by John Piper
When I read about prosperity-preaching churches, my response is: "If I were not on the inside of Christianity, I wouldn't want in." In other words, if this is the message of Jesus, no thank you.
Luring people to Christ to get rich is both deceitful and deadly. It's deceitful because when Jesus himself called us, he said things like: "Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). And it's deadly because the desire to be rich plunges "people into ruin and destruction" (1 Timothy 6:9). So here is my plea to preachers of the gospel.
1. Don't develop a philosophy of ministry that makes it harder for people to get into heaven.
Jesus said, "How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" His disciples were astonished, as many in the "prosperity" movement should be. So Jesus went on to raise their astonishment even higher by saying, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." They respond in disbelief: "Then who can be saved?" Jesus says, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God" (Mark 10:23-27).
My question for prosperity preachers is: Why would you want to develop a ministry focus that makes it harder for people to enter heaven?
2. Do not develop a philosophy of ministry that kindles suicidal desires in people.
Paul said, "There is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content." But then he warned against the desire to be rich. And by implication, he warned against preachers who stir up the desire to be rich instead of helping people get rid of it. He warned, "Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs" (1 Timothy 6:6-10).
So my question for prosperity preachers is: Why would you want to develop a ministry that encourages people to pierce themselves with many pangs and plunge themselves into ruin and destruction?
3. Do not develop a philosophy of ministry that encourages vulnerability to moth and rust.
Jesus warns against the effort to lay up treasures on earth. That is, he tells us to be givers, not keepers. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal" (Matthew 6:19).
Yes, we all keep something. But given the built-in tendency toward greed in all of us, why would we take the focus off Jesus and turn it upside down?
4. Don't develop a philosophy of ministry that makes hard work a means of amassing wealth.
Paul said we should not steal. The alternative was hard work with our own hands. But the main purpose was not merely to hoard or even to have. The purpose was "to have to give." "Let him labor, working with his hands, that he may have to give to him who is in need" (Ephesians 4:28). This is not a justification for being rich in order to give more. It is a call to make more and keep less so you can give more. There is no reason why a person who makes $200,000 should live any differently from the way a person who makes $80,000 lives. Find a wartime lifestyle; cap your expenditures; then give the rest away.
Why would you want to encourage people to think that they should possess wealth in order to be a lavish giver? Why not encourage them to keep their lives more simple and be an even more lavish giver? Would that not add to their generosity a strong testimony that Christ, and not possessions, is their treasure?
5. Don't develop a philosophy of ministry that promotes less faith in the promises of God to be for us what money can't be.
The reason the writer to the Hebrews tells us to be content with what we have is that the opposite implies less faith in the promises of God. He says, "Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:5-6).
If the Bible tells us that being content with what we have honors the promise of God never to forsake us, why would we want to teach people to want to be rich?
6. Don't develop a philosophy of ministry that contributes to your people being choked to death.
Jesus warns that the word of God, which is meant to give us life, can be choked off from any effectiveness by riches. He says it is like a seed that grows up among thorns that choke it to death: "They are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the . . . riches . . . of life, and their fruit does not mature" (Luke 8:14).
Why would we want to encourage people to pursue the very thing that Jesus warns will choke us to death?
7. Don't develop a philosophy of ministry that takes the seasoning out of the salt and puts the light under a basket.
What is it about Christians that makes them the salt of the earth and the light of the world? It is not wealth. The desire for wealth and the pursuit of wealth tastes and looks just like the world. It does not offer the world anything different from what it already believes in. The great tragedy of prosperity-preaching is that a person does not have to be spiritually awakened in order to embrace it; one needs only to be greedy. Getting rich in the name of Jesus is not the salt of the earth or the light of the world. In this, the world simply sees a reflection of itself. And if it works, they will buy it.
The context of Jesus' saying shows us what the salt and light are. They are the joyful willingness to suffering for Christ. Here is what Jesus said, "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:11-14).
What will make the world taste (the salt) and see (the light) of Christ in us is not that we love wealth the same way they do. Rather, it will be the willingness and the ability of Christians to love others through suffering, all the while rejoicing because their reward is in heaven with Jesus. This is inexplicable on human terms. This is supernatural. But to attract people with promises of prosperity is simply natural. It is not the message of Jesus. It is not what he died to achieve.
Pastor John
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Why Saints Persevere
from ALL OF GRACE
By
CHARLES H. SPURGEON
THE HOPE which filled the heart of Paul concerning the Corinthian brethren we have already seen to be full of comfort to those who trembled as to their future. But why was it that he believed that the brethren would be confirmed to the end?
