GOD IS ALWAYS RIGHT

When money becomes the bottom line, the source of our being, then we make everyone we serve a consumer and the rule is, the consumer is always right.  In the quest to keep the money flowing, the sales up, the wants and needs of those we want and need to buy our product are first and foremost in what is being produced.  Whether or not the product is really the best thing for the consumer is second to the like and dislikes of the consumer.  So we inquire as to the likes and dislikes of the people.  This may be good model for a business but it is not a good model for a healthy, holistic, and spiritual Christian life.

The characteristics that Jesus presents in the Beatitudes of what the kingdom of God requires are not our humanly desired characteristics; most of them are the exact opposite.  In a poll survey how many people would check the box for poor in spirit, one who mourns, one who is meek, one who puts God above all others, embrace being persecuted?  Merciful and peacemakers, as long as things go the way the person wants them to go might be checked, but for the most part kingdom characteristics are not our natural first choice.  Neither is giving away all we own, any kind of sacrifice, loving our enemies, or putting other people before us.  These crucial characteristics plus putting God first in our lives are not the items people would check in what they want in their lives or in a church.

A business survives by listening to the consumers and giving them the products they want.  We live in a consumer world where the customer is always right is the rule that is followed.

A church that God builds survives by listening to God and receiving all that He gives them with thanksgiving.  In the kingdom of God He is always right and His ways are the Way, the Truth, and the Life that are to be followed.

Jesus cleansed the temple in Jerusalem.  He drove out the money changers and told them not to make his Father’s house a house of trade, a den of robbers, in other words, a business.  The temple was destroyed.  But God’s House will remain forever.

          “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who built it labor in vain”

Psalm 127:1