Please, Take Me Home With You

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For all of you who read my blog, come to Tabernacle of Praise (TOP) on Sundays, subscribe to my posts via email or RSS,

THANK YOU!!

You are why I write, speak, and keep up a continuing presence at the library (Looking for more stuff to bring you! They may let me haunt the place when I’m dead. Who knows?). But I do have a problem.

I can’t get enough of you! 

So, I’ve decided that I want to go home with you. Yup, I’m inviting myself over, and I hope you’ve got plenty of food in the fridge…

Well, it’s not as bad as all that. Our media team (whom we affectionately call “Shock and Awe”) has been recording the teaching series at TOP. I have compressed them to MP3 files and uploaded them to TOP’s public iDisk. Now, you can download these MP3′s to your computer or any MP3 player and take me home with you!

Here’s how. First, go to the iDisk website at https://public.me.com/topinc. Once you’re there, select the audio teaching you wish to download and then click the download button. It’s that simple!

TOP iDisk Public Folder

Here is a screen shot in case a visual will be of assistance. As you can see, we have last year’s Advent series on our Identity in Christ already uploaded and ready for you. Don’t miss out on this landmark teaching! If you don’t understand anything else about God or the Bible, you have to get this. It’s all yours, for FREE!

So, there you have it. You can take me home with you, I can spend more time with you sharing what I’ve gleaned from the Holy Spirit, and you don’t even have to feed me. Pretty cool, huh?

Go to the website today, and discover who you are in our Messiah, Jesus!

Scientific Hypothesis States that Women are Greedier than Men

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Recently, I found an article in Psychology Today giving science’s best offerings on the origins of greed and materialism. Here are some of the highlights of modern thinker’s thoughts on where greed comes from.

gender differences

Women are the source of greed in our world because as we evolved through the eons, the females of our species seek wealthy powerful males to mate with. They are naturally self-seeking and materialistic. But only for the good of the human race.

But wait! There’s current evidence that demonstrates how men are greedier than women. But that’s just because they have to appease the materialistic requirements of gold-digging females if they wish to engage in procreative activities (A desire, incidently, that exists in a surprising amount of males.).

personality effects

There are some personalities more prone to greed than others. In particular, those “with a greater disposition to be affected by their emotions” are greedier than emotionally stable people.

childhood environment

Those who grew up in a lower income household tend to be more materialistic. Those who grew up with everything they want never need to acquire more things. So, the poor are stuck with greedy dispositions.

I’m no psychologist. But I’ve got some misgivings about the speculations put forth here.

Number one–Sex.

I’ve met plenty of greedy women. And I’ve known a fair share of greedy men. You might as well lump me in with that number. My guess is that you, dear reader, have met greedy people on both sides of the gender fence.

As far as personalities are concerned,

to say that greed stems from genetics is to absolve people of responsibility for their greedy actions. Sorry, if you’re neurotic, than you’re destined to be materialistic. It’s not your fault. Please, don’t let us stop your irresponsible spending, extravagant living, and extortion of innocent people. We know you can’t help it, poor dear.

What a load of HOGWASH! (I’ve always wanted to write that word in public.)

Lastly, childhood environment.

I don’t think this is the issue, either. Personally, I’ve met greedy rich people and generous poor people. And vice versa.

An even better, philisophical reason I don’t think greed comes from poor childhoods is the fact that if this is true, than the only cure for greedy poor people is more greed. To get out of poverty, by definition, one must acquire wealth. If being greedy is the desire and acquisition for more things, than the only way out of poverty is to do everything you can to get enough things to satisfy your greedy desire. According to this theory.

Weird. Cyclical, really.

What do you think? Why are we greedy? How do we get out of being greedy?

Kill the Monster!

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So yesterday was a hard look at ourselves and the monster that is in our backyard. My fried, Ray, commented on last week’s blog post that we can’t demand that the government live within their means when we citizens do not do so. In the same way, we can’t insist that coporate executives, government personas, and the rich live ungreedy, generous lives when we have no intention of doing so.

The monster is in our backyard. And it’s closer to destroying us than we think.

