\”You cannot worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you\’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You cannot worship God and money both.\” – (Matthew 6:24 The Message) A study of the correlates of happiness 
across society reveals several important facts. 
First and foremost is that wealth is a poor predictor of true happiness. 
Though not entirely useless as a predictor, it is limited. $20 an hour or so will afford one about all of the joy you can get from wealth. 
But the difference between earning nothing and earning $7 an hour is enormous – that could be the difference between having shelter and food and being homeless and hungry. The economic axiom shows that after basic needs are met, 
there is not much difference in personal benefit (marginal utility) to increased wealth. In other words, the difference between a person who makes $7 and a person who makes $20 is much bigger than the difference between the person who makes $40 and the person who makes $400. Social, religious and economic gurus are quick to say that money cannot buy happiness. Such trite shortsightedness betrays a failure to understand what it is like to be down and out with an empty stomach. It\’s amazing how big a difference money makes to people who have none. 
Simply put, once basic needs are met, 
further wealth does not necessarily create further happiness. Thus, the relationship between money and happiness is complex and not linear. 
If it were, billionaires would be a thousand times more happy than millionaires, who would be a hundred times more happy than blue-collar workers. That clearly isn\’t the case. 
On the other hand, healthy relationships within communities are a far more powerful predictor of happiness than more money. Happy people have a healthy “tribal” mentality that translates into healthy social networks with good relationships with the people in those networks. What I find extremely telling is that while money is both weak and complex as it correlates to happiness, and tribal, social relationships are strong and simple correlators, most Americans trade off their time pursuing happiness through the former. Why is this? I believe it’s due to the influence of society upon individuals to satisfy its demands over the individual need. Individuals want to be happy, society wants us to consume, so they subconsciously promote a false sense of joy and happiness based upon material possession and pleasure. (see The Ant and the Elephant: Leadership For the Self by Vince Poscente) So, 
while most Americans do not feel personally responsible for fueling America\’s economic engine they do feel personally responsible for increasing their own well-being. This dichotomy presents a real dilemma, which commercialized society solves by cunningly duping the public into believing that increased consumption and personal, instant gratification bring happiness. Here’s the sad conclusion to all of this: Through the medium of “Elephant” focused advertising and propaganda, we are subconsciously indoctrinated that what is good for the economy is good for us. At every turn, we are confronted with the message that yesterdays goods are insufficient for the day. We find the voices of instant and large gratification screaming at us through TV, Radio, billboards, newspapers, magazines plunked down in front of us at the doctor, dentist, airport and car wash. It blares out at us in the privacy of our cars and has now found its way, with our full cooperation, brazenly imprinted across our clothing… Through it all, we have bought the bill of goods that happiness is just within our grasp…If only we can upgrade that last good thing to the next best thing, and so the cycle perpetuates. We are so entrenched in the lie that instead of feeling cheated and exposing the plot, we find ourselves blaming our lack of style, fashion or upgrade for our hapless state. So the cure for us is to run out and 

get just one more small upgrade to my Iphone, car, TV, refrigerator, or wife, and then I will be happy. \”

Americans live in the shadow of a great lie, 
and by the time we figure out that it is a lie we are closing in on death 
and have become irrelevant consumers, 
and a new generation of young and relevant consumers 
takes our place in the great chain of shopping.\” (Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University and Director of Harvard’s Hedonic Psychology Laboratory) The Cure Sadly, there is no quick fix to this. It has taken us as a society decades of steady hammering at the anvil of decline to bring us to this place. However, there is a fix. It will take a change of individual thinking that will oppose the law of inertia and turn the tide 180 degrees. We will need to raise a tribe of leaders from the ground up who will recognize the steady erosion of our basic freedoms and be prepared to fight a different battle, the battle of personal responsibility. The solution is not to change the government, or change the economic system. These solutions merely remove individual responsibility and assume that man will become just and good, that he will know exactly what to do with his money, that he will no longer covet his neighbor\’s possessions, that he will no longer steal, that he will give up bribing women and public officials, that he will not be corrupted by his own material good fortune, that he will sympathize with the needy, that he will neither hoard his money nor waste it, that he will no longer dream of \”upward mobility,\” that he will not use his accumulated wealth to gain power in society, that he will not use his money to humiliate others. To take personal, individual responsibility will mean that these leaders will undertake the fundamental steps required for any nation to effectively turn the tide. 1. Recognize their own personal responsibility and need for personal repentance. 2. Connect with a

The Redemptiveness of Christ\’s Lordship This is the fourth in a series on the pursuit of characteristics of Kingdom Living. One of the most difficult and most controversial aspects of faith is the idea of submission to the Lordship of Christ. Jesus said, “If anyone wants to be my disciple he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” The cross road is not necessarily an honorable or a pleasant road. Rather it is a costly road of Lordship. Why is it so difficult? Because this is a foreign concept in 20th century America. It is diametrically opposed to the philosophy of the day. We have rights and we plan to hang onto them as long as we are able. It establishes itself in the home, it runs over into the church, and it seeps into every segment of society. In Acts 14:22 the apostles, in strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith said \”We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God\” This is a great cost, but it is not an optional way for the believer. It is the only way. Romans 14:5-12 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God\’s judgment seat. 11It is written: \” \’As surely as I live,\’ says the Lord, \’every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.