Читать книгу Wealth: It's In Your Worship Not Your Works - Roland J. Hill - Страница 4

Wealth: It’s In Your Worship Not Your Works, by Dr. Roland Hill, is a book whose time has come. This book is a fresh approach to the Sabbath. In it Dr. Hill presents clear and compelling reasoning on the true source of wealth. It is motivational and inspirational, and a read not only for ministers, but for every person who is serious about discovering, uncovering, and tapping into their God given, unlimited source of wealth.

Dr. Hill makes it plain that he is not presenting a “how to” book on the accumulation of dollars, euros, gold, diamonds or real estate. He is fundamentally challenging the way Christians think about themselves in connection with worship as a source of wealth. Hill states his purpose, “__The truth about wealth is tangled up, tied up, and hidden in the undergrowth of non-biblical philosophies many of which are unsuitable for Christian consumption. This book is the clearing in the jungle.” And truly, Dr. Hill demonstrates just that. With the precision of a liturgical scalpel, he cuts away the diseased thinking apparatus that has elevated the “Protestant Work Ethic,” the “Pull Yourself Up by Your Own Bootstraps” philosophy, and the fallacious Prosperity Gospel ideologies exposing them to the light of biblical truth.

Almost immediately in this ground-breaking work, Dr. Hill points his readers to the true locus of wealth–the seventh day Sabbath which connects us to our Creator. Hill states, “That, while wealth may include material possessions, ultimately wealth is about value, God’s value of man and what man’s values in the world.” He points out that God assigned value to His Creation, and to His relationship to His Creation, ultimately assigning value to His relationship to humanity. It is in the Sabbath rest that God renews and develops what He values, thus, true wealth is in our worship, not in our works. Hill states, “In a real sense then, God alone assigns value, He is the quintessence of all wealth. Therefore in God, not in the created world, we find worth, the essence of true wealth. Evidenced in the order of the creation is God’s statement of value for the human family. God created the world, then; man, not man, then the world.”

True worship reconnects man with his Creator, who re-infuses him with value. It is in coming to God in the setting of true worship, recognizing and proclaiming His awesomeness in the context of our nothingness–and therefore our dependence on Him for all things–that we are reminded of the source of true value.

Dr. Hill explains the law of self-interest versus the law of dependence. Twenty-first century people forget they are already created in God’s image and are therefore wealthy and are of value. Living by the law of self-interest, they look for increasingly more opportunities to gain material goods, thinking that possessing things indicates wealth and value. The law of dependence reveals that as we remember our Creator God as the Source of value and depend on Him, we know that we are esteemed and valued because He made us. This truth is bound up in the Sabbath Rest. God’s gracious command to keep the Sabbath is not for His good, but for ours.

Dr. Hill draws on a parable (read the book to discover which one) and incidents in the history of God’s people, such as the 40 year miracle of the Manna, or of God’s delivery of it and Israel’s gathering it during their sojourn in the wilderness, demonstrating the irrevocable truth of our need to acknowledge the Law of Dependence.

This book has the potential to re-align the thinking of every serious Christian regarding value and worth. Reading this excellent book will refocus, reenergize and re-enthuse the Christian Church.

- Dr. Ricardo Graham

President - Pacific Union of Seventh-day Adventists,

Westlake, CA