Breaking Down the Boundaries
by Pastor Kimberly Lemler

Driving up to a railroad crossing the other day, I saw a pickup truck pulling around the lowered gates. I could hear the train coming in the distance and I was anxiously concerned if the man was going to make it safely around to the other side.  Thankfully he did, but what a foolish thing to do! Those gates are boundaries and are there for our safety and the wise thing would have been to comply with the law as well as use some kind of common sense!

These kinds of boundaries are there for our safety. There are times in life, however, when we put self-imposed boundaries around us and we live far beneath the privileges that God has provided for us as His children. We stay stuck in a rut and exist within invisible walls, sometimes as an excuse to be lazy...sometimes out of fear of failure... and sometimes because we are told by others that God would not approve.

I have heard the poverty doctrine taught in many churches and quite frankly, it stinks to high heaven. So many good Christians have been duped, bamboozled, and hoodwinked into believing that God wants them to live mediocre, second-rate lives, wallowing in poverty, misery, and sickness. They live each day within the boundaries of their minds and of false doctrine sent straight from the pit of hell and they "perish for lack of knowledge." - (Hosea 4:6)

One time a hummingbird was trapped inside my screened-in back porch and I was able to capture him. I walked outside and opened up my hands so he could fly away. He had no boundaries to hold him in, and yet he stayed in my hands, frozen with fear, for fifteen minutes before he finally flew away. This is very much like some people who are paralyzed with fear and cannot escape from their "barely getting by" mentality in order to move forward to live the abundant life that Christ died to give them.

This gospel of ours is filled cover to cover with blessings galore. God is looking for those who are bold enough to take Him at His word and claim their true inheritance in Christ!

Let's look at just a few of the hundreds of scriptures that show us His positive intentions for us:

PSALM 84:11- “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

PSALM 112:3 – “Wealth and riches will be in his house, And his righteousness endures forever.”

JOHN 10:10 – “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

Now, does this sound like God wants us busted and disgusted and barely getting by? I don't think so! There is a mistaken idea that our Jesus, while here on this earth, was a poor man. If he was so poor, why did he have to have a treasurer? How can we, as Christians, subscribe to the theory that “barely enough” is all we should have? How in the world can we help other people in need if we keep ourselves confined within that mindset? I believe it is the height of arrogance and selfishness to want only enough “just to get by” because we are not thinking of others that we could help with our abundance.

To top it all off, God not only wants us to help others with our abundance, He wants to bless us too!  He is not opposed to us having things...as long as the things do not have us. He is a “rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” – (Hebrews 11:6)

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”- Matthew 6:33

I once overheard a group of church ladies in a restaurant discussing their pastor. They were appalled that he lived in a brick home, had 2 cars and his wife had a leather coat! I had half a mind to put a little correction in the mix.  So... it’s okay to support movie stars and athletes who make tens of millions of dollars a year, but it's not okay for a pastor to live in a three bedroom home? What price can you put on the salary of a pastor who is called to do God's work and who is looking out for your very soul? There is not a price... and sadly, pastors all over this country are struggling financially because people are more willing to spend their money at the box office instead of putting it into the offering plate.

"Church leaders who do their job well deserve to be paid twice as much, especially if they work hard at preaching and teaching." - 1Timothy 5:17

We are children of the Most High God...not a chintzy God, who is weak and whose heaven is filled full of contaminated streams and sickly souls. No, we serve a God whose dwelling place is full of gold and precious jewels. We are joint heirs with Christ Himself! His passion for life lives on the inside of us, just waiting to burst forth and accomplish great things. He told us to write our visions down and to dream big. We need to pray and confess His word and “call those things that are not as though they were.”- (Romans 4:17)  It’s time to tear down the invisible walls of fear and doubt and reject the poverty doctrine and embrace His blessings. Let’s step out into His light, trusting Him to provide for our every need and giving us “abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us"- (Ephesians 3:20), so that we can provide for our fellow man.

Christ expects nothing less of us...

©Words To Heart Ministries, Inc.  Pastor Kimberly Lemler. 2010.