The Core of The Three Lusts

God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.  But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in His testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will display at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
~ from 1 Timothy 6

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
~ from 1 John 2

There is, beloved, a truth stronger than we want to hear.  The West, a beacon for many centuries, grows dim.  The only light we seem to be giving off is the empty flashing and pulsing of our vulgar entertainment.  And the only influence we really seem to have any more is the economic effect of our lust for chemicals that put us under their own influence.

This writer was born in the United States.  He does indeed love the dream he experienced as a child and younger man in that country.  And my son is a decorated soldier bearing arms to help that dream survive. i am a man past my fighting prime, but would – if called – return to my homeland and joyfully die in defense of the Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees.

And so, to watch the wretched and putrid death from the internal cancer of Googlization and extreme capitalism – and its attenuate pollution of the world – is a burden on the heart of a spiritual warrior and poet now living in Southeast Asia.  i watch the death and sex leap off the screens of my students and ooze into their ears.  The rancid march of debauchery actually infects and detracts from the motor skills of students.  They look at me with increasingly glazed eyes as their world is now lived through a variety of screens and gadgets .

And as the situation becomes more clear to the people living in the epicenter of the cesspool, the immediate reaction is to look to the politicians and policymakers to answer some questions.  And then it hits us: we are them.  Or at least, in our system, we put them there.

And then we look to blame the form of our economies.  We debate what money is.  We debate how money should be made.  We debate how money should be taxed.  We debate how money should be redistributed.  And all the while, we forget that gaming the system has always worked, and so whatever system is in place – there will always be those who live outside of it, and are willing to do whatever they want to get whatever they want.  And if we were honest, we would all want to live outside whatever system that would be placed over us.

We have, as a people, given ourselves over to the lusts of flesh and eyes and the desperate grasp that says: “It is all about me.”  And we have spread this demonic gospel across the globe.  Oh, greed was here in the East before the West launched its version our way.  It is just that the greed being added over here is being sent under the guise of freedom and democracy.  And many people (including those who would call themselves Christians) are accepting this gospel as though it were pure, and from above.

And the core of all lust is the root Jesus spoke about:  The Love of Money.

Said more simply:  We want power and control.

However, the weirdest (actually not) thing about the love of money, is that the thing we are loving doesn’t really do anything for us.  We actually become a slave to the thing that we are trying to obtain and set ourselves free by the getting.  And this is why Jesus called the love of money the root of all evil.  For all evil really has the same outcome:  The things we are trying to control, actually control us and tear us away from the only thing that would bring us freedom – Him.

Beloved, can we see it?  Perhaps the Church is to start a revolution on this planet.  Perhaps, in the coming economic Armageddon we are to begin practicing a completely different way of doing business – both with money – and in all other ways.   

What if we simply implemented the economics of the Kingdom of Heaven?  What if we simply and profoundly began to operate under the banner of righteousness, peace and joy in the power of the Holy Spirit?  This writer has seen the Kingdom work in some of the worst places in the world.

And herein lies the rub, doesn’t it?  Righteousness and peace and joy often come by the willing laying aside of one’s own rights.  To benefit others often requires the delay of benefit to myself.  Oh, it can be proven that the benefit will come back, pressed-down, shaken, and running over – but am I willing to wait?

And here is where the revolution can begin.  With me.  With you.  Let go beloved.  Let us stop grasping for the things and the rights we believe will bring us comfort and control. They will not.  Let us simply begin to live in the Love we have already been given.  It will not run out.  And no matter if a million men cheat us, the true love of 100 people truly loving others would begin to turn the tide in the West.  This is most surely true.

What have we got to lose?  11 disciples and a somewhat grumpy Jewish lawyer named Paul changed the planet a couple thousand years ago.  Oh yeah, don’t forget what empowered them: absolute surrender to the call and commission of their Lord and Saviour and an invasion of His Spirit into their being.  So again, herein lies the rub.  Are we willing to let go and let G_d actually work in us and through us the way this first dozen did?