We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
How Much Is Enough?
Richard Beck over at Experimental Theology wrote a reflection on insights he gained from the book How Much is Enough?: Money and the Good Life by Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky. He points out how the advent of money changed the way we view our needs and made it easier to hoard without noticing it. It’s a challenging conversation to begin having when the culture around us is bombarding us with messages that manufacture desire. What do we really need? And, more importantly, how can we use our material blessings in ways that glorify God and bring his kingdom to earth?
From the article:
With the rise of money we’ve lost the ability to ask “What do I really need?” That’s a good old-fashioned use-value question that we should spend more time contemplating. Unfortunately, our questions tend to be exchange-value questions, questions like “How much can I buy?”
And with those sorts of questions leading us forward the words of Paul seem particularly prophetic and apt:
1 Timothy 6.10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Image by Kevin Dooley. Sourced via Flickr.
Category: General
Tags: Finances, Kingdom Living
Related Reading
Is America God’s Favored Nation?
Bart via Compfight Is money a sign of God’s blessing? If so then the more you have the more blessed of God you are. If a church has more money, then more of God’s favor is on it. If a country is wealthy, then we can claim God’s favored status. But is this the way…
The Purpose of the Church
Concerning the preaching of the Gospel, Paul wrote that God’s intent was that “through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places … in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord”…
The Purpose of the Church
Unlike most social groups, the relationships forged in the body of Christ are not ends in and of themselves. Rather, Christ calls us to unite with other believers for a unique purpose: to grow in, express and advance the kingdom revolution. We can gain clearer understanding of what the church is to be about by…
Following Jesus Doesn’t Work
I met a middle aged woman one day who told me she had given up on Christianity. “It just didn’t work for me,” she said. My response was: “What on earth made you think Jesus was supposed to work for you? The truth is that you were supposed to work for him.” The sentiment is…
Sermon Clip: Brain Reign
In this short clip, Greg Boyd discusses the 3 parts to who we are to help understand the brains role. What does role does the mind, body, and spirit play in who we are? In the full sermon we look at the New Testament teaching on reigning over the relational brain. Understanding how God wired…
What Kind of Sinners Feel Welcomed by Your Church?
Perhaps the greatest indictment on evangelical churches today is that they are not generally known as refuge houses for sinners—places where hurting, wounded, sinful people can run and find love that does not question, an understanding that does not judge, and an acceptance that knows no conditions. To be sure, evangelical churches are usually refuge…