In the coming revival, we are not only going to see signs and wonders but I believe we will also see a revival of doctrine. All kinds false christian teaching is presently floating around out there. I believe Jesus is abruptly bringing it all to an end.
Just in case you thought Jesus isn't concerned with this you may want to consider some of the discussions he had with the Pharisees when he said " you whitewashed tombstones" or " you brood of vipers" when they tried to promote their own religion and put words in God's mouth.
Ever wonder why we have all these different denominations that have different beliefs about the scripture. It's because we have drifted away from the teacher. THE HOLY SPIRIT! The Holy Spirit always backs up Jesus and everything he did. There aren't 52 different ways to interpret any given scripture there is only one. God's interpretation. After all there is one God, one baptism, one saviour and one divine truth.
The Holy Spirit is not confused about what the Bible says. He was sent to lead us into all truth. The problem is that most denominations would rather hold to their little church doctrines. Most of the time they are trying to exclude vitally important principles of God. God has tolerated this in the past but I believe this will change in these final days.
"Well Brother, we just don't believe in that speaking in tongues thing. We think that passed away with the disciples. We don't accept that here in our church".
Is that so? I guess you'd better rip a few pages out of the Bible then. I have a problem with that because Jesus said this at the end of Mark 16:17 "and these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and they will drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well."
As you can see Jesus clearly says if you are a believer you will speak in new tongues. Paul said " I thank God I speak in tongues more than you all". Speaking in tongues is actually the Holy Spirit in you praying the perfect will of the father on your behalf. You can either believe the scripture or you can hold to church doctrine and be politically correct among the church.
If you aren't speaking in tongues presently you are missing out on hearing from God. It has been my experience that the more you speak in tongues (not knowing what the spirit is praying) the quicker you begin to hear God in English (or whatever your native language may be) in your spirit. Detailed specific instructions will begin to come forth for your specific call. God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.
This natural body we live in was not meant to understand the things of God as they are spiritually discerned. Our flesh is constantly warring against God. Even after we get born again we still have to learn to put to death the ways of our flesh.
In the second chapter of acts we see that God sent the baptism of the Holy Spirit. After this all the disciples moved in power and were able to lay hands on the sick and even raise the dead.
In these last days, in the coming revival, we will see this happening more frequently. It will come through those who are bold enough to step out of false doctrine and believe God for power to do the same things Jesus did and even greater things. Those who spend long hours speaking in tongues in their prayer closet. Those who put to death their fleshly ways and embrace change towards Christ. Every revival is always first birthed in the spirit by prayer. This is an exciting time we live in.
Creating High Performing Teams
How do you build a Strong Management Team?
Have you ever noticed a company with a team of strong managers who are all on the same page. They are knowledgeable, know the company’s goals, and work hard with the right attitude to achieve at the highest level. How does it happen?
Two common elements can be found. A strong leader/manager is in charge. He/she is not only a good communicator and a good role model, but the organization is also dedicated to working together in teams to improve processes and solve complicated problems. First-rate communication skills are essential to establishing and accomplishing goals.
A second element is an emphasis on teams i.e. having regular meetings and team building activities. Being part of a productive team is fun and challenging. Teams best decide many complex issues. It takes longer to reach a consensus or strategy, but studies have also shown decisions achieve results more smoothly and with fewer problems. The early quality circles in companies were effective in putting peer pressure on all members of the team to perform. Now teams are essential to keep up with a complicated and changing world where new competitors emerge from different industries and new technologies can quickly change the slope of the playing field. Here are some guidelines for effective team building.
• Make it a regular event – the job is never done. Teams should meet on a regular basis. This allows everyone to get to know each other. A productive tone should be set so the group gets down to busy right away and ends meetings on time.
• Make it fun. A skilled outside facilitator or internal person can lead entertaining meetings, which provide good messages, but it also provides a different format or atmosphere for learning. Key goals should be agreed upon ahead of time i.e. improve communication skills, share creative solutions, emphasize key company directions, etc.