\’ \” 12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Back to vs. 9 “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.” There were two disputes involved here. And, much like the church today, these issues under dispute did not seem to be very important. Yet it is the least important things that split the church today. The issue then was meat and holy days. Notice however how Paul responds to this. He does not take sides concerning the issues. That is because he knew that the answer to unity in that church is not in the summing up of the issues, the answer is whether or not we have surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The issue then and now is, “Is Jesus Christ Lord of the Assembly” You see, where Jesus Christ is Lord, there will not be disputes over unimportant issues, because His word will be final. I would venture to say that you can go to any church in any denomination, anywhere in the world and I guarantee that there is not a dispute which cannot be settled when the scrapping parties submit themselves to the sovereign Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is the supreme message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And in that final day when everything is consummated and all matters are ended, all of creation – everything that is above in the heavens, everything on earth and everything below will bow down and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. That is the apex to which all destiny moves. The Lordship of Jesus Christ. What does this mean? Lets try to unpack this from Romans 14. The first thing the text points to concerning this subject is: I. The Redemptiveness of His Lordship 9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. Involved in this redemptiveness are three awesome truths. 1. Christ died that He might purchase us as Lord. This is such an overriding theme of the New Testament church. It was something that they preached over and over again so that they could get a hold of it. Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 1 Cor. 6:20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. 1 Cor. 7:23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. Galatians 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: \”Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.\” 14He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Ephes. 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God\’s grace 1 Peter 1:18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, Rev. 5:9 And they sang a new song: \”You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. No matter who you are, your status in

Easter – Reflections on the passion and the purpose. As we come away from this joyful season of the celebration of Christ’s resurrection it behooves us to take a step back and examine once again the real purpose behind it all. For those reading this for the first time some of these thoughts and ideas may come as a complete surprise. Hopefully it will give you a fresh understanding of the matchless mercy and grace of our heavenly Father, while at the same time reveal his unquenchable anger towards the sin that robs so many of the life that He longs for us to experience in Him. St Augustine rightly stated that we were made for a relationship with God and we will remain restless until we find our rest in Him. The 5th chapter of Romans is for me one of the most exciting passages of Scripture. Here we see a revelation of God’s heart. How you can know how to get from your address to Heaven, no matter how messed up your life may be. This is a clear expression of how to find peace with God for eternity. As we attempt to unpack this we must recognize that there is an underlying Premise – We will find that God’s perfect Mercy is matched with, and presupposes God’s perfect wrath. Before we can understand anything of the magnitude of this great mercy we must be smitten in our hearts with some understanding of His perfect wrath. Some theologians refer to this as the “unfriendly side of God”  There are some principles that will guide our understanding of this. Principle # 1. The wrath of God is against ALL sin. It would not be perfect if it were not. It would not be complete if it were not against all sins and if there were some sins that were acceptable to Him. His wrath is perfect because it means His is angry against all sins. You may say that is not how I understand God to be. I understand God only as a forgiving God full of mercy and love. The bible teaches otherwise. Yes, God is love, but God is also justice. He cannot look the other way, ignore sin, and still be a just and loving God. It can be argued that for most, the happiest, most hopeful story in the Bible is the Nativity. But apart from the message of Calvary, the story of His birth is meaningless. The greatest message by far of God’s grace is the message of the Old rugged Cross – but to encounter the message of the cross and recognize it ONLY as a message of God’s mercy and grace is to miss the point. The message of the bloody old cross is also a message about God’s wrath. If you can pass by the cross and with a sentimental curtsy acknowledge His expression of love alone, and miss the fact that this was a message declared in the blood of the only begotten son, the only pure man that ever lived, that God is just and He judges all sin then you have missed the point. The motivation for the Cross in the heart and mind of God was His perfect wrath and his hatred towards sin alongside His great love for you and me. This love is measured by the fact that He substituted immediate and permanent judgment against us by placing that judgment square upon the shoulders of His Son who became our sin, so that the requirement of a just God may be satisfied. Principle #2. Not only does God in His perfect wrath deal with all sin, but also he deals with all sinners. Ch 2 & 3 declare that God is Holy, hates all sins, and He is also the judge of all sinners. Religious sinners with their marked bibles that sit in a church pew Sunday after Sunday; Pagan, rebellious, unbelieving sinners that would never darken the door of the church. All are the same in God’s eyes. If rich sinners were excluded… If smart sinners were excluded…If certain classes or colors would be exempt…if certain good works based upon initiative, will and talent and understanding could exclude one, his wrath would be imperfect and his justice unjust. So Paul says Jew and Gentile are all alike in God’s eyes. Romans 3:9-20 The Message (MSG) We’re All in the Same Sinking Boat 9-20 So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it: There’s nobody living right, not even one,     nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. They’ve all taken the wrong turn;     they’ve all wandered down blind alleys. No one’s living right;     I can’t find a single one. Their throats are gaping graves,     their tongues slick as mudslides. Every word they speak is tinged with poison.     They open their mouths and pollute the air. They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,     litter the land with heartbreak and ruin, Don’t know the first thing about living with others.     They never give God the time of day. This makes it clear, doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Rom 3:23 NASB) All sin, all sinners, and thirdly, Principle # 3 For all eternity. Luke 16:19 God’s wrath includes all eternity. He does not change his mind in the middle. There is no purgatory.

