A Generation of Gamblers 2

In the last post I left out giving a solution to the believer, especially to beat the gambling spirit before it strikes.

The other day I read about a cry for many who lost their money in an elaborate gamble. They bought land and installed greenhouses and then handed it over to ‘experts’ who promised to give an equivalent of their investment annually in two installments. Imagine that bottomless source of cash!

Sadly, two years down the line and not a coin has been paid. Yet the loans have to be repaid.

My heart goes out to a woman who ‘stole’ family money to make that kill. She confessed that she knew that her husband will finish her once the truth gets out.

Incidentally that was the fate of many marriages with the pyramid schemes and their multilevel marketing brothers. And the pyramids were more attractive as the returns came in weeks. The gamble therefore struck quickly enough.

How do I overcome the gambling spirit, if I may call it thus?

The first thing is to become a Christian. Have you ever asked Christ into your life? If not, just ask Him to save you and become your Master.

Choose to walk with Him by following His commands. Consistently read the Bible to get to know what God wants of you. There is a reading plan on the blog or The Bible Club House to help you read through the Bible in one year.

Decide to walk with Him.

And then decide to listen to Him. Allow Him the permission to guide all your decisions. Never make a decision before you have His take on it.

Never make a decision before you have clearly heard from Him.

Take your time after you hear of that irresistible offer. That alone will sort you about most of these gambles called offers. You see, if you must put in your money before consulting your husband, that in itself is sin even if it is your money. If you must invest before consulting, it is a giveaway for a foolish investment. Make time your friend in these things.

Sadly ministers have become pawns in these gambles as they provide a spiritual legitimacy to a con game.

I have been approached innumerable times to join such gambles. And they only required a token, more or less my signature to legitimize whatever evil they were doing. And a minister must harvest because his visibility is an irresistible magnet to the others. There was a time someone had even offered to pay the money required for me to start harvesting from a pyramid scheme. But I prayed it away.

Minister, you are responsible for more than your life and account. People’s lives are shaped by your every decision. What you say and do are not like others as God has placed you as a beacon to guide His people. Unless you are the one who called yourself and even then you cannot escape that responsibility.

It is therefore important that if you have in your greed, folly or ignorance led people into such schemes, you must in all humility OPENLY AND PUBLICLY repent because you may be the reason some marriages broke and some people were impoverished.

A friend was called by his senior pastor and given a word like this. If you will ever listen to me, invest in this scheme. And he was given enough scriptures to back his counsel. Sadly, he lost all his money, and he was a struggling businessman.

I say this because I remember warning people about pyramid schemes years ago and their responses. They would show me cheques in pastors’ names and ask me whether I was the only one hearing from God as their pastors were in the thick of things. But the song changed when what I had been warning them against them actualized with their money. The Bible and not a pastor’s word is the final authority as far as life is concerned. Unless the said pastor is so immersed in it that that is what oozes out of his mouth.

Do not be in a hurry to join anything even if every pore in your body is crying so after a successful pitch. You see many will parade people earning millions and others who resigned from their jobs to pursue that irresistible offer. I have been taken to enough seminars and am therefore speaking from experience. The fact that somebody even offered you lunch in an exquisite hotel to listen to that pitch is not reason enough to join before sorting it out with God. That is what has protected me again and again as the ingenuity of those cons is always out of the world, able to swallow the most discriminating.

I will close with these verses.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. (1Timothy 6: 6 – 11)

And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (Mark 10: 23 – 25)

Privilege

I have for some time been thinking about privilege and advantage, especially as concerns upbringing. I have been examining whether God plays favorites when He places people wherever.

Does God favor people he places close to cities and highways so that their little produce fetches best prices and sells as soon as it gets ready when someone far from those places will sell the same at throwaway prices and may sometimes even rot for lack of market?

How come there could be such a variance in pricing of basic needs between those areas? Why is it that the ones who sell the cheapest buy at the highest prices due to the distance between the market and industries? Someone sells milk at a quarter of the price the connected sells yet buys food at higher prices than the one near progress. One needs to sell four to five litres of milk to buy a kilo of sugar when the other will just need to sell a litre for the same amount of sugar.

Is God unfair? Is that advantage a privilege?

What is a privileged upbringing? What is the best gift a parent should give his children?

The God I know and serve is just. This means that He does all things right. But He also sees beyond what we can ever see.

An advantage can be the doorway to the greatest curse just like what we may think of as a disadvantage can open up into the greatest blessing.

But let me talk about raising children. What is  the best gift a parent can give to his children? Which heritance is best for a child?

