Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Financial Peace vs. Financial Faithfulness
Our church offers a class where we teach Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University" which is a big draw for a big need. I think that stupid debt runs rampent in this country and we need to be smart about how we spend our money.
Dave Ramsey has offered this as a great tool to help people overcome their debt. I think that the intentions of this are great, but like so many things we have put what I think can be a bad focus on it.
I have want to share what I think are the differences between debts reduction and biblical stewardship.
#1. Do you want to reduce debt to have more money in the future, or do you want to reduce debt so that you can be more generous with your money. This is more than just giving a larger percent to your church, but also to other ministries.
#2. Do you view your savings as a storehouse for your excess for a rainy day or do you view it as a resource that can be used for the kingdom of God. If you feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit to give your money away to the poor or anywhere else are you willing to do it, even if it means giving up your "dream retirement"?
#3. Does "living on less" cause you to sympathize with those who have even less? It is easy to think that we are doing the will of God be simply not making dumb decisions with your money, but doing nothing but saving is also a stupid decision. Jesus talked about this, with the man that built larger storehouses to hold his excess and died that very night.
#4 Is your savings becoming less and less about making sure that you are financially free to do the will of God when he might call you to something different and becoming more and more about a lack of faith for God to provide us with our "daily bread"? There is a very fine line between saving for the future and hoarding your money.
#5 Are you planning for retirement or are you planning for a freer lifestyle to serve God and others? I recently met a pastor who believes that retirement (in the conventional sense) is a sin. I would have to agree with him. I know that the definition of retirement is very wide, kind of like jr. high students who are "going out" when they don't "go anywhere".
I do not say these things to bad mouth Dave Ramsey, quite the oppostie actually. I just worry that we have taken a good thing and twisted it. I do not think that throwing our money away is good, there is a huge difference between giving money away and throwing it away. Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread, this is a prayer of faith. Asking God to give us exactly what we need to get by, not too much so that we hoard it and grow to have a sense of entitlement, and not too little so that we can't get by.
All in all, I am just voicing this concern in hopes that anyone who reads this will look be finanically faithful and not just think that financial peace is just about saving so that they can have a bright future with all of the money that they saved, but the peace that comes from a life of generosity. To feel the freedom that comes from being able to hold loosely to their money. Spending it wisely so they have more to bless the lives of others as well and not just their own in the future.
Dave Ramsey has offered this as a great tool to help people overcome their debt. I think that the intentions of this are great, but like so many things we have put what I think can be a bad focus on it.
I have want to share what I think are the differences between debts reduction and biblical stewardship.
#1. Do you want to reduce debt to have more money in the future, or do you want to reduce debt so that you can be more generous with your money. This is more than just giving a larger percent to your church, but also to other ministries.
#2. Do you view your savings as a storehouse for your excess for a rainy day or do you view it as a resource that can be used for the kingdom of God. If you feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit to give your money away to the poor or anywhere else are you willing to do it, even if it means giving up your "dream retirement"?
#3. Does "living on less" cause you to sympathize with those who have even less? It is easy to think that we are doing the will of God be simply not making dumb decisions with your money, but doing nothing but saving is also a stupid decision. Jesus talked about this, with the man that built larger storehouses to hold his excess and died that very night.
#4 Is your savings becoming less and less about making sure that you are financially free to do the will of God when he might call you to something different and becoming more and more about a lack of faith for God to provide us with our "daily bread"? There is a very fine line between saving for the future and hoarding your money.
#5 Are you planning for retirement or are you planning for a freer lifestyle to serve God and others? I recently met a pastor who believes that retirement (in the conventional sense) is a sin. I would have to agree with him. I know that the definition of retirement is very wide, kind of like jr. high students who are "going out" when they don't "go anywhere".
I do not say these things to bad mouth Dave Ramsey, quite the oppostie actually. I just worry that we have taken a good thing and twisted it. I do not think that throwing our money away is good, there is a huge difference between giving money away and throwing it away. Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread, this is a prayer of faith. Asking God to give us exactly what we need to get by, not too much so that we hoard it and grow to have a sense of entitlement, and not too little so that we can't get by.
All in all, I am just voicing this concern in hopes that anyone who reads this will look be finanically faithful and not just think that financial peace is just about saving so that they can have a bright future with all of the money that they saved, but the peace that comes from a life of generosity. To feel the freedom that comes from being able to hold loosely to their money. Spending it wisely so they have more to bless the lives of others as well and not just their own in the future.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Why Are These Guys All Half-Naked?
The sad thing is that I kind of like the song...just not the awkward half naked dancing manfest.
