Yahweh’s message should not be made merchandise of. I’ve been teaching and writing for years now. I know the amount of work and labor that goes into these things. I know when someone is excessively charging for a CD or DVD or book.
I realize that it is ok for a true minister to be compensated. Don’t muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads the grain. A laborer is worthy of his hire. I get all that. But if you have to hike up the price of something you offer, and peddle it like you would a cleaning supply, is that really honoring the Most High? I believe a person’s ministry should be self-sustaining. We should not be in the ministry to get rich. It shouldn’t be what we use to make us wealthy. We should instead work and labor like everyone else. Scripture is not against a wealthy man who has earned it honestly. Ministers, if we are putting out material that Yahweh smiles upon, He will provide us the means to do that. He will make a way for that to happen. I’ve never asked anyone for money, and Yahweh has always provided. I don’t turn down an offering, but I don’t ask, and certainly don’t beg. Some of these guys I see are always begging for a donation. I just don’t see Yeshua and His apostles doing this at all. I’ve never felt comfortable putting a price on any book I’ve written, or on a teaching CD I’ve made. Maybe a minimal price is fine, but I’m just not comfortable with it. Send it to whoever wants it, and Yahweh will take care of you. People will donate. People will see true effort. We don’t have to peddle the law or gospel.
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My 21st wedding anniversary is in less than three weeks. I love my wife all year long, but this time of year stirs up all kinds of memories, and makes me re-evaluate my relationship with her.
I like to log all my thoughts down so my children will be able to read them one day when I'm gone. So you'll be seeing a lot of posts about my wife, and about marriage in general. Here's something I remember fondly. Before we were married, Tisha would bring me hot wings from a local wing place. She'd show up at my school, after school, with piping-hot-hot-wings. She's taken care of my appetite since the beginning. 😃 The first time we went out together (we weren't a couple yet) we were with a youth group at Wendys in Conyers GA. She offered me her French fries and of course I took them, lol. Later on she told me she wanted the fries, but wanted to give them to me. She knew the way to my heart. 😂 She's always taken care of me. She still feeds me well to this day. Those of you that know her know she is basically a 5 star chef. Several women have complimented her on not only the taste of her food but the presentation. I remember one sister that came to our house to eat said "Tisha's food always looks so pretty." Tisha says that people eat with their eyes first. She always makes my plate for me. When she says it's time to eat, I go sit at the table, and she makes my plate and brings it to me. Please don't think I force her to do that, lol. It's one way she shows me she loves me. These things that people call little things have made an impact on me. No matter how small a matter, she puts me first. It's really amazing. She is such a good wife. Sometimes us husbands spend so much time making sure everyone else is taken care of, that we forget to love and nurture our wives.
She's your closest neighbor. She's Yahweh's gift to you. Don't expect her to blossom and grow without water and sunshine. I've told a lot of men over the years that their job is to love their wife as Christ loved the Church. After almost 21 years, I'm still working on obeying that commandment. I fail a lot, but I don't give up. If you want to be treated like a King, treat your wife like a Queen. The husband is the head of the wife. That doesn't mean you start bucking up your chest. That means it begins with us husbands. It means it's up to us husbands. We cannot sit idle and just expect something good to happen. We must do our job first, in order for marriage and family to function properly. I was at my father-in-law's yesterday, helping him out with some computer and website stuff. He's trying to move all of his writings over to another format, and I'm trying to help him out with that.
He's 72 years old, and it makes me smile to watch him work on his computer. I'm sure one day my grandson will watch me try to work on something he's a wiz at. "Just do it like this Grandfather," he'll say, but I'll be stubborn to do what I'm used to. The reason I'm posting this is because as I watched my dad-in-law write out a small sentence, it took him a lot of effort and time. What would take me 15 minutes to type would probably take him an hour or two. What would take me a few minutes to figure out, is taking him an entire day to figure out. There's a technological, generation gap there. Let me tell you something: he has thousands of pages written out concerning what he's found in his studies of the scripture. THOUSANDS. We aren't talking about a little devotional material he wrote out for a Sunday school class, but literally page after page after page of his thoughts. The man is an avid bible student. He's a machine when it comes to studying the Bible. I've never seen anything like it, and I've never seen anyone who is that unfamiliar with technology take so much time to do what he loves to do: study, write, and post. One day he will be gone. I hate it, but that's life. It's like my Opa (Grandfather). He was here at one time, but he's gone now. Pretty much all I have left of him is his Thompson-Chain KJV Bible. But this is huge to me. It has all his notes in it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love getting it out, and thinking about how my Opa opened this very Bible, writing his thoughts down. Each underline is precious. Each hand-written, Hebrew character is priceless. One day I won't be able to go visit my dad-in-law anymore. I won't be able to show him what this phone app does, or how that computer program works. But hopefully, I'll have all of his writings saved to look at when I'm older. He's put in countless hours of time doing this. While most people are going to the movies or even sleeping, he's up studying, meditating, and writing. My dad-in-law is misunderstood by many people. I've heard him be called a cult leader more than once. That's eventually transferred over to me, now that I'm the primary Bible teacher at the church he started years ago. I can handle being called that. I know people can just misunderstand, but I do not like it when I hear someone talk bad about my second dad, especially knowing the man so closely as I do. I've been around him. I've spent time with him. I've seen how he treats other people. I've seen him give away his stuff, and I've seen the results - on paper - of all is endless pondering. Some of the people you think are the weirdest, are actually the brightest and the best. You may not understand them because you haven't taken the time nor the effort to get to know them. You're so scared of what you haven't even studied. You're worried to death because you fear where research might lead you. I'm thankful for my father-in-law. I hope he keeps writing, and helping people understand the Bible. I don't always agree with him, but he always keeps me studying, and he always thanks me when I help him. He's a good man. I look up to him. |
AuthorBlog by Matthew Janzen. Lover of Yahweh, Yeshua, my wife and 5 children. All else is commentary. Archives
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