Thursday, June 28, 2007

Rich? Me?

You probably don't consider yourself rich. I know I don't. Does anybody? It's funny, most people I know, even ones who I would consider wealthy, don't think of themselves that way. Which makes reading some of Scripture much easier than it should be. Consider the first 6 verses of James 5. It starts out, "Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you." then goes downhill from there. Or take Jesus' words from Matthew 19:23 "It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." Passages like these should make you squirm a bit. But we conveniently assume they are talking about someone else. Certainly those passages don't apply to us, right?

See, if I focus on my bills, or my debts, or the coming college and wedding expenses, I can always make a case that we're just getting by. It's easy to forget the nice home, and all the things I own, and the 401k in the bank. Is it possible that I really am rich?

I came across the following link a while back, and it sort of jolted me into reality. I would strongly suggest taking this test at the Global Rich List.

Amazing, eh? My purpose here is not to elaborate on the theology of money and finances in the Bible, or to make judgment calls on who is rich or who isn't, or to make you feel guilty. My desire is that we would all ponder our financial situation and determine if we have been honest with ourselves in describing the reality of our finances. So maybe the next time you read or study one of these passages you will be willing to ask yourself the tough questions, knowing that Scripture is indeed talking to you.

Jerry

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Preach My Sermon!

I had a post last year concerning the practice of providing message transcripts for a fee. Check out this blog entry at Between Two Worlds, highlighting the next evolution in this disturbing trend - encouraging pastors to plagiarize.

Jerry

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Do As We Say...

This just came off the Associated Press newswire:

Gates warns Turkey not to invade Iraq

SINGAPORE - Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday cautioned Turkey against sending troops into northern Iraq, as it has threatened, to hunt down Kurdish rebels it accuses of carrying out terrorist raids inside Turkey.

"We hope there would not be a unilateral military action across the border into Iraq," Gates told a news conference after meetings here with Asian government officials. Turkey and Iraq were not represented.

Gates said he sympathized with the Turks' concern about cross-border raids by Kurdish rebels.

Yeah. We certainly wouldn't want one country to invade another over terrorism concerns.

Good grief.