Читать книгу Wealth Without Guilt - Roland Hill - Страница 5

Wealth! I have always wanted it – and chances are, so have you. But like many, I have lived with a tremendous guilt complex about money and wealth. Being born into a Christian home, brought up knowing and accepting the mission of the church – that of spreading the good news about Christ – and accepting Christ and His call to ministry at an early age – all this set the stage for a long and painful struggle over what seemed to be opposing ideas. How can one desire to be rich and be a Christian too? The more I examined my motives for being wealthy, the greater the tension.

The only profession that ever appealed to me was that of being a preacher. While other children played fireman, postman, doctor, lawyer, or truck driver, I played preacher. I cut my homiletical teeth preaching atop wood crates with my sister and her dollies as members. The call I felt to the ministry was so compelling that I even practiced baptizing. With one hand in the air, and while repeating the formula used by my father as he baptized, I took my sister under imaginary water. She couldn’t help being saved after being baptized so many times!

Even as I entered junior high school, my desire to imitate my father, a devoted Christian minister, was seen in how I dressed at school. No casual clothes for me. Shirt, tie, and dress shoes were all that I permitted myself to wear. There was no mistaking what I wanted to be – a preacher. I looked like a preacher and acted like a preacher. As a teenager, women, wine, and riotous living were not my downfall. I wanted to live a pure life for Jesus, especially because of my call to the ministry. But I never dared reveal one of my deepest wishes – that of being wealthy. Even now – though I know the feelings are not legitimate, I cannot help but feel a bit ashamed and somehow “unspiritual” as I approach writing about the subject of wealth. What supposedly “spiritual” man in his right mind would desire something so carnal as money? And shouldn’t preachers be concerned only with spiritual matters?

But through the years, the material needs of humanity have pressed upon my heart. I have longed to answer those needs with more than a prayer but also with profits – not just with sympathetic words but with personal wealth. But where were the preachers to resolve the tension I felt? Where were the Christian businessmen who felt good about their wealth? Where were the Bible lessons or classes that taught more than tithing, freewill offerings, sacrifice, and prudence? Where was the encouragement to increase one’s personal wealth so that there could be more to sacrifice?

It seemed to me that if one were to become wealthy, it would have to be without the church’s encouragement. Like so many other Christians, my guilt became heavier with church activity and attendance. Why was I feeling so guilty about wealth? Why did the church add to this guilt? Where did this come from? And was this how God wanted us to feel about wealth?

Well, my friend, this is what Wealth Without Guilt is all about. This book seeks to answer the questions that have arisen in my own mind about wealth and spirituality. I am sure many other elements come into play concerning the whole issue of wealth, but Wealth Without Guilt seeks to get at the root of the problem of guilt about wealth. My prayer is that this book will do for you what it has done for me and for the thousands of others who have attended my seminars.