Friday, May 01, 2009
We live in very difficult economic times and this is the beginning of an eight part series on how to live a rich spiritual life in the midst of economic scarcity. Hope you like reading it. Please give me feedback.
Chapter I
The Gospel of Prosperity
Val J. Peter
One of our recent graduates is studying culinary arts at Metro Community College. He is a good lad and likes to listen to religious radio programs. The other day, he told me he has been getting some rather interesting letters from preachers. This one is from a prophet, self-styled prophet, Danny Davis in Twentynine Palms, California.
Dear Kyle,
Just after midnight this word came to me…the most
blessed days of thine entire life lie just ahead if you
will move in obedience unto the Lord. For I have a
Golden Prosperity Blessing to pour out upon thee…it is
flowing upon thee like a mighty river. My hands feel
like fire. The whole room is filled with God’s glory
cloud.
The prophetic message now unfolds:
In the next few days, a beautiful golden cloud is going
to rest on your shoulders, Kyle, like a golden mantle
of prosperity. God spoke to me to place this golden
mantle (a small piece of yellow cloth) inside this letter.
He told me to pray over it all night and for you to cut
it in half and put half of it in your billfold for the next
seven days…then take your very best offering unto the
Lord and lay the other half with the golden mantle on
it so a faith seed. Sister Robin and I feel led to
$100.28. That’s a double portion of Psalm 50,14 seed.
“Offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows.” Then
we call upon the Lord in any day of trouble and He will
deliver us. Maybe your best is $50.14 (don’t forget to
include the 14 cents).
Here comes the ask:
God told me to lay the half of the golden mantle you
return to me on the altar of prayer. And when I do,
your miracle from God will begin in your body
financially…yes, a three-fold miracle is what I believe
God is going to do for you.
In another letter from this preacher, Kyle received a glove (of yellow plastic) and was told that God will bless him if he puts money inside the glove, touches the glove to his head and then, when it gets to the prophet, Danny Davis, he touches it to his head and great monies return.
And in another letter, there was “sack cloth – prayer cloth” which Kyle was told to put on top of his head just like the prophets put sack cloth on in the days of old. Then he was to put the sack cloth under his pillowcase for “tonight only.” (Joel 1,13 says: “Come lie all night in sack cloth.”) Finally he is reminded to wrap his sack cloth – (prayer cloth around an offering) and rush it back to Danny Davis who says “I keep seeing $113 in the spirit.” (Joel 1,13) And then Kyle is told to say this prayer: In Lord Jesus name, I confess “money cometh in the next 113 days. I confess the angel of blessing will visit me, not once, but many times.”
I am sure you would not believe these kinds of letters, but some do. They are an instance of something called “the gospel of prosperity.” What is the gospel of prosperity? It is this: God wants you to make a lot of money.
But even if you would not believe Kyle’s letters, many watch the televangelists…wearing Armani suits, driving BMWs or Mercedes 600s, black with tinted windows. And the preacher tells us over and over again that we have not stretched our God given potential and that we can be very prosperous and we should not be satisfied in our low income. God’s blessings are just waiting for us around the corner. And if the preacher is asked why he wears expensive clothes, drives fancy cars, lives in a mansion, he says that he is an ambassador of the Lord and an ambassador has to look the part.
Perhaps you are one of those who says you do not believe that either. And yet, many of you believe that those who are in poverty in the United States, at least, are somehow or other failing in their moral duties and that if you fulfill your moral duties you will not be in such bad straights.
Well, what has happened to almost every American, in fact, almost every citizen of the world is an economic collapse in these past long months. It started as a subprime mortgage crisis. It ballooned into world-wide economic bad times. And so many of you who are reading this are shaking your head realizing that your 401k or 503b are worth half what they were before. This is a financial crisis hitting the global economy in a way that Americans have not experienced since the Great Depression. Many have lost their jobs and some have even lost everything. Banks are foreclosing on houses. Often, there is a sense of betrayal or guilt or shame or failure and lots of unexpressed anger.
I was just a young growing boy when the Depression hit American in the 1930s, but some memories are very, very vivid. One picture I still carry in my mind is the sign in the back window of a Model A Ford saying: “In God we trusted. In Kansas we busted.” This little series of essays is written about trust in God in bad times. I wonder if the person who put that sign in the back window of the Model A was like Kyle, namely, succumbing to the temptation to believe that if we love God and work hard that God loves us by the amount of money that comes into our lives.
