The First Born (the Best) of Our Life is for God (edited with ChatGPT)

Why do people risk everything — life, family, future, and wealth — to migrate to the West or the Middle East? Migration is not only expensive and perilous, but migrants often end up as second-class residents, enduring hard, demeaning labor. Yet, many willingly pay the price for better-paying but lower-grade jobs. For money, people offer their firstborn — their very lives and wealth. The future of their family becomes the cherry on top of the sacrifice laid at the feet of their master: MONEY.

 

People give everything for money. As someone once said, money is a cruel master but a loyal servant. When people bow to money, God is thrown out the window. They enslave themselves to MONEY, working from sunrise to sunset for what never lasts, all while neglecting the free, everlasting food that gives eternal life. They do it for a car, a house, food, or social status — things that do not endure and offer no true peace or security in this life or the next. That is why God ordained Sunday as His day — a day to stop chasing money and pursue His ways: the first and second laws of love.

 

From Monday to Friday, you work hard. But on Saturday, you should work smart, preparing for Sunday’s rest. One day of smart work, aligned with God, can yield the fruit of two. To work smart is to work with God; to work hard without Him is to be enslaved by earthly concerns, reduced to a cog in a production line. The world offers us Monday to Friday to labor for temporary bread, but God gives us Saturday and Sunday so that Saturday’s efforts can be multiplied through Sunday’s worship.

 

I am an economist by profession. My daily bread — from Monday to Friday — comes from striving to maximize production, distribution, and consumption of perishable goods. In other words, I am trained to enslave you to MONEY. But that is just a job, not life. That is why I do not preach prosperity or development — the sugar coating of this age, spoken by both good and false preachers alike. They preach prosperity and produce poverty. They boast of financial success, yet we now long for our past salaries because those small wages once had power. They promise lordship but deliver slavery. They dazzle us with dreams of abundance, while making us lick rusted iron. They drive us to hard labor — not smart work — so they can enjoy the fruits. They lead us to Egypt for slavery so they can live in endless chariots and palaces.

 

They preach mountaintops but give us graveyards for homes. This is the prosperity gospel — any doctrine that turns our eyes from God to money. Look around: they prosper while everyone else declines. Why? Because they have stolen our Saturdays and Sundays and sold us to the grind of Monday through Friday. They removed God from our minds and replaced Him with materialism, so they could live better as overlords. They turned money from servant to master.

 

Jesus made us children of God, but they have made us human capital. To them, we are production tools; to Jesus, we are sons and daughters. It is no wonder every little slave master rages when you call people back to God and away from earthly focus. Just as the silversmiths and idol-makers were enraged at Paul for calling their idols worthless, today’s prosperity peddlers fight to protect their golden calves. But listen, dear ones — we are the Kingdom of Heaven, and the giants of this world are insects in our sight.

 

Money is our slave — a tool, not a master. Our Master is in Heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father. His name is Jesus Christ. Our gospel is not about a good life; it is about Jesus: God who became man, taught us His ways, died for our sins, rose from the dead, and now reigns in Heaven. He is remaking us in His image — if we accept Him as Lord and God. This is the good news we declare.

 

This gospel calls us to give our best to God. God gave us His best — His only Son. Is it too much to give Him our best in return? Our minds, our thoughts, our lives, our resources — all should be offered first to God. Now, at this point, the prosperity gospel insects rejoice, thinking they can now receive more in God’s name. But no — that is not the point. Assemblies need resources, yes. Find faithful ones and support them. But be wise — ensure they serve God, not themselves. They say, “Pay and don’t ask,” but I say, “Ask.”

 

They cannot serve you; they must serve God. If you demand a better seat, more honor, or louder voice, perhaps you are following the wrong gospel — the gospel of prosperity. Yet, ensure that what you give is used for God — only God. Once you have identified a faithful assembly, give and disappear. It is not about you. You are just repaying a debt. And when you repay a debt, you do not strut before your lender. Your lender is good; you are a reliable borrower. That is all.

 

But God wants more than your money. He wants you. You are not His robot, mining gold for Heaven. You are His child, and He wants His children. Even if your calling is to supply resources for God's work, do not be fooled. Work smart, not hard.

God is everywhere, knows all, and is truly Almighty — not a small frog inflating himself to rival an elephant, like the prosperity gospel does, but the real Almighty. Please Him, and He will guide your steps. Run from Him, and you will not just face the devil — you will contend with God Himself. God will not let His children prosper far from Him — because He loves them. So give your best to God: your time, attention, mind, and life. Then, like a parent caring for their small child, God will work for you. Even if your role is in the material world, work smart, not hard.

 

When you rise in the morning, let your first thoughts be of prayer, God’s Word, and His gospel. Let your whole day revolve around Him — and the world will revolve around you. You will not chase success; success will chase you. Does that make you a prosperity preacher? No. Money is still a worthless slave. You are a child of God — its master. Do not turn the gospel of your Master into the gospel of your slave.

 

This is the heart of what is wrong with the prosperity gospel. It shifts people’s focus from God to dreams of wealth. They are given the Kingdom but exchange it for bondage to money. People now give their best — time, life, mind, age, and attention — for money, and send spiritual and monetary “remittances” to God, like an old mother in a distant village. They say they love her but are too busy to visit. God made us masters. The prosperity gospel made us slaves. God made us like Abel; they turned us into Cain.

 

Do I want a better life? Yes. I pray for it — and it is also my profession as an economist. Do not underestimate the craftiness of God’s plan. But I work smart, not hard. The world is a gift, and I hold it in low regard. I love God and look down on money. I am the master; money is the slave. I manage it well — but as a slave, not a master. I do not serve God to gain the world. I am not a prostitute smiling at God for riches. I love Him and follow Him. Everything that belongs to God is already mine. My focus is not on the slave, but on the Master.

 

Practically speaking, the prosperity gospel leads people to store treasure on Earth, not in Heaven. It blinds their spiritual eyes — for one cannot serve both God and money. And in the end, it turns Abels into Cains. But focus on those faithful ones who, though touched by this false gospel, still radiate the presence of Jesus. If this dirt has not polluted their purity, then we can glimpse the vast depth of God’s grace in their lives.

 

Can the muddy waters of the Nile change the color of the Mediterranean Sea? Just look at the grace of God in their lives — it is oceanic. But this polluted river is flooding smaller streams— a community with shallow knowledge of God and little faith — and it is destroying them. Now we see corruption, lies, criminality, mobster culture, and heartless greed sweeping through the assembly of the lord. And your gospel calls them victors in God’s Kingdom? If you mislead one of God's little ones, what is your judgment? Is money really worth this?

 

With God, one can defeat a thousand. The smallest of God’s children can destroy the world’s giants. But this is not a war — it is the simple crushing of insects by Heaven’s army. And remember: children of God are never alone. Heaven is always with them. As we march toward the army of devils — the real battle ahead — we are merely crushing the insignificant army of insects along the way, simply because they stand in our path.