Recent comments
Jean Williams on Kids@church/Click: Some great material for your children's Sunday School
Jean Williams on Temptation and the garden
Andrew Clarke on Kids@church/Click: Some great material for your children's Sunday School
Andrew Clarke on Temptation and the garden
Andrew Clarke on A Vine confabulation
Current discussions
God, the universe and all that: Part 3 (12 comments)
A Vine confabulation (4 comments)
Temptation and the garden (2 comments)
Kids@church/Click: Some great material for your children’s Sunday School (2 comments)
God, the universe and all that: Part 2 (1 comment)
Recent posts
Temptation and the garden by Jean Williams (2 comments). All our temptations are garden temptations. I don't usually talk much about gardening when I lead Bible studies, but … more
God, the universe and all that: Part 5 by Lionel Windsor (0 comments). In this fifth and final instalment of his five-part series, Lionel Windsor reveals what the solution to … more
Experiencing God by Karen Beilharz (0 comments). If you've just joined us, in these Saturday posts we've been looking at classics from The Briefing archive … more
God, the universe and all that: Part 4 by Lionel Windsor (0 comments). In the fourth instalment of a five-part series, Lionel Windsor uncovers the answer to the riddle. (Read … more
A Vine confabulation by Ian Carmichael (4 comments). We at Matthias Media have recently made available a free and downloadable discussion guide for Col Marshall and Tony Payne's … more
God, the universe and all that: Part 3 by Lionel Windsor (12 comments). In the third instalment of a five-part series, Lionel Windsor discovers we humans are significant in the … more
Kids@church/Click: Some great material for your children’s Sunday School by Jean Williams (2 comments). I teach Sunday School for children regularly, but I don't always have the time and energy to write my … more
Experiencing confusion by Karen Beilharz (0 comments). I mentioned in my last Saturday post that for the next little while, we would be looking at … more
God, the universe and all that: Part 2 by Lionel Windsor (1 comment). In the second instalment of a five-part series, Lionel Windsor contemplates the extent of our significance in … more
Stark treatment of the Crusades by Peter Bolt (2 comments). Revisionist history is probably as common as it is unethical. There are lessons to learn from the past, but … more
Tony Payne
Paul is one of the Staff Editors at Matthias Media. He is married to Cathy and has three fantastic kids. He loves student ministry, reading, writing music and playing the saxophone, and is looking forward to meeting Jesus face to face.
Sola Panellists
Some other sites
we like (Why these?)
- Matthias Media
- The Briefing
- 9Marks
- Albert Mohler
- Anglican Church League
- challies
- David Ould
- ENTRUST
- EQUIP book club
- Girl Talk
- Gordon Cheng's Blog
- The Gospel Coalition
- Jean Williams's blog
- Justin Taylor
- Lionel Windsor
- Monergism
- Moore College
- MTS
- Nicole Starling's blog
- Phillip Jensen
- Pyromaniacs
- The Proclamation Trust
- Reformers' Bookshop
- The Simeon Trust
- The Ugley Vicar
Hi Nicole,
A good post. It’s one of those areas where you can see the speck in the other person’s eye, but be blind to the log in your own.
This is not directly related to the main theme, but your comment about applying Scripture caught my attention. How can I learn to apply Scripture better, especially in public preaching and teaching?
Hi Nicole, just came across from your blog. I preached on this just last Sunday and did get more specific and hard hitting for the reasons you state above. Now I’ve spent all week since feeling very convicted that I don’t practice what I preach!
A bullseye, Nicole.
Three quick reactions:
1. The ‘silent example’ has always been a problem for me personally. I see a Christian brother I respect with a new X (iPhone, plasma TV, etc.), and it’s amazing how much more easily I start to justify my greed for those very things. “Well, he’s got one after all.” It’s not envy. It’s a sense of validation.
2. Enjoying God’s creation is good, and some of us need encouragement to let a little fun into our lives. All work and no play etc. But your perception of how easily that also turns into a licence for self-centred living and materialism is on the money (so to speak).
3. Practically speaking, I think this is the biggest obstacle to reaching our city for Christ. Faith comes through hearing the Word, and hearing the Word comes through people giving their time to pray, to make contact with others, and to share the Word with them. But we’re all too busy raising our families in paradise to do this.
Thanks again for an excellent post.
TP
Thanks Nicole for a timely reminder!
I find that having on my daily prayer list places for the disadvantaged and poor, the struggling church overseas doing without the human and material resources we take for granted and our brothers and sisters in Christ facing daily persecution we would find unimaginable , a great help in seeking to live out God’s world view and looking out rather than in. With time it also impinges on my use of money and how & where I spend it.
It is all about love,for God and for my neighbour.I need to daily ask my heavenly father to help me to love as he loves and to carefully consider the implications this brings.
Thanks Nicole. I wholeheartedly agree.
I think superficial views of contextualisation can also justify our greed (eg. “I need a certain standard of interior decor so that my neighbours will feel comfortable visiting me”.)
May God give us more of a “pioneering” spirit to set a different example in our Christian (and unbelieving) communities.
Hi Nicole
Do you think part of the problem may stem from a failure to understand the scriptures such as 1 Tim 4:1-5 in its immediate context in the first place and so people are lead to distorted ‘applications’?
As I understand it, these verses are not a case for indulgence. The passage is a rejection to the thinking that abstinence is holy.
I suggest the desire for earthly prosperity focuses around two things:
o our lack of appreciation of the gospel - unwillingness to obey when we hear scripture
o our failure to understand what the scriptures are saying (tendency to distort and legalise)
Therefore we tend to overlook our response to the Gospel of grace and focus on/judge/covet others. When I struggle to be generous it is because I don’t want to be generous – my heart is the problem. So I need to keep hearing the gospel.
Di
Thanks once again Nicole! You tend to put into words my half-formed thoughts on so many things. I am very thankful to have some godly Christian leaders as my example in this; they consistently have a lower standard of living than almost everyone else in church and yet seem quite content with their lot. Not that they go on about it, either, but as you say, you do get to look at the silent example of those around you. I am very inspired by some of our Christian friends too, who do <cite>live simply, so that others may simply live<cite>.
Thanks Nicole
I think Christians might also put blinkers on our definition of ‘prosperity’, leaving some areas for us to indulge ‘guilt-free.’
There’s no direct dollar value cost or credit card expense for aiming at nice middle-class jobs, or formal educational achievement. Most of us wouldn’t look at a person being promoted to a new international location the same way we would look at a guy with an expensive sports car - perhaps we should.
Commenting rules
If you would like your comment to be considered for publication, please observe the following rules:
Failure to adhere to these rules will result in your comment being quietly deleted.
If you want to give us feedback but don't want your comments to appear on the blog, DON'T use the form below. Instead, please send us an email or click on the button below.
Your Comment
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.