There are two starter things we should do right away in the face of these economic hard times. One is spiritual and the other is material. First the spiritual, let us turn to the Lord as a first step in these tough times. Let us ask His strength and courage. Let us thank the Lord that we have a family. Let us thank the Lord we have people to care for us, to love us and that we have a Lord who will give us the strength and courage to do what we need. Secondly, the second is material. Let us have a family meeting and let us tell our kids that these are very tough times. We have to cut back on many things and this cut back will provide us an opportunity to love each other better, to care for each other better because we need each other more. Let us start off with a little more kindness, a little more caring, a little more understanding of our mom and dad. All of us, grown-ups and children, need to pitch in.
Cutting down on spending is a great idea. Here are a few stories of how we got into this mess and what to do.
A young graduate called me the other day. She is in the Army and just graduated from basic training at Fort Leonard Wood. Her AIT (Advanced Infantry Training) is at Fort Sill. Well, of course, she has a cell phone at $49.99 a month, but when she got her first bill it was $702. How is this possible? Well, she did a lot of text messaging and does not have $702 to pay for it. She said she thinks it is unfair the mess she is in and does not feel like praying. It is almost as if God let her down. I assured her that God still loves her a lot and it was not God who let her down, but it was her own foolishness. Josie and I can work together, but it starts with her disciplining herself and only using up the minutes on the $49.99 plan.
Then there is a boy who signed up for the winter semester at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is a ward of the state and so they are paying for his tuition. He signed up for summer school and moved into the dorms, but did not go to class and withdrew from class just before he would receive an automatic F. So he signed up again for the fall classes. He received his Pell Grant and was not going to fall classes either. He called his Pell Grant “free money.” That means that he does not have to pay it back to the government. Ted and I need to have a nice long talk.
This is a time for all of us to look at our priorities and to reorder them. It is a great time to look at the effect of advertising in our lives. It is a good time to look at our needs and distinguish them from our wants. We want all sorts of things. But we do not need all of them. It is a good time to look at our spending habits. It is a good time to look how little time we spend with each other and how much we need to now. It is a good time to learn how to care for one another a little more.
And it is especially a good time to sit down and to remind ourselves of what the Lord said: If you wish to come after me, take up your cross and follow me. So it is a good time to say, perhaps, the cross we need to carry now is the cross of having less money, less affluence and more caring and more sharing.
Chapter I
The Gospel of Prosperity
Val J. Peter
One of our recent graduates is studying culinary arts at Metro Community College. He is a good lad and likes to listen to religious radio programs. The other day, he told me he has been getting some rather interesting letters from preachers. This one is from a prophet, self-styled prophet, Danny Davis in Twentynine Palms, California.
Dear Kyle,
Just after midnight this word came to me…the most
blessed days of thine entire life lie just ahead if you
will move in obedience unto the Lord. For I have a
Golden Prosperity Blessing to pour out upon thee…it is
flowing upon thee like a mighty river. My hands feel
like fire. The whole room is filled with God’s glory
cloud.
The prophetic message now unfolds:
In the next few days, a beautiful golden cloud is going
to rest on your shoulders, Kyle, like a golden mantle
of prosperity. God spoke to me to place this golden
mantle (a small piece of yellow cloth) inside this letter.
He told me to pray over it all night and for you to cut
it in half and put half of it in your billfold for the next
seven days…then take your very best offering unto the
Lord and lay the other half with the golden mantle on
it so a faith seed. Sister Robin and I feel led to
$100.28. That’s a double portion of Psalm 50,14 seed.
“Offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows.” Then
we call upon the Lord in any day of trouble and He will
deliver us. Maybe your best is $50.14 (don’t forget to
include the 14 cents).
Here comes the ask:
God told me to lay the half of the golden mantle you
return to me on the altar of prayer. And when I do,
your miracle from God will begin in your body
financially…yes, a three-fold miracle is what I believe
God is going to do for you.
In another letter from this preacher, Kyle received a glove (of yellow plastic) and was told that God will bless him if he puts money inside the glove, touches the glove to his head and then, when it gets to the prophet, Danny Davis, he touches it to his head and great monies return.
And in another letter, there was “sack cloth – prayer cloth” which Kyle was told to put on top of his head just like the prophets put sack cloth on in the days of old. Then he was to put the sack cloth under his pillowcase for “tonight only.” (Joel 1,13 says: “Come lie all night in sack cloth.”) Finally he is reminded to wrap his sack cloth – (prayer cloth around an offering) and rush it back to Danny Davis who says “I keep seeing $113 in the spirit.” (Joel 1,13) And then Kyle is told to say this prayer: In Lord Jesus name, I confess “money cometh in the next 113 days. I confess the angel of blessing will visit me, not once, but many times.”
