Be Rich in Good Works

By Jonathan Mubanga Mumbi

The happiest people in the world are people whose wealth is multi-dimensional. To be wealthy includes being financially rich but being financially rich alone is not the only measure of being truly wealthy. Many who would qualify to be financially rich by today's standards are labeled as fools in the Bible not because they are deficient in intelligence or business acumen, but because they have made their riches one dimensional. Being truly wealthy includes being financially rich and more than that, it also includes being rich towards God!

The Apostle Paul invites his protegee, a young pastor called, Timothy, to encourage the financially rich people in the Church to be rich in good works. This book continues the encouragement for financially rich people to broaden the reach of their riches into other dimensions of community life. This happiness that comes from sharing the benefits of being financially powerful beyond the traditional boundaries of family into the broader community is tied to God's glory. It reverses the demonic dehumanization of humanity through empowerment instead of reveling in mere "exemption" from some of the rigors of daily life. It is a happiness that embraces the grace of God in calling human beings and gifting them to succeed in their callings even if the path to success may sometimes include embracing some of the sufferings of Jesus. It is a champion's happiness because it comes with discipline and necessary growth pains in many dimensions of life. This little book is about the Biblical perspective on how the wise and compassionate use of financial riches can lead to being truly wealthy (wealthy by God's standards).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jonathan Mubanga Mumbi
• Release date: Oct 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370830329

Jonathan Mubanga Mumbi

I am Jonathan M. Mumbi an ordained Bishop of the Church of God (World Missions Zambia). This is a denomination under the World Missions Department of the Church of God, Cleveland Tennessee, USA.I have been in ministry since 1988 and mostly a volunteer in Youth With A Mission (YWAM) +30 years. My wife, Jean Mumbi, and I have served at various levels in YWAM and in the Church of God. My passion is to empower young people through nonformal Christian tertiary education. My educational journey has been mostly through YWAM's University of the Nations but I am grateful to have earned a Master of Divinity and a Master of Theological Studies through Nations University. I am a Pastoral Counselor and a lecturer. We are a family of which the youngest is going twenty-three and her siblings are adult brothers.Special personal note: None of the organizations served or mentioned will endorse every opinion I hold, neither do I want to leave anyone under the impression that I writes for, or, under any other authority other my own passion to write what I feel inspired to write.

Book preview

Be Rich in Good Works

By Jonathan M. Mumbi Ph.D.

Published by Jonathan M. Mumbi at Smashwords

Copyright 2016 Jonathan M. Mumbi

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: The Happiest People On Earth Are Wealthy People

Seven Satanic Lies That Bind People’s Happiness

Seven Powerful Facts About True Happiness

Chapter 2: God-wardly Wealthy People Look Like Good Capitalists!

Good Capitalists Build Social Capital

Good Capitalists Build Intellectual Capital

Good Capitalists Use Money to Multiply Wealth and build Resource Reserves

Good Capitalists Amass Moral/Spiritual Capital

Good Capitalists are multi-generational investors

Chapter 3: The Truly Wealthy Have Simple Joys And Very Large Hearts!

They Balance the Demands of Good Stewardship And Those of Wise Spending

They Balance the Demands of Personal Safety (security) And Those of Faith in God

They Balance the Demands of Leadership And Those of Servanthood

They Balance the Demands of Work And Those of Rest and Restoration

They Understand the Difference Between Good Works and Public Relations Stunts

They Have a Tough Hide for Critics but A Responsive Heart For Real Needs

They Have Great Discernment and Do Not Write Off Charity When Cheated.

CHAPTER 4: They Face The Challenge of Good Works With Love and Wisdom!

They Embrace the Challenge of Communion—Being Spent—Being Rich in Empathy

They Face The Challenge of giving fishes daily (the poor ye shall always have)

They Face the Challenge of Empowerment (teaching the poor to fish)

The End

About the Author

Other Books By The Same Author

Connecting with the author

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Acknowledgements

I am a debtor to God from whom all blessings flow and without whom nothing else matters. I also want to acknowledge my wife and our children who allow me some space and time to write and share with God's larger family. I want to dedicate this writing to my wife whose prayer and desire to be wealthy has inspired me to search the scriptures and see what God has to say about being truly wealthy. I also acknowledge my debt of gratitude to friends who have used their wealth to support us both spiritually and financially as a family in voluntary ministry. Your friendship has provided us with the resources to go further and do more than we could without it. On behalf of my entire family, I thank you! Jonathan M. Mumbi.

Chapter 1: The Happiest People On Earth Are Wealthy People!

The happiest people on earth are wealthy people but the biggest problem today is the meaning attached to being wealthy and the implications people draw from their narrow view of being wealthy. Satan, the arch enemy of God’s people, has fathered a lot of lies to compound the confusion around the meaning of life, health, wealth and being rich. The relational nature of being wealthy is blurred by layers of lies that take the focus of both humankind and fallen angels away from the real issues of whole-person-health, wealth, and maximized quality of life. Finding all-round happiness is a worthwhile pursuit but the arch-enemy of all human beings attacks such efforts with powerful lies that bind many innocent people's happiness. Many who have sought happiness in financial riches have found themselves less wealthy than they imagined even after becoming financial giants. Financial riches do not guarantee true happiness because it is only one dimension of being truly wealthy.

Seven Satanic Lies That Bind People’s Happiness

First: God is holding back something from you but Satan has your best interest at heart!

Adam and Eve fell for this one. They swallowed it hook-line-and-sinker and ate the forbidden fruit. There are many who are eating from the forbidden tree to this very day because Satan knows that old lies work just fine on new people because they rarely warn one another! As long as human beings believe that God is holding back something totally necessary for them, they will seek out that which they believe to be so important that God would be dishonest about it. When Satan reframed the character of God for Adam and Eve, what was important was that they believed him and acted out in faith based on the new picture of what they now believed to be the true character of God. They probably reframed the character of Satan too. He was seen as the one telling them the truth, in this case, the trustworthy one!

In every trial and temptation, the underlying issue is the character of God. Satan loves our problems to be about God’s character than about his malevolent activities. Jesus made it clear that his mission to all humans is about abundant life but Satan’s mission is to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). To achieve this, Satan and his fallen angels rarely act as themselves. Most of the time they use infiltration and operate covertly like wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15) or masquerading as angels of light (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). Their hosts are usually among us without really belonging to us (1 John 2:19). What is true of the deceitful worker is also true of all other activities of the Devil. He used the serpent in the Garden of Eden because, of all the animals in the garden, it was the most credible (and crafty).

Many who would survive a direct Satanic attack fall when it comes from a person who is very close and credible. It is clear from scripture that the Serpent used to have legs and was quite clever, but on the day of temptation it is possible that Adam and Eve were not aware they were dealing with a hijacked animal who was speaking Satan’s mind (Genesis 3). Job could have fallen for his wife’s curse God and die solution (Job 2:9). He did not see the Devil at work but he stuck to his faith in the character of God. Jesus could have fallen for Peter’s suggestion to avoid the cross, but Jesus recognized the enemy at work and addressed the issue squarely in his, get thee behind me Satan! rebuke (Matthew 16:23).

Satan does have permission to wander back and forth on this planet and that gives him access to people and things close to us. We will not be able to control the access that Satan and his fellow fallen angels have to people around us but the responsibility to hold on to the true character of God remains ours except under exceptionally extreme circumstances. John the Baptist, baptized in the Holy Spirit while in his mother’s womb, found himself needing reassurance while he was in jail. This is what Jesus told John’s disciples:

And he answered them, "Go and tell John