Generosity Overcomes Poverty Of The Soul

by admin on January 27, 2012

 

 

 

By Dr. Steven J. Lynne

A generous person will never be struck by the fear of lack for that soul has been freed from a small and poverty stricken mentality!

People like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison (three of the five richest people in the world) are heroes in my opinion. Not simply because they have made billions of dollars in their lives, but because they have given billions away! Each man has decided to donate over ninety percent of their wealth to charity.

It takes great courage and determination to accumulate masses of wealth, but it takes a very free individual to be capable of letting go of that wealth towards a selfless cause!

Benefits Of Generosity

A generous heart experiences pleasures that few freely find. It is the generous soul who has discovered true prosperity which ushers a flood of resources back to them. John Bunyan (1628-1688) once said, “He who bestows his goods upon the poor shall have as much again, and ten times more.”

12 Benefits Of Generosity

Generosity has the following benefits; it fulfills our sense of purpose, establishes grounds for our continued increase, celebrates the success of the giver, opposes all sense of self-focus, self-pity and stinginess, liberates the soul from financial control, causes others to take notice, fulfills the cry of the needy, breeds significance, begins a chain reaction among others, restores faith in humanity, points towards the existence of a higher power, and draws humanity closer to the heart of our creator.

The True Sign Of A Generous Soul

The true sign of a generous soul is a satisfied life. When our time has drawn to a close, the generous person will have no regrets. Sir Winston Churchill stated, “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”

Freedom From Poverty Of The Soul

Poverty of the soul has more to do with what we hold than what we have. A grasping mentality will only ever grow to the extent of ego! A generous soul destroys the “smallness” of poverty by expanding to a place where the limits of ego are torn apart! Unrestrained compassion and benevolence ensue! This opens us to a richer life experience, free of poverty of the soul.

Ten Ways To Practice Generosity

1. Spend your “time” with a person who’s love language is time.

2. Employ your “talents” to enrich a lonely heart.

3. Release your “service” to aid a person in need!

4. Present your “smile” to a person with a heavy heart!

5. Instill your “encouragement” to build a hopeless soul!

6. Pass your “joy” with wisdom, into a sad situation.

7. Inject your “praise” into a worthy recipient.

8. Remember your “thanks” for those who help you.

9. Stir your “compassion” towards people that others find hard to love.

10. Give a pre-planned amount of your “money” to a worthy charity.

By practicing generosity you will remove the restraints of Soul Poverty from your life experience!

Receive a FREE chapter from my newest e-book “Success Steps Towards Wealthy Living” at http://www.jcspublishing.com

Article Source:  Generosity Overcomes Poverty Of The Soul

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New Slant Here on the James Collier Site

by admin on January 25, 2012

You will notice more posts from guest writers on this site.  I have decided to mix things up more.  Our emphasis will primarily be simple church and creative ways to teach and discuss truths that lay a foundation to grow in Christ.  With this in mind, more opinions other than just my own will be our new thrust.  If you want to submit an article for consideration just send it in with contact information and we will let you know our decision.  Remember, comments are welcome and appreciated.

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Why Not Go To The Source?

by admin on January 15, 2012

 

 

 

Imagine that you are in the same room with God and you desire to ask Him questions and converse with Him because you really want to know Him.  But for some reason you are afraid to talk to Him because this is God Almighty, the same God that was revealed in the Old Testament to kill whole groups of people and to even deal with His own people in a wrathful and angry way.  Yes, you are afraid of this God so you will not take a chance to talk to Him and then you do something kind of crazy.  You get up and leave the room and you begin a quest to find people who say they know God or at least they have heard about Him and you talk to these people instead of talking to God Himself.

I have had some incredible experiences with the Lord over the years.  Time and time again God has revealed Himself to me as the Father whom Jesus spoke about and revealed to all who would listen.  I have known God to be incredibly loving and kind and at times this revelation has led me into wonderful worship experiences.  But, there have been times when I have left the room, and because of this I either started to look for a way to still know about God or I just remained absent from His presence.

Recently during a time of prayer, I want to say conversation, with God I heard Him speak to my heart.  I was expressing some frustration in my relationship with Him and He spoke to me with some instructions.  I could tell, or better yet, feel His heart of compassion and He told me to filter everything that I hear or think I know about Him through the revelation of Him given by Jesus in the story of the prodigal Father.  You can find this story in Luke 15 in the Bible.  We use the word prodigal to describe the fact that the son had left and was lost to the Father but even before this the Father was prodigal to the son because the son was not experiencing the love, compassion, and grace of the Father.

