Can you lose your salvation for pampering yourself with the Lord’s substance on extra pairs of designer tennis shoes? What a silly question?

Indeed we are attacked more by lies of the enemies of God than by anything else and the most prevalent relate to lifestyle issues and expenditures…we are baited by self-pleasure, peer-approval and soon ensnared by debt and eventual frustration with guilt. Perhaps the Recession will help us find paths back to the true joys of contentment and restitution concerning past waste. Reflect on the video below on Lifestyle Creep.  The music is a track “Holy Spirit – Worship”  from my CD  ”Songs in the Night”.

Philippians 2[3]  Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

The biblical reality is that wealth that belongs to God is not meant for lifestyle but to establish His covenant.  What has a gold-plated Jacuzzi, 6 pairs of tennis shoes or a corporate wardrobe shopping spree got to do with the covenant which demands simple contentment? Nothing…this often responds to the god of our sensual appetites and thirsts well stimulated by advertising and lifestyle media marketing. What happens as our income increases beyond our normal basic needs?  Normal basic needs you will agree refers to feeding, accommodation and care for our households and wards.

First our tastes are aggressively targeted and tempted with a buffet of expenditures, and even after we pay our tithes, offerings and give to the poor and God uses us to meet the needs of others, we come to the conclusion that we can improve our lifestyle and soon become accustomed to an idle car, expensive jewellery and lavish vacations and conclude this is God’s blessing to us.  But a subtle Lifestyle Creep sets in and when God asks for His money to be released – as a covenant need emerges we see our lifestyle decline marginally.  The flesh immediately screams and we do not perceive how any family possibly can live without a vacation in Europe, expensive education in private schools, a regular replacement of wardrobe and such luxuries which we now imagine are critical to the blessed life.  We imagine that we are cursed if our new lifestyle standards should ever fall slightly and begin to seek deliverance in our disobedience.

A friend who read my book told me as we returned from the Redeemed Christian Church of God 57^th annual convention that the most insightful part of Wealth out of Ashes, for him was Chapter 8 on “Lifestyle Creep”…so I have posted an excerpt from that chapter to bless someone reading somewhere. The previous blog post also touched on this briefly. Lifestyle Creep is only another item on the menu of the exotic cocktail hosted by mammon. The world even warns it can be destructive to all – but to the child of God, it is an advanced stage of apostasy.  

Delilah asked Samson how he could be destroyed and Samson strangely provides this information.  The seducer has discovered from us that if we are increased in wealth…our prayer life declines…our appetite for the world’s menu heightens and our spiritual hair falls off without a razor…and soon we can be captured with little sips of social alcohol, adultery only with our eyes and in our hearts as TV and modern fashion convert our worship auditoriums to parlours of lust. We give testimonies of our disobedience and glory in what should be our shame. 

Christian Media, magazines, literature, and entertainment tell us living well is God’s peculiar goodness to this generation and one cannot be blamed for believing this most relaxing pill.  Soon our surpluses meant for the covenant fuel a taste for whatever new thing the world has fashioned. A better lifestyle becomes a necessity for your joy – a simple lifestyle becomes a curse…and the imperative to needlessly spend soon becomes addictive until crisis forces the realisation that you never really needed more than a few things and can live happily without most.   The lost opportunity of giving for the work of God now brings guilt.  Wake up!

Remember, Moses had lived for 40years amidst the impressive and most opulent “Haute couture/Haute cuisine /Haute decor” palaces, gardens and pools of Egypt. He had seen great supernatural miracles of deliverance, judgements and the Red Sea parting…yet he later cried to God…”Show me your Glory”.  Abraham saw a glimpse of it and knew seeking after God was worth it. 

The Glory is not captivating earthly magnificence nor is it magical/spellbinding performance. Rather it is the manifestation of God’s heavenly presence that melts people to pray, walk in unconditional divine love, hate and separate from sin and hunger for Him like never before.  It is also a presence that mends hearts, causes troubles to vanish and defends mightily.

His Glory will defend you completely in all situations and always. It defended the children of Israel through a harsh and hostile wilderness desert for decades as they travelled in the days of Moses.  Be assured, in Christ, no harm in the Recession will come to you.  In these challenging times, as you seek God afresh – expect to encounter His promised Glory. Remember His word is true. We can expect divine protection, grace, glory…and His good things…as we walk uprightly and in a contentment found only in a life surrendered to Christ Jesus in us as Lord and Saviour – our Hope of Glory.  May God help us.

Psalm 84.11  For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Remain Blessed.

Bode Ososami