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Come to Church
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.- Hebrews 10:22
We have often heard and spoken the words, “Come to church”
When we say them, our hearts are right. Deep inside we know that the church is not a building made with hands, but a gathered people. We are inviting our friends to gather with us at the place where the church convenes.
What is the difference between a good law and a bad law?
No, this is not the setup for a joke.
A bad law oppresses people.
Bad laws put unnecessary burdens on people.
Bad laws prey upon widows, orphans, and the poor.
Good laws, by contrast, help those who bad laws hurt.
That is the difference according to Isaiah's prophetic word.
Isaiah 10:1-4
Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
Chosen, elect, or blessed, we must do the right thing in our generation, time, and circumstance. God loves us, forgives us, and treats us with grace, but we are accountable for justice,
#accountability#chosenpeople#publicpolicy#a... https://youtu.be/Gs529hwU5dg?si=pBQcHuchf5NyruP- via @YouTube
“The wise have eyes in their head, but fools walk in darkness.”
What is the principal difference between wise people and foolish people?
It is perception.
Of course, once something is perceived, it must be processed, but the processing functions are often crippled by lack of critical and attentive. perceiving.
“Eyes in our head” indicates that we are paying attention.
We are receiving information.
We are seeing. listening, and noticing.
We are asking questions and hearing answers.
We are looking around, looking up, and looking within. We are double-checking. We are open. We are reasonable. We are sensitive.
Fools walk in darkness, but God gives light.
Walk in the light as Christ is in the light.
Ecclesiastes 2:1–17 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But again, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine — my mind still guiding me with wisdom — and how to lay hold on folly, until I might see what was good for mortals to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house; I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and delights of the flesh, many concubines.
So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure from all my toil, and this was my reward from all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly, for what can the king’s successor do? Only what has already been done. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
The wise have eyes in their head, but fools walk in darkness.
Yet I perceived that the same fate befalls all of them. Then I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I been so very wise?” And I said to myself that this also is vanity. For there is no enduring remembrance of the wise or of fools, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How can the wise die just like fools? So I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
JESUS MAFA. The Rich Fool, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48266 [retrieved August 3, 2025]. Original source: http://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr (contact page: https://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr/contact).
Psalm 49:1-12
To the leader. Of the Korahites. A Psalm
Hear this, all you peoples; give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp.
Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me, those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches? Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life; there is no price one can give to God for it. For the ransom of life is costly and can never suffice, that one should live on forever and never see the Pit.
When we look at the wise, they die; fool and dolt perish together and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they named lands their own. Mortals cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669. Parable of the Rich Man, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55520 [retrieved August 3, 2025]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_-_Der_reiche_Narr.jpg.
Colossians 3:1-11
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all!
We get so impressed with ourselves, our titles, positions, and curricula vitae. We adorn ourselves with fading splendor and gaudy honor. We fancy our bodies indestructible and our minds bright and permanent. Yet ...
No matter how differentiated in minutia our DNA may be from that of the beasts, we fade, we falter, we fall, we die.
We go down to the pit of death with all of our confidence, boasting, and self-deception for we are dust and our pomp is but the costume jewelry of our silly make-believe games of childhood.
If it is all we have, we have nothing. Death is our shepherd.
But God has something else in mind for us, a rescue from Sheol, a ransom of our souls, a renewal of our lives, and an ignition of our significance and reason for being.
His intention is to receive us.
He is a receiving God.
Death and mortality equalize humanity like nothing else.
There is no wealth, no skin pigmentation, and no status in our dried bones and decaying flesh.
In the grave, no matter how ostentatious the stone is, above our heads, we are equal.
In the grave, no matter how ostentatious the stone is, above our heads, we are equal.
True Wealth and Financial Stability Tom emphasizes the importance of understanding true wealth, which is not just financial stability but also spiritual richness. He discusses the cultural obsession with money as a trading symbol and warns against letting it become a master. True wealth involves financial literacy, appropriate wealth management, and aligning with spiritual values, as material wealth is temporary and cannot be taken beyond death.
Biblical Perspectives on Wealth Tom references Psalm 49 and Ecclesiastes to highlight the transient nature of wealth and human life. He explains that despite human achievements and wealth, all are equal in death. The psalmist and preacher emphasize that earthly accomplishments are vanity, and true significance comes from spiritual wealth and alignment with God's will, which offers eternal life and purpose beyond material possessions.
Jesus' Teachings on Greed and Possessions Tom recounts Jesus' parable from Luke 12, where Jesus warns against greed and emphasizes that life does not consist of possessions. He tells the story of a rich man who hoards wealth but is called a fool by God for not being rich toward God. The lesson is to focus on spiritual richness rather than material accumulation, as true wealth is found in generosity and spiritual alignment.
Paul's Teachings on Spiritual Focus Tom discusses Paul's teachings from Colossians 3, urging believers to focus on spiritual matters rather than earthly concerns. Paul advises setting one's mind on eternal things and warns against greed, which he equates with idolatry. Tom emphasizes that true wealth is found in spiritual renewal and unity in Christ, transcending earthly divisions and material concerns.
Practical Application of Spiritual Wealth Tom encourages integrating spiritual focus into daily life, suggesting that work and material pursuits should support spiritual goals. He advises seeking God with an open heart and evaluating wealth in terms of spiritual richness. The ultimate goal is to achieve a life centered on God, where material wealth is a tool for spiritual purposes, leading to eternal life and peace.
Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer walk as the gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds; they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Call it poetic justice or slapstick comedy, but it is dead serious with the emphasis on "dead." When we throw too many darts, they boomerang. God is not necessarily singling us out; it is simply the divine law of sowing and reaping.
Haman ended up on the gallows he built for Mordecai.
It is not a pretty story, but it is life and a good warning to us not to throw stones or to be vindictive.
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."
No Rinky-Dink Clause
Colossians 2:16-3:1
I will call this Paul's "No Rinky Dink Clause."
Paul is up against a version of Christian teaching that is seeking synthesis with a form of aestheticism that he is saying robs the believer of their liberty in Christ and puts the emphasis of faith in the wrong place.
He counters it with this instruction: Set your hearts on things above.
That is where Christ is and Christ is seated at God's right hand.
If we adjust our focus, it will solve a lot of our religious problems:
![Title: Parable of the Rich Man
[Click for smaller image view]](https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/cdri/fulljpeg/Rembrandt_-_Der_reiche_Narr.jpg)