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I was listening to a comedian the other day and he said he went out to dinner with a guy that was worth 100 million dollars. He said he himself was worth only 40 million dollars but they still ordered the same steak. Lol.
That seemed to validate the idea to me that you can only do so much with wealth… there’s only so much you can buy. And yet its almost like a game or contest with rich people to see how much wealth they can accumulate.
It must be a real struggle to figure out what to do with money unless your real goal is just to use it to make more money or to risk it in a big gamble just for the thrill of a big pay out.
Those who don’t love money try to figure out how they can help other people. i.e. they love people more than money.
I’m all for responsibility in handling wealth. I think the Parable of the Talents suggests that concept. Invest it wisely and use the proceeds to help others.
I heard of a group of Christians who pooled their monies and went to some of the villages of fellow Christians in Africa and drilled water wells for them so they wouldn’t have to walk to the river.
That seems to me to be the perfect example of people who love others more than they love money.
I like eating a nice steak every once in a while but I’m also quite happy to eat a chili cheese dog.
Lets be careful not to pamper ourselves so much that we neglect the paupers. Maybe we should pamper the paupers.
Luke 7:28 I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
Interesting verse. I wonder why Jesus said this?
Jesus, of course, in this text identified how great John (the Baptist) was. John’s mission (successfully completed) was great and John performed it with great humility.
I suppose Jesus said this to give believers in Christ great hope that as great as John was that they could be greater.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31, illustrates God’s people as a body. I don’t know what body part John was just like I don’t know what body part I am or what body part you are. But I do know that whatever part we are the body of Christ needs all of its parts… that’s important.
I also know that the members of the body had God given spiritual gifts and could perform miracles but that the spiritual gifts (as great as they were) were not greater than love. Although God worked through people with spiritual gifts we are the ones who control how we work our love.
So you may not have the great mission that John the Baptist had but we still have a great mission… a world wide mission.
The only way therefore that we can be greater than someone like John the Baptist is in the mission of love that we demonstrate to each other and to the world. Even the least in the Kingdom can be great in love. Love is the greatest.
Luke 10:17-27 tells the tale of the rich young ruler. Then in verse twenty-one Jesus says this…
“Looking at him, Jesus showed love to him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But he was deeply dismayed by these words, and he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property”
The question is raised who does Jesus’ instruction apply to? Does it include all believers? Because if it does apply to all believers then all believers would be obligated to sell all of our possessions and follow Jesus. So who does it apply to?
This verse specifically only applies to the “rich young ruler” and no one else. He didn’t tell Nicodemus to do this. He didn’t tell the Samaritan woman to do this. He didn’t tell Zaccheus to do this (for instance)
Jesus gave specific instructions to specific people and the instructions often differed widely.
So what can we learn from this? We can learn by studying Acts and the Epistles how they applied Jesus’ and the Apostles teaching.
Generally people who had money were generous to those who did not have much. They even sold things. There is no example of anyone selling all that they had.
We can also learn to question how we interpret the Bible and how to make applications.
We see a lot of behavior problems in dogs. Primarily anxiety/fear and its manifestations like aggression and biting. A lot of these issues are owner related… they let their dogs get away with inappropriate behaviors as puppies because they think they are cute then when the pets get big they are too big to control. Sometimes the pets are dangerous and owners choose to euthanize their beloved pets that were so cute as puppies.
Certain breeds are worse than others.
Usually ugly/dangerous behavior problems can be addressed by simple training in the basics… sit, stay, heel. You are not training them primarily not to bite but you are exerting dominance in smaller areas (sit, etc.) that translates over to larger areas (Biting, etc.)
This also (in my opinion) translates over to the behavior of children and training them.
Sometimes we run across believers that hold some pretty strange doctrinal issues and the root of the problem is they don’t know their Bibles very well. Sometimes then instead of butting heads on an issue and just ending up with head aches it makes sense to go back to the basics and re-learn the Bible.
Of course that takes time and patience and may not have the exhilaration that comes with a good fight and the recounting of the fight… whether you are talking about your pets, your children or the weak in faith.
Love is patient, love is kind.
In the middle school class that I teach we have been reading about manna and how the Israelites got tired of eating it. I asked the kids if they ever got tired of eating the same thing over and over. One of them raised his hand and said he got tired of eating Hot Dogs. Later his mom told me that he went through a spell of just wanting Hot Dogs. In the pm class he told me that he would never get tired of eating Pepperoni sandwiches that it would be impossible to get tired of those. When Lauren worked at the Chicken Shack she brought home fried chicken every night. I loved it for a while then got tired of it.
