Does God Want You To Be Rich?
listening to: Jazz Channel on Comcast Cable
TIME.com: Does God Want You To Be Rich? -- Sep. 18, 2006 -- Page 1
The hype behind the headline is a tad bit misleading. At no point in the article do any of the quoted pastors say that God wants us to be rich. Prosperous, most certainly, but not rich. So, yes, the Rolls Royce on the cover of TIME blows it out of proportion.
Nevertheless, there is still an important question that needs addressed: does God want us to be financially prosperous? Not just prosperous, but financially prosperous? Does God promise us a lot of material goodies while we are here on Earth awaiting glory in Heaven?
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’I'm dreaming big--because all of heaven is dreaming big,’ Adams continues. ‘Jesus died for our sins. That was the best gift God could give us,’ he says. ‘But we have something else. Because I want to follow Jesus and do what he ordained, God wants to support us. It's Joel Osteen's ministry that told me. Why would an awesome and mighty God want anything less for his children?’
It’s true: Jesus died for our sins, and it was a tremendous unwarranted gift from God. Yes, God wants to support us, too. But does he want to support us with wealth and riches? He gives us what we need.
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‘For what profit is it to a man,’ [Jesus] asks, ‘if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?’ It is one of the New Testament's hardest teachings, yet generations of churchgoers have understood that being Christian, on some level, means being ready to sacrifice--money, autonomy or even their lives. But for a growing number of Christians like George Adams, the question is better restated, ‘Why not gain the whole world plus my soul?’
If we follow good Biblical common sense, we will automatically find ourselves to be more financially prosperous. The closer we align ourselves with Christ, the more wisely we will spend our money. We can also be better employees, and will naturally be more easily considered for promotions and new opportunities.
However, does that mean riches will be heaped upon us?
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But the new good news is that God doesn't want us to wait.
(My emphasis added.)
What’s frustrating about this comment is it could lead people to believe that God changes His mind and gives out new messages. This is not God’s “new” good news, this is Man’s “new” good news. That is, Man’s new interpretation of the same old Word.
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’Who would want to get in on something where you're miserable, poor, broke and ugly and you just have to muddle through until you get to heaven?’ asks Joyce Meyer, a popular television preacher and author often lumped in the Prosperity Lite camp. ‘I believe God wants to give us nice things.’
Yow! I lost a lot of respect for Joyce with that comment. Insinuating that getting involved with Christ’s church is like “muddl[ing] through” life, completely misses the point of the Gospel. The Apostle Paul said in Romans that what we go through here on Earth is nothing compared to the glory we will receive in Heaven.
Yes, I feel like I do muddle through life at times, but that’s because I’m a selfish human bent on getting my own way. I would not say that getting Christ in my life constitutes as muddling through life.
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Yet [Christ] spent far more time among the poor than the rich, and a majority of scholars quote two of his most direct comments on wealth: the passage in the Sermon on the Mount in which he warns, ‘Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth ... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven’; and his encounter with the ‘rich young ruler’ who cannot bring himself to part with his money, after which Jesus famously comments, ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’
Both statements can be read as more nuanced than they at first may seem. In each case it is not wealth itself that disqualifies but the inability to understand its relative worthlessness compared with the riches of heaven.
I applaud the author for seeing beyond the literal with the “eye of a needle” comment. One has to understand the historical context in which it was spoken: the Jews of that era believed that wealth was a sign of God’s blessing upon them. The wealthy just assumed that their salvation was good to go, and took pride in their wealth. It was this pride and lack of faith in God that actually made their salvation impossible. Hence, the comparison to an equally impossible task.
So, there’s nothing wrong with being a rich Christian, you just have to keep your wealth in perspective and keep your eye on the final goal.
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What remains is a materialism framed in a kind of Tony Robbins positivism. No one exemplifies this better than [Joel] Osteen, who ran his father's television-production department until John died in 1999. ‘Joel has learned from his dad, but he has toned it back and tapped into basic, everyday folks' ways of talking,’ says Ben Phillips, a theology professor at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. That language is reflected in Your Best Life Now, an extraordinarily accessible exhortation to this-world empowerment through God. ‘To live your best life now,’ it opens, to see ‘your business taking off. See your marriage restored. See your family prospering. See your dreams come to pass ...’ you must ‘start looking at life through eyes of faith.’ Jesus is front and center but not his Crucifixion, Resurrection or Atonement.