I want you to notice that he gives his reasons. Here they are:
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:9).
The apostle does not say, “You are faithful.” Alas! the faithfulness of man is a very unreliable affair; it is mere vanity. He does not say, “You have faithful ministers to lead and guide you, and therefore I trust you will be safe.” Oh, no! if we are kept by men, we will be but ill kept. He puts it, “God is faithful.” If we are found faithful, it will be because God is faithful. On the faithfulness of our covenant God, the whole burden of our salvation must rest. On this glorious attribute of God, the matter hinges. We are variable as the wind, frail as a spider’s web, weak as water. No dependence can be placed on our natural qualities or our spiritual attainments, but God abides faithful. He is faithful in His love; He knows no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is faithful to His purpose; He does not begin a work and then leave it undone. He is faithful to His relationships; as a Father He will not renounce His children, as a friend He will not deny His people, as a Creator He will not forsake the work of His own hands. He is faithful to His promises and will never allow one of them to fail to a single believer. He is faithful to His covenant, which He has made with us in Christ Jesus and ratified with the blood of His sacrifice. He is faithful to His Son and will not allow His precious blood to be spilled in vain. He is faithful to His people to whom He has promised eternal life and from whom He will not turn away.
This faithfulness of God is the foundation and cornerstone of our hope of final perseverance. The saints will persevere in holiness because God perseveres in grace. He perseveres to bless, and therefore believers persevere in being blessed. He continues to keep His people, and therefore they continue to keep His commandments. This is good solid ground to rest on, and it is delightfully consistent with the title of this little book, All of Grace. Thus it is free favor and infinite mercy which ring in the dawn of salvation, and the same sweet bells sound melodiously through the whole day of grace.
You see that the only reasons for hoping that we will be confirmed to the end and be found blameless at the last are found in our God, but in Him these reasons are exceedingly abundant.
They lie first in what God has done. He has gone so far in blessing us that it is not possible for Him to run back. Paul reminds us that He has “called us into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ.” Has he called us? Then the call cannot be reversed, for “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” From the effectual call of His grace the Lord never turns. “Whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified them he also glorified”—this is the invariable rule of the divine procedure. There is a common call, of which it is said, “Many are called, but few are chosen”; but this of which we are now thinking is another kind of call, which betokens special love and necessitates the possession of that to which we are called. In such a case it is with the called one even as with Abraham’s seed, of whom the Lord said, “I have called thee from the ends of the earth, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.”
In what the Lord has done, we see strong reasons for our preservation and future glory because the Lord has called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ. It means into partnership with Jesus Christ, and I would have you carefully consider what this means. If you are indeed called by divine grace, you have come into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ so as to be joint owner with Him in all things. Henceforth you are one with Him in the sight of the Most High. The Lord Jesus bore your sins in His own body on the tree, being made a curse for you; and at the same time He has become your righteousness, so that you are justified in Him. You are Christ’s and Christ is yours. As Adam stood for his descendants, so does Jesus stand for all who are in Him. As husband and wife are one, so is Jesus one with all those who are united to Him by faith—one by a conjugal union which can never be broken. More than this, believers are members of the Body of Christ and so are one with Him by a loving, living, lasting union. God has called us into this union, this fellowship, this partnership; and by this very fact He has given us the token and pledge of our being confirmed to the end. If we were considered apart from Christ, we should be poor perishable units, soon dissolved and borne away to destruction; but as one with Jesus, we are made partakers of His nature and are endowed with His immortal life. Our destiny is linked with that of our Lord; and until He can be destroyed, it is not possible that we should perish.
Dwell much upon this partnership with the Son of God to which you have been called: for all your hope lies there. You can never be poor while Jesus is rich, since you are in one firm with Him. Want can never assail you, since you are joint proprietor with Him who is Possessor of Heaven and earth. You can never fail; for though one of the partners in the firm is as poor as a church mouse, and in himself an utter bankrupt who could not pay even a small amount of his heavy debts, yet the other partner is inconceivably, inexhaustibly rich. In such partnership you are raised above the depression of the times, the changes of the future, and the shock of the end of all things. The Lord has called you into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, and by that act and deed He has put you into the place of infallible safeguard.
