One day I will blog my sermon (about suffering)

At tonight's service we stopped at Luke 12:32 while reading about God promising(?) to provide for us.

So we left out Jesus telling His listeners (including us?) to sell our possessions and to give alms. Can we claim the promise (if that's what it is) if we don't follow the command (if that's what it is)?

No greedy, stingy person can claim Phil 4:19 and insist that God "honour His word". The promise was made to friends of the Apostle Paul who gave beyond their means to support him, apparently (but not certainly) without doing so for a reward. Why do I think I can just flip my Bible open and think God has said this to me?

I'm not asserting that this promise was made only to 1st century generous Philippian friends of Paul -- but I suspect there is a principle here that God's provision is for the extremely generous (or at the very least not promised to the stingy).

(God may and does bless to a ridiculous extent many of us stingy people anyway. But that's His seemingly crazy grace at work -- intended to bring us to Himself -- it's not necessarily God fulfilling His promise to me. Maybe it's showing how much Grace we should show to the undeserving or those who anger us.)

As for God providing for Christian organizations: I'm of the opinion that the only "organization" that God has promised to keep in existence even despite its own blunders, mismanagement and evil is The Church Universal (in Matt 16) and not individual churches or ministries.

I'm not convinced by people who claim "This is God's work and so He will sustain it." First of all, the work is only temporary and He may choose to sustain it for a shorter time than we think He should. (After all, as they say, it is His work.)

Secondly, there are so many Christian efforts that have gone bellyup over the years that I find it hard to believe that all of them strayed so far from God's will (in sin or apostasy) that He had to abandon or punish them as no longer "His". I am willing to accept that mundane issues of mismanagement etc. are responsible. (But often the Devil gets blamed anyway or the "lack of volunteerism" or generosity in the consituency.)

I have come to believe that God values any one individual human over any organization -- the latter are just a temporary means to an end (the "end" being the healing of eternal individuals and incorporating them into His eternal Catholic Church).

(Yes, "Catholic". You may wish to check a dictionary. I didn't say -- nor exclude -- "Roman Catholic")

Thus you are infinitely more valuable to God than _________ Church or __________ Camp.

So am I.

See post below for more thoughts, including clarifying that I am not contesting annika.mindsay.com 's confidence re. her financial needs for her Inter-Varsity ministry.