(My emphasis added.)
I have had conversations with friends about the so-called megachurches. What are they doing differently from Oakridge Baptist Church that they would have thousands show up for service, while Oakridge averages about 200 per Sunday morning? Of course, part of it lies in organization, motivation, networking, church chemistry, and God’s blessings.
The Gospel can be very difficult to understand. Not many Americans enjoy hearing that we are not good enough to enter God’s heaven without a Savior. We have pride, and like to think that we are good people. If pastors are preaching about the blood of Jesus Christ, they are giving people a truthful message, just not a popular one.
Frankly, no pastor is doing us a favor by watering down the Gospel. By making the most oblique, light and fluffy comments about God, we can rally millions. After all, there are millions of Americans who believe in God, never mind what the actual percentages are. However, as you get closer and closer to the cross, people start to fall away like flies. I was once one of those people . . . I kinda sorta knew that there was a God, but the whole Jesus thing was a mystery and too painful to deal with.
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Most start out by saying that Osteen and his ilk have it ‘half right’: that God's goodness is biblical, as is the idea that he means us to enjoy the material world. But while Prosperity claims to be celebrating that goodness, the critics see it as treating God as a celestial ATM. ‘God becomes a means to an end, not the end in himself,’ says Southwestern Baptist's Phillips.
Quite simply, don't confuse the benefits of religion in this life versus the benefits of religion in the afterlife. Our existence here on Earth is but a point in an infinitely long line.
buck on 01.04.07 @ 11:24 AM EST [link]
Wednesday, January 3rd
Linkapolooza
listening to: AM 1000, WMVP Chicago
reading: To Your Scattered Bodies Go, by Philip Jose Farmer
I thought tonight I would share with you some links I have been stockpiling. Instead of creating separate blog entries for each one, which can get a little confusing at times for you, the reader, I will lump them all in together.
Now, when I am surfing at night or on a Saturday morning and I am blogging as I go, I will create separate entries. It’s far easier for me, and creates closure as I go. When I step away from the PC, I don’t have a huge dangling entry not finished.
But enough about me and my habits. Here are the links.
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Imagining the Tenth Dimension - A Book by Rob Bryanton
If you get a kick out of science, and don’t mind having your brain twisted about a bit, I really recommend you take a look at Imaging the Tenth Dimension. Due to my connection speed, I have only read the text version (the link above is to the text version), but I would imagine that the broadband animation is even better.
Since I had some advanced math in college (limits of sets of series in MA 441), I have a vague understanding of the larger dimensions. Very vague, I won’t be attending Columbia anytime soon for my physics Phd.
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Dark Roasted Blend: The Most Dangerous Roads in the World
If you can deal with the download time and the webpage clutter, this page of pictures of dangerous roads will really shock you. Never mind the potholes on Niles Avenue in the Spring, these roads are seriously hard core. Now, the mountainous roads simply have to be amazing to be on . . . if you are a pedestrian and have the road to yourself.
Dark Roasted Blend: Dangerous Roads of the World, Part 2
This is the companion link. These roads are not as dangerous, but just as fascinating to see.
By the way, the Dark Roasted Blend blog is quite the rabbit hole of cool pictures. You could easily get sucked in there for quite a few hours.
Right Lisa?
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South Bend Tribune - Shock lingers for Benton Harbor, Niles
I realize that Benton Harbor beating Niles 88-47 this fall in football is ancient news by now, but I just never got around to linking to the story.
Scoring 88 points in one game . . . I can relate to that. My high school beat North Miami 81-0 back in 1979. We went to that game, but left early because it was cold, and the Vikings were just embarassing the Warriors.
Now, scoring 88, and allowing 47? Yeah, that’s really hard to fathom. Not a whole lot of defense played there at all.
Now, one single player rushes for 429 yards, and his team still loses? Well, I would call you a liar if it were not in black in white. There are high schools who don’t ever rush for that as a team in a single game in their history, let alone one single person in a loss.
Stunning.
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Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame - Database of Indiana High School Gymnasiums
Only in Indiana, I guess.
I found this amazing database of high school gymnasium capacities in Indiana. I read once in USA Today that Indiana has eight or nine of the nation’s ten largest high school gyms. In the age of multiple state championships, I have to wonder if the era of huge gyms will continue, or will fade into antiquity in the decades to come as new facilites are planned and built.
