The Audacity of God's Grace: 10 Strategies To Living Your Best Life Now by John U. Nwankwo Page A
Authors: John U. Nwankwo
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towards the work of the kingdom of God. Jesus saw how tight fisted the rich man in Matthew the Nineteenth chapter had become over the years with all the wealth that he had enjoyed from the economy of God’s grace and the level of hypocrisy in his life as he hide under the veil of religion. Jesus observed how people were suffering disproportionately around the nation, the neighborhood or community that this wealthy powerful young ruler ruled, and how the young rich ruler found it easier to strangulate the resources of those he ruled and became extremely wealthy and yet, found it very difficult to release financial and/or other material blessings to the lives of the poor, while he lived in opulence and wastefulness.
For this reason, Jesus tried to talk him into understanding what it takes and the higher expectations Jesus has for the wealthy in society in order for them to become partakers of God’s wealthy kingdom after God has blessed an individual with material wealth. Using the analogy of how difficult it appears for the fattened camels carrying their loads to go through the eye of the needle gate, unless they offload all of the unnecessary loads they are carrying, Jesus tried to relate this process to his message to the wealthy, that unless any individual wanting to become a partaker of God’s kingdom release their loads of sin, share their wealth to those they are better off than, and finance the kingdom work by having the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5), they should as well forget about the kingdom of God, for they will never become part of it.
Every Rich Ruler Has An Assignment From Jesus
The message from Jesus is this: Every ruler or follower of God must offload greed, unload corruption and hypocrisy and discard this priced possession before such a ruler or follower could enter into the kingdom of God. The major problems of the rich young ruler that Jesus confronted in Matthew 19:24 centered on what had become a lifestyle of wild living, never enough living as acquisition of more and more has become a norm, and a stingy lifestyle that hoard things because of the spirit of poverty in his mindset. Jesus knew that yes, as a religious man, the rich young ruler wanted to identify with him, follow him, and yet, his mind was principally pre-occupied with his earthly possessions and stupendous wealth and his inability to release his mind wholly to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and part of his personal wealth to finance the work of the kingdom of God. How can you be financially or materially blessed by God and yet you can’t create jobs and abate unemployment for the unemployed? How can you close your eyes over exploitation of the poor and their natural resources? How can you not give unstintingly and bless those who are working for the advancement of the kingdom assignment on earth, the poor within your neighborhood, community, or state? How can you neglect the widows, the orphans, those ravaged by poverty and disease? How can you be a rich ruler and infant and maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, starvation and preventable crimes and diseases, kidnappings and armed robbery, racial/tribal tensions and inequalities still abound in your neighborhood and yet you have all kinds of security guards, private jets, and assorted automobiles and you expect to be part of the kingdom that you don’t care to promote its standards and principles?
The Expansion of the Expectation
In reference to Jesus’ teachings about wealth and riches in Matt 19:24, Rosalie Dann once noted that: No-one will take any possessions with them to heaven. However it is not money that is evil but the love of it, putting it ahead of God. To say rich people will not enter heaven is somewhat of a stretch. Jesus had followers who were rich. Lydia was a seller of Purple therefore a wealthy business woman. Jesus was buried in his wealthy friend’s tomb. These are just two that we know of. There have been as many wealthy people as well as the poor throughout the
For this reason, Jesus tried to talk him into understanding what it takes and the higher expectations Jesus has for the wealthy in society in order for them to become partakers of God’s wealthy kingdom after God has blessed an individual with material wealth. Using the analogy of how difficult it appears for the fattened camels carrying their loads to go through the eye of the needle gate, unless they offload all of the unnecessary loads they are carrying, Jesus tried to relate this process to his message to the wealthy, that unless any individual wanting to become a partaker of God’s kingdom release their loads of sin, share their wealth to those they are better off than, and finance the kingdom work by having the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5), they should as well forget about the kingdom of God, for they will never become part of it.
Every Rich Ruler Has An Assignment From Jesus
The message from Jesus is this: Every ruler or follower of God must offload greed, unload corruption and hypocrisy and discard this priced possession before such a ruler or follower could enter into the kingdom of God. The major problems of the rich young ruler that Jesus confronted in Matthew 19:24 centered on what had become a lifestyle of wild living, never enough living as acquisition of more and more has become a norm, and a stingy lifestyle that hoard things because of the spirit of poverty in his mindset. Jesus knew that yes, as a religious man, the rich young ruler wanted to identify with him, follow him, and yet, his mind was principally pre-occupied with his earthly possessions and stupendous wealth and his inability to release his mind wholly to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and part of his personal wealth to finance the work of the kingdom of God. How can you be financially or materially blessed by God and yet you can’t create jobs and abate unemployment for the unemployed? How can you close your eyes over exploitation of the poor and their natural resources? How can you not give unstintingly and bless those who are working for the advancement of the kingdom assignment on earth, the poor within your neighborhood, community, or state? How can you neglect the widows, the orphans, those ravaged by poverty and disease? How can you be a rich ruler and infant and maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, starvation and preventable crimes and diseases, kidnappings and armed robbery, racial/tribal tensions and inequalities still abound in your neighborhood and yet you have all kinds of security guards, private jets, and assorted automobiles and you expect to be part of the kingdom that you don’t care to promote its standards and principles?
The Expansion of the Expectation
In reference to Jesus’ teachings about wealth and riches in Matt 19:24, Rosalie Dann once noted that: No-one will take any possessions with them to heaven. However it is not money that is evil but the love of it, putting it ahead of God. To say rich people will not enter heaven is somewhat of a stretch. Jesus had followers who were rich. Lydia was a seller of Purple therefore a wealthy business woman. Jesus was buried in his wealthy friend’s tomb. These are just two that we know of. There have been as many wealthy people as well as the poor throughout the
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