Not As Much..

Giving away all I have

Matt and I went to see a movie yesterday that has really got me thinking about the modern day Christian, my self included.

It was a doco shot in a french monastery where the monks choose to live a life of silence and solitude devoting themselves to prayer and meditation of scripture. Once a week they go for walks with the other monks where they can interact with them. Otherwise they do not choosing to eat, sleep, work and pray alone.

When the men enter the monastery they give up all they had and live life very simply. This was a recurring theme of the doco the words of Jesus “Unless you give up all that you have you can not be my disciple”

Whilst I do no believe that shutting yourself away from the world is useful and ignores the command to go into all the nations and spread the gospel it was the giving up or away of their possessions that spoke to me.

Most modern day churches preach prosperity and our right as “kings kids” to own vast amounts of stuff and have much money in the bank. I have come to the conclusion that this is simply not true and in fact not what Scripture teaches us.

I keep coming back to Acts where the early church sold everything they had, moved in with one another and shared their possessions amongst themselves according to need.

I still struggle with wanting things I don’t need and being jealous of the “Joneses” but am coming to the conclusion that I must do what scripture is asking me to do. Be prepared to give away all that I have to those who need it more.

I would love to be able to convert the empty warehouse next door to our house to a communal living space and become just like the church in Acts.

For now though I have made a decision that I will have an open home, where all are welcome and where my possessions are not important.

RSS Trackback URL 28. May 2007 (13:49)
Filed under: Uncategorized