If you are indeed a believer, you are one with Jesus; and therefore you are secure. Do you not see that it must be so? You must be confirmed to the end until the day of His appearing, if you have indeed been made one with Jesus by the irrevocable act of God. Christ and the believing sinner are in the same boat; unless Jesus sinks, the believer will never drown. Jesus has taken His redeemed into such connection with himself, that He must first be smitten, overcome, and dishonored before the least of His purchased ones can be injured. His name is at the head of the firm, and until it can be dishonored we are secure against all dread of failure.
So, then, with the utmost confidence let us go forward into the unknown future, linked eternally with Jesus. If the men of the world should cry, “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?” we will joyfully confess that we do lean on Jesus and that we mean to lean on Him more and more. Our faithful God is an everflowing well of delight, and our fellowship with the Son of God is a full river of joy. Knowing these glorious things we cannot be discouraged; nay, rather we cry with the apostle, “Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?”
By
CHARLES H. SPURGEON
THE HOPE which filled the heart of Paul concerning the Corinthian brethren we have already seen to be full of comfort to those who trembled as to their future. But why was it that he believed that the brethren would be confirmed to the end?
I want you to notice that he gives his reasons. Here they are:
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:9).
The apostle does not say, “You are faithful.” Alas! the faithfulness of man is a very unreliable affair; it is mere vanity. He does not say, “You have faithful ministers to lead and guide you, and therefore I trust you will be safe.” Oh, no! if we are kept by men, we will be but ill kept. He puts it, “God is faithful.” If we are found faithful, it will be because God is faithful. On the faithfulness of our covenant God, the whole burden of our salvation must rest. On this glorious attribute of God, the matter hinges. We are variable as the wind, frail as a spider’s web, weak as water. No dependence can be placed on our natural qualities or our spiritual attainments, but God abides faithful. He is faithful in His love; He knows no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is faithful to His purpose; He does not begin a work and then leave it undone. He is faithful to His relationships; as a Father He will not renounce His children, as a friend He will not deny His people, as a Creator He will not forsake the work of His own hands. He is faithful to His promises and will never allow one of them to fail to a single believer. He is faithful to His covenant, which He has made with us in Christ Jesus and ratified with the blood of His sacrifice. He is faithful to His Son and will not allow His precious blood to be spilled in vain. He is faithful to His people to whom He has promised eternal life and from whom He will not turn away.
This faithfulness of God is the foundation and cornerstone of our hope of final perseverance. The saints will persevere in holiness because God perseveres in grace. He perseveres to bless, and therefore believers persevere in being blessed. He continues to keep His people, and therefore they continue to keep His commandments. This is good solid ground to rest on, and it is delightfully consistent with the title of this little book, All of Grace. Thus it is free favor and infinite mercy which ring in the dawn of salvation, and the same sweet bells sound melodiously through the whole day of grace.
You see that the only reasons for hoping that we will be confirmed to the end and be found blameless at the last are found in our God, but in Him these reasons are exceedingly abundant.
They lie first in what God has done. He has gone so far in blessing us that it is not possible for Him to run back. Paul reminds us that He has “called us into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ.” Has he called us? Then the call cannot be reversed, for “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” From the effectual call of His grace the Lord never turns. “Whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified them he also glorified”—this is the invariable rule of the divine procedure. There is a common call, of which it is said, “Many are called, but few are chosen”; but this of which we are now thinking is another kind of call, which betokens special love and necessitates the possession of that to which we are called. In such a case it is with the called one even as with Abraham’s seed, of whom the Lord said, “I have called thee from the ends of the earth, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.”
In what the Lord has done, we see strong reasons for our preservation and future glory because the Lord has called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ. It means into partnership with Jesus Christ, and I would have you carefully consider what this means. If you are indeed called by divine grace, you have come into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ so as to be joint owner with Him in all things. Henceforth you are one with Him in the sight of the Most High. The Lord Jesus bore your sins in His own body on the tree, being made a curse for you; and at the same time He has become your righteousness, so that you are justified in Him. You are Christ’s and Christ is yours. As Adam stood for his descendants, so does Jesus stand for all who are in Him. As husband and wife are one, so is Jesus one with all those who are united to Him by faith—one by a conjugal union which can never be broken. More than this, believers are members of the Body of Christ and so are one with Him by a loving, living, lasting union. God has called us into this union, this fellowship, this partnership; and by this very fact He has given us the token and pledge of our being confirmed to the end. If we were considered apart from Christ, we should be poor perishable units, soon dissolved and borne away to destruction; but as one with Jesus, we are made partakers of His nature and are endowed with His immortal life. Our destiny is linked with that of our Lord; and until He can be destroyed, it is not possible that we should perish.