• Interactive is the rule of the day. As an effective professor, I quickly learned that calling on people engages people and sets a tone. Everyone should be involved. In a company meeting it may be powerful to have teams stand up and move around to solve problems together.
• Meaningful content and stories endure. Illustrate points with stories and metaphors. Ask participants to share clients stories, challenges and successes. Use company specific examples to highlight key messages.
• Be energetic and maintain eye contact. 93% of communication is non-verbal. You can learn a tremendous amount by watching the audience. As a facilitator, I like to engage and challenge the most skeptical. Get them involved or ask them to be a leader through questions.
• Be well organized in your delivery. As previously mentioned, good stories and metaphors are essential, but it also important to relate to men and women with your exercises, questions and content.
• Summarize key learnings at the end of the meeting. Ask a range of people to share what they will take away.
This year will continue to see business and technology move at laser speed. Training can be an important component, even in small companies, to stay ahead of your competitors. There is more choice in markets today than ever before, and customers/clients are more knowledgeable than ever before. As you take time to see and view the big picture, set goals for your training and team-building efforts. Don’t be afraid to think “reach outside” or try new approaches to find creative solutions for your company.
Have you ever noticed a company with a team of strong managers who are all on the same page. They are knowledgeable, know the company’s goals, and work hard with the right attitude to achieve at the highest level. How does it happen?
Two common elements can be found. A strong leader/manager is in charge. He/she is not only a good communicator and a good role model, but the organization is also dedicated to working together in teams to improve processes and solve complicated problems. First-rate communication skills are essential to establishing and accomplishing goals.
A second element is an emphasis on teams i.e. having regular meetings and team building activities. Being part of a productive team is fun and challenging. Teams best decide many complex issues. It takes longer to reach a consensus or strategy, but studies have also shown decisions achieve results more smoothly and with fewer problems. The early quality circles in companies were effective in putting peer pressure on all members of the team to perform. Now teams are essential to keep up with a complicated and changing world where new competitors emerge from different industries and new technologies can quickly change the slope of the playing field. Here are some guidelines for effective team building.
• Make it a regular event – the job is never done. Teams should meet on a regular basis. This allows everyone to get to know each other. A productive tone should be set so the group gets down to busy right away and ends meetings on time.
• Make it fun. A skilled outside facilitator or internal person can lead entertaining meetings, which provide good messages, but it also provides a different format or atmosphere for learning. Key goals should be agreed upon ahead of time i.e. improve communication skills, share creative solutions, emphasize key company directions, etc.
• Interactive is the rule of the day. As an effective professor, I quickly learned that calling on people engages people and sets a tone. Everyone should be involved. In a company meeting it may be powerful to have teams stand up and move around to solve problems together.
• Meaningful content and stories endure. Illustrate points with stories and metaphors. Ask participants to share clients stories, challenges and successes. Use company specific examples to highlight key messages.
• Be energetic and maintain eye contact. 93% of communication is non-verbal. You can learn a tremendous amount by watching the audience. As a facilitator, I like to engage and challenge the most skeptical. Get them involved or ask them to be a leader through questions.
• Be well organized in your delivery. As previously mentioned, good stories and metaphors are essential, but it also important to relate to men and women with your exercises, questions and content.
• Summarize key learnings at the end of the meeting. Ask a range of people to share what they will take away.
This year will continue to see business and technology move at laser speed. Training can be an important component, even in small companies, to stay ahead of your competitors. There is more choice in markets today than ever before, and customers/clients are more knowledgeable than ever before. As you take time to see and view the big picture, set goals for your training and team-building efforts. Don’t be afraid to think “reach outside” or try new approaches to find creative solutions for your company.
Article Writing: Great Tips On How To Write An Article Part 3
Welcome back to our discussion on how to write an article. I trust you have read the other articles I have done so far on this as they kind of pick up where I left off. I will touch on a few more things I think are vitally important. As a matter of fact you might want to write these on the inside of your eyelids.