Check out this story about a greedy farmer, who didn’t think that he was greedy. As soon as he sat back and began to dream of how he was going to spend his massive wealth on himself, God informs him that his life will be over that evening.

Now some may say that God killed the man as a punishment for his greed. I personally read it that the man was going to die that night anyway. It was his time to go. He didn’t know it, and all he had to show for his life was his possessions.

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” — Jesus

What if you knew when you were going to the other side? What if it were tonight? What would you have besides your possessions?

None of us live life thinking that we are greedy. But if we were to die this evening and had nothing to show for our lives but our things, I think we are guilty.

This year, it’s time to free ourselves from debt! It’s time to slay the monster of greed and live happily within our means. Come with me, brothers and sisters!

The Monster in the BackYard

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Financial success is a difficult destination to reach. Happiness is an elusive state of being. Why is it so darn hard to have one, if not both of these?

There’s a silent, deadly monster roaming in your backyard eating your money and mauling your happiness. It’s time to face it and kill it. The monster is GREED.

No–wait! That can’t be! I’m not GREEDY. I’m broke. I don’t have a million dollar penthouse. I don’t own ten factories that I outsourced to foreign countries at the expense of hard working American citizens. That can’t be me!!

Yup…I hear you. That’s exactly what I said. To be fair, let’s review the symptoms of greed and see how we all fair. Here’s an excert from an article in Christianity Today (Robert C. Roberts, April 8, 1996, pp 29-33):

A sure sign of greed (the disordered desire for wealth) is that your wanting things always outruns your having them. Greed is the successful businessperson who tells you, without blinking, that he is on the bring of poverty. It is the middle-class couple who says they cannot afford to have another child. It is “upward mobility,” the climb that ends not in satisfaction and peace, but in exhaustion, disappointment, and emptiness. “Sweet is the sleep of (poor) laborers whether they eat little or much; but the surfeit of the rich will not let them sleep,” says the Preacher (Eccles. 5:12). Greed in its advanced stages will not let us rest content.

 

Jesus connects greed with anxiety: “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed . . . Do not worry about your life . . .” (Luke 12:13-34). Anxiety about our “security” drives us into a pattern of acquiring more and more, but the acquiring of more also leads to anxiety…

This article hit me hard. I have a good job, yet I complain about being broke and in poverty. I am a middle-class person who has said every now and then that I couldn’t possibly afford another child. If I had put lotion on every time I wrung my hands in anxiety, I would be baby-silk smooth.

To truly be successful and happy, we’ve got to kill this monster in our hearts.

Let me know what you think of this article! Is it right or way off?

How to Own Everything You Want!

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Got stuff on your wish list? A new coffee table? A new app for your phone? A fully-loaded, hybrid car that parks itself, perhaps?

You not only need this things. You DESERVE them! They’re really already yours, you know. By rights, you should have them in your possession right now.

But wait–

They’re not in your possession. Oh, the rub of capitalism! If only those greedy, annoying, lavish-living CEO’s didn’t want all their money up front, you’d have exactly what rightly belongs to you. With FREE SHIPPING!

What if there was a way to get what’s yours RIGHT NOW? Like the Staples Easy Button, you could just press it and–POOF!–all that’s yours is now safely in your possession. Like a sci-fi spaceship officer you could instantly “beam” all of the stuff you’re darling heart has attached itself to right into your hands.

Well…A way does exist! And it’s even better than an Easy Button. Every time you use it, rewards will start finding their way to you. With a flick of the wrist, you’ll wrestle what belongs to you right out of the grubby paws of those corporate money-mongers. Then, friends that you’ve never met before will alert you to more of your stuff that those materialistic trolls are hoarding away from you in their troll caves they call “warehouses.” (Just make sure to unblock these important announcements in your spam filter.)

Yup. All you need, my friend, is a credit card.

Visa is watching out for you. And if you’re a good customer, Mastercard will let you apply for a new card with even MORE benefits! You’ll fly more, wear better clothes, look sexier (cash is for old, wrinkled ladies), eat better, and feel better!

Just fill out my offer and SEND. IT. NOW!

There’s one small thing you may need to know, though. After you get all of this stuff, you won’t own a thing. To do that, you’d have to buy it. Oh, and with your own money.

Duh.