Have you ever noticed about God that when his people complained about something and grumbled that he gave them exactly what they wanted but in such quantities that they got sick of it. He was teaching them a lesson.
I’m sure if the Israelites had been more polite that on Mondays he would give Manna, Tuesdays - Hot Dogs, Wednesdays - Quail, Thursdays - Friend Chicken and Fridays - Pepperoni sandwiches. But knowing the complaining nature of the Israelites they probably wouldn’t be happy with that either… they didn’t have the confidence in God that’s called faith. People of faith shouldn’t complain and then we wouldn’t have to learn lessons from God the hard way.
I got a notification on my Veterinary class of 1981 Facebook page that one of our classmates passed just the other day. I hadn’t seen him since 1981. When I saw his photo on Facebook I barely recognized him.
I figured out the other day that I remember people like the last time I saw them. I remembered this classmate as young and energetic and happy.. That’s how I remembered him. I can still see his face.
Here’s the thing… our physical features are not the only thing that changes… the way we think, the things we believe, our emotions, our accomplishments… everything changes.
We have to be careful that we don’t categorize people according to their past and don’t give them the benefit of the doubt. Someone may have offended us years ago and maybe we didn’t get an “I’m sorry” so we still hold a grudge. Let that go… let it go… people change.
In 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 a spiritual mirror is revealed. As we turn to Jesus Christ and receive the Holy Spirit and look in that mirror we see the reflection of our spiritual selves. We see our spiritual face slowly but surely transformed into the face of Jesus Christ.
Those who know us closely can also see the transformation in us. Some folks can’t see it though because they have closed their minds. They’ve been offended and can’t get over the past. They can’t see past the end of their nose… and have short noses.
If you’re in that situation just don’t worry about that… it’s not your problem it’s theirs.
I looked at the photo of my deceased classmate and I thought I saw happiness and contentment and a good life lived. I wish that I could have sat down with him and heard his story and his life’s experiences but whatever they were I choose to believe the best about him because I want to have people believe in the best in me.
Julie and I went to Christine Torno’s (1926-2023) funeral yesterday. On the drive over to Sinton, Texas we were guessing on who might be there.
Parkway was well represented but one of the nice things about funerals are the old friends you see who you don’t expect to see. My old friend and former member Ron Guzman was there. Seems like I only see him on Facebook and at funerals. We get along together like peas and carrots.
We got to see Brad and Beth Roach and we also got to see Steve Torno (Ray’s cousin) who we had known since college days. Also my old friend Richard Besselman who lives north of Dallas. He came a long way for someone he’s not related to.
Warren Miller who is married to Joy Torno Miller emceed the whole thing. I was impressed that he referred to Christine Torno as “our mother”. Nothing says love like that does.
Warren also said something I liked… “we preach our own funerals by the way we live our lives”
Glen and Christine Torno were just everyday small town working people.
Christine’s dad was an oil field worker who bought some land on Papalote creek and farmed and raised a few cows. There are a lot of Rattlesnakes on Papalote Creek and one of the games Christine and her siblings played was “jump the snake” (If you can imagine that)
The other story I liked about Christine was she had to walk about two miles to the bus stop and she would walk barefoot no matter the weather carrying her shoes. When she got to school she would use the school water hose to wash her feet and legs off then put her clean shoes on and go to class.
One of the grandsons said his grandmother had taught him five things… how to fish, how to grow things, it’s okay to have an opinion and to change it, to dream big and to love the Lord big.
Tim Rogers (who I know well) had a speaking part and I really felt for him. I’ve been in the position where I’ve been asked to speak for someone who I greatly loved and knew that I couldn’t get through it without crying but did it anyway because I knew no one else could say the words that needed to be said and that I was the only one who could say them. I guess tears are the currency of love. If so then Tim Rogers is rich.
I heard that during the depression there was a Veterinarian in the community and if you couldn’t pay your bill he would waive the fee if you would visit at the local Church of Christ. That’s how the Torno’s became members.
I looked at that great gathering of Torno’s… sons and daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews and marveled at their love for each other and their great spiritual legacy that started because their ancestor was too poor to pay a Veterinary bill and too proud to not pay a debt.
I was talking to one of our members today who knows about Papalote and sharing some of these stories with him and I told him… in your spiritual journey you need to start attending some of these funerals… it will make you better and he agreed (I knew he would).
Certainly Julie and I go to funerals to comfort the family and to see old friends but the real reason we go is kind of selfish I guess. We go because it makes us better and I guess thats kind of hard to understand unless you go and share some tears and laughter with the loved ones of the deceased.
God bless you Christine Torno.
