{"id":1387,"date":"2013-07-19T05:30:29","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T09:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/?p=1387"},"modified":"2013-07-16T10:58:01","modified_gmt":"2013-07-16T14:58:01","slug":"why-rich-and-poor-both-need-the-gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-rich-and-poor-both-need-the-gospel.html","title":{"rendered":"Rich and Poor BOTH Need The Gospel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Godonomics: How to Teach Children A Work Ethic\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BPEWYekDC9k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>One of my favorite artists is a woman named Joan Steiner who composes &#8220;normal&#8221; scenes from everyday household items.<\/div>\n<div>Here is one example:<\/div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/24YPI15ktmzEX1YCEA2GhQdeQ40vrlrMY_DdF-W-9vjRFkL4cY3lRwO5TmDesbnoszd-f7ssYMSIwyjLAmEPgLFo3IYWLMKz1nuCCuI_AOLaeD9WwlA\" width=\"300px;\" height=\"240px;\" \/><\/div>\n<div>If you zoom in, you see the towers are recorders. The bushes are turnips. The walls are white Hershey&#8217;s chocolate. \u00a0The main building is made from onions. \u00a0Inductive Bible study is a lot like this. You zoom into the verbs, words, and phrases in a passage to see the Bible really come alive. Let&#8217;s zoom into a short passage in James 1:9-11 about money.<\/div>\n<div>9 Let the \u00a0lowly brother glory in his exaltation,<span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><strong> The Poor need to glory in the gospel, not their grievances<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>James writes, &#8220;The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position&#8221; (James 1:9). \u00a0James is talking about those who are physically poor and hurting financially. He is talking about those at the last rung of the social ladder. He is talking about those who are indentured servants deeply indebted. \u00a0But notice, they aren&#8217;t just poor; they are also fellow believers because James identifies them as a brother \u2013 or a sister \u2013 in Christ. \u00a0What advice does James have for these hurting brothers and sisters?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position&#8221; (James 1:9). What high position? You&#8217;ve got to be kidding, James! They don&#8217;t have a high position. If anything, they can barely sink any lower than they already have. Part of the problem is that they are looked down upon by the world and even those within the church are guilty of doing this. So what is James talking about?<strong> The Gospel! \u00a0The Gospel is the Main Message of the Bible.<\/strong> What &#8220;high position&#8221; is James talking about? \u00a0One writer said it this way, <em>&#8220;The poorest Christian needs to remember something. He or she needs to remember what they are by grace and through faith. He or she needs to remember what God has done in them and to them and for them. He or she needs to remember they are heirs of the Kingdom (James 2:5). He or she needs to remember the King of kings and the Lord of lords is their brother (Heb 2:11). He or she needs to remember they have been raised with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly realms (Eph 2:6). He or she needs to remember they will one day judge angels (1 Cor 6:3). He or she needs to remember they are children of God (Jn 1:12; 1 Jn 3:1-2). He or she needs to remember the great reversal that takes place because of the Gospel: the lowly of this world, if they believe, are exalted to the highest position. Heirs of the Kingdom. Jesus as brother. Raised and seated with Christ. Judging angels. Children of God. Wow, what a list! What a high position! The brother and sister in &#8220;humble circumstances&#8221; should not moan and groan about their poverty. They should not feel sorry for themselves. They should not be a victim mentality. They should not have a &#8220;poor me&#8221; syndrome. Instead, they should remember their exalted position in Christ.&#8221;<\/em><\/div>\n<div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The lowest Christian is higher than the highest unbeliever. The lowest Christian is higher than any unbelieving President, Prime Minister, millionaire, billionaire, CEO, movie star, or sports hero. The world may not think so. The church may not act so. But that is what the Bible says.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">So our interpretation is this: if you are poor or struggling, remember the riches and crowns you have in Heaven and meditate on that during your trial of poverty.<\/p>\n<p>Glory in the Gospel, Not Our Grievances<br \/>\nGlory in the Gospel, Not Our Goodies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>For more information, check out\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.godonomics.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"162\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my favorite artists is a woman named Joan Steiner who composes &#8220;normal&#8221; scenes from everyday household items. Here is one example: If you zoom in, you see the towers are recorders. The bushes are turnips. The walls are white Hershey&#8217;s chocolate. \u00a0The main building is made from onions. \u00a0Inductive Bible study is a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,72],"tags":[391,392,390],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-generosity","category-gospel","tag-bible-finances","tag-glory-and-money","tag-gospel-money"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rich and Poor BOTH Need The Gospel - Godonomics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rich and Poor BOTH Need The Gospel - Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of my favorite artists is a woman named Joan Steiner who composes &#8220;normal&#8221; scenes from everyday household items. Here is one example: If you zoom in, you see the towers are recorders. The bushes are turnips. The walls are white Hershey&#8217;s chocolate. \u00a0The main building is made from onions. \u00a0Inductive Bible study is a&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-rich-and-poor-both-need-the-gospel.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-19T09:30:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-16T14:58:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/24YPI15ktmzEX1YCEA2GhQdeQ40vrlrMY_DdF-W-9vjRFkL4cY3lRwO5TmDesbnoszd-f7ssYMSIwyjLAmEPgLFo3IYWLMKz1nuCCuI_AOLaeD9WwlA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"chadhovind\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rich and Poor BOTH Need The Gospel - Godonomics","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rich and Poor BOTH Need The Gospel - Godonomics","og_description":"One of my favorite artists is a woman named Joan Steiner who composes &#8220;normal&#8221; scenes from everyday household items. 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He graduated from Moody Bible College in Chicago, majoring in pastoral ministry and communication. His love for ministry and creativity can be seen in many forms: leading teams, expository teaching, acting, and video production. He has served as pastor at two high-impact churches in Georgia: Cumberland Community Church and New Community Church. Chad received an M.A. in Ministry from Moody Graduate School in 2008. He loves volleyball, movies, and hanging out with his wife Beth and their three children.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/author\/chadhovind"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2728,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions\/2728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}