Chapter Six Continued....

The Beatitudes, as outlined by Luke in the sixth chapter were designed to get the attention of the listener and their message may have been diluted as a result of familiarity. The Irish author James Joyce , the English poet William Blake, and Theodore Dreiser who was a famous American writer all condemned the beatitudes for (what they thought) advocating a life without striving.

How interesting that these very creative and smart men who could write the right words that described the various elements of the human condition but failed to see the hope that God promises in the beatitudes. These wonderful words that tell us that if we are currently poor in either our spirit or pocketbook, not to worry because we will be enriched in both by living our life focused on God, not ourselves. If we hunger for earthly or spiritual food, we will be filled. If we are sad for whatever reason, we will laugh with joy some day. And lastly, if we follow Jesus Christ, we may be treated badly on this earth for our beliefs but in our exclusion we will be blessed.

Now, you may think to your self, I haven’t had anybody treat me badly because I am a Christian. You may not experience it now but the media is priming the masses for the day when you and I will face persecution. Watch television, a recent show called “Cold Case” and the episode title is “That Woman”, an hour of dribble solving a murder of a promiscuous teenager who as it turned out, wasn’t killed by any of the scum bags that were using her for sex. No, the writers managed to have the story line go in the direction of this girl attending a Christian club at her school that promoted sexual abstinence and not only had the youth pastor as the killer but included all the members of the club in a good, old fashioned, old testament prostitute stoning out in the woods. A viewer of this episode wrote the following review of this episode on a website called TV.com:

“I saw an episode of Cold Case the other night. The episode was called “that Woman.” Another cheap shot at Christians particularly those who pledge chastity until marriage. Nasty Christian chastity club members turn on 'worldly' girl and ritualistically murder her. Oh, and the Youth Pastor was a closet pervert too.”

“It went out of its way to smear Christians, virginity pledges, Christian clubs, and youth pastors. The Christians were either psycho, mentally damaged, repressed, perverted, or gay They were all hypocrites of course." - You forgot to mention the mocking and sneering of some of the cast members when talking about 'do-gooders' etc. These episodes don't appear by accident - it's obvious the scriptwriters and Producers are deliberately embodying their own leftist world view into many episodes - some might call it propaganda.”


By the way, the overall ranking for the episode as it was reviewed by other viewers was almost 90% positive and had glowing positive comments as a great storyline.

I, for one, will call it propaganda. Boy, I would have loved to have a transcript of that writers meeting and how they managed to include all of these anti-Christian beliefs in one crushing blow. One reason why the world has no problem offending Christians is because they have nothing to fear from the standpoint of retaliation. Jesus tells us to love our enemy, turn our cheek and if our enemies mock us we are to endure like Christ’s words in the Beatitudes.

I will say this, if those characters on that television show were Muslims and they acted that way, the protests would be seen on the news for weeks and the writers, actors and television executives would be in hiding.

The next life lesson outline written in the book of Luke is called “Sorrows Foretold”. It basically goes like this:

What sorrows await you if money is what you live for.

What sorrows await you if you only live for the comforts of this earthly world.

What sorrows await you if you are not serious about why you were given life to live by God, laughing carelessly now and grieving later on.

What sorrows await you, if you live for fame alone, man has a long history of doing that and it hasn’t worked out all that well.

Many believers feel guilty about living in such a great country and having everything that we need. Even the poorest person in the United States has much more than the poor in other parts of the world. Critics tell us that the United States is the example of this verse and it describes Americans, both Christian and secular alike. On the surface they may be right because we are certainly appear to be a society fixated on money, instant gratification while chasing, at least vicariously, the illusions of fame and stardom. Even though we buy and watch everything that reports on the misfortunes of the latest young celebrity, none of us would seriously want to trade places with them in their most miserable moments.

One of the great things about living in this great and rich country is that we have plenty to share with others. Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks's book, "Who Really Cares", points out that Americans give more than the citizens of any other country. Individually, Americans give seven times more money than people in Germany and 14 times more than Italians give. We also volunteer more. America is a uniquely charitable country. So when you hear that "Americans are cheap," just remember: We gave $260 billion in charity last year. That's almost $900 for every man, woman, and child.

Are Americans Cheap?
by John Stossel (November 29, 2006)

The New York Times and Washington Post editorialize about America's "stinginess." Former President Jimmy Carter says when it comes to helping others, "The rich states don't give a damn." Jimmy Carter just chaps my hide sometimes because he makes statements like this. The facts never seem to get in the way of his class envy approach to criticizing his fellow countrymen and everything he says seems to be designed to help his political position.

Standing outside the White House, Bono (of U2) told the press that America doesn't do enough to help the needy: "It's the crumbs off our tables that we offer these countries." I love the music but must shake my head when I hear stuff like this. Those “crumbs” fill the belly’s of many people who would otherwise starve.

One question that we should ask these critics is why they don’t pick on Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, France, England etc... The answer is that no one would listen to them or respond.

Sme final facts about American generosity. According to the 2001 Generosity Index: Comparing Canadian and American Charitable Giving Jason Clemens and Joel Emes with Karina Wood. Fraser Forum, December 2001. The Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, has compared Canadian and American charitable giving and determined that Americans are more philanthropically inclined. The institute first compared the percentage of tax-filers who donated to charity and found that 25.5 percent of Canadian tax-filers donated to charities, versus 27.9 percent of U.S. filers. A much larger difference appears, however, between the average total donations given by natives of the two countries. The average total giving of Americans was $3,441, compared to the Canadians’ average of $616 (in U.S. dollars). Canadians fared worst of all in the institute’s third measure of comparison, the percentage of income donated to charity.

I am not knocking Canadian charitable giving, just making a point that despite what our critics say about us, and believing that we can do better as a people, we are not all that bad when it comes to sharing the wealth that our country affords us.

Back to the “Sorrows Foretold”, God loves a “cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7) and as Christians, the first place that we are told to give is at the church that we attend and are fed the word of God (Malachi 3:6 through 12). Tithing is not an option and whatever the pastor, church or organization does with your money is between them and God. I remember thinking that there was no way that I was going to give 10% of what I made to some preacher until I realized that I can’t “cherry pick” the word of God. It is all or nothing.

When we give our tithes and offerings, God promises to “open the windows of heaven and you won’t have enough room to store your blessings”. It is also important that we don’t make a big show of giving. When you see people doing things for charity and they bring much attention to it, they need to enjoy the moment of fame and celebrity because God says, that’s all you will receive.