Many people think, even unequivocally confess that the best education qualifies as the best inheritance for a child. This is because the best educated person can access the best employment opportunities. But is employment the best in advantage?

Others confess that offering investments is the best inheritance for a child. Again I ask, is being wealthy with things the ultimate success.

What does the Bible say?

Why are the best educated people not the most successful? Why are the wealthiest persons not the happiest? Why is there more depression and suicide in that quadrant? Or do you think it is because they are in the limelight?

There is more to life than that array of degrees or vastness of property.

Like Christ said, there is more to life than earthly things. The main reason is because these things not only are temporary; they can only take us as far as the grave. Sadly, many times they do not even take us that far.

How many highly educated people are unable to escape the lure of drugs, or immorality? How many lose their minds amidst that knowledge? How many are outwitted by illiterate conmen? How many die of depression or even suicide? How many die in bitterness against society and even God?

How many wealthy people are dying of loneliness in those fortresses they have built? How many live their lives so miserably because they are unable to trust anybody? How many have died in bitterness and regret because that same wealth they had invested their whole lives had somehow disappeared through an investment?

You see, investing in the temporal is temporary, however successful you become. Just like building your house using straw and grass means continued maintenance, building on temporal values will always be demanding your pound of flesh to maintain its level of relevance.

And that is what Solomon realized after attaining everything he desired and enjoying every pleasure he could imagine; vanity of vanities. It is utter uselessness, and immense pain at the end.

But God did not let us grope in the dark. He gives us a choice to either follow His way or pursue vanity. Only that His way demands more from us than these other pursuits.

You see, His way has Him and His for the focus whereas ours have me and mine for focus.

It therefore means two people can achieve the same things yet one dies with regret when his colleague lives in great fulfillment. One is bitter with life when the other is experiencing the best life. Yet they could be living in the same neighborhood, drive the same type of car, have their children in the same schools, and even attend the same church.

I have said again and again that self is to small an object to focus on. And that smallness is like a pin that pricks again and again, even destroying the one who insists on maintaining that focus.

How does someone overlook education in their pursuit for that elusive A? Why cheat in an exam yet want people to call you successful, yet not a successful thief? And why does a parent push their child to cheat yet become disappointed when the same child becomes a harlot or drug dealer in campus to buy the same grades? Or decides to procure an abortion or another as they continue getting into all kinds of relationships and marriages? Or is unable to stay married because they keep cheating?

You see, focusing on self is elusive as the goalposts keep changing. When you bought the leaks to ensure your child gets the best high school or course in university, you forgot that those same values will replicate in all of life. Those short term successes reproduce long term nightmares.

That is the beauty of following God’s way. And there is a verse I think fits here.

Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. (Proverbs 20:17)

Do we seek to impart values in our children above grades? Is that ‘A’ more important than hard work and industry? Is grabbing this or the other more important that rescuing and helping out?

We must redefine what we think success is.

 The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar. (Proverbs 19:22)

What will make me proudest as a parent?

I would be proudest if my child, on finding some millions somewhere with no owner around will keep it and start looking for the owner instead of going to church to give thanks for the financial breakthrough. And that irrespective whether they have a coin to their name or pocket.

You see, God’s way ensure not only eternal rewards but also a better long term insurance.

Let me give a recent example.

A friend has a small rental place that he has been looking for a tenant. Then as we walked he met a son of an old friend who on hearing gets all excited. He even offers to buy it but this friend declined. He even offered to rent at a much higher rate. They agreed to talk.

Then I met my friend later and asked him whether he gave his friend the place and was surprised that he allowed the one who had been using it for negligible rent. Why? I wondered.

He does not trust his friend though they have been friends for close to fifty years. His friend is capable of bribing or cooking documents to deprive him of that small place.

That is what we do when we teach our children to grab any available opportunity without caring who is being disenfranchised by that advantage. And the world does not operate by grace.

On the other side I remember opening a workshop in a place barely anybody knew me. one day a person I had never seen passed by when he learnt that there was a repair workshop. He came, looked at me and asked where I came from. When he learnt about our family, he turned to his friend and assured him that I could never take anything from anybody, just because he knew the family I came from. And this in the face of the intense distrust between fundis (technical and repair personnel) and their customers. Imagine they left their TV for so long even after I had repaired it.

You see, when you buy that grade to ensure your child gets that school or course, you are actually stealing the slot from somebody who deserves it and chooses honesty. Your cheating buddies will cut you some slack but you can be sure the world will never do so. You will reap.

