God blesses the Work of our hands.... We have to find something that our hands can do, besides what we are doing now that has brought poverty......
uhh...yeah. Not so much, BM. Genesis 3 is fairly clear, and extremely broad-sweeping...
<SUP id=en-NIV-73 class=versenum>
17</SUP> To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
<SUP id=en-NIV-74 class=versenum>
18</SUP> It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
<SUP id=en-NIV-75 class=versenum>
19</SUP> By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
If you study the most successful, you will find something in common with them... They never give up, and failure is not a sign to quit.....
Are you Stephen Covey, or Brother Mike? Are you trying to emulate Bill Gates, or are you trying to emulate Jesus?
This has been exactly my point all along. WoF followers (as a category -- I realize there are some few exceptions at the personal level) seem to often focus on the "7 habits of highly successful people" kind of stuff, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
AND THE TWO ARE NOT THE SAME.
It's not that the Joel Olsteen's of the world don't have some good / interesting things to say...it's jus that it is NOT THE GOSPEL, and people take it as such.
And that, is the lie of it.
So, BM...you want to study the rich, for business purposes or whatever...go ahead. Makes all the sense. But if and when you want to somehow mix this into your "religion", and consider it "Gospel", you are on a very slippery slope.
Yes, you're right "they never give up", etc. But, the question is, WHO CARES? And remind yourself that
no one was wealthier than Solomon. Many consider that he was the wealthiest person who ever lived, even on an inflation-adjusted basis. So, remind yourself of that,
and then ask yourself if it mattered, or what it did for him.
Solomon talked of...
- the folly of human wisdom 1:12-18
- the weariness of repetition 1:4-11
- laughter and relaxation is madness and vanity when out of balance 2:3
- he hates life "under the sun" 2:12-17
- all work done "under the sun" is "striving after the wind"
- vanity, vanity...all is vanity
and in today's dollars, he was probably 3 or 4 times richer than the richest man on this earth today. And he spoke unabashedly about his existence.
What a jewel of text.
And consider what Jesus said about Solomon here:
Matthew 6:28-29
New International Version (NIV)
<SUP id=en-NIV-23311 class=versenum>
28</SUP> “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. <SUP id=en-NIV-23312 class=versenum>
29</SUP> Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
Hence, my wondering why we would study such people who "never give up" (i.e., toiling under the sun). I mean, there is a lot I admire about success stories too, BM...but given the chance, wouldn't you rather be a flower in the field who doesn't labor or spin.
If I could become such a flower, I would consider that a great success.