Last night, in the morning hours, it hit me that the poor often remain poor because they do not have enough (of certain things) to reach critical mass.It might be a lack of (or substandard) education, connections, abilities, money, training, etc., but the lack of these conspires to ensure that the poor do not have what it takes, in most cases, to truly advance themselves.When you don’t have an inside edge to work for a major company…When you don’t have connections that can create a network of powerful friends…When you did not receive a quality education (sometimes because of your own upbringing of not giving it the weight it should have received)…When you don’t get exposed to high-functioning role models and a strong work ethic…Well, that is going to have an effect. We tend to think that everyone is endowed with similar abilities and background. They are not. Some children never had much of a positive role model or were not exposed to a strong work ethic. They might have come from families with very limited vision of what they could accomplish through education. Or from families that needed money so badly that they preferred a child to go to work than to take years in college (I’ve met such families).Some families think that a diploma is the be all, end all of everything, no fully realizing that a diploma is virtually worthless if their child cannot read…or if they are in a community that simply does not have jobs available to them.It seems to follow that UNLESS you can give them what they need–and that might be different things for different people–you will have limited success. Indeed, if you give money to a family that has no advanced concept of finance, they will soon be poor again. I would IMAGINE that money might be the best band-aid we can give, since everything else could take years or generations to instill. So, assuming I have a point with all of this, HOW do we proceed? It’s easy to say, Well, just go to school or Work real hard, etc., but this could mean that a family still cannot advance at all for YEARS. I’m afraid that few people have such far reaching visions in such cases.
i’m thinking this should be a closed group. for your members only!!
I am glad you brought up the property deeding issue! It is true that Church of God property is deeded to The Church of God. Also, the Local Church Board of Trustees holds that Deed in trust for the local Church. This means that some Minister will not be able to have the property in his name and use the unsuspecting Church Members to pay for the property for 25 or 35 years and him sell it from under them, put the money in his pocket and retire. Sad thing is, the Faithful people lose the property they sacrificed to pay for, and the pastor meets God in judgement, unprepared.
I have stayed in the state parsonages of Administrative Bishop, have driven their cars when in their states… you are wrong to think AB’s in the COG don’t follow the Great Commission.
I have had bad experiences with AB’s … but there are far more good than bad
In short: no.
I’m not, a cathedral with gold is worth nothing with out Holt Spirit
I seriously question KY Admin Bishop’s statement that tithing was commanded before the law when no one can provide the book, chapter, and verse to support such a statement.
Leviticus 27 tells us that God’s tithe is agricultural. Deuteronomy 12:10-11 tells us that God’s tithe is to go to a specific place in the land of Canaan. Later, in 2 Chronicles 6:5-6, we learn that place is Jerusalem.
Nowhere in the remaining texts of the Old Testament, nor in any of the texts of the New Testament, do we find an amendment to the tithe ordinance that instructs peoples in other countries to tithe. Nor do we find a verse that amends the agricultural tithe command to a monetary tithe.
So when they try to subject congregates to a portion of Mosaic Law, I do wonder if the interest is more on finance (buildings, etc.) than on the spirit.
Well, your post certainly represents a lot of members of the CoG. I have no issue with the centralized government, but when the Holy Spirit is no longer in the church, centralized government is a big negative in comparison to local churches maintaining their own property. I understand your post to be relevant not so much as local ownership, but the lack of the gifts of the Holy Ghost operating within the local CoG. We have our statements, and would no doubt fight for them, but in actuality, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are non-existent in many of our churches. I say this, not to be negative in any way; however, I post this because we need to be desperately awakened.