1) Write Articles On What You Feel Passionate About
What heats your chili? What fries your bacon? What gets your mojo going? Whatever your mojo is. It is a lot easier to come up with content on something you are very familiar with and excited about. Also you won't mind doing the research because you love the topic. I admit this one is obvious but you'd be surprised how many people try to write on things they couldn't care less about because someone said they should. If you bored with your topic it will come across to people.
2) Write Lots of Articles Not Just A Few
With all the hype on the internet there seems to be this thinking "if you write it they will come" and that all you have to do is write 1 or 2 articles and traffic comes racing to your site in an overflowing river. Hogwash! It will take time. It is true trafic comes but as a platinum writer for Ezine Articles I am making it my goal to hit 50 articles this year. The more you write the better and the more points of contact you have out there directing people back to your site. I am getting more traffic now than ever before but think of where I will be in a year. You should do the same. Make it a goal to write 25 articles and then see how much traffic you are getting.
3) Write a Provocative Summary
This is where you want to grab them. Your summary should not be dull and dry and full of big intellectual words trying to impress people with your boundless wisdom. It should be able to pull the reader into the article. I know when I am reading articles I often just read the title and the summary to decide whether or not I want to read on. I can't remember who I heard it from but I like this little formula for writing articles. He said " tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell what you just told them".
4) Learn To Use Your Resource Box Properly
If you miss it here you may as well not even write an article. The whole point of an article is to bring in visitors to your site. This is done in the article body and more importantly in the resource box. I can't believe how many people go on about their accomplishments here as though that is going to draw people. I purposely will not click through to anyone who brags about himself here when I am reading an article. Why? Because they should know better. Truthfully NOBODY CARES what degrees you hold or what plaques are on your wall. What is in it for the reader if they click through to your site. Everybody wants to know what's in it for them. Learn to set up your resource box properly.
5) Track Your Article
If you want to see where your article is being picked up simply type your article title in Google in quotations. This will bring up every link out there where the spiders find your article. This is another reason to have a good unique title because if your title is the same as a lot of other articles you will bring up all of them as well.
Of course I have only skimmed the surface here and there is so much more we could touch on when it comes to writing great articles.
1) Write Articles On What You Feel Passionate About
What heats your chili? What fries your bacon? What gets your mojo going? Whatever your mojo is. It is a lot easier to come up with content on something you are very familiar with and excited about. Also you won't mind doing the research because you love the topic. I admit this one is obvious but you'd be surprised how many people try to write on things they couldn't care less about because someone said they should. If you bored with your topic it will come across to people.
2) Write Lots of Articles Not Just A Few
With all the hype on the internet there seems to be this thinking "if you write it they will come" and that all you have to do is write 1 or 2 articles and traffic comes racing to your site in an overflowing river. Hogwash! It will take time. It is true trafic comes but as a platinum writer for Ezine Articles I am making it my goal to hit 50 articles this year. The more you write the better and the more points of contact you have out there directing people back to your site. I am getting more traffic now than ever before but think of where I will be in a year. You should do the same. Make it a goal to write 25 articles and then see how much traffic you are getting.
3) Write a Provocative Summary
This is where you want to grab them. Your summary should not be dull and dry and full of big intellectual words trying to impress people with your boundless wisdom. It should be able to pull the reader into the article. I know when I am reading articles I often just read the title and the summary to decide whether or not I want to read on. I can't remember who I heard it from but I like this little formula for writing articles. He said " tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell what you just told them".
4) Learn To Use Your Resource Box Properly
If you miss it here you may as well not even write an article. The whole point of an article is to bring in visitors to your site. This is done in the article body and more importantly in the resource box. I can't believe how many people go on about their accomplishments here as though that is going to draw people. I purposely will not click through to anyone who brags about himself here when I am reading an article. Why? Because they should know better. Truthfully NOBODY CARES what degrees you hold or what plaques are on your wall. What is in it for the reader if they click through to your site. Everybody wants to know what's in it for them. Learn to set up your resource box properly.