Anyway, my alma mater, Tippecanoe Valley, has what seems to me to be an average gym with a capacity of 2,900. That is, it is average sized by Indiana standards.
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Ford was among most athletic presidents - College football - MSNBC.com
This is a link in honor of the deceased President Ford. I don't remember much of his actual Presidency, but I do remember the 1976 election between him and President Carter.
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And finally, I want to follow up on my blog entry from October 23. I had said that I wanted to investigate changing my blogging software from Greymatter to Movable Type. It seemed like a great idea on paper, but I have not gotten around to investing the time in the research. If all I really want to do is categorize my entries, perhaps that is not reason enough to change. If you know some basic HTML, Greymatter is really easy to use. Perhaps that is reason enough to stay with it for now.
buck on 01.03.07 @ 11:50 PM EST [link]
Tuesday, January 2nd
The Daddy - Katelyn Show
This picture is from last Friday night. I convinced Heather that I just had to have a picture of me with my new M&M case.
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Once Katelyn and I kissed Heather and Dylan good-bye, we were on our own. I marveled at the huge number of people assembled at Napier Baptist Church waiting to drive north to winter retreat. I counted seven vans/busses in the parking lot. Yikes. Lots of people.
We went to the library immediately after to get our Daddy/Little Girl week to a great start. I checked out a new book, To Your Scattered Bodies Go, by Philip Jose Farmer. I did not intend to start reading it there at the library, but that’s the way it evolved. As I write this entry, I am on page 63 of 221! So, instead of reading Way Station first, I’ll go ahead and finish the one I started today.
Well, once I checked out my book, I went downstairs to let Katelyn play in the kids’ area. It just seemed natural to open my book and start reading. It’s a mystery and a page-turner, so here I am 25% through.
The librarians had an “Imagination Station” set up. All kinds of crafts scraps were assembled, and kids were encouraged to just dig in. Katelyn made a puppet of sorts. I cut out a figure of a woman, and she pasted it to an ice cream stick, and decorated the woman with yarn for hair, beads for eyes, and stickers for dress décor.
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She had a funny conversation with a boy sitting at the table, but you have to understand the backstory first.
As you know, Heather is violently allergic to shellfish, and certain other types of seafood. This discourages her from visiting Chinese buffets, which feature a lot of seafood in their dishes. Dylan and I just love Chinese, and do not miss an opportunity to go. However, now that Heather has been to the ER twice because of shellfish, we just don’t go much anymore. Katelyn is sympathetic to all this, and is well aware that Mommy’s lips swell up after eating seafood. She also knows that we cannot go to Chinese places that often, because it’s not fair to Mommy.
So, Katelyn and this boy are having a conversation about coloring books.
Little Boy: “I have all kids of coloring books. I even have a Chinese one.”
Katelyn: “My mommy does not like seafood.”
Well, it was funny to me.
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Daddy had to explain fish death to Katelyn today. Man, that was rough. Her red beta fish, Elmo, has been dead at least two months now, but she has not seen the fish tank in ages because it’s in my cold and cluttered office at home. She came out tonight, saw the tank, and asked if she could feed Elmo. I had to tell her that Elmo was gone. She burst into tears, and knew that he was actually dead. He was her “favorite” pet. I promised her that I would get her another fish someday.
She was so upset tonight, that she did not eat dinner. She had a spoonful of baked beans, but did not want anything else, and I did not push the issue. I let her watch cartoons extra long while snuggling on the couch with me in the hopes of relieving her grief. She was pretty subdued when she went to bed tonight. Poor little girl!
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Tomorrow if the weather holds, I would love to go out for a picnic with Katelyn. I get cabin fever very easily, so going out for lunch is as much therapeutic for me as it is for her. I would love to eat at the Shadowland Pavilion or somewhere at Silver Beach. However, if the wind is fierce, Daddy will have to get creative.
buck on 01.02.07 @ 11:55 PM EST [link]
Comic Memories
listening to: Louisville vs. Wake Forest, Orange Bowl on Fox
reading: To Your Scattered Bodies Go, by Philip Jose Farmer
My friend Scott wrote a blog entry inspired by a trailer for the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. He gave a brief description of how Galactus and the Silver Surfer changed the face of the Fantastic Four comic book forever.
