sold out

I attended yet another multi-level-marketing presentation tonight. A guy I know from church called this morning and asked if I would go with him and a pastor to a meeting? Sure, why not? After all, a pastor is involved, it can’t be too bad.

This time the product is a life insurance policy the victim, err. . sorry, the next level businessman has to buy into, for which the insurance company will pay the usual bonuses on bonuses, dreams upon dreams. Built like a true network marketing scheme, the rewards are emphasized ad infinitum.

I run ahead of myself. On the way there I was informed that the woman about to speak at the meeting is in first year of the Bible School run at the church, as if this knowledge would settle any concerns I might have. The next snippet came in the form of a query “did I know X and Y? They arrive at church in a large SUV? Did I? Did I?”.  Well, to be honest the names didn’t ring a bell, and cars.. well wrapping seldom tells much about the contents.

The speaker, neatly dressed, upmarket accent, asked the audience what the primary motivator in life is, and then proceeded to tell us the answer: money! She kept adding “There is joy here”, as if I needed salvation, sure, but the real whammy is here!

I hope Bible School can tell her the realities of the source of joy.

Whether it works or not, as in any MLM scheme, depends solely on how soon you get into the frenzy. This one has been running for nearly eleven years. Don’t hold your breath, you’re not likely to be making that round the world trip too soon.

It wasn’t the presentation itself that concerns me, it’s the fact that a large percentage of the eldership were the pushers there. The primary fast-talker is a senior pastor who appears to have been the initiator. The concept is brilliant. You want to grow your level rapidly, simply join a church and recruit a pastor. Preferably find someone who needs cash and needs it now. Better still, someone who already gave up on wanting to live righteously would be the perfect drawcard because, after all, they are already in there.

A while ago I wrote a blog piece on the difference between God’s economy and that of the world. The world requires you earn money and then use the money to fund a lifestyle. In God’s economy, He supplies the lifestyle, and who needs the money?

That most oft misquoted Scripture, “the love of money is the root of all evil” seems to have passed this flock of shepherds entirely. That they are to lead the sheep through shadows of death and not into them fails to stop their headlong pursuit into the promises of evil. That their gold at the end of the rainbow is to be fueled by the ready audience of the church membership is gross misuse of power! Fact is, large amounts of money own the person, not the other way around, and large can be defined as any amount just a bit bigger than your current income.

Not to mention what will happen to this dream when the recession fully bites. How easy it is to sell a life policy to someone in the belief they really need it, without having to explain that insurance policies are maintained by investments. Investments that will not do well in a recession. Perhaps one should applaud the life insurance company who foresaw that their product was not going to maintain it’s projected profitability, so instead they bought into the quick-rich MLM arena to get the uncaring to sell to uninformed.

That the uncaring in this story are the very people chosen to deliver good news is sad indeed!

The saddest part of all of this is that God’s plan was to show the world that it is entirely possible to lean solely on Him for provision, to have faith for today and leave tomorrow to Him. The examples of Moses leading people for years through a desert, and their shoes not wearing out, or the five thousand strong audience that had too far to go being fed, fail to reach these people who claim to be shepherds, but who can only see the hearse they’ll buy with their unholy proceeds.

Am I being too harsh in calling the proceeds of this cleverly thought out scheme unholy? If it makes sense, the chances are it isn’t from God. A good litmus test is whether earning all that funny money will bring you closer to relying on God or not. If not, please hand in your Christianity on the way out.

Malachi put it this way [Amplified Bible Malachi 3:14-17]

¹⁴You have said, It is useless to serve God, and what profit is it if we keep His ordinances and walk gloomily and as if in mourning apparel before the Lord of hosts?

¹⁵And now we consider the proud and arrogant to be happy and favored; evildoers are exalted and prosper; yes, and when they test God, they escape [unpunished].

¹⁶Then those who feared the Lord talked often one to another; and the Lord listened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who reverenced and worshipfully feared the Lord and who thought on His name.

¹⁷And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in that day when I publicly recognize and openly declare them to be My jewels (My special possession, My peculiar treasure). And I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.

¹⁸Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him.

The interesting thing about this passage is that it starts just three verses after the over-quoted verses of blessing pushed down and flowing over. No doubt the Christian is able to settle down their agitated conscience by thinking of how much more they’d be able to give, to sow, to press down, and to overflow.

Discern if you will,
the difference
between
those prepared to place their bets on God
and
those who believe there is no God?

^{Malachi 3 : 3}He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the priests, the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord offerings in righteousness.

“SOLD OUT FOR GOD!” is last year’s phrase.

The slogan today is just “Sold Out”.