But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32:23)

Incidentally, it is not only our posterity that reaps from our lives and focus. We start reaping in this life. focus on self is the reason for the upsurge of illnesses like mental and depression and suicide since it is so frustrating to focus on self. Money and things can never substitute for the human touch that is the product of living for God.

What values are we passing to our children? That is what determines our posterity.

God bless you.

A Generation of Gamblers

I recently wrote a short message on gambling, simply asking us to read and reflect on Proverbs 1: 10 – 19.

I want today to get us understand what God is saying in those few verses.

I know many shut off when they saw words like blood and lying in wait; and that is where I want us to start.

What is profit, especially when we are talking about excessive profit? Is it not really taking advantage?

Someone is looking for a pen and you know the shop that sells it. You go to the shop, buy it, and then sell to your friend at double or thrice its price. Some will even tell the shop to tell customers that it is out of stock to enable this broker hit the jackpot as the only one selling that pen even if he is selling it from someone’s shop. And the shop will not have any problem since you are selling better than they were doing.

Lying in wait simply means watching for that opportunity to take advantage of someone, either because you have prior information or are connected to a source.

What is hoarding? Why does God hate it?

Is hoarding not similar to what gamblers are calling a sure bet? You know a shortage of something is looming and therefore hide it so that you will be the only one having it when the shortage hits. Then people will be pleading with you, not to reduce the price, but sell it at whatever price.

Look at us. Is this talking about people out there or does it not hit too close to home?

Why is making the kill the most attractive of offers anywhere? What are we killing and why?

What makes most of these offers gambles?

In the passage there is putting your lot with us and a common purse. It therefore means you must put your money with the ‘expert’ so that you will share spoils. It cannot be gambling if they are not baiting you to invest.

Second is that it is them who opened your eyes to invest. It was not as a result of your independent investigation and investment. It certainly was not a product of prayer or revelation.

Sadly, pastors are among the most powerful peddlers of these gambling rings. From pyramid schemes to today’s real estate gambles, you will find pastors, bishops and even churches at the forefront of the schemes. Some ‘christian’ media stations dedicate insane amounts of airtime to these schemes that you wonder whether Jesus changed His purpose for the world to acquiring that irresistible plot or joining that multilevel marketing scheme.

The winning trait in the gambling plot is someone who has all the moves. He just needs your little money to get you into the big league. And many times the pitch is so effective you may discover long after you have invested everything.

Remember the quails the other year in Kenya? How many burnt their fingers terribly? Yet to date I think quail farming is viable if one forgot about those insane profits that were meant to bait people to invest in a plain farming venture.

Let me illustrate using these plots they are selling, that even churches have opened schemes to become real estate ventures.

Who doesn’t know that land decreases in monetary value the farther you get from amenities and especially cities? Yet there are these irresistible offers of an eighth of an acre at unbeatable prices. And people pour their money there without enquiring whether they are buying that eight at the price of an acre. You see, many use city valuation to assess property values.

The other thing gambling denies is forethought. You buy those tiny plots so far from anywhere without asking what you will do with them apart from holding them to selling them later at a profane profit. Or do you ever think you have a chance of going to live hundreds of miles from anywhere you know? Or does building a rental premises in a place without people make you a successful landlord?

But we love to gamble. And it is because we love short cuts and crazy profits. That is why we fall for the conmen en masse. And we think it is a better bargain if more of us fall prey for those get rich quick schemes.

You are gambling if you are buying something you do not need just because someone tells you it will appreciate in price fivefold in a short time. You are gambling if you are joining something that promises to earn you money without having to do something. And you are a gambler if you have joined something that pays more for introducing people than selling products. I do not think you realize that you are a gambler if you cannot explain how you earn those crazy profits.

You are a gambler if you attend a church because the high and mighty attend it. You are a gambler if you support ministry because of how successful it looks. You are a gambler if you are always reading those numbers before you invest.

Where is the place of revelation? Where is the place of the Shepherd’s voice? Sadly, most under-shepherds are hirelings who have stretched their hands to alternative sources instead of being content with their primary boss. And they confuse the sheep under their watch because they try to satisfy both bosses, an impossibility according to Jesus.

What with the pastors who offer keys for marriage or business or visa and everything else in between. If you must have someone’s prayers with nothing of an effort on your side (except of course giving), you are gambling. If attending that service or conference is your key to your success, then it is a gamble you are taking. God has more for you beyond grabbing and reaching out to that expert. God grows you to give you and anything that seems to overthrow or trash that order is a gamble. Look at that irresistible offer in that lens you will realize that a lot of what we are pursuing is emptiness; vanity as Solomon said.