Easter – Reflections on the passion and the purpose. As we come away from this joyful season of the celebration of Christ’s resurrection it behooves us to take a step back and examine once again the real purpose behind it all. For those reading this for the first time some of these thoughts and ideas may come as a complete surprise. Hopefully it will give you a fresh understanding of the matchless mercy and grace of our heavenly Father, while at the same time reveal his unquenchable anger towards the sin that robs so many of the life that He longs for us to experience in Him. St Augustine rightly stated that we were made for a relationship with God and we will remain restless until we find our rest in Him. The 5th chapter of Romans is for me one of the most exciting passages of Scripture. Here we see a revelation of God’s heart. How you can know how to get from your address to Heaven, no matter how messed up your life may be. This is a clear expression of how to find peace with God for eternity. As we attempt to unpack this we must recognize that there is an underlying Premise – We will find that God’s perfect Mercy is matched with, and presupposes God’s perfect wrath. Before we can understand anything of the magnitude of this great mercy we must be smitten in our hearts with some understanding of His perfect wrath. Some theologians refer to this as the “unfriendly side of God”  There are some principles that will guide our understanding of this. Principle # 1. The wrath of God is against ALL sin. It would not be perfect if it were not. It would not be complete if it were not against all sins and if there were some sins that were acceptable to Him. His wrath is perfect because it means His is angry against all sins. You may say that is not how I understand God to be. I understand God only as a forgiving God full of mercy and love. The bible teaches otherwise. Yes, God is love, but God is also justice. He cannot look the other way, ignore sin, and still be a just and loving God. It can be argued that for most, the happiest, most hopeful story in the Bible is the Nativity. But apart from the message of Calvary, the story of His birth is meaningless. The greatest message by far of God’s grace is the message of the Old rugged Cross – but to encounter the message of the cross and recognize it ONLY as a message of God’s mercy and grace is to miss the point. The message of the bloody old cross is also a message about God’s wrath. If you can pass by the cross and with a sentimental curtsy acknowledge His expression of love alone, and miss the fact that this was a message declared in the blood of the only begotten son, the only pure man that ever lived, that God is just and He judges all sin then you have missed the point. The motivation for the Cross in the heart and mind of God was His perfect wrath and his hatred towards sin alongside His great love for you and me. This love is measured by the fact that He substituted immediate and permanent judgment against us by placing that judgment square upon the shoulders of His Son who became our sin, so that the requirement of a just God may be satisfied. Principle #2. Not only does God in His perfect wrath deal with all sin, but also he deals with all sinners. Ch 2 & 3 declare that God is Holy, hates all sins, and He is also the judge of all sinners. Religious sinners with their marked bibles that sit in a church pew Sunday after Sunday; Pagan, rebellious, unbelieving sinners that would never darken the door of the church. All are the same in God’s eyes. If rich sinners were excluded… If smart sinners were excluded…If certain classes or colors would be exempt…if certain good works based upon initiative, will and talent and understanding could exclude one, his wrath would be imperfect and his justice unjust. So Paul says Jew and Gentile are all alike in God’s eyes. Romans 3:9-20 The Message (MSG) We’re All in the Same Sinking Boat 9-20 So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it: There’s nobody living right, not even one,     nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. They’ve all taken the wrong turn;     they’ve all wandered down blind alleys. No one’s living right;     I can’t find a single one. Their throats are gaping graves,     their tongues slick as mudslides. Every word they speak is tinged with poison.     They open their mouths and pollute the air. They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,     litter the land with heartbreak and ruin, Don’t know the first thing about living with others.     They never give God the time of day. This makes it clear, doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Rom 3:23 NASB) All sin, all sinners, and thirdly, Principle # 3 For all eternity. Luke 16:19 God’s wrath includes all eternity. He does not change his mind in the middle. There is no purgatory.

