Being poor is a choice. . . this is true anywhere in the world but especially if you live in the United States.

A person or family may not have chosen to be living in poverty but they definitely have made a mental decision to accept their situation and have chosen to stay there.  They may not even mentally ‘know’ they’ve chosen the lifestyle . . . but it all hinges on choices we make.  Included in that is the decision to not change where we’re at.

A decision not to change is a decision to remain the same.

I can cite examples of people in countries. . .industrialized and third world who decided they were tired of being poor and took control of their financial destiny.

How can I be so sure that poverty is not a predetermined destiny?

Deuteronomy 15:4-5 in the Message Bible says:

Have you ever walked into a bank.. . .and wondered what it would be like to have complete access to its vault?

If you’ve ever had to go into a vault to get a safety deposit box. . .you’ve seen firsthand  the rather elaborate security measures employed by the bank.

Have you ever daydreamed or thought about what it would be like to have complete access to all the valuables. . .everything in the bank vault?

I suppose the first time I ever heard the word heathen other than church was when Aunt Esther on the hit television show Sanford and Son called Fred Sanford one.  It seems I even remember her calling Fred a “heathen reprobate.”

In the scripture, the Greek word for heathen appears in the scriptures 164 times in 152 verses. . .and in 157 of those occasions the word appears as gentiles or nations.

According to Strong’s Concordance the Greek word for heathen means:

Do you feel like you’re going through a dry place?

Do you wonder how you’re surviving the current economic downturn?

Does it seem that you’re traveling through an economic desert?

Are you ready for supernatural deliverance from your financial wilderness?

A STRANGER AND I TOOK HIM IN…..

“He’s gone to his eternal reward.”

Sounds great, doesn’t it.  The phrase is mentally soothing. . .emotionally comforting and spiritually authoritative.

The phrase is the religious way of saying that someone has gone to heaven.

As best as I can tell. . .the phrase was first written by the author James Joyce in his book The Sisters which was published in 1905.

Now don’t get me wrong. . .I’m not belittling the meaning of the expression.