Stabbing Mammon
You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).
These are the most important words of God to hold on to steadfastly, if you care to be shielded from the wolves dressed as lambs, and the gatherings of dogs. Mammon is the evil spirit that fosters the love of money, and its byproduct largesse. St. Paul, healer of the sick, tells the Ephesians, and us, how to prepare for spiritual warfare. We need a shield of faith. We need to put the utmost trust in God's will, no matter how turbulent the world around us appears to our fallen eyes. But, we can't just play defense. Defending the faith is beautiful, but offending the world with the Truth is better. And the Truth is Jesus Christ, the veritable word of God made flesh that dwelt amongst us. The more we know Jesus Christ, and serve Him, the more we are stabbing and slashing at Mammon with the spiritual sword that St. Paul spoke of.
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).
I liked that one portion, but I felt uneasy not serving you all the full verse. Context and nuance are everything. Don't sprint to conclusions about the Bible, especially if you don't read, write and speak Hebrew and Ancient Greek. Jesus of Nazareth is a title that reminds us that He came to us in a specific time, in a specific place and for a specific reason. I shall not digress further.
You cannot serve God and mammon
Here are five practical steps you can take to stab Mammon. Do them all.
1) Read the word of God daily when nobody is looking, but God.
2) Pray daily when nobody is looking, but God.
3) Read the word of God with your friends once a week after playing basketball. Include singing hymns to God, and prayer with the same people. You are the one, holy, universal and apostolic Church.
4) Start a Bible study group with Google Hangout, Skype, Viber or any other blessed technology of the digital age that proliferates the gospel. You can read the word of God, sing hymns to God and pray with people in different states, timezones and countries.
5) Give alms and fast when nobody is looking, but God. The Church Calendar helps for this, but you can always fast on your own time.
What do these five steps have in common?
None of these steps require you to have money wasted. Steps 1-4 need zero units of currency to be exchanged, and they can radically change your life to serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Step 5, though it involves money, is all about giving to the poor. All the excess we have will be counted as stolen goods from the poor in the kingdom of God. The Truth hurts. But, the Truth also loves without ceasing. Stab Mammon every single day of the week, and twice on Sundays with these five practical steps. When you find them helping your life, tell others about them.
These techniques are grassroots, guerrilla, stigmergic and networked because that is how the Early Church, the era of the Apostles, succeeded in turning a minority group of Jews barred from temples into the largest religion in the world. Institutionalism brought an abundance of sins with it, but those sins are not insurmountable. Only God is insurmountable.
The more they increased, the more they sinned against me (Hosea 4:7).
Hosea's prophecy has been fulfilled, a thousandfold over. Now it is time to reverse this by reading, praying, almsgiving, fasting and organizing physically and digitally.
May the peace of the Prince of Peace, that is beyond all comprehension, be with you all.
Furthermore, we must love each other.