The Return of Scrubs.
One month from today the new (and probably final) season of Scrubs starts.
I say probably because every season was going to be the last, but it keeps on plugging along.
I wish Arrested Development would have done the same thing.
I say probably because every season was going to be the last, but it keeps on plugging along.
I wish Arrested Development would have done the same thing.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Jesus Wants To Save Christians - Rob Bell
This morning I finished reading the new book by Rob Bell titled "Jesus Wants To Save Christians". This books is based off of a sermon series that Bell did at Mars Hill a couple of years ago and decided to write a book that is somewhat tied to that series.
I find Rob Bell to be a great communicator, in his sermons as well as his writing.
I think this book has a lot of eye opening ideas that are curcial for the church today to answer. Some of the questions that are brought to the surface are, "do we use our power to help the powerless?", "do we use our money wisely to help others or do we use it unwisely and build multi-million dollar buildings to show off?"
I think these questions need to be asked in today's consumer driven Christianity.
Although I agree with several of Rob Bell's conclusions, I disagree with some of the ways that he gets there.
Some of you who have really looked into Bell's beliefs know that he has said that Jesus has already saved "all of creation" and "we all have the same destiny, but we can live in that reality now". This comes through in the book some, as well as a chapter that decsribes the book of Revelation as a coded message that John delivered to his former congregation to rebel against the establishment. He referes to paying taxes as the sign of the beast, and seems to be advocating some sort of righteous anarchy.
I found this interesting seeing as how Jesus himself said "Render on to Ceaser what is Ceaser's". Bell also seems to hint that violence and wrath are not in Jesus' persona, and it is true that he did not lash out violently (except in the temple with the money changers) during his ministry, scripture even says that he "did not defend himself". However, to say that this is not a part of Jesus message does not jive with the message of Revelation when Jesus shows up riding a horse, carrying a sword, and ready to kick some butt. Mark Driscoll describes this as "Ultimate Fighter Jesus", which might be a fairly accurate image...except for the whole played up dramatics and crappy play by play from the announcers.
All in all I would recommend this book, but I would also HIGHLY recommend that is be read with caution and discernment. It seems that in several ways Bell is drifiting the road of the emergent movement where McLaren and Sweet dance with pixies and wish truth away on the back of a unicorn. *I know this is a mean critique, but it is hard to claim the things they claim without doing away with the truth of who Jesus is, according to Jesus.*
Read it if you want, just be careful.
All in all I give this book 3 trendy pairs of glasses out of 5.
I find Rob Bell to be a great communicator, in his sermons as well as his writing.
I think this book has a lot of eye opening ideas that are curcial for the church today to answer. Some of the questions that are brought to the surface are, "do we use our power to help the powerless?", "do we use our money wisely to help others or do we use it unwisely and build multi-million dollar buildings to show off?"
I think these questions need to be asked in today's consumer driven Christianity.
Although I agree with several of Rob Bell's conclusions, I disagree with some of the ways that he gets there.
Some of you who have really looked into Bell's beliefs know that he has said that Jesus has already saved "all of creation" and "we all have the same destiny, but we can live in that reality now". This comes through in the book some, as well as a chapter that decsribes the book of Revelation as a coded message that John delivered to his former congregation to rebel against the establishment. He referes to paying taxes as the sign of the beast, and seems to be advocating some sort of righteous anarchy.
I found this interesting seeing as how Jesus himself said "Render on to Ceaser what is Ceaser's". Bell also seems to hint that violence and wrath are not in Jesus' persona, and it is true that he did not lash out violently (except in the temple with the money changers) during his ministry, scripture even says that he "did not defend himself". However, to say that this is not a part of Jesus message does not jive with the message of Revelation when Jesus shows up riding a horse, carrying a sword, and ready to kick some butt. Mark Driscoll describes this as "Ultimate Fighter Jesus", which might be a fairly accurate image...except for the whole played up dramatics and crappy play by play from the announcers.
All in all I would recommend this book, but I would also HIGHLY recommend that is be read with caution and discernment. It seems that in several ways Bell is drifiting the road of the emergent movement where McLaren and Sweet dance with pixies and wish truth away on the back of a unicorn. *I know this is a mean critique, but it is hard to claim the things they claim without doing away with the truth of who Jesus is, according to Jesus.*
Read it if you want, just be careful.
All in all I give this book 3 trendy pairs of glasses out of 5.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
CRABTREE
Apparently Michael Crabtree is going to be returning for his Junior year at Texas Tech.
If this is true...awesome
If this is true...awesome
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
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