Category Archives: God’s Economy

Posted on

Pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church Received 4.4 Million in Federal COVID Loan and Folk Mad…

Hello World,

Whew. I really don’t know what to say, but plenty of folk on Twitter said a lot. First the official news and then the Twitter reactions…

“Want to Know How Much Money Joel Osteen’s Megachurch Received?” by Shelby Stewart of Houston Chronicle

Lakewood Church received a $4.4 million Paycheck Protection Plan loan during the coronavirus pandemic, according to federal data. The loan was disbursed in July of this year.

U.S. Small Business Administration data, which was released at the beginning of December, showed that Lakewood Church’s PPP loan was created by Bank of America. The megachurch’s hefty loan was the third-largest PPP loan approved for a Houston-area entity during all of July and August, according to Chris Matthews at Houston Business Journal.

The church, like many other businesses, was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Lakewood’s in-person services were halted due to the pandemic, but were able to resume in October, at 25 percent capacity. According to a statement from Lakewood spokesperson David Iloff, the church’s PPP loan was used to provide support for the church’s employees. Read the rest HERE.

 

Any thoughts?

Posted on

Three Gifts Guaranteed to Give You Christmas Cheer…Even During the Coronavirus Crisis!!!

Hello World,

Hello World,

I’ve said this before, but I will say it again: Christmas is supposed to be “the most wonderful time of the year!” So if your eyes aren’t twinkling like they are Christmas lights, if jingle bells aren’t attached to your ankles or if you are not burping up eggnog, you obviously don’t possess that sometimes elusive Christmas cheer…

I know that “Jesus is the reason for the season,” but can I be honest? Sometimes even knowing that isn’t enough to dredge up that Christmas cheer that everyone is supposed to be cloaked in like an expensive heavy coat that you only wear on special occasions…especially during the coronavirus crisis when you also have to wear a mask “everywhere you go.” (To the tune of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”)

Still despite the manufactured Christmas cheer that retailers will lead you to believe can only be bought, I have discovered there are three gifts, not 12, not enough for your whole family or all your network, simply three that will stoke the furnace of genuine Christmas cheer within you…

I don’t know if it is the example of the three Wise Men or because God is the Father, the Son & the Holy Spirit or at the suggestion of my favorite author Catherine Marshall, but in my 20s, I decided that in addition to the gifts I would give to my friends and family, I would also give three gifts to Jesus…

Now, how does one go about giving gifts to Jesus? Although I feel His presence with me, I have never seen nor touched Him physically…So how was I supposed to do that? I was led to these three verses below as I came up with a way to give three gifts to Jesus…

 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:35

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:30

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Matthew 6:3-4

So what do these three verses mean?

1. I was give without expectation of receiving anything back.

2. I was to give to people and or organizations that served “the least of these.”

3. I was to give in secret and not tell a soul.

I have never revealed what I have done before, but since I am writing a post about this, let me share some of the gifts I have given over the years as a testimony to how God has blessed me with authentic Christmas cheer as a result….

There was once a homeless man that I saw every day as I walked from one location to another in downtown Atlanta…All of the store owners on the street were kind to him, and I could see why…He was kind and mannerly and even funny sometimes…I don’t why he was homeless, but he seemed content to live on the street…I thought that since he seemed like he wanted to be on the street, I could at least help keep him warm…I tried to figure out what what size pants the man wore and bought him a pair of jeans (he always had on jeans) and a blanket…When I handed him the wrapped up gift, he seemed not to know what I was handing to him until I explained it was a Christmas gift…Then he smiled…That simple smile made me glow on the inside…

Another year, I decided to volunteer one Saturday at My Sister’s House at the Atlanta Mission…I helped hand out supplies to the women and children who were staying at the shelter…At that particular time in my life, I pretty much hated my job and the fact that I was too poor to move out of my parents’ house…But spending just one Saturday at the shelter showed how much I had to be grateful for…My mom has always told me if you want to feel better, forget about yourself…

And finally another one of my secret three gifts was the doll I gave to a Christmas toy drive one year…although I am not a girly girl, I have always LOVED dolls…I wanted a new doll every  Christmas for years and years…in fact, I used to worry that as a fifth grader, someone at school would find out I still played with dolls and I would be teased…So one year I decided to give the prettiest, most girly, luxurious hair-having doll I could find and afford to a toy drive…I don’t know what girl was the recipient of that doll, but if I have learned anything about God, I know that “every good and perfect gift” comes from Him…I’m sure that the girl who received that doll was the very girl that wished for and deserved that gift…

Although the Christmas countdown has begun,  there is more than enough time to give (and get) Christmas cheer…

Any thoughts?

Posted on

Thousands Wait in Line to Receive Free Thanksgiving Meals from Media Mogul Tyler Perry…

Hello World,

By now, you may have heard that hometown hero (my hometown of the A that is) Tyler Perry gave away some 5,000 free meals on Sunday. Below is the story from PEOPLE magazine:

On Sunday, the star opened up his Atlanta movie studio, Tyler Perry Studios, for four hours to feed 5,000 families with a combination of food boxes and gift cards for local supermarket chain Kroger.

Perry, 51, personally funded the event, called TPS Giving, and studio employees donated their time to volunteer and hand out all of the goods.

“Tyler was heartbroken seeing people all over the country stand in line for food so he decided he wanted to give back to his community in Atlanta,” a source close to Perry tells PEOPLE. “Hopefully this encourages others who are able to, to give back during the holiday season in a year that has been difficult for many.”

Read the rest HERE.

I’m always amazed by Tyler Perry’s generosity, but what drew my attention to this story more than his good deed was that so many people are in need AND what they were willing to do to be blessed by him. Apparently, several people showed up as his studio hours before the event started. Obviously, times are really hard for people right now.

But he is not the only one who is in the giving mood here in the A! Earlier today, Atlanta entrepreneurs Jason Lobdell,  Alix Burton, Marcus Barney, Neo Davis and Jonathan Gooch took over the registers at a local Kroger store and paid for roughly $40,000 in groceries! Below is the story from 11 Alive:

Customers at one metro Atlanta Kroger had a surprise gift in store when they arrived at the checkout counters.

“One hundred and seventy eight dollars in groceries,” said one customer on cell phone video.

“We had women literally crying saying thank you so we know how much it means,” Jason Lobdell said.

That was just some of the reaction customers gave after receiving free groceries. A band of entrepreneur brothers decided to bless as many people as they could at the Kroger on Wesley Chapel in Decatur. His friends, Alix Burton, Marcus Barney, Neo Davis and Jonathan Gooch went on Instagram live saying, “We’re doing a full shutdown we’re spending about 30 grand to take care of the entire market.”

Jason Lobdell said at first they were going to hand out gift cards but that was taking too long so they went with plan b. Read the rest HERE.

As outstanding as these acts of generosity are, you don’t have to be wealthy to give some of what you have away. You and I may not able to give free meals to 5,000 people or take over the registers at a local grocery store for a couple of hours, but God can still use to bless somebody in some way…

What say you?

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all…

Any thoughts?