I desire to receive a wage for my labor. From God. In Heaven. For eternity. Not here, and not beyond need.

God has given me skills in software, and He is in command. I desire to use those skills to help people, trusting in Him to meet my needs (daily bread). When He calls me to labor here on Earth for money, I will do so. But I will also give people all the help I can using all the skills He gave me.

I wouldn't charge my family for writing software. I wouldn't charge my friends. In Christ we are all family -- brothers and sisters no less. We are supposed to be working for the continued betterment of others, helping each other, the servant of all. If He wants my skills to be used, He will make a way. I am not on my own. My master is Faithful and True.

"He who wants to be first must be last, and the servant of all." Some versions say "the slave of all".

A servant is hired to do his master's will using the skills he possesses, either for pay or (back in the day) as a bondservant.. Cooks. Fullers, Craftsmen. Et cetera. My skills are no different. And my Lord is Trustworthy. I set my sights on pleasing Him, trusting on Him to bring the Increase, that everything really is under His control. He won't let me go without. And just as a well-meaning worldly master would be moved to help his well-meaning servant who has shown aptitude in a particular discipline, how much more the King of kings, and Lord of lords?

To Him do I strive.
And... once again as I say... against the world.

Best regards,
Rick C. Hodgin



>>I stand against the world it seems. Is a painful thing to do day in, day out. I have these ideas in software design, propagation, doing things to help others, using my skills to be of benefit to others without expecting anything in return, etc.
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>>I haven't found a single person to date who believes the idea is a good one -- except possibly one, though he's been somewhat silent and nondescript on the matter -- yet I've heard no end of how it is a foolish idea, one that can't exist in the "real world." Is painful to bear up under that kind of demeaning continuously.
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>>It is Message ID: 1574265 that I am referring to, along with other ideas related to viewing content (like http://www.visual-freepro.org/blog/?p=350 ).
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>I don't think standing against the world is a really good idea. I can understand that this has some idealistic religious reasoning behind it, but the way how to accomplish certain goals always depend on sustainability. If you run a short race, you try to run as fast as you possibly can from the start, but when you prepare yourself for a marathon race, you've got to calculate the steps you take and how fast you can run over a long period of time, saving some energy for the hills and for the final sprint.
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>I don't think as Christians we are called to stand against the world, rather that we being part of the world staying unspotted by the evils of this world. It is a spiritual separation rather than a practical or spacial separation. The Catholic monks always misunderstood this idea of separation and lived a live in literal separation from the "world" hiding in their monasteries, thinking that when they keep only praying and working they will stay unstained from sin. Little they did know that the sin is part of their own flesh, and they basically bring that sin and worldly thinking inside the monastery like a Troyan Horse virus.
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>I believe doing good to people in need is good, and it is an important Christian virtue. Working for money for those who can afford it, and who themselves run successful businesses, is a good Christian virtue as well. You provide for your house, your children, and God blesses your efforts to be a honest hard working man. Paul made tents besides of his ministry and he charged for this work. He also said that as a minister he is able to receive money, because preaching is a work too (although personally he did not charge anyone for his preaching). The money he earned with his tent making he used to help himself, to promote the gospel and to help others.
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>If we want to grow spiritually we must find a balance in our lives, between family, church and work. Our work has certainly a commercial aspect to it but as long as you are honest writing your bills and doing the best to your knowledge to help the client you do not sin by doing that. When you pick up your bread in the morning at the bakery, are you surprised when he charges you for that? Or you buy a house, are you surprised you have to pay for it? Putting gasonline in the car and going to a restaurant? In fact, if everything would be for free, would that create a better world?
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>When you want to help others, I would advise you to create tools for them they can use for free, answer their questions at the UT, start a blog. But always try to do just so much as you can sustain for a long period of time without eating your own flesh, because only like that you are able to help people successfully. When you can do that for a longer time successfully then it's going to be easier to get people on board maybe.
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>But in any case I wish you success in your ideas, and I find it good of you being honest about what you think. My times of working 16 hours per day are over, I feel I can spend my time with my kids more importantly and when I have helped some clients during the working day I am content with that.