"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word..." Hebrews 1:3 (NIV)
The world is created by God and upheld at every moment by God. Many people have made arguments against the ethic of God acting in the world.
It is as if it would be wrong for God to act upon the world. The Christian teaching is that God must act upon the world at every moment to hold it in existence.
The world does not have the permanence man arrogantly places it as having. It is utterly dependent on God each moment.
The question of the ethics of God acting upon the world is senseless to the bible since it has no existence apart from him continuing to will that the world is.
You see the arrogance of man thinking he can fight against God. Man meets God in the bible and if there is a difference of opinion it is man who is wrong.
God cannot violate the laws of nature because he created them and upholds them at every moment. The bible is always right even when we think it is wrong.
Showing posts with label the world. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the world. Show all posts
Friday, March 21, 2014
Saturday, November 30, 2013
A Theology of Practical Life
I feel like writing a longer piece today about a theology of practical life. Mainly money. I wish to discuss the subject in a helpful way as I feel few pieces of literature really do a good job on the topic.
Primarily I would like to say that money is not good or bad. Possibly this is an overstatement in an overly gnostic sense since as far as money represents labor it represents the work of man and God made man to work.
Mainly people look at the bible and say that money is evil as money is the "the root of all evil." You see this is a quotation but it has lost context and is now untrue. It is the "love of money is the route of all evil." Even this may be untrue as the word all is not likely to be correct in translation.
You see money is simply a potentiality. Man has potential with money. He can do good or evil.
Money in a sense is a litmus test for man for what he will do. If he has $100 of money to spend and feels no need to save it or pay an obligation with it then what will he do?
You see there is a man who is dying of hunger on the street corner and there is a day on the golf course. We have a choice.
Many go too far at this point and begin to say all should be given away and none retained. You see we are meant to enjoy good things in an ideal world but also to share.
A sort of balance is needed with money. We have an ethical responsibility but we are also to enjoy life. God does not wish us to deprive ourselves as it is not a virtue to deprive oneself in general except for a short time for a reason.
You see money even to a degree has a potential to spread the gospel. Money cannot speak the gospel but many attempts to deliver the gospel message are thwarted for lack of funds.
You will see for example many ministries who do good work will fail or cut services. I suppose in the coming years with the pressures on colleges there will be many Christian Colleges who have benefited the church and society who will shut the doors.
You see everywhere there are people wishing to do something for the lord but running short of funds to do so. The great commission is at many times hindered for a lack of funds.
This is why money can never be seen as evil or possibly never seen as neutral. It is more in the category of a good thing because it can be used for a great many goods.
You see money is more often used for evil that good it seems but this is related to the nature of man more than the nature of money.
Because man has a dark heart he takes the good and uses it for evil. Which is of course why man needs to meet Jesus.
Jesus meets men and tells them they have a dark heart and that the situation is impossibly bad and then gives them a simple solution. Have faith in me.
You see everything is fairly simple we need to help people met Jesus. We do not need laws enacted primarily. We do not need to push large amounts of money to lobby for law change primarily.
We need to have people discover how to meet Jesus. Sometimes we make things very hard. What music is right or wrong? We major in minors.
We simply need to help people met Jesus and meet him at the place of glory which is the cross. You see all things come back into focus through God.
Money really is something good but man must meet himself in despair and then after stepping in faith into the work of Jesus on the cross then he can learn how this good thing is used.
You see the world is good and although corrupted maintains its fundamentally good nature. We simply misuse the good. We cannot legislate ethics in sweeping way to fix society. We cannot educate him society to do so to a huge degree.
He must simply meet Jesus at the cross and see that the valley of death there is really the moment of glory.
Primarily I would like to say that money is not good or bad. Possibly this is an overstatement in an overly gnostic sense since as far as money represents labor it represents the work of man and God made man to work.
Mainly people look at the bible and say that money is evil as money is the "the root of all evil." You see this is a quotation but it has lost context and is now untrue. It is the "love of money is the route of all evil." Even this may be untrue as the word all is not likely to be correct in translation.
You see money is simply a potentiality. Man has potential with money. He can do good or evil.
Money in a sense is a litmus test for man for what he will do. If he has $100 of money to spend and feels no need to save it or pay an obligation with it then what will he do?
You see there is a man who is dying of hunger on the street corner and there is a day on the golf course. We have a choice.
Many go too far at this point and begin to say all should be given away and none retained. You see we are meant to enjoy good things in an ideal world but also to share.