The Day Death Died “ The Message of the Empty Tomb” A young mother found herself on the last train out of Poland during Hitler’s regime. She had her first born toddler and her newborn nursing infant with her. The bombing was fierce and the train had to stop many times for the passengers to take cover. A trip that should have taken a few hours took a few days. The food ran out and there were no liquids to be had. Consequently, when they arrived at their destination, the infant was starving and ill. A group of nuns met her there and took the baby to their hospital where they would nurse it back to health. The mother felt great relief at the apparent reprieve. But the joy was short lived. The next morning she was given the news that the hospital had been bombed during the night and that her baby had not survived. The mother was given a flashlight to search for her baby’s body. What a tragic scene. Imagine the confusion. The pain. The grief. The hopelessness of a mother who herself was a doctor whose hands and skill had no doubt saved many but now could do nothing in this situation. Death without Christ provides the same sense of hopelessness. But imagine a different ending. Imagine the mother desperately seeking through the rubble with her little one in tow. She is crying loudly together with many others in the same situation when all of a sudden, there is another cry. The sound of an infant. Could it be? She runs to where the sound comes from and there in the rubble she finds her baby still alive. What incredible relief, mingled with joy. All the questions now do not need to be answered. All the “what if’s” no longer matter. Her baby is alive. That’s what the resurrection of Christ does with death. The certainty of knowing Christ and the reality of his resurrection changes the mood of death from a sense of hopelessness into joyful rejoicing. Not just then, but now. It is the event that separates the Christian Faith from all other religion and gives to it power. So Paul can write in 1 Cor 15:14,17 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” On the morning of the Resurrection, the Angel of the Lord appeared to the women who came to the tomb and gave them a message. That message is recorded for us in Matthew 28:1-8.  And that message, while it is nearly 2,000 years old, is relevant to us today. Matthew 28 1-4 After the Sabbath, as the first light of the new week dawned, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to keep vigil at the tomb. Suddenly the earth reeled and rocked under their feet as God’s angel came down from heaven, came right up to where they were standing. He rolled back the stone and then sat on it. Shafts of lightning blazed from him. His garments shimmered snow-white. The guards at the tomb were scared to death. They were so frightened, they couldn’t move.5-6 The angel spoke to the women: “There is nothing to fear here. I know you’re looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised, just as he said. Come and look at the place where he was placed.7 “Now, get on your way quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He is risen from the dead. He is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.’ That’s the message.” The significance of this message for us today is established in the opening sentence of the chapter. “After the Sabbath, at dawn.” In the King James – “Just before the dawn” This is a significant statement and we should halt here for a moment. It speaks of the promise of a new day. The last sentence of the last chapter ends so dismally with the words “So they posted a guard.” It was the end of the story. All that remained was for the body to decay, and with it all of the memories of those three awesome years. But the next sentence. \”Just before dawn.” Those are the darkest hours, but with them come the promise of a new day. The brightest hope was to be born in a few hours. A new covenant would be made between God and man. And when the resurrection of Jesus Christ becomes a reality to us. When He rises in our hearts this is what happens. A new day breaks, and religion changes to relationship. The reasoning of man becomes secondary to the reality of the living Christ in us. A new day and a new hope begins with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There are several truths about this new day contained in the angels message that give us hope in moments such as this. First, it is A Day In Which Fear is Neutralized. \”Fear not\”  said the angel. Those who have placed their faith in the resurrected Christ have nothing to fear! It\’s interesting that these women are greeted with the same words the shepherds were greeted with at Christ\’s birth. The birth of Christ and the resurrection of Christ are related!  He was born so that He could die and rise again! The Message of Christmas finds its fulfillment in the Message of the Empty Tomb! Christmas is the promise, and Easter is the Proof! One of the fears that the resurrection of Jesus removes is the fear of Death’s Destruction 1 Cor 15: 42 Paul says, “We are sown perishable. But because of the resurrection we are raised imperishable.” We are born into this life as perishable beings. But because of the resurrection we have eternal life. From the moment a person receives forgiveness through belief in Jesus Christ you have victory over death. Your physical