The Next Sound You Hear...

...may most likely be the sound of ice tinkling in my glass of lemonade. I'm spending a couple of weeks in the tropics, which is kind of a stupid thing for a cold weather body like me to do, we tend to save our runs to the tropics for the winter so we when we return our tan really stands out in a church full of pasty driveway shovelers. It's our way of silently shouting "I'm As Cold As Heck And I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore!!!" Believe me, if you live north of Mason City Iowa, Global Warming is a long sought after myth.

But I'm down here in Florida braving the late spring heat with the folks taking care of mom while dad is getting fixed up. We tried, really tried to get my Dad to have his surgery done during the winter, it would have been much more convenient for us northern children. Oh well, when life hands you lemons you make lemonade, grab a shady hammock, and put some Radio Cubana on Pandora. 

I'm blessed to have a "snowbird church", a home church away from home church, a place where I can worship with some Bereans here in the summer heat. So between errands with Ma while I ponder God's greatness underneath swaying palms and classical Spanish guitar lulls me into believing that it's a cold winter back home I wonder if the purveyors of the Gospel of Prosperity and Profit have 1 Timothy in their bible:

3 If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. (1 Timothy 6:3-5)

That last word, gain, is originally the Greek porismos, which literally means to make money or acquire money. I also wonder why it took me so long to see this. But now when I see a preacher with big hair, a big grin and a big palace full of goats teaches us the Gospel of Prosperity and Profit I know that our sadness at these false teachings is just and proper.