5) Track Your Article
If you want to see where your article is being picked up simply type your article title in Google in quotations. This will bring up every link out there where the spiders find your article. This is another reason to have a good unique title because if your title is the same as a lot of other articles you will bring up all of them as well.
Of course I have only skimmed the surface here and there is so much more we could touch on when it comes to writing great articles.
Christian Divorce. What to Do When It Happens To You Part 2
Part one of "Christian Divorce" that I wrote got a tremendous number of reads so I thought perhaps I should expound a little further. As I said before I want to encourage all believers out there that are going through the pain and darkness of divorce. Having gone through divorce myself there are a few things I can share here from my experience that I hope are useful to the believer.
1) You May Need To Change Your Circle Of Friends Or Church You Attend
One of the first things you are going to find out is the church is mostly confused on how to handle the divorce hot potato. When I say the church I am talking about the circle of believers that are supposed to be there for you when hardship comes in your life. You are about to find out most of your friends won't be there for you.
If you can find anyone that you can lean on in this time you are truly blessed. Sadly we like to shoot the wounded and avoid anything that may be awkward. If you are the innocent party in your divorce, and even if everybody in your church knows that, don't expect anyone to treat you with grace and not judge you unjustly. Chances are they will remove you from ministry of any kind until this thing " blows over" which may be years before it is resolved.
It will be hard finding a church that understands that your righteousness is only because of what Jesus did and not some holiness badge you earned that the church gives out. Somehow you have to qualify by your good works to be in ministry or hold any position in the church where people see you. Now if you do have a good church that is totally mature I stand corrected and by all means stay there and reach out. It is just that It has been my experience that they are hard to find.
Meanwhile they have painted you with the divorce brush even though you may be the innocent party. In any case if this is your scenario it is probably best to consider changing churches or even take a break for awhile. That way nobody can put any flaky judgments on you. There is a big difference between church doctrine and how Jesus handles this situation.
2) Learn to Pray and Hear God Daily
The best thing you can do right now is set aside time daily to cast all your care on Jesus. The more you pray the more you can speed the healing process. I guarantee you God is totally close to you with comfort and council to give you hope without any condemnation. Listen closely in your spirit and he will talk to you in your prayer time.
All those court issues need not have power over you to keep you awake at night if you are standing on the side of righteousness. God upholds his word and he will fight for you in court. It will turn your way if your spouse has lied and been less than Christian about certain things.
This is a good time to listen for God's voice as he will guide you and speak to the things you are feeling deeply wounded about. The many hours I spent in prayer brought me revelation of the things I felt cheated by and gave me new perspective. Work out forgiveness towards your spouse. Time doesn't heal all wounds, you and Jesus do. As a friend told me at the time " life does get better" so hang in there.
Most importantly of all find and confess scriptures that bring you hope. You need to confess God's word to your circumstance and not your feelings. Do this out loud in your prayer time. " The young lions do hunger and suffer lack but they that seek the Lord lack no good thing " was one of my favorites but there are lots more that are just as good.
Make Jesus your closest friend because he does have the answers. Remember God is walking through this divorce with you and he is wanting to unfold plan B seeing how plan A didn't pan out. God bless you.
1) You May Need To Change Your Circle Of Friends Or Church You Attend
One of the first things you are going to find out is the church is mostly confused on how to handle the divorce hot potato. When I say the church I am talking about the circle of believers that are supposed to be there for you when hardship comes in your life. You are about to find out most of your friends won't be there for you.
If you can find anyone that you can lean on in this time you are truly blessed. Sadly we like to shoot the wounded and avoid anything that may be awkward. If you are the innocent party in your divorce, and even if everybody in your church knows that, don't expect anyone to treat you with grace and not judge you unjustly. Chances are they will remove you from ministry of any kind until this thing " blows over" which may be years before it is resolved.
