an exciting day for me…

another thing that motivates people to overwork is, frankly, materialism.  it’s greed.  i see other people have things that i want so i’m going to be greedy, i’m going to be materialistic and i work hard to get those things too. 

ecclesiastics 4.4 (gnt), i’ve learned why people work so hard to succeed.  it’s because they envy the things that their neighbors have.

listen, we buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t even like.  just about the time you catch up with the jones they refinance so you’re never going to get caught up. 

we have some very special friends who are jones that i wish more people would follow.

scott & robin came to harvest, the church i pastored in vegas, from santa cruz, ca.  scott was a very successful young man who came to vegas to be the head of the food services at unlv.  he had a little bmw convertible, robin had a toyota suv.  they bought a beautiful house up in summerlin, it had a pool.  they were headed to the world’s view in the right direction but scott was troubled.

i remember a sermon that i knew i had to share about abraham and what it meant to answer a call from GOD.  i remember walking and knowing what that sermon meant.  it meant that scott would answer the call to preach and that he would be leaving and going to seminary.

but they sold their home, and he sold his little convertible and they moved into a little 1,200 sq. ft. apartment in chicago, illinois and scott prepared to preach.  he now has a passion that he never had while he was working long hours at unlv.

to finish the story, while living on long island in new york, margaret and i spend a weekend up in connecticut with the jones and heard scot preach in his own church.  such an exciting, proud day for me.

 

just a thought from the front porch…