A sort of balance is needed with money. We have an ethical responsibility but we are also to enjoy life. God does not wish us to deprive ourselves as it is not a virtue to deprive oneself in general except for a short time for a reason.
You see money even to a degree has a potential to spread the gospel. Money cannot speak the gospel but many attempts to deliver the gospel message are thwarted for lack of funds.
You will see for example many ministries who do good work will fail or cut services. I suppose in the coming years with the pressures on colleges there will be many Christian Colleges who have benefited the church and society who will shut the doors.
You see everywhere there are people wishing to do something for the lord but running short of funds to do so. The great commission is at many times hindered for a lack of funds.
This is why money can never be seen as evil or possibly never seen as neutral. It is more in the category of a good thing because it can be used for a great many goods.
You see money is more often used for evil that good it seems but this is related to the nature of man more than the nature of money.
Because man has a dark heart he takes the good and uses it for evil. Which is of course why man needs to meet Jesus.
Jesus meets men and tells them they have a dark heart and that the situation is impossibly bad and then gives them a simple solution. Have faith in me.
You see everything is fairly simple we need to help people met Jesus. We do not need laws enacted primarily. We do not need to push large amounts of money to lobby for law change primarily.
We need to have people discover how to meet Jesus. Sometimes we make things very hard. What music is right or wrong? We major in minors.
We simply need to help people met Jesus and meet him at the place of glory which is the cross. You see all things come back into focus through God.
Money really is something good but man must meet himself in despair and then after stepping in faith into the work of Jesus on the cross then he can learn how this good thing is used.
You see the world is good and although corrupted maintains its fundamentally good nature. We simply misuse the good. We cannot legislate ethics in sweeping way to fix society. We cannot educate him society to do so to a huge degree.
He must simply meet Jesus at the cross and see that the valley of death there is really the moment of glory.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
John Piper Quote on How "One of the Great Diseases of Our Day Is Triviality."
A bit from a John Piper sermon:
One of the great diseases of our day is triviality. The things with which most people spend most of their time are utterly trivial. And what makes this a disease is that we who were created in the image of God were meant to live for magnificent causes. None of us is really content with the trivial pursuits of the world. Our souls will not be satisfied with trifles. Why is there a whole section of the newspaper devoted to sport, and almost nothing devoted to the greatest story in the universe—the growth and spread of the church of Jesus Christ? It is madness, sheer madness, that insignificant games should occupy such a central role in our culture. It is simply one of many signs that we are enslaved to trivialities. We live in the Swiss village shop staring at the wooden figurines, and rarely lifting our eyes to the forests and the everlasting snows. We live in a perpetual and hopeless struggle to satisfy our longings on trifles. So our souls shrivel. Our lives are trivial. And our capacity for great worship dies.
Tuesday, July 5, 2005
The Journey of Life
A brief excerpt from a really incredible sermon by John Piper:
"Suffering is appointed for us in this life as a great mercy to keep us from loving this world more than we should and to make us rely on God who raises the dead. 'Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God' (Acts 14:22). There is no other way. Do not begrudge them. They are hard to bear. I know they are. But if you keep your inheritance before you, and if God gives you the grace to see what Paul calls 'the riches of the glory of his inheritance' (Ephesians 1:18), then will you not say with the apostle, 'I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us'?
"Picture this life as a journey on your way to receive a spectacular inheritance. It will protect you from idolatry and make all your burdens lighter, and quiet all your murmurings.
"Here's the way the old John Newton put it:
"Amen."
"Suffering is appointed for us in this life as a great mercy to keep us from loving this world more than we should and to make us rely on God who raises the dead. 'Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God' (Acts 14:22). There is no other way. Do not begrudge them. They are hard to bear. I know they are. But if you keep your inheritance before you, and if God gives you the grace to see what Paul calls 'the riches of the glory of his inheritance' (Ephesians 1:18), then will you not say with the apostle, 'I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us'?
"Picture this life as a journey on your way to receive a spectacular inheritance. It will protect you from idolatry and make all your burdens lighter, and quiet all your murmurings.
"Here's the way the old John Newton put it:
Suppose a man was going to New York to take possession
of a large estate, and his [carriage] should break down a mile
before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of
the way; what a fool we should think him, if we saw him ringing his
hands, and blubbering out all the remaining mile, "My [carriage] is
broken! My [carriage] is broken!" (Richard Cecil, Memoirs of
the Rev. John Newton, in The Works of the Rev. John
Newton, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1985),
p. 108.)
"Amen."
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