Do you really believe that God is the one who gives power to make wealth or must you grab and take advantage of whatever small opening you see irrespective of the collateral damage it may cause?

The gambling spirit has defiled almost every enterprise.

People bought land because they needed it. Even the futuristic looking bought it to have something for posterity. Now most people buy land speculatively. Brother is killing brother because one is refusing to sell family land and the millions must be got. Even pastoralists are killing for land because its price has skyrocketed and they realize they must expand their acreage. Sadly it is brother going for brother. Land has stopped being for farming or herding. It has become a source of unlimited wads of cash.

Sadly, they sell, enjoy pleasure and end up worse they were initially, a thing I have seen so many times.

And that is the end of any gambling. There is no fulfillment. You covet and covet and covet. You grab and grab and grab. But you end up with sand in your mouth.

The Reward of Self-Interest

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

Many people who have lived in big cities, and even some small ones, will most likely have either come across a conman or someone who has. It is interesting that one does not have to be a stranger to be conned. It normally appears illogical when you are listening to a victim, until you become a victim.

Even their ruses keep changing so that no prior information is enough warning for you. Yet it is amazing that some very old tricks are still chewing victims. How does someone who has heard of a trick fall victim to similar tricksters.

I used to pass by a place card tricksters had a base of sorts and it was surprising that there was always someone crying after losing their school or college fees or rent or other useful investment after playing those cards. And they do not change locations so you will always find victims crying. Some think of fighting and discover that there is a whole army with the tricksters, some to bait you and others as a defense force should a victim become violent.

What does this have to do with the reward of self-interest?

I will start with a simple question. How does man worship the devil? Why did Jesus tell the Jews that they were of their father, the devil, yet they were for the most part strictly religious? Why did Jesus address Peter as Satan when he was fighting to save Him from death?

You see, the devil knows that only a negligible percentage will worship him by choice. Even our first parents did not bow to him that way.

The shortest route and easiest way to worship the evil one is to pursue self-interest. That automatically changes my worship to direct it toward the evil one, however convinced I am that I am worshipping God.

And the path to that worship is wide. It actually is the broad road to perdition. From pursuit of comfort to a pursuit of accomplishment to a pursuit of gratification, they all lead to the same destination, wrong worship. They therefore will invite rewards from the one being served to the destination he heads to.

A pastor wants the crowds he sees other pastors having. He discovers that he has been preaching the Gospel that offends many as its focus is potent, chasing many who may actually love church. Some have even approached him asking him why he preached such a tough Gospel.

He therefore decides to go slow to allow the slow learners to catch up. He therefore dilutes the Gospel to make it more palatable.

And the masses start pouring in, making his dreams come true. And he discovers that he is unable to preach the Gospel as he had thought he would do once the masses came. Why?

He had become a sellout. It is impossible to undilute what is already diluted. It is like trying to reduce salt from food when it is over salted.

You see, he had switched masters in his pursuit for success in ministry. He had done it because he sought success as defined by the world, however noble his intentions may have been.

From then on, he had started serving another master, self. I do not want to shock you by saying that he serves the devil, though that is the reality. No wonder there is barely any repentance in the church and even the wildest characters are proud to call that church home.

Of course very few know that you have sold out. You might even convince yourself that nothing has really changed apart from the growth of the numbers and subsequent offerings. But I suspect in your heart of hearts you are experiencing restlessness that comes from living life out of sync with the One who had called you.

But ‘ministry’ flourishes. But in reality it is the enemy of souls feeding its growth. And he feeds it because you have become his servant and so have made your church his structure. And he will reward you for that good work his way. That is the focus of this post.

How does the devil reward his most faithful servants? And by his servants I am talking about people living according to their standards. I am talking about people who dictate the terms of their success, people who are the centre of their existence.

Why does the devil destroy his most faithful servants? Why does he reward faithfulness with shame and destruction?

Let me give a few cases.

Remember this comedian who was recently jailed in his eighties?

He had become the epitome of success in his field. From monuments to institutions named after him he had thrived.

Until he required to retire, maybe became too old to be an effective servant. Then like is said all hell broke loose, literally.

You wonder where all those women he abused had been since the 70s to resurface just when he needed to take a rest. That completely destroyed his name, and of course landed him in jail. Why live in great honor all your life yet have that honor shredded when you most need it?

And that always is the way the devil rewards his faithful servants.

Then there is this pastor who had become a household name worldwide, even starting a movement to promote his doctrine.

Again he also plans to retire, even setting his retirement date.

