Dear Jess

Hello Jess! (haha ok now I know who J is in my chatterbox already)

Sorry. Didn't know you left a private comment. Didn't log into blogger, so I didn't see it. (I moderated my comments cos I didn't want to miss comments that could have been given to earlier posts.)

So here's a post specially for you! Er.. Don't feel disappointed, I am writing this as soon as I saw your comment.

Hm.. Same as you, I do not think that I deserve these riches, or that the promises of abundance is a given. I believe in God's grace more than anything. And it is undeserved, absolutely. That is why He is such a lovely God.

Possibly, you might not agree with me when I think that there is nothing wrong with wanting more. Just for the record, I am not a lover of money. I am very happy with all I've got. But if I should be blessed with more, I will definitely accept it with open arms.

I am a believer of prosperity. Perhaps, in clearer words, I am a believer of prosperity as a blessing from God. And it definitely will come, as we believe it to be. But I believe the faith in and love for God, above everything else, must be there. I do not mean that I love money when I say I believe in prosperity. I mean that I love God, and his blessings, including prosperity, will shower me.

I am not able to quote verses like you, I have only a blind faith in God's grace and His love for me. And please allow this girl, head over heels in love with Him, answer your comment from what I believe in.

2 Peters: I believe the sufferings all Christians will face by following Jesus refer to the persecutions by non-believers. Perhaps, it includes taking away our wealth. But it'll never be an act of God. There will definitely be tests to our faith. But I do not believe it'll be from God. To me, He is all about blessing us and loving us.

I think I answered your doubts about serving two masters already. Just to reiterate, like you, we serve God, and no one else.

I love your reference to Luke 12 and Matthew 19. Neither the rich men or the rich fool entered heaven. But neither of them loved God. They loved their money. Dear sister, do not mistake me as well to be a lover of money. My church, and I believe yours as well, has spoken against the love for money. It has taken me time, but I have learnt to open my hands and give to God. I have learnt, to love the Almighty.

Lastly, the Bible says consider the end of Job, not the beginning. I do not really know his story. But my beliefs are so: (Job spoke against God by claiming his righteousness over the Almighty. He sinned despite once being a man of integrity. He had let his conceit veiled his eyes from God. And God punished him by taking away his everything. Then Job repented and went back to God, and he was forgiven. And he was blessed. More than what he ever had.

That was before a time when the Son of Man walked the earth. Job was a non-believer when all of his possessions were taken away.) Note: This entire portion is erroneous.

But you and I have never stopped believing. And our sins have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We no longer live under law. We live under grace.

I might have come across as a lover of money in my previous post, and I do not deny I wanted to be seen like that. This is because I did not think anyone (meaning my friend) can make us feel wrong for our believes, whatever they were. I did agree with him that money is not everything. But I disagreed with his way of making me feel that I am a sinner if I should come to love money.

Our sins were all borne and forgiven at the cross. No human being should be able to dominate us and we have only one heavenly master. My friend did that and I felt angry and indignant at him for doing that.

Dear sister, I look to God to be as blessed as you one day to be able to know the Bible like the back of my hand. That post has long gone behind me, and I have prayed and forgiven him.

I thank you very much for your well wishes, and God bless you too :)