I heard the sermon on Sunday. And afterwards, I thought to myself that he was right. Poverty cannot be solved just by shoving material goods at people. The definition of poverty is not a lack of stuff, but a lack of a Savior. That good deeds without the Word is not effective. We must also tell people about King Jesus, not just offer them stuff. I was inspired! For about ten minutes. Then I said to Kevin, "I really want to have matching plates for Thanksgiving. Right now I have 5 blue plates and 4 white plates. Plus, they're ugly and chipped. I would like to get some new plates." My smart husband reminded me of the sermon we had just heard, and I cringed. How is it, that I can learn something, just to loose the lesson five minutes later?
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14
Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
Monday, November 23, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Annoyance
Ok, I'll say it here for the last time: Matthew 6:21 does not by any means instruct Christians to give their money to worthy causes.
In fact, it says nothing about our use of money at all.
It seems clear from the two preceding verses that Jesus is contrasting "treasures on earth" with "treasures in heaven." He is not particularly excited about the earthly ones--such as money and anything it can buy. So, the refrain "where your treasure is, there you heart will be also" is not a budgeting dictate, because Jesus is telling us to invest in eternal treasures and to abandon sublunary ones. Unfortunately, some Christians like to use this verse as an slogan for financial management and charitable donations. These are wonderful things, obviously, but such thinking entirely misses the point of the verse; instead it ironically encourages us to be even more concerned about our money, putting us in danger of doing precisely what Jesus tells us not to do in the verse. Please stop misusing scripture. That is all.
In fact, it says nothing about our use of money at all.
It seems clear from the two preceding verses that Jesus is contrasting "treasures on earth" with "treasures in heaven." He is not particularly excited about the earthly ones--such as money and anything it can buy. So, the refrain "where your treasure is, there you heart will be also" is not a budgeting dictate, because Jesus is telling us to invest in eternal treasures and to abandon sublunary ones. Unfortunately, some Christians like to use this verse as an slogan for financial management and charitable donations. These are wonderful things, obviously, but such thinking entirely misses the point of the verse; instead it ironically encourages us to be even more concerned about our money, putting us in danger of doing precisely what Jesus tells us not to do in the verse. Please stop misusing scripture. That is all.
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