I am very thankful that God has placed me in a position to work with people in need on a daily basis. By the time I talk to most of these people, they are at their wit’s end. Their rent is overdue, the car payment is two months behind, and the unemployment has run out on them after three months, you get the picture right?

Many of the people I work with are not believers. This group mainly talks about how tough life can be, and they try to think through why they are struggling financially in a logical way. Many times they can point to a few key things that they need to fix or a few events that led them to where they are. I think we can all see their line of thought on these matters based on their worldview. However, there is another group; those that profess to be Christ followers.

Many, not all Christians, completely baffle me with their thought process. Somewhere along the line, they have come to believe that laying their life down for Christ will lead them to prosperity here on earth. If they just believe and have faith, God will give them stuff. This group also believes that if they are “bad” and don’t do enough or have enough faith, God will take stuff away from them.

They have the wrong Jesus.

Hear me. If the gospel you have been presented and are following appeals to all of your carnal, worldly desires, then you should know that you have the wrong Jesus. You can’t just “add Jesus” and get stuff you want. You can begin to trust me on this because I want absolutely nothing from you. I am not closing this blog post by asking you for your money. I don’t want your money. I want you to know the real Christ. I believe the Bible is true and without error. If we can agree to this, then I can begin to show you the real Jesus. Ready? Here is the actual Jesus based on God’s word, not my opinion or scheme.

Jesus said:

Matthew 10:39 (ESV)
39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 8:18-22 (ESV)
18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

Matthew 6:24 (ESV)
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Luke 14:25-33 (ESV)
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

John 15:18 (ESV)
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

Matthew 19:23-24 (ESV)
23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Does any of that sound like Jesus = Wealth and Prosperity here on earth? People are financially successful in life for a few reasons. 1.) They are lucky, or they inherit money. 2.) They are incredibly talented at something and apply their talent. 3.) They work hard and sacrifice certain pleasures for other things they want in life. (A.K.A. discipline) The reality is that most of the time if you look closely enough you will see that it is some combination of all three scenarios and we all possess parts of them. So please do not lose faith in Jesus when you have money problems. Jesus never promised earthly wealth.

If faith and works to God make us wealthy here on earth then I have one question; Where are the martyred missionary’s mansions?

In Truth and Deed,