I began to do this right away; I filtered everything about God through this revelation of the Father.  Later that same morning I had a scheduled meeting with some friends and during the conversation I began to share what God spoke to my heart earlier that morning.  All of these men were what you would call mature believers and they had functioned as pastors for years yet I could sense the relevancy of this word and one of them asked me if this was prophetic.  Because it was so fresh to me I told him I wasn’t sure but I thought it might be a prophetic word for the body of Christ.  Now I am sure.

Since that time I have recognized sin in my life.  This all happened recently yet I still struggle with sin and if you are real with yourself, so do you.  But an interesting thing is happening also, instead of leaving the room where God is I am learning to stay there; and if I recognize that I have left, I return immediately.  I believe guilt and shame related to sin are the reasons why we tend to refuse to approach God.  These two things cause a fear that is not godly because this fear does not move us to know God but to flee from Him.  Adam and Eve experienced this fear and they ran away and it causes us to do the same thing.

This morning I had another experience with the Lord in prayer and He reminded me that His love for me had not changed.  It had not changed since when He spoke to me about the prodigal Father, and it had not changed even before that but I had forgotten.  How soon we forget the extravagant depth of His love.  God spoke to me about how He is love and He can’t stop loving.

Recently I came across an article about the prodigal Father and in it the writer wrote:

“About seven hundred years ago, a German mystic by the name of Meister Eckhart, once said, “Nobody at anytime is cut off from God.” And then he also said, “It is just impossible to lose God.” But somehow, sometime, somewhere in life, we have forgotten this. We have placed limits on the love of God. We often think and feel that if we do certain things we can win God’s love, and if we do some things, we can lose that love, that we will be cut off from him. But God’s love is always there for us, says Meister Eckhart. We cannot buy his love, and we do not have to win God’s love by what we do and accomplish. This does not mean we do what we simply want to do, or do nothing in the face of evil and injustice. But it is one thing to do good things because we have been possessed by God, and another to attempt to buy God’s love. Look at the story. The father forgave and loved his prodigal son even before the son asked his father’s forgiveness. The love and forgiveness were always there. The prodigal father did not ask his son to apologize or to prove himself again trustworthy so as to earn his father’s love. No, the father’s love was simply a given. Love was a constant, abiding, and unchangeable reality. And so is God’s love.”

We can remain in the room with God, “Nobody at anytime is cut off from God”.  If we listen closely we can hear God asking the same question He asked of Adam and Eve, “where are you”?

Attempts to know God without coming to Him cause us to be very judgmental.  We think we know God but we really do not, we just know about Him.  God has given us the Bible to help us come to know Him.  But after years of reading and study let me share with you something I think can happen if we read the Bible like a text book.  We may gather information about God which will lead us to try and get more information from others but we do not experience His heart and love.  I suggest we read the Bible as the love book that it is.  Join me as I filter my reading of the Word through the revelation of the Father heart of God revealed in Luke 15.  Jesus said, “If you see Me you have seen the Father”.  Do you see Him?  Are you recognizing that Jesus is the Great Filter and that it is really impossible to really know God without Him?

“Come unto Me all of you who are burdened and heavy laddened and I will give you rest”.  Instead of running away let us come.  Allow the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the love of God.  Talk with Him and about Him from firsthand experience.  This is the heart of God for you.

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The Theological Police

by admin on January 10, 2012

 

 

 

Let me start off by saying that I am definitely not a member of the theological police.  I am not    smart enough nor inclined enough to try and straighten out the wrong beliefs of others.  Theology is the study about God and the very word is not that appealing to me – I would much rather relate to God then just study about Him.  A couple years back we had a fire which took care of the many “theological” books that I had accumulated over the years.  Thank God!  I had stopped referring to most of them years before but I just didn’t have the heart to get rid of them.  But less I digress any further let me talk about the real idea about which I am thinking.  There are two people who have affected my life in what I consider a positive way and they have not been very popular with these theological police – I am talking about Oral Roberts who has gone on to be with the Lord, and Robert Schuller who probably wishes he had at times.

Let me talk about Oral Roberts first.  Why do I speak fondly of the man who seems to have courted controversy most of his life?  Recently I took the time to listen to an excellent interview recorded with Oral shortly before he died in 2009.  You can listen to it here.  The most controversial thing Oral Roberts probably ever did was to claim that God spoke to him – not once but many times – and he maintained this stance up to the end of his earthly life as evidenced in this interview.  Now let me get this on the record, God has spoken to me too, and yes it was more than once.

