Author Archives: josephmcole

About josephmcole

I'm a husband and father who loves to read, think, and write fresh ideas for living life. Currently, I serve as Lead Pastor at Tabernacle of Praise and freelance as a copywriter.

The Cure for America’s Greed

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In President Obama’s State of the Union address last week, the concept of greed was touched on as one of the barriers we face to realize the dream of an America Built to Last. Wealthy Americans (the President noticeably placed himself in that category) are allowed to use a plethora of tax breaks and advantages resulting in them paying a lesser percentage of their wealth than others. The way to an “America Built to Last” (Really, an American government built to last. I personally don’t see them as one and the same. Obama, of course, does.) is to take away those tax breaks and tax them in the same percentage as everyone else.

Underlying the very nice sounding “fair share, fair cut” phrasing, is the accusation that greed is the motivator for taking advantage of those tax breaks and that we need to eradicate the greed of rich Americans through taxes. I guess that’s one way of dealing with the problem. Jesus took a different angle.

In a picture similar to ascending a mountain to speak to the lonely guru, Matthew 19:16-22 tells the story of a young man who asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. The young man has kept the entire Law of Moses since his youth. He’s blameless. This is what Jesus said.

  Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Jesus didn’t minimize the young man’s sincere devotion to the commands of God. He was doing a fantastic job. But he wasn’t perfect. He wasn’t whole, mature, ready for eternal life.  He said his intention was to get to eternal life, but his desires were all down here in this life.

Jesus says sell it all, give it to the poor, and you’ll have treasure in heaven.

The young man didn’t  want treasure in heaven. He wanted it here. Thus, his greed keeps him from inheriting eternal life.

In this exchange, we see a different outlook on greed than what we typically hear in our world. We hear that rich people are greedy, business people are greedy, bankers are greedy, landowners are greedy, politicians are greedy. But according to this definition…

We all are greedy. At least those of us who would rather have treasure here than in heaven.

The cure for America’s greed? A paradigm shift from the present, temporal life we’re in to the eternal life in heaven. When someone begins to think this way, generosity is the result.

Why the Rich Aren’t Greedy

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…well, at least why being rich doesn’t mean you’re greedy.

We’ve been working through a series on finances. We’ve looked specifically at debt, greed, and God’s way out of financial bondage. Last week, I sat and watched President Obama’s State of the Union speech.

Guess what! He talked about greed. And he gave his answer to this American epidemic. Tax the rich more. Everyone gives their fair share, everyone gets a fair cut.

While I’m all for everyone supporting our national government by paying their taxes, I do have problems with this tactic. It presupposes that high income people are greedy, and that lower income people are not. Somehow, if I earn less, I am paying my fair share, but if I earn more, I’m not.

Sure, do the tax reform thing. But let’s not confuse wealth with greed and poverty with humility.

Greed is a state of mind. It is the inordinate desire for possessions. Greed speaks of wrongful desire, not the possession of things. God Himself owns everything in this universe, yet He is not greedy.

So, while we go about reforming taxes or choosing a new President, let’s not be greedy in the process.

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!