As usual women come up alleging sexual impropriety on his side. Until he had to resign almost in shame as there was not enough time to prosecute his case.

Again let me ask, what were the women doing all those years that they wait until the time he should retire respectfully? Why does his ‘sin’ wait until he does not need exposure to it to resurface? And I am not saying he sinned or not. The ambush was planned so effectively that his guilt or innocence became irrelevant.

I also remember the case of a revered seminary professor who also went through something similar.

You see, when the devil gives you a platform, he will use the same platform to destroy you.

Remember King Saul? He was a good king until he overrode God’s command. Of course by that act he had substituted masters. No wonder God trashed him.

And it happened with him as has happened with these people I have mentioned. From visiting a witch to suicide, the only thing he enjoyed as his life closed was shame. What a harvest from someone he had served so effectively!

Yet there is always a way out. And I am sure each of these people had had a chance to examine their lives in the light of Christ’s Lordship at least one time.

Once you realize that you may have changed lords, the only way back is repentance. And David is the clearest example of the way back to God’s Lordship.

We must divorce self and all the appendages it has to regain our connection to our original Lord. Otherwise we will be serving the devil.

And you must be ready to, with the divorce, hand over everything you had acquired in the process of that service. Otherwise you will still be yoked to him.

Another thing I think I need to mention is that the devil will destroy you if he suspects you are considering changing masters. Incidentally many phenomenal musicians die in their prime because they have discovered the emptiness serving the devil entails and are considering giving it all up. I am not mentioning business magnates though even there it is the same. The devil is merciless, however faithfully you serve him.

Why don’t you return to Christ, my brother?

Yet I think it is important to know some other ways a minister can change masters with the purest of motives.

You are a musician and the Lord has given you an explosive song, a song that has transformed you even in its composition. You therefore surmise that whoever listens to it will be impacted positively. What do you do?

Of course you must record it. But then you do not have the money to pay production costs. Incidentally, you realize that the only producer who sees the gold in your song is a secular one. (I will not even ask how you landed there). He will of course negotiate with you on a purely commercial direction and market it the way the world does it. That is when you realize you changed masters midway and that song has been corrupted completely. It might still minister, but only because God will continue using the message He gave you even after He trashes you.

Or maybe the recording and production followed revelation but you realized that needed to get into the media for greater impact. But the media people insist on getting something before airing that great song. You reason that the ends justify the means and comply.

Again you have changed masters and have become a subject of the prince of the air.

Others get entrapped when their voice is rented out to the world.

Maybe like me you write books and feel you need to recover your investment and therefore get into some alliances that have not been directed from heaven. You have sold out and like Saul become disqualified.

How do I know that I am a sell out?

Let us take Saul for our example.

Why was it difficult for him to kill Agag, the Amalek king? They were brothers, serving the same god. It is only that Saul had deceived himself otherwise. And we see the same thing with Ahab and the king of Syria.

Yet look at Samuel, the softie prophet who was from weeping that God had rejected Saul. He was old and I doubt he was very strong. Yet his zeal for God was such that he easily hacked this king to pieces.

Our attitude toward sin is the one that tells us the Lord we are submitted to.

If you find yourself rationalizing the sins of your team it is highly probable that you have changed masters. If you hide from confrontation where sin is involved, that is a clear danger sign. You see, a friend who has sinned is an enemy to what God stands for. Preaching against sin is therefore clear evidence of our submission to Christ who died for the sins of the world.

A true minister of the Gospel cringes when sin is mentioned, let alone being in his team. A pastor would rather resign than serve with elders who are not willing to resolve sin issues in the board. A pastor who fears confrontation eventually becomes part of the problem.

Another thing we see with a minister who has changed masters is the creation of enemies. The king who was unable to kill someone he was ordered to had no problem clearing a whole priestly town because they did not kill his enemy, an enemy who was just a figment of his imagination.

You see, when sin stops being your sole enemy, you must create enemies of anybody not sold to your folly.

I am writing about things I have seen again and again, things I have experienced in my years in ministry.

Yet God is waiting for you to repent before your new master tears you to pieces like the examples we have seen. In fact he will destroy you if he suspects any chance of repentance on your side.

And I am not talking about repentance like this deluded and completely insane ‘mighty prophet’ who even thinks Christ calls him my lord.

I am talking about retracing our route to when we were first called, probably even to when we got saved as many times the ‘gospel’ that saved us may have been the cause of the confusion. You see many evangelists connect us to Christ as our servant and whim fulfiller.

We must go back to the Bible and allow it to lead us to God’s will and ways.