Some things I'm Learning

I heard a minister speaking that had an interesting thought which shed new light on a sector of American Christianity that has always troubled me. He looked at it from the perspective of child psychology.

He noted that as children we are very needy people and we constantly ask our parents for everything. Preschoolers are extremely self-centered creatures. The entire world revolves aroud them and many parents will atest that their world revolves all around them.

But sooner or later we expect that child to grow up. We expect them to walk for themsleves and eventually we start giving chores to them. You have to make the bed, clean your room, wash the dishes, mow the yard. If you have a child that isn't taught that they need to take care of themselves what do we call that child, a spoiled brat. They never grew up.

This is how the minister characterized the health and wealth preaching and teaching you see so much on television and why it is popular. It is infantile in it's appraoch to the Bible. it neglects the fact that we called to leave our spiritual milk and bite on real food. We called to mature in Christ, to made perfect in him. We are called to work out our salvation in Christ.

In the health and wealth camp you don't hear to much about how we, who have been so richly blessed by Christ's grace, are to give to the needy, the poor, the oppressed, the widows, and the poor. Health and wealth teaching just assumes that you are are the poor and the oppressed. It never asks you to look beyond yourself, until it's time to give in the offering. Anyone ready to plant a seed! My thought on that is if I believed that I would be giving my money to you instead of me asking for your money.

Also, be careful of just accepting any kind of teaching you hear. We are called to put the teachings of others to the test to be sure they are from God. How do yo know that it is of God? Test it against God's word. Are they being held accountable by reputable men to the word of God? Any ole guy or gal can attach Bible verses together to make his case. You need to be sure those scriptures are being used correctly!