It will be hard finding a church that understands that your righteousness is only because of what Jesus did and not some holiness badge you earned that the church gives out. Somehow you have to qualify by your good works to be in ministry or hold any position in the church where people see you. Now if you do have a good church that is totally mature I stand corrected and by all means stay there and reach out. It is just that It has been my experience that they are hard to find.
Meanwhile they have painted you with the divorce brush even though you may be the innocent party. In any case if this is your scenario it is probably best to consider changing churches or even take a break for awhile. That way nobody can put any flaky judgments on you. There is a big difference between church doctrine and how Jesus handles this situation.
2) Learn to Pray and Hear God Daily
The best thing you can do right now is set aside time daily to cast all your care on Jesus. The more you pray the more you can speed the healing process. I guarantee you God is totally close to you with comfort and council to give you hope without any condemnation. Listen closely in your spirit and he will talk to you in your prayer time.
All those court issues need not have power over you to keep you awake at night if you are standing on the side of righteousness. God upholds his word and he will fight for you in court. It will turn your way if your spouse has lied and been less than Christian about certain things.
This is a good time to listen for God's voice as he will guide you and speak to the things you are feeling deeply wounded about. The many hours I spent in prayer brought me revelation of the things I felt cheated by and gave me new perspective. Work out forgiveness towards your spouse. Time doesn't heal all wounds, you and Jesus do. As a friend told me at the time " life does get better" so hang in there.
Most importantly of all find and confess scriptures that bring you hope. You need to confess God's word to your circumstance and not your feelings. Do this out loud in your prayer time. " The young lions do hunger and suffer lack but they that seek the Lord lack no good thing " was one of my favorites but there are lots more that are just as good.
Make Jesus your closest friend because he does have the answers. Remember God is walking through this divorce with you and he is wanting to unfold plan B seeing how plan A didn't pan out. God bless you.
Article Writing: Great Tips On How to Write An Article Part 2
Welcome back to great tips on how to write an article. We'll cover a few more things I feel are pertinent for successful article writing that I have discovered.
1) Learn To Write A Good Catchy Title
The first thing you need to do is do a keyword search by using http://inventory.overture.com . Your keywords should have been searched at least a thousand times in the preceding month. You can multiply this number by five to come up with the total interest for this keyword among all the major search engines. Try to use your keywords in the title and at least once in the article body. Remember a search engine spider reads from left to right just like we do so don't waste your first four words. Notice above how I phrased this article title and guess what my keywords are.
2) Get Yourself Some Good Article Submission Software
This can be done by punching into Google " free article submission software " or anything along those lines. Some of them you can try out for free for a time. They will range in price from $15 to $300 depending on what you can afford. The one I use cost 37 bucks and is more than sufficient. You'll be able to submit your articles to hundreds of sites a day this way. Manual submission is cumbersome and you'll love how quick this makes things. You will still have to go through each article site and punch in a category for your article but it sure beats copying and pasting everything. Hits to your site will sky rocket.
3) Always Write Your Articles in Notepad and Then Copy and Paste
When I first started I had a lot of declined articles because I didn't understand what hard line breaks were. What this means is when you create your articles you need to use notepad and don't stop in the middle of a sentence unless it is a new paragraph. When you copy and paste from notepad click on format at the top and change the word word wrap function which will stretch out your article horizontally. If you do this you will avoid getting declined with your articles.
4) Try To Make Your Article Easy to Read
Notice how I have spaced this out by using subheadings and paragraphs. This is because it draws the reader along and they don't get tired looking at how much they might have to read. In this present day we don't want to spend a lot of time on anything and the faster we can get the point the better. When I first started writing articles I think my articles were too long. Now I try to keep them shorter and more intense.
So there you have few more good tips on how to write an article. Stay tuned for more on this in coming articles.
