Is prosperity always a blessing?

[Faithful Love]

If I'm wise I'll not be repenting.

If it's God's will that I be rich in order to do good for His kingdom, then He'll make me rich whether I like it or not.

And I'd rather not like it. So please don't seek to persuade me to change my mind about it. Greed and materialism are enticing enough to me on their own and with the help of the world. I don't need encouragement to think more of material blessings than I ought.

WOW.... how sad. :o

Far cry from being blessed of the Lord and greed.

 

[JimB]

God is not the lottery or your personal bank account.

What do you think this means, if not an indictment of the “prosperity gospel”?: [Avoid] men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain (1 Tim. 6.5).

Personally, I have yet to meet a rabid “prosperity gospel” campaigner that I didn’t suspect was motivated by greed. Oh sure, they want to be rich so that they can be a blessing to the “kingdom” and others—or so the story goes—but if they happen to get a castle and Lear jet in the process, all the better.

Money is not always a blessing. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. (Col. 3.2)

~Jim

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If the first step in an argument is wrong everything that follows is wrong.​

~C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain​

​

 

[GQ Chris]

God is not the lottery or your personal bank account.

What do you think this means, if not an indictment of the “prosperity gospel”?: [Avoid] men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain (1 Tim. 6.5).

Personally, I have yet to meet a rabid “prosperity gospel” campaigner that I didn’t suspect was motivated by greed. Oh sure, they want to be rich so that they can be a blessing to the “kingdom” and others—or so the story goes—but if they happen to get a castle and Lear jet in the process, all the better.

Money is not always a blessing. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. (Col. 3.2)

~Jim

If the first step in an argument is wrong everything that follows is wrong.


~C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain​

Charlatans.. Charlatans I tellya..

 

[lismore]

If it's God's will that I be rich in order to do good for His kingdom, then He'll make me rich whether I like it or not.

The church today has more materials goods than the church in Acts. And yet something is missing..........

However on the other side, there is always another side: here is a Christian Billionaire who many look up to-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/612409.stm
From the BBC {Biased Broadcasting Corporation}

 

[charityagape]

I think that prosperity is always a blessing! Always! However, the very sad guy in this story didn't have prosperity.........he had a lot of cash....and a lot of cash, without biblical prosperity in all areas of your life.............a lot of cash will just amplify the problems you already have.

 

[Faithful Love]

I think that prosperity is always a blessing! Always! However, the very sad guy in this story didn't have prosperity.........he had a lot of cash....and a lot of cash, without biblical prosperity in all areas of your life.............a lot of cash will just amplify the problems you already have.

That's what many seem to be not understanding.

God's prosperity is without burden.

 

[map4]

I think that prosperity is always a blessing! Always! However, the very sad guy in this story didn't have prosperity.........he had a lot of cash....and a lot of cash, without biblical prosperity in all areas of your life.............a lot of cash will just amplify the problems you already have.

Amen!

To me the Bible distinguishes between the "evil of riches" and the "blessings of prosperity".

 

[Tamara224]

WOW.... how sad. :o

Far cry from being blessed of the Lord and greed.

Oh, don't pretend to feel pity for me. I don't want to be rich, what's so pitiful about that?

BTW, it does seem to me as though you are trying to encourage me or entice me into going against my own conscience in an area of my life. And it makes me wonder how much of a stumbling block this kind of attitude could be for someone of weak faith and undisciplined stewardship skills. It would be better, IMO, to pray that God blesses a person without encouraging them to wish for it themselves. You just encourage people to put their focus somewhere unadvisable.

Besides, what does it matter to you if I have decided in my heart and conscience that material wealth is not a good thing to be wishing and praying for?

Why should you feel sad about it?

So don't feel sad for me. And don't try to encourage me to want "blessings" for myself. You're not doing me any favors in that regard.

 

[hislegacy]

Personally, I have yet to meet a rabid “prosperity gospel” campaigner that I didn’t suspect was motivated by greed. Oh sure, they want to be rich so that they can be a blessing to the “kingdom” and others—or so the story goes—but if they happen to get a castle and Lear jet in the process, all the better.

~Jim

There's two sides to every equasion -

I have yet to meet a rabid “suffering gospel” campaigner that I didn’t suspect was motivated by their own failures. Oh sure they believe in healing and are 'glad' when people are healed. But if they personally cannot "get their prayers" answered - it 'must be God's will to let them suffer", or "God is trying to teach them something through sickness and pain".

But ask any one of them will it end when they "Learn the lesson"?; or when will the lesson end because in some cases it never seems to be over. They just have no clue when God is satisfied that they have suffered enough, been sick enough, been in enough pain, to let it end.

Then sometimes you hear people reguritate this ungodly, unscriptural false teaching:

"The ultimate healing is when you die" - what a lie from the pit of hell itself.

So j - see there's two sides to every issue - the key is to find the Balance in it.

Civil Wars will never need to take place.

