You Can’t Quit the Game
August 1st, 2009But You CAN Win
Baldilocks has been giving her take on what “lucky” and “unlucky” mean. I agree with her when she says she doesn’t like describing life in terms of luck. God exists. So does Satan. So does free will. And then there are the countless spirits that affect our lives for good or evil.
I see life in terms of blessings and curses. The curses are more controversial than the blessings. A lot of people–even Christians–get mad if you say misfortune is sometimes caused by sin, or that God sometimes punishes people severely. There is a bizarre movement these days to portray God as Santa Claus. All blessings, no punishment. And of course, that’s silly and utterly wrong. God and his angels killed thousands upon thousands of people in the stories of the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit–yes, the Holy Spirit–killed Ananias and Sapphira dead as hammers, and that was in the New Testament. God gave people tumors, leprosy, blindness…he drowned the entire population of the world, except for eight people, and if memory serves, seven of the eight were spared only because of God’s regard for Noah. He drowned the Egyptian army. He burned the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to death, and that includes women and kids. He caused terrible problems for his entire nation, because David took a census. Go ahead and tell me God wouldn’t give you VD or cancer or bankruptcy or whatever you want to name. That may be what Oprah believes. The Bible says otherwise. And like Ralph Richardson said in Time Bandits, God is “the nice one.” Bad behavior leaves you open to attack from less-friendly beings.
I believe your spiritual health consists of a certain number of blessings and a certain number of curses, and a lot of it can be traced to the things you or your ancestors have done in the past. Some people succeed at most things they do, even if they make a poor effort. Others can do everything right and fail time after time. Some highly disciplined people are fat. Lots of irresponsible, weak people are skinny. You can do a lot of things right and fail, and you can do almost everything wrong and succeed, depending on what you have in the spiritual bank. That’s what the Bible tells us, and it’s true. So you should always make investments in the bank. Pray, do alms, try to behave, tithe, find out what sins are closely associated with your family and repent of them, and so on. Sooner or later, the seeds will have to bear fruit. And presumably, the bad seeds you’ve planted in the past will eventually peter out and stop sprouting.
I sometimes find I’m doing bad things my parents or grandparents did, even though these are things of which I disapprove. They sneak up on me; they may take forms I don’t immediately recognize. I am doing my best to drop these practices as soon as I discover them. I don’t want this stuff bearing fruit five years from now.
I suspect that when the Bible says “charity shall cover the multitude of sins,” it means that charity can prevent many of your bad seeds from sprouting. Maybe you can spare yourself some punishment here on earth. Take a look at the 41st psalm and see what you think. The Greek word translated as “charity” is “agape,” which means a benevolent, selfless sort of love, so presumably, what we call charity qualifies. If the 41st psalm is correct, by helping the needy, you can literally make yourself lucky. This is what “he shall be blessed upon the earth means.”
Most Christians worry about going to hell, but they don’t think a lot about leading a blessed life. That’s unfortunate, because it means we end up accepting God and then going on with our lives almost as if he didn’t exist. Missing out on the blessings we were intended to have right here on earth.
Oddly, many of us think God owes us a good time. Most of us don’t tithe or pray regularly or try to avoid sin. Most of us do little for charity, which is remarkable, given the endless opportunity; I don’t understand why I did so little in the past. We do whatever we please, and then when bad things happen, we think God has cheated us, and we ask, “why me?” It would make more sense to look at the good times we haven’t earned and say, “why not me?” A lot of people refuse to believe in God, because they think life would be perfect if he existed. It’s amazing how many of us think we deserve perfect lives, just because God could spare us all unhappiness if he wanted. Apparently God is supposed to be a genie who does whatever we tell him, without requiring us to grow up. And if you love your kids, you’ll let them eat banana splits for breakfast, and you won’t make them go to school. Same thing.
I am trying to make myself more “lucky,” and it’s working. And I do not believe in Oprah Claus.
August 1st, 2009 at 4:20 PM
I got to see Zig Ziglar speak several years ago, and he has a saying “The harder you work, the luckier you’ll get.”
Speaking of Zig, he has some really wonderful books about his Christianity-very inspiring.
Hope your sister is doing well-still praying!
August 1st, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Last week I helped a woman who was going homeless move into an upstairs set of rooms above an elderly woman who needed some companionship.
Helping me help her were some other Christian guys I know (from other churches), who didn’t know her. Then I got to minister to the elderly lady.
Yesterday my sister-in-law moved from Killeen TX to Houston to live with her daughter and granddaughter.
God provided help loading, and then sent some Christian guys in Houston, who didn’t know her, to help her unload. One of them gave her a praise CD with $100 in it.
I wonder if some of this economy is to give Christians an opportunity to be … Christians.
August 2nd, 2009 at 2:28 AM
The Greek word translated as “charity” is “agape,” which means a benevolent, selfless sort of love, so presumably, what we call charity qualifies.
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If you give to charity for the express purpose of having God remove curses from your life, then you’re not performing with a selfless agape love.You’re operating from a selfish motive trying to purchase curse removal. To expect a present in return for being “good” is in fact to view God as some sort of Oprah Claus, the very thing you deny doing.