1) Learn To Write A Good Catchy Title
The first thing you need to do is do a keyword search by using http://inventory.overture.com . Your keywords should have been searched at least a thousand times in the preceding month. You can multiply this number by five to come up with the total interest for this keyword among all the major search engines. Try to use your keywords in the title and at least once in the article body. Remember a search engine spider reads from left to right just like we do so don't waste your first four words. Notice above how I phrased this article title and guess what my keywords are.
2) Get Yourself Some Good Article Submission Software
This can be done by punching into Google " free article submission software " or anything along those lines. Some of them you can try out for free for a time. They will range in price from $15 to $300 depending on what you can afford. The one I use cost 37 bucks and is more than sufficient. You'll be able to submit your articles to hundreds of sites a day this way. Manual submission is cumbersome and you'll love how quick this makes things. You will still have to go through each article site and punch in a category for your article but it sure beats copying and pasting everything. Hits to your site will sky rocket.
3) Always Write Your Articles in Notepad and Then Copy and Paste
When I first started I had a lot of declined articles because I didn't understand what hard line breaks were. What this means is when you create your articles you need to use notepad and don't stop in the middle of a sentence unless it is a new paragraph. When you copy and paste from notepad click on format at the top and change the word word wrap function which will stretch out your article horizontally. If you do this you will avoid getting declined with your articles.
4) Try To Make Your Article Easy to Read
Notice how I have spaced this out by using subheadings and paragraphs. This is because it draws the reader along and they don't get tired looking at how much they might have to read. In this present day we don't want to spend a lot of time on anything and the faster we can get the point the better. When I first started writing articles I think my articles were too long. Now I try to keep them shorter and more intense.
So there you have few more good tips on how to write an article. Stay tuned for more on this in coming articles.
Article Writing: Great Tips On How to Write An Article
So you have figured out that article writing will bring targeted visitors to your website but you are a little fearful of how to go about it. This is going to seem obvious but I know I didn't do it when I started article writing and I really wish I had.
" WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT IS SEARCHING OUT A GOOD ARTICLE WRITING MENTOR."
So before you say " I don't have unlimited cash flow to sign up with some expensive program at this point " let me say this. It won't cost you a dime if you do this.
I am going to recommend you start poking around a few of the big article directories to begin your search. Why? Because the mentor you are needing should be writing regularly in one or all of these directories. Ezine Articles, Article Dashboard, Article Base, and Article Blast in my opinion are the four big kahunas I would recommend at this point. They are the ones I have been getting the most exposure from with my articles. If you are not a free member of these go ahead and sign up because in the future you are going to want to submit your articles to them.
Of course now you are going to read articles on " how to write an article " or " article writing " for the next little while. Give yourself a week or so and don't commit to anyone financially. When you find a few good articles written by a potential mentor go ahead and do a search on him in Google. He should be well established and have his articles all over the internet. I am talking about millions of links to his websites. If he doesn't why would you want to be schooled by him. That's what you want isn't it? Lots of links back to your site.
Next thing is step out of the boat onto the water. Chances are he has a free newsletter he sends out or something along those lines. Go ahead and give him your email and sign up. At this point you still haven't committed a dime.
What you are going to do is glean as much teaching as you can for free from the newsletter or whatever it is you are now getting from him. Pay special attention to how your mentor writes his articles. You'll be surprised how much you can pick up about writing good titles, keywords, article templates, good topics..etc.
Lastly let me say that no good mentor who has your best intentions in mind demands money up front. He should be willing to build a genuine friendship with you before you ever buy anything from him. I think you should be able to talk with him too. If you can't kick him to the curb and find a better one. You still will have learned a few good things from him even if you ditch him.
So there is my first golden pointer on writing articles. If you embrace it you won't make all the mistakes I did when I started article writing.
" WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT IS SEARCHING OUT A GOOD ARTICLE WRITING MENTOR."
So before you say " I don't have unlimited cash flow to sign up with some expensive program at this point " let me say this. It won't cost you a dime if you do this.
