on this topic,
>>
>>I have been in this type of church, well, pretty close, and just the
>>opposite.  It works both ways, of course, but the most sickening was the big
>>church I was in for 13 years that I on the board and traveled out from this
>>church around the country as a guest preacher.  This particular church
>>favored the rich people in the church so ostentatiously, it was right down
>>embarrassing.  We had a Denver Bronco player coming to this church and some
>>very wealthy business men, too.  Mexicans and blacks were looked down upon
>>and blacks were not encouraged to become members.  Mexicans, we were told in
>>the board meeting once, were ok but they are highly emotional people.  I now
>>have, of course, to mixed raced Mexican grandchildren and they seem as
>>normal as my other granchildren so I don't know what they were talking
>>about.  If you drove into the parking lot in a nice 50,000 dollar car back
>>then, wearing nice clothes, you were instantly accepted by the leadership.
>>I've never been to disagree with the idea that it shows a little respect to
>>dress appropriately for any occasion.  I mean, when I did my son's wedding,
>>I wore a tucks and not my suit.  On the other hand, when I did my mother in
>>laws funeral, I wore my suit and not a tuxedo.  The sleeves fancy buttons
>>kept getting caught on the lip of the large glass pulpit and rattling around
>>and making it difficult, when they got caught, to read my Braille notes, but
>>I sure felt dressed up that day.
>>
>>Phil.