I felt inspired to share some comic book memories of my own. The graphic you see in this entry is of Uncanny X-Men 180, which came out in my freshman year of high school, 1983-1984. This was the comic book that really started my collection. I had a small handful of comics before I bought this one, but this was the one that truly launched my interest in comics. I kept up with the X-Men and the Secret Wars for a little over a year, but I quit buying them thereafter. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was money, maybe peer pressure. Hard to say at this point.
However, later in my Purdue years, I started going with my Zeta Psi brothers to local comic book shops in Lafayette, and that initiated an enormous buying spree that lasted until 1995 when I was in South Carolina.
Our group all had a core set of comic book interests, but we all also had our individual interests. My core set:
Anything X-Men. I could not get enough of the Marvel Mutant magazines.
Marvel’s What If?. This was their alternate reality comic book.
Superman. I caught on to the four Superman titles just as the Doomsday/Death of Superman craze began. I kept with the Superman comic books for qhite a while after he was resurrected. It was more due to sheer momentum than it was actual quality of comic.
DC launched a sub-brand of comic book line called Vertigo. Instead of traditional super-hero stories, this line focused more on mature subject matter. Mythological and spiritual beings, and thought experiments.
From 1983 through 1995, I bought about 1,300 comics. I still have every single one I ever bought. Even though I have not read a single one of my comics since about 2000, I could still tell you where I got most of them if I were to see them. There is just something about that collection that stays with me.
Where is my collection now? Assuming that the roof of my parent’s video store in Akron has not leaked or collapsed, that’s where they are.
In case you are wondering where I found the graphic of the cover art, it was rather easy. I found Comiccovers.com in a Yahoo search. I could probably spend lots of hours going though memory lane just by looking at the covers.
buck on 01.02.07 @ 11:18 PM EST [link]
Monday, January 1st
White Water of the Shore
listening to: FM 90.7 -- Andrews University -- Classical
reading: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
I wish you could have walked with me to the bluff today. It was rather chilly, this New Year’s Day. There was a fine mist of rain as I walked in my Purdue hat and hooded jacket. It was not a day to be out with the kids, but good enough for a walk and some fresh air.
I could hear the white noise of the lake water crashing into the rocks of the shore long before I even saw the bluff. Sure enough, when I reached the end of the bluff and looked over, I saw whitecaps that originated hundreds of yards from shore, and plenty of white water spray against the boulders of the shore. It had to have been deafening down there had I gone down to investigate.
I spent some time gawking at the anger of the shore, and walked back home.
I wish you could have been there with me.
buck on 01.01.07 @ 11:12 PM EST [link]
What's in a Name?
listening to: AM 1000, WMVP Chicago
Think Christian » Blog Archive » What's in a name?
"The article got me thinking about church names generally and how they affect our attitudes about where we worship."
And, this blog entry got me thinking about it as well. The name of my church is Oakridge Baptist Church. What is not obvious is our actual denominational association; namely, the North American Baptist Conference (one may not realize that there are several Baptist denominations in the United States). To me, the name is descriptive, yet concise. If you know anything about the Baptist denomination, you pretty much know about us.
There had been some discussion about changing the name of our church to just the Oakridge Church. To me, that name leaves too much to the imagination. It's not a deciving name, but it does not tell our whole story. True, some people are interested in church, but are scared away by what they perceive to be hardliners in the Baptist denomination. Frankly, the Baptist name may scare them away.
Is it honest to say "Oakridge Church," and in small letters on the sign say, "A North American Baptist Church?" It's certainly not lying. I feel strongly enough about being Baptist, that I have no problem wearing it on my sleeve. I have no problem having "Baptist" in the name of my church.
There is a rather large church in town called "The Chapel." By their name alone, I really don't know what they stand for as far as doctrine. It may not make a bit of difference anyway; I'm happy where I am, and I am not looking to attend elsewhere. The church has a pleasant, soothing name, that's for sure.
Ultimately, though, does the name of my church make a difference in my worship? I would say not. I identify myself as Baptist, and as long as I am in a Baptist church with solid doctrine, I'm fine. It just so happens that all of my past Baptist churches have been commonly named:
Warsaw Baptist Church
Hoschton First Baptist Church
Oakridge Baptist Church
The churches are either named for the town or for the street. No real controversy there.
buck on 01.01.07 @ 01:00 AM EST [link]
Happy New Year 2007
listening to: AM 1000, WMVP Chicago
I may not be the first blogger to post in 2007, but I am close enough. I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!
buck on 01.01.07 @ 12:42 AM EST [link]
e-mail: ubuckone@earthlink.net
