Greetings friends of Steemchurch and Sister Parishes- Peace be with you all!
The gospel of beatitude is related to finding freedom and success living for our neighbours who are in dare need, but not to be burden to those people
A
In today's message, @sc-g is looking at the behaviour trends among some Christians in terms of being burden to people, instead of finding mercies for them
1Thessalonians 2:9-12NIV
"Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witness, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his Kingdom and glory
"
This message from Apostle Paul to the congregation of Thessalonians, he was trying to draw the attention of his followers and the people who has been preaching on the same gospel, that the fact that they have been called to preach does not guarantee them to be burden on; the congregation for wealth or material things. But they are also to work in order to be depended. In spite of the Scripture that says: "the preacher should benefit from the preaching ministry," but not to the extent of being over- relied on others. In this instance, Paul used himself as an example to the congregation that, I Paul, I worked both day and night so that I do not become burden for you
Comparing the previous apostles, preachers, prophets and pastors to this modern era, the congregations are over- burdened. Now, it has become part of our traditions in most part of preachers in the world, that we over-burden the church members for cash and other material things. The attitude which Paul discarded in his life, people are now cheerful in doing it. Of late, most pastors and preachers do not attach any business to their work, so something like foodstuffs, soaps, money and other petty things are claimed from the church members
Currently, most churches have turned into business ventures. Because of that most preachers, pastors, evangelists or apostles do not take keen interest in winning souls for God. The real evangelism is losing its faith. The slogan that these men of God use is: " Give and it would be given to you." Always their mind is on receiving abundant money or material things than winning souls for Christ. Meanwhile, some of these church members might be completely destitute who also need help or support from others
However, the church is seen as an institution which look at the welfare of humanity, train people to be righteous and deliver others who are suffering in terms of finances, families and societal problem in order to break free. Today, the perception and the aims of Christianity has been changed other way round
If the societies have their norms of practices what is dependency or burdensome, who is to admonish the the people who are fond doing that? Is it the the church who teaches what is right and what is wrong? But we Christians who have the right apparatus in doing it are now compounding the whole situation. Therefore what are the future of our task of being good Christians, who stand the motive of winning souls for Christ Jesus?
We should better advise ourselves to desist from such acts. As a preacher or someone who render services to God, you can also attach small business to supplement what you are given. We know that to effectively do the gospel well it need time, but we can also a portion some time to do our leisure work while resting being with our members. Some pastors have tried establishing small businesses and it is really helping them a lot. You can engage your self in small poultry birds rearing, small back yard farm. Now, there is an introduction of small scale enterprise for smaller communities, which people can learn how to make pastries, grow mushroom, rear bees to make honey,rear snails and so many other lucrative businesses that one can be engaged
When we live independently, we place value on our integrity as Christians, and for that matter as gospel preacher. How can we be respect if we are always fond of being burden on others for survival? Those people would think that if they are not there, we cannot survive in life. Let's therefore hold unto our integrity, one of the greatest treasurers of Christianity
Thank you all for your time being with @sc-g post.