I use to like to tune into Oral Roberts on TV and he would say, “Something good is going to happen to you today”.  I did this mostly before I got “saved” and I even remember my Dad tuning into some of Oral’s crusades when I was a little kid.  “He’s going to break that person’s neck I would think as he forcefully laid those big hands on the heads of seekers, and I think he said something like “heeeeeal”.  I did a Google for the phrase “Something good is going to happen to you today” and one of the results went to a Christianity Today article.  I have no problem with the article but when I read some of the comments made by the readers I was shocked, some of them were just mean.  I have to admit I thought, “What did he ever do to you”.

We all know what the problem was – it was the fact that many disagreed with how he handled donations, many disagreed with his fundraising methods, and many just did not like the man; But my question for many who presume to judge the man, “Who died and made you king?”  Certainly not Jesus who warned about the very attitudes being displayed in these comments I just referenced.  Here is the original article.  It was actually about the Green family choosing to make a substantial donation to help out Oral Roberts University. What’s wrong with that?

Sometime I will share my testimony on this site but let me state that I turned on the TV in 1975 and prayed a prayer with Oral Roberts that transformed my life. This happened while I was living with a woman who was not my wife and engaging in illegal activities.  Yes I speak somewhat fondly of this man.

The other person I want to talk about is Robert Schuller.  No less a controversial figure and in the news for the bankruptcy proceedings at the ministry he once headed which included the sale of the Crystal Cathedral to the Catholic Church.  Schuller came out in favor of the deal and some of his comments stirred up the theological riot squad.  My question is why?

Could it be his comment about the Catholic Church being the “Mother Church”.  Obviously many Catholics probably feel this way but how could a so-called Protestant minister make such a statement.  And why would Robert Schuller come out in favor of the Catholic Church as purchasers of the extensive complex of buildings?  I am sure he had his reasons, some revealed, and some we may never know, but I do not see a problem with his course of actions.  This whole thing was a real estate transaction mandated by a bankruptcy court.

I remember times of struggle as a young father and husband to maintain hope and a good attitude when I would come across a Schuller book promising that I could overcome the difficulty.  I actually appreciated the fact that coupled to the liberal doses of motivational and possibility ideas there were references to a good and loving God.  There is too many who present a God who is mean and vindictive so Schuller with his possibility message is a welcomed relief.

Could it be that Robert Schuller and Oral Roberts both fulfilled something in the purposes of God?  Are you prepared to say that they didn’t and what about the thousands of people helped through their ministries?  Yes, I am not a member of the theological police and I hope you left their ranks too.

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What Is God Doing?

by admin on November 30, 2011

 

 

Yesterday before taping KINGDOMRISING, our podcast,  Carman Niesley, my co-host, and I were having a little discussion.  We do this to stimulate our thoughts for when we record the program.  Discussion turned to the necessity for us to create an atmosphere or environment in which God can move to establish His kingdom.

Like myself, Carman is an avid reader therefore most of our ideas are probably gleaned from others, but, the thought was a good one nonetheless; which brings me to my current thought.  What is God doing?

The scripture reveals that God is working in us both to will and do.  In other words, He is actively working to create the atmosphere for His movement to come forth.  What is God doing?  Obviously it is a lot but one thing is obvious to me personally.  God works upon me – spirit, soul and body – to bring me to a place of action where I walk by faith.  Some of these things – these actions – look downright silly to others and cause me untold struggles with worry but so be it.

I would rather live my life attempting to do what I sense and say is, God directing me to do,  then to just play it safe.  As Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. I do not want to die with the song God gave me still in me.

So what is God doing becomes “what is God doing to me?”  This brings me to the idea of my heart’s desire for a certain work during this stage of my life which is really not work at all but joy or as Joseph Campbell calls it, bliss.  I want to follow my bliss, the song God placed within me.  Call it purpose, allude to intentionality, whatever, but I am still on this journey.

For the past 30 years I have identified myself as a pastor and this is how many others related to me; initially as an associate who worked a “secular job, and then later for the last 12 years or so as a primary vocation.  But who am I now?  I still feel the same call to help and serve others but how is this to be worked out now that I no longer lead a church in the traditional sense?

The term the Lord keeps bringing to me is foundation – He has called me to help establish the foundation in His body and we know the foundation is Christ.  My focus now can be summed up in one verse:

Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

So I am still on the journey of faith and very aware that God is working upon me, and my environment, to create an atmosphere in which He will move to establish His kingdom.  So be it!

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