Death

Psalm 116:15
"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints".

Questions for Idolatry

If we are truly honest with ourselves, even as lovers of Jesus, we still struggle with idols of the heart and find ourselves many times worshiping something or someone other than Jesus. Every single sin we commit, is a simple act of unbelief in God. Which means that every time we sin, we sin becasue of an idol that has replaced Jesus in our heart. So we need all the help we can get to identify the idols in our hearts. Here is a list of questions I try to ask myself daily, so that I can identify idols that I am currently wrestling with and need to surrender to God.

1. What am I preoccupied with? 

2. What is the first thing on my mind in the morning or the last thing in my mind at night?

3. How would I answer this question, "if only _____, then I would be happy, fulfilled, and secure"? 

4. What do I want to preserve at all cost?

5. What do I want to avoid at all cost?

6. Where do I put my trust?

7. What do I fear?

8. When a certain desire is not met, do I feel frustration, anxiety resentment, bitterness, anger, or depression?

9. Is there something I desire so much that I am willing to disappoint or hurt others in order to have it? 

Walking these questions through your mind daily will help in identifying the idols of the heart. So what idols do you worship beside God? 

Am I really pro-life?

Most evangelical Christians consider themselves pro-life. We cry out that abortion is sinful, against the Word of God, and destroying humanity. We preach pro-life, stand at rallies, and tell our friends that abortion is wrong. We consider this to be one of the just causes God wants us, as His people, to champion for. We even say, "to be Christian is to be pro-life".

So here is the question though, are we really pro-life? To be pro-life is to be for human life, period. This means we stand for all of human life and the dignity of humanity. So to be truly pro-life means; -we stand for the unborn,
-we stand for the disabled,
-we stand for the elderly,
-we stand against human trafficking,
-we separate sin from sinner (i.e- homosexuals we see as sinners just like we are, not as dirt)
-we stand against discrimination,
-we stand against prostitution,
-we treat ever single human being with dignity and respect, and
-we stand against physical abuse of any kind.

Now that is a big list, but every single thing in that list deals with human life and God's cherishing of all human life. So to be pro-life is to be for all and every single human life. That means to really call ourselves pro-life means we had better stand for everything in that list, period. So are we still pro-life?

Riches and Righteousness

So for the month of March I am reading 30 passages on the topic of money from the Bible. As I read through them I will probably write some on this blog about what the Bible teaches about money and what God's real desire is for His people when it comes to the truths about money. Many Christians have  serious misunderstanding when it comes to money so, Lord willing, I want to write some as I work through the Bible to clear up some of these misunderstandings. But I wanted to begin today thinking about the connection of a person's riches and their righteousness.

There are some false doctrines out there that teach, that to be rich is to be sinful and to be poor is to be righteousness. The idea of the poverty gospel, which says that Christians can't have wealth and riches, is a false doctrine. But the prosperity gospel, which is also a false doctrine, teaches that once you become a child of God, He will bless you to the point that you will be wealthy. This false doctrine teaches then that if a Christian is poor, they must be sinful or not blessed by God. This false doctrine teaches that riches is a priority for a Christian and that to be righteous is to be rich. Both the prosperity and poverty gospels are wrong. If we would just read through the Bible we would see that our righteousness before God and His blessing has no real connection to our riches at the core.

Think for a second about all the rich men in the Bible who also loved God and He blessed them in their riches; Abraham, Jacob, Job, and Solomon. Then think about all the rich men in the Bible who were not righteousness before God and yet He still gave them wealth; Lot, Solomon, the rich young ruler. Then think about all the poor people in the Bible who were still righteousness before God and He still blessed them, just not with riches; Elijah, Jeremiah, Lazarus (from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus), and Jesus himself. Then think through all the poor people in the Bible who were not righteousness before God and their status as poor was a result of brokenness; Cain, "sluggards" from Proverbs, and the "busybodies" in 2 Thessalonians.

So the Bible gives 4 camps of riches and righteousness. This means that we, as God's children, must not say that riches is either good or bad. We must not draw a line and say that having wealth or being poor makes and shows a person to be righteousness. Our understanding of money must be much more complex and Biblical than just labeling a rich person bad and a poor person good or vice a versa. God has more to teach His children about money that a simple, and even stupid, statement about money and riches in the life of a believer. God has much more to teach his children about good debt and sinful debt. He has much to teach in the Bible about true generosity and sinful giving. And He has a lot to teach His children in how to use their financial state for His glory.