Dwell much upon this partnership with the Son of God to which you have been called: for all your hope lies there. You can never be poor while Jesus is rich, since you are in one firm with Him. Want can never assail you, since you are joint proprietor with Him who is Possessor of Heaven and earth. You can never fail; for though one of the partners in the firm is as poor as a church mouse, and in himself an utter bankrupt who could not pay even a small amount of his heavy debts, yet the other partner is inconceivably, inexhaustibly rich. In such partnership you are raised above the depression of the times, the changes of the future, and the shock of the end of all things. The Lord has called you into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, and by that act and deed He has put you into the place of infallible safeguard.
If you are indeed a believer, you are one with Jesus; and therefore you are secure. Do you not see that it must be so? You must be confirmed to the end until the day of His appearing, if you have indeed been made one with Jesus by the irrevocable act of God. Christ and the believing sinner are in the same boat; unless Jesus sinks, the believer will never drown. Jesus has taken His redeemed into such connection with himself, that He must first be smitten, overcome, and dishonored before the least of His purchased ones can be injured. His name is at the head of the firm, and until it can be dishonored we are secure against all dread of failure.
So, then, with the utmost confidence let us go forward into the unknown future, linked eternally with Jesus. If the men of the world should cry, “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?” we will joyfully confess that we do lean on Jesus and that we mean to lean on Him more and more. Our faithful God is an everflowing well of delight, and our fellowship with the Son of God is a full river of joy. Knowing these glorious things we cannot be discouraged; nay, rather we cry with the apostle, “Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?”
Monday, September 03, 2007
Two dates
September 1st - my father's birthday, this year is his 83rd.
September 3rd - my mother's birthday, this year is her 80th.
September 1st - I will never get over this date, a tragic date in my country's history, when WWII began and changed Poland forever...
Those who do not learn from history are bound to commit the mistakes again. Those who learn, should learn well, objectively and thoroughly. Those who live should live accordingly to what they profess. And all should live for the Glory of God.
Onto their last breath, onto the Great Forever...
September 3rd - my mother's birthday, this year is her 80th.
September 1st - I will never get over this date, a tragic date in my country's history, when WWII began and changed Poland forever...
Those who do not learn from history are bound to commit the mistakes again. Those who learn, should learn well, objectively and thoroughly. Those who live should live accordingly to what they profess. And all should live for the Glory of God.
Onto their last breath, onto the Great Forever...
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Glorious things of thee are spoken
1. Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Holy city of our God;
He whose word cannot be broken
Formed thee for His own abode;
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation's walls surrounded,
Thou may'st smile at all thy foes.
2. See the streams of living waters,
Springing from eternal love,
Well supply thy blessed members,
And all fear of want remove;
Who can faint, when such a river
Ever flows their thirst t' assuage?
Grace which, like the Lord, the giver,
Never fails from age to age.
3. Blest constituents of Zion,
Washed in the Redeemer's blood;
Jesus, whom their souls rely on,
Makes them kings and priests to God.
'Tis His love His people raises
Over self to reign as kings:
And as priests, His worthy praises,
Each his thankful offering brings.
4. Savior, if of Zion's city
I, through grace, a member am,
Let the world deride or pity—
I will glory in Thy name.
Fading is the worldling's pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion's members know.
Author: John Newton (1725-1807) Composer: Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Holy city of our God;
He whose word cannot be broken
Formed thee for His own abode;
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation's walls surrounded,
Thou may'st smile at all thy foes.
2. See the streams of living waters,
Springing from eternal love,
Well supply thy blessed members,
And all fear of want remove;
Who can faint, when such a river
Ever flows their thirst t' assuage?
Grace which, like the Lord, the giver,
Never fails from age to age.
3. Blest constituents of Zion,
Washed in the Redeemer's blood;
Jesus, whom their souls rely on,
Makes them kings and priests to God.
'Tis His love His people raises
Over self to reign as kings:
And as priests, His worthy praises,
Each his thankful offering brings.
4. Savior, if of Zion's city
I, through grace, a member am,
Let the world deride or pity—
I will glory in Thy name.
Fading is the worldling's pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion's members know.
Author: John Newton (1725-1807) Composer: Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Saturday, September 01, 2007
For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture
“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice,” (Psalm 95:6-7)
(Read by Max McLean. Provided by Zondervan.)
Powered by BibleGateway.com
Simply beautiful...
(Read by Max McLean. Provided by Zondervan.)Powered by BibleGateway.com
Simply beautiful...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)