I am sure you would not believe these kinds of letters, but some do. They are an instance of something called “the gospel of prosperity.” What is the gospel of prosperity? It is this: God wants you to make a lot of money.
But even if you would not believe Kyle’s letters, many watch the televangelists…wearing Armani suits, driving BMWs or Mercedes 600s, black with tinted windows. And the preacher tells us over and over again that we have not stretched our God given potential and that we can be very prosperous and we should not be satisfied in our low income. God’s blessings are just waiting for us around the corner. And if the preacher is asked why he wears expensive clothes, drives fancy cars, lives in a mansion, he says that he is an ambassador of the Lord and an ambassador has to look the part.
Perhaps you are one of those who says you do not believe that either. And yet, many of you believe that those who are in poverty in the United States, at least, are somehow or other failing in their moral duties and that if you fulfill your moral duties you will not be in such bad straights.
Well, what has happened to almost every American, in fact, almost every citizen of the world is an economic collapse in these past long months. It started as a subprime mortgage crisis. It ballooned into world-wide economic bad times. And so many of you who are reading this are shaking your head realizing that your 401k or 503b are worth half what they were before. This is a financial crisis hitting the global economy in a way that Americans have not experienced since the Great Depression. Many have lost their jobs and some have even lost everything. Banks are foreclosing on houses. Often, there is a sense of betrayal or guilt or shame or failure and lots of unexpressed anger.
I was just a young growing boy when the Depression hit American in the 1930s, but some memories are very, very vivid. One picture I still carry in my mind is the sign in the back window of a Model A Ford saying: “In God we trusted. In Kansas we busted.” This little series of essays is written about trust in God in bad times. I wonder if the person who put that sign in the back window of the Model A was like Kyle, namely, succumbing to the temptation to believe that if we love God and work hard that God loves us by the amount of money that comes into our lives.
There are two starter things we should do right away in the face of these economic hard times. One is spiritual and the other is material. First the spiritual, let us turn to the Lord as a first step in these tough times. Let us ask His strength and courage. Let us thank the Lord that we have a family. Let us thank the Lord we have people to care for us, to love us and that we have a Lord who will give us the strength and courage to do what we need. Secondly, the second is material. Let us have a family meeting and let us tell our kids that these are very tough times. We have to cut back on many things and this cut back will provide us an opportunity to love each other better, to care for each other better because we need each other more. Let us start off with a little more kindness, a little more caring, a little more understanding of our mom and dad. All of us, grown-ups and children, need to pitch in.
Cutting down on spending is a great idea. Here are a few stories of how we got into this mess and what to do.
A young graduate called me the other day. She is in the Army and just graduated from basic training at Fort Leonard Wood. Her AIT (Advanced Infantry Training) is at Fort Sill. Well, of course, she has a cell phone at $49.99 a month, but when she got her first bill it was $702. How is this possible? Well, she did a lot of text messaging and does not have $702 to pay for it. She said she thinks it is unfair the mess she is in and does not feel like praying. It is almost as if God let her down. I assured her that God still loves her a lot and it was not God who let her down, but it was her own foolishness. Josie and I can work together, but it starts with her disciplining herself and only using up the minutes on the $49.99 plan.
Then there is a boy who signed up for the winter semester at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is a ward of the state and so they are paying for his tuition. He signed up for summer school and moved into the dorms, but did not go to class and withdrew from class just before he would receive an automatic F. So he signed up again for the fall classes. He received his Pell Grant and was not going to fall classes either. He called his Pell Grant “free money.” That means that he does not have to pay it back to the government. Ted and I need to have a nice long talk.
This is a time for all of us to look at our priorities and to reorder them. It is a great time to look at the effect of advertising in our lives. It is a good time to look at our needs and distinguish them from our wants. We want all sorts of things. But we do not need all of them. It is a good time to look at our spending habits. It is a good time to look how little time we spend with each other and how much we need to now. It is a good time to learn how to care for one another a little more.
And it is especially a good time to sit down and to remind ourselves of what the Lord said: If you wish to come after me, take up your cross and follow me. So it is a good time to say, perhaps, the cross we need to carry now is the cross of having less money, less affluence and more caring and more sharing.
posted by Fr. Peter | 4:23 PM
