The bible always teaches us to be wary of debt. Our culture often promotes a view that buying now and paying later is normal. In a sense buying on credit is normal in our culture.
The issue of course is that something being normal does not equate to it being good. The bible teaches about being wary of debt because we are spending future income (which may or may not be what we expect) for present gratification.
Debt has destroyed the lives of many people. The bible does not ever absolutely condemn debt but asks us to think. It asks us to think if our inclinations of what we need and want are really so good for us.
The bible's teaching on debt, like many of the bible's teachings, are to protect our happiness. We have a tendency as fallen people to value pleasure in the moment far above the long term costs of our decisions. We often suffer from a shortsightedness which is why the bible teaches us to be wary of debt.
Showing posts with label think. Show all posts
Showing posts with label think. Show all posts
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Learning About God
When we study God's Word and think through what living a Christian life means, it's important to think about who God is and how he relates to people. Often it's easy to take a passage of Scripture and only think about what that means for what we should do. That's fine to do at some point, but it's important to be sure we take time to think about what it means about God and how he relates to us.
If we never study or think about God's power and strength, and how he uses it to help us, it might be much harder to cast our anxieties and burdens on Christ (Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7, ESV). Knowing about God's power helps us to be able to respond to God's call.
If we never study God's mercy and gentleness to his people, including us, then we might find it hard to be merciful and gentle to others and ourselves out of love.
If we never study God's pure holiness and goodness, we might not realize how extremely blessed we are to even get a chance to talk to him.
Some people worry that a lot of theology isn't practical, but how we view God and how he relates to us definitely affects the way we live. We should also of course see what the Bible has to say about humans too.
While learning the attributes of God is of great importance, it's more important to see God as he interacts in history—how the Christian God is a personal God. Read more on this in Danny's article "God Known through Actions."
Danny also wrote about how theology speaks to all areas of life in "Theology as a Meta-Discipline."
If we never study or think about God's power and strength, and how he uses it to help us, it might be much harder to cast our anxieties and burdens on Christ (Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7, ESV). Knowing about God's power helps us to be able to respond to God's call.
If we never study God's mercy and gentleness to his people, including us, then we might find it hard to be merciful and gentle to others and ourselves out of love.
If we never study God's pure holiness and goodness, we might not realize how extremely blessed we are to even get a chance to talk to him.
Some people worry that a lot of theology isn't practical, but how we view God and how he relates to us definitely affects the way we live. We should also of course see what the Bible has to say about humans too.
While learning the attributes of God is of great importance, it's more important to see God as he interacts in history—how the Christian God is a personal God. Read more on this in Danny's article "God Known through Actions."
Danny also wrote about how theology speaks to all areas of life in "Theology as a Meta-Discipline."
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Entertainment Choices: TV and Reading
Post by
Michelle Dowell, Co-Contributor
I've written about how it's important to think and talk about good things as the Bible tells us--and so it should be with TV and reading. Possibly the reason we are so ready to share sad stories for no other reason than it's a sad story is possibly that we just do that for entertainment--so why not in our thoughts and conversations, too.
Some people might think that by watching sad stories they're learning how to help or relate to people in that type of situation. However, I'm not sure that's really the result. A person who is going through a tough time doesn't need to hear "I know what you're going through, I read or watched a story where the main character went through this!" What that person needs is a friend who is simply loving them--being there to listen and sometimes to talk, and really getting to know them.
The reason and solution for things is often more simple than we'd like to think. The reason that sad things happen is we are a part of a fallen world. The way to help as much as we can is to follow God's direction for our lives, which includes loving everyone and making wise choices.
That doesn't mean that we only can watch or read stories where nothing bad happens. Often stories are ones where something bad happens and then a hero helps things be better. It's fighting some evil and feeling hope.
Stories also help us understand our culture more and/or laugh. This is good too if done appropriately.
TV in itself isn't bad. We need to use discernment and be selective, of course, just like with books that we read. When we were children we may have been read stories at night. TV is often stories that are told to us little by little--the same type of thing in some sense. The content might be somewhat different. But people love to hear stories of people who have hope and create some change in difficult situations. Or stories that make us laugh and understand things more.
Michelle Dowell, Co-Contributor
I've written about how it's important to think and talk about good things as the Bible tells us--and so it should be with TV and reading. Possibly the reason we are so ready to share sad stories for no other reason than it's a sad story is possibly that we just do that for entertainment--so why not in our thoughts and conversations, too.
Some people might think that by watching sad stories they're learning how to help or relate to people in that type of situation. However, I'm not sure that's really the result. A person who is going through a tough time doesn't need to hear "I know what you're going through, I read or watched a story where the main character went through this!" What that person needs is a friend who is simply loving them--being there to listen and sometimes to talk, and really getting to know them.
The reason and solution for things is often more simple than we'd like to think. The reason that sad things happen is we are a part of a fallen world. The way to help as much as we can is to follow God's direction for our lives, which includes loving everyone and making wise choices.
That doesn't mean that we only can watch or read stories where nothing bad happens. Often stories are ones where something bad happens and then a hero helps things be better. It's fighting some evil and feeling hope.
Stories also help us understand our culture more and/or laugh. This is good too if done appropriately.
TV in itself isn't bad. We need to use discernment and be selective, of course, just like with books that we read. When we were children we may have been read stories at night. TV is often stories that are told to us little by little--the same type of thing in some sense. The content might be somewhat different. But people love to hear stories of people who have hope and create some change in difficult situations. Or stories that make us laugh and understand things more.
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