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August 2nd, 2009 at 8:29 AM
The Bible repeatedly encourages us to behave in certain ways in order to be blessed. Look at Malachi or the Psalms or Proverbs. How about, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you”? If there were no reward for serving God, there would be no reason to pay any attention to him.
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Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you should be mechanical or purely selfish about it. You can be obedient and care about others at the same time. An act can have more than one motivation. And if you start helping others to please God, unless you’re a robot, you will eventually discover the joy that helping brings, independently of why you do it.
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I think it’s likely that the inner change wrought by giving is more important to God than the material advantage you afford others. I would guess that this change is the main reason God responds with blessings.
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The Oprah god doesn’t ask you to give at all. Just feel great about yourself, because you’re already wonderful.
August 2nd, 2009 at 2:34 PM
Maimonides discusses 8 levels of charity:
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1) The greatest level, above which there is no other, is to strengthen another by making a partnership with him, or finding him a job in order to strengthen his hand until he needs no longer [beg from] people. For it is said, “You shall strengthen the stranger and the dweller in your midst and live with him,” {Leviticus XXV:35} that is to say, strengthen him until he needs no longer fall [upon the mercy of the community] or be in need.
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2) Below this is the one who gives charity to the poor, but does not know to whom he gives, nor does the recipient know his benefactor. For this is performing a commandment for the sake of Heaven. This is like the Secret [Anonymous] Office in the Temple. There the righteous gave secretly, and the good poor drew sustenance anonymously. This is much like giving charity through a charity box. One should not put into the box unless he knows that the one responsible for the box is faithful and wise and a proper leader.
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3) Below this is one who knows to whom he gives, but the recipient does not know his benefactor.
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4) Below this is one who does not know to whom he gives, but the poor person does know his benefactor.
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5) Below this is one who gives to the poor person before being asked.
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6) Below this is one who gives to the poor person after being asked.
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7) Below this is one who gives to the poor person gladly and with a smile.
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8) Below this is one who gives to the poor person unwillingly.
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Giving without altruism is better than waiting to feel altruistic. God wants us to BE charitable more than to FEEL charitable.
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The ultimate statement of faith in Judaism is the Shema prayer. http://www.jewfaq.org/prayer/shema.htm Look closely at Deut 11:13…: “And it shall come to pass if you surely listen to the commandments that I command you today to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul, That I will give rain to your land, the early and the late rains,
that you may gather in your grain, your wine and your oil. And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle and you will eat and you will be satisfied.” Note that the order in the text is to do the commandments and THEN to love the Lord. Doing right will change your feelings and faith more than waiting to feel right.
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Note that the do’s and don’ts from scripture are called commandments, not “nice things” or “stuff God suggests when you feel like it after watching all your sports shows and Desperate Housewives”.
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The word “mitzvah” is homophonically connected to the first word, in Hebrew, of the acronymic name of the IDF, Tzahal–Tzvah Haganah L’Yisrael. Those who are commanded to shield Israel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Defense_Forces#Etymology The Lord of Hosts in Hebrew is “Adonai Tzvaot”. Tzvaot is one of the 72 names of God.
August 2nd, 2009 at 3:43 PM
Thanks for the commentary, Steve.
Obedience brings about the inner change.
August 2nd, 2009 at 6:40 PM
The end of Ecclesiastes: “The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole man.”
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Being a disciple requires discipline.
August 4th, 2009 at 8:55 AM
I think where you get negative reaction from people is in saying that we get _cursed_ as punishment for _sinning._ That’s a bit too…simplistitc.
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I forget if it was a blind man or a leper or what, of whom the disciples asked, “Jesus is he paying for his sins or his parents.” The answer put the lie to that sort of thinking. I don’t believewe can ever really _know_ why God does what He does with our lives, because His reasons are too big for our heads. We just have to trust that what’s happening has to be.
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I love your thinking on “works” or “Acts” or whatever. That gets to be such a foolish controversy between Christians. Some say we earn favor by good works, others say that’s heresy. You cut through it by affirming that doing good in service to God is meant to be our natural state, nevermind the result. At least, that’s what I think you’re saying.
August 4th, 2009 at 9:09 AM
It’s very clear that sin is punished with curses. The Bible says it over and over. Adam and Eve were first, then Cain followed, and his curse was even stamped on his forehead. I could fill a book with examples, but we already have a book like that, and it’s called the Bible.
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The fact that one particular affliction was not caused by the sufferer’s sins doesn’t bear on the issue. I’ll give an analogy. Unprotected sex causes AIDS. Are there other causes? Sure. But unprotected sex causes AIDS.
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I just checked. Actually, the first recorded curse resulting from sin was placed on the serpent. Then Eve was cursed. Then Adam.
August 4th, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Hey, if the choice is between doing a good thing with a poor motivation and not doing the good thing – it believe it obvious that the dong the right thing option is better.
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Yes, doing the right thing out of the better motive is better yet, but until one’s heart catches up, doing the right actions is always the proper way to go (and taking action will speed the process of softening the heart).