I am in a wealthy, busy city surrounded by tens of thousands of people who determinedly move from shop to shop.
Builder stands beside me and tells me to look at their eyes.
I look and see that their eyes are glazed over, as if everyone is in a trance. They move from luxury to luxury, finding small joy in new gadgets, replacing phones and cars that not need replacing.
Builder instructs me to listen to their speech.
They speak of politics and sports and discuss the lives of other people.
I look at Builder for insight and he instructs me to keep watching.
We stay standing there for hours, days, weeks, months and years and I am overwhelmed with the boredom of repetition around me. The coming and going of man to pay off huge amounts of debt on houses, cars, gadgets, and clothing is like a hamster wheel. The cycle just goes around and around and around.
Now we stand above the buildings and crowds and I see that terrible poverty surrounds the wealthy city. Millions of people live in the hellish reality of day to day survival, their children doomed to a similar fate while total prosperity reigns in the city of the glazed eyes. There is such prosperity here that they can easily send teachers, doctors, councilors, engineers and builders to completely eradicate poverty and ignorance but they just ignore the poor, sometimes even speaking of them disdainfully.
Me:
“Why don’t they help?”
Gatherer:
“They are trapped in the cycle of self-preservation. The wisdom of the world is a river that runs to each person, never through each person. It is thus because they believe the lies of the deceiver and worship the idols that mammon provides them with. Their eyes are glazed over because their hearts are glazed over. They don’t help because they literally do not care. They are completely self-obsessed. It is the greatest trap of the deceiver. And because of this unnatural self-obsession, they need medication and psychologists to cope with the world that they have unwittingly created around themselves.
If you show them videos and photos of poverty, they secretly resent you for it. It is thus because the enemy knows that selflessness leads to fulfilment. Thus the strategy of mammon is to kill the soul by causing it to become selfish.
Heed this truth son of sorrow: A giving soul is a living soul.”
We suddenly stand in a church. The praise and worship is incredible. The sound is huge! Massive screens adorn the walls. The band is highly professional and the preacher is dynamic and interesting.
I enjoy the service and we are suddenly standing outside the door as the people file out.
The moment they arrive in the parking lot, their eyes glaze over.
Builder:
“They have already forgotten what they were taught and how they felt during the worship. Their minds now return to the cares of this world. It is thus because they are not thinking of the poor as believers have be assigned to do by the son. Thus they fall into the loop of deceit, giving only their Sunday mornings to feel better about themselves. Just as they take anti-depressants, so do they go to church. They go to receive hope and they give to maintain this weekly hope, to build bigger buildings of hope but they do not realize that their hope is in man. If their hope was in the son, they would do as the son commands. To do His work is to be in His presence and in His presence, there is fullness of joy!
To these, Jesus remains savior but neither king nor Lord. If He was King or Lord to them, they would be among the poor as He was among the poor.”
Me:
“But surely the rich also need Jesus?”
Builder:
“The rich rarely turn to Christ because they worship money and power. Those who turn to Christ mostly do it on their own terms. This is why the son challenged the rich so, commanding them to sell everything and use the money to look after the poor. For a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven he must strip himself of every luxury and bow before the throne. As the poor become rich in His presence, so the rich must become poor in His presence. The gospel must be first taken to the poor son of sorrow and the rich must forfeit their luxuries so that the poor may receive the good news.”
Me:
“In a world where churches pander to the rich, a message like this will not be very popular.”
Builder:
“Do not concern yourself with what is popular son of sorrow. Those who gain the world, lose their soul. This is the price of contending against love. To turn your face from the poor is an abomination in the eyes of God. For you are given much and so you are expected to give much. The son did not come for the righteous and the rich for neither need Him. He came for the broken and the poor.
To turn your back on the poor is to turn your back on Him.
The heart of God is to help the helpless but the heart of mammon is to judge them, criticize them and ignore them. As I spoke with Noah, so I speak with you son of sorrow.
Noah asked this question: “Why must all of mankind perish?”
And I answered him: “As they judge, they are judged. As they criticize they are criticized. As they ignore, they are ignored. You reap what you sow.”
Know this son of sorrow: Our God is a fair and just judge. It is His desire than none should perish and indeed, the son has come so that all may have eternal life, but those who use the contract as an excuse to do evil will receive their just reward.
Rejoice that your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life but continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling for every seed produces a harvest and to turn your back on the poor is to turn your back on God.”
Me:
“Wow, that is very harsh! Are you saying that everyone is called to minister to the poor?”
Builder:
“Who needs more help son of sorrow? The brother standing on the land beside you or the brother drowning in the sea in front of you?
To have a church service on that beach and sing of the goodness of the Lord with all your dry brethren while people drown in the sea right in front of you is an evil so dark that Satan uses it as his throne. For when you were filled with the Spirit, you became aware of those who need your help and to ignore them is a conscious decision.
Truly I tell you this: To leave the poor in poverty when you have the power and influence to change their situation is a sin greater than sodomy. Yet you judge sodomy as if you have the moral high ground? You are filled with sin and have beams in your own eye, yet you focus on the splinters in the eyes of your brethren. It is the goodness of God that leads man to repentance and you are called to do good works. Faith without good works is useless. Righteousness without good works is useless. You may not have silver and gold but you have the power and joy of the Holy Spirit to give to those who are lost in hopeless poverty.
Or do you feel justified in your home group, praying for one another while your neighbor goes hungry?
Truly I tell you this:
You expect to see the outwardly righteous and Holy brethren in heaven but you will be surprised by who you see there and whom you do not see there. If you ignore the poor, you ignore God. Your word knowledge is useless without acts of kindness. Knowledge puffs up and the letter brings death and judgement but the gift of God is a selfless one to the poor, the needy and the unwanted.
To live for material wealth is to live as if there is no eternity. To ignore the poor is to live as if there is no eternity. To ignore your calling is to live as if there is no eternity.
These are all signs of unbelievers and idol worshippers.
Search your heart son of sorrow. Live for eternity and go to those who are drowning so that they may be saved!
The kingdom is all. Advance the kingdom!”
Me:
“The kingdom is all!”
I wake up.