 

[JimB]

There's two sides to every equasion -

I have yet to meet a rabid “suffering gospel” campaigner that I didn’t suspect was motivated by their own failures. Oh sure they believe in healing and are 'glad' when people are healed. But if they personally cannot "get their prayers" answered - it 'must be God's will to let them suffer", or "God is trying to teach them something through sickness and pain".

But ask any one of them will it end when they "Learn the lesson"?; or when will the lesson end because in some cases it never seems to be over. They just have no clue when God is satisfied that they have suffered enough, been sick enough, been in enough pain, to let it end.

Then sometimes you hear people reguritate this ungodly, unscriptural false teaching:

"The ultimate healing is when you die" - what a lie from the pit of hell itself.

So j - see there's two sides to every issue - the key is to find the Balance in it.

Civil Wars will never need to take place.

Rabid “suffering gospel” advocates are just as misguided as rabid anything else, B. With a handle like “Balance” I am sure you know this.

With all respect, when we receive our new bodies we will have ultimate healing/health despite your “pit of hell” assessment.

And I have never stated, nor has anyone else to my knowledge, that the only cause of sickness is God teaching us a lesson. Sometimes it is nothing more than a virus. But I think it is foolish to ever say that God cannot/will not teach us something through sickness. If we do, we shut ourselves off completely from what God is doing through us. If God is indeed using a sickness to “teach” us something, He is quite capable of teaching us … unless we choose to be unteachable.

IMO, of course.

~Jim

If the first step in an argument is wrong everything that follows is wrong.


~C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain​

 

[hislegacy]

Rabid “suffering gospel” advocates are just as misguided as rabid anything else, B. With a handle like “Balance” I am sure you know this.

With all respect, when we receive our new bodies we will have ultimate healing/health despite your “pit of hell” assessment.

And I have never stated, nor has anyone else to my knowledge, that the only cause of sickness is God teaching us a lesson. Sometimes it is nothing more than a virus. But I think it is foolish to ever say that God cannot/will not teach us something through sickness. If we do, we shut ourselves off completely from what God is doing through us. If God is indeed using a sickness to “teach” us something, He is quite capable of teaching us … unless we choose to be unteachable.

IMO, of course.

~Jim

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I think you are finally getting it j - the VAST majority on BOTH sides are not teaching the EXTREME -

So why are we concentration on JUST the EXTREME cases and not helping people by teaching the balance that the VAST majority really follow -

We loose so much time and effort addressing the 5 or v10% wacko fruit and granola fringe teachings that we miss the beauty of what is right in front of us.

 

[SpiritPsalmist]

It's a shame that this man didn't include Biblical principals in handling his money. Seems like he just went around willy nilly not being responsible with it. The Bible is packed FULL of wisdom on handling money.

I agree! Having the money was not the problem it was how it was handled.

 

[map4]

I think you are finally getting it j - the VAST majority on BOTH sides are not teaching the EXTREME -

So why are we concentration on JUST the EXTREME cases and not helping people by teaching the balance that the VAST majority really follow -

We loose so much time and effort addressing the 5 or v10% wacko fruit and granola fringe teachings that we miss the beauty of what is right in front of us.

Amen, Amen, Amen!!!!!!

I'm tired of what everyone says being filtered through what those fringes say and do!!!!!

 

[Faithful Love]

Oh, don't pretend to feel pity for me. I don't want to be rich, what's so pitiful about that?

BTW, it does seem to me as though you are trying to encourage me or entice me into going against my own conscience in an area of my life. And it makes me wonder how much of a stumbling block this kind of attitude could be for someone of weak faith and undisciplined stewardship skills. It would be better, IMO, to pray that God blesses a person without encouraging them to wish for it themselves. You just encourage people to put their focus somewhere unadvisable.

Besides, what does it matter to you if I have decided in my heart and conscience that material wealth is not a good thing to be wishing and praying for?

Why should you feel sad about it?

So don't feel sad for me. And don't try to encourage me to want "blessings" for myself. You're not doing me any favors in that regard.

Who is "pretending" to feel pity? I always feel pity for people who refuse to receive what God is wanting to give them. Makes no sense and is akin to snubbing ones nose at God.

I am not coercing you to do anything against your will, just as God won't because He will not force His kids to receive His blessings no matter how much He wishes them to be blessed.:o

 

[HephzibahBenJudah]

Proverbs 10:22 Says The blessing of the Lord it maketh reach and He addeth no sorrow with it.

It depends on what one calls prosperity I would suppose.

True propserity to me is having more than enough to take care of needs and be a blessing to others, having good health and good relationships with God and others.

 

[Tamara224]

Who is "pretending" to feel pity? I always feel pity for people who refuse to receive what God is wanting to give them. Makes no sense and is akin to snubbing ones nose at God.

I don't think that's very likely. You don't even know me. How could you possibly know what God wants for me? It doesn't make any difference to you whatsoever that I don't want to be rich. Yet you act as though it really troubles you. I don't buy it.

You just wanted to pretend to feel sorry for me because you think your knowledge and revelation are superior to my own. You shake your head and wonder that I could be so blind. And you