I am going to recommend you start poking around a few of the big article directories to begin your search. Why? Because the mentor you are needing should be writing regularly in one or all of these directories. Ezine Articles, Article Dashboard, Article Base, and Article Blast in my opinion are the four big kahunas I would recommend at this point. They are the ones I have been getting the most exposure from with my articles. If you are not a free member of these go ahead and sign up because in the future you are going to want to submit your articles to them.
Of course now you are going to read articles on " how to write an article " or " article writing " for the next little while. Give yourself a week or so and don't commit to anyone financially. When you find a few good articles written by a potential mentor go ahead and do a search on him in Google. He should be well established and have his articles all over the internet. I am talking about millions of links to his websites. If he doesn't why would you want to be schooled by him. That's what you want isn't it? Lots of links back to your site.
Next thing is step out of the boat onto the water. Chances are he has a free newsletter he sends out or something along those lines. Go ahead and give him your email and sign up. At this point you still haven't committed a dime.
What you are going to do is glean as much teaching as you can for free from the newsletter or whatever it is you are now getting from him. Pay special attention to how your mentor writes his articles. You'll be surprised how much you can pick up about writing good titles, keywords, article templates, good topics..etc.
Lastly let me say that no good mentor who has your best intentions in mind demands money up front. He should be willing to build a genuine friendship with you before you ever buy anything from him. I think you should be able to talk with him too. If you can't kick him to the curb and find a better one. You still will have learned a few good things from him even if you ditch him.
So there is my first golden pointer on writing articles. If you embrace it you won't make all the mistakes I did when I started article writing.
Tithing or God's Grace. Which Prospers You? Part 2
Welcome to our little chat about tithing or God's grace . I was watching Christian television the other morning and listening to what they were implying. They were talking about the parable of the widow's offering and making it sound like Jesus was just so pleased with the fact that she gave all she had to live on. After I finished stabbing myself in the eye with a fork I thought to myself, don't these so called men of God know how to meditate the word.
You never and I mean never lift a verse out of it's setting. Jesus always taught in whole subjects. The key is to find the beginning of the subject and then find the end. Perhaps part of the confusion here with the widow's offering is that most modern translations put a sub heading right in the middle of this teaching as though Jesus had changed the topic which he clearly had not.
Here is how it should read: Luke 20:45 While all the people were listening Jesus said to his disciples, " Beware of the teachers of the law. They walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the market places and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They DEVOUR WIDOW'S HOUSES and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished and most severely." As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. " I tell you the truth" he said " this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on." Some of his disciples were remarking how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with the gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said "As for what you see here not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down."
As you can see the beginning of the topic is the teachers of the law (or the religious hypocrites of the day). He then points out how proud they were and how they DEVOUR WIDOW'S HOUSES. How do they do that you ask? Jesus looks up into the temple to show you how she just put her last two small coins into the offering and now she has nothing to live on. In other words they taught her a doctrine that she needed to give BIG even all her living. In other words she just gave all her rent money or all she had to live on. Kind of like what we hear on Christian TV today. Does it sound to you like he is endorsing giving all you have to live on or is he REBUKING what is going on here?
The reason I know he is not pleased is the very next thing he says is" do you see this temple". All this is going to be torn down. Or in other words I am changing this whole religious set up! No it doesn't sound like he was pleased with what he just saw at all. It's amazing what you can discern when you start at the beginning of a topic and follow it to the end.
Furthermore there is no doctrine in the old testament that says that the financial burdens of the temple should be carried on the backs of widows. Also in many places in the new testament Jesus councils us to give to the poor. Not take the last few dollars they have. How could Jesus possibly be saying that he recommends what they taught this poor widow to do. He would be contradicting himself.
No clearly to me this is a recommendation of what not to do. Beware of teachers that teach you false doctrine! Our giving should be a fruit of the grace and abundance he has poured out on us. If we are hard pressed financially God is totally there and will take us back to abundance by his grace and grace alone. NEVER do we need to give what we don't have to somehow BUY God's favor. It has already been provided for us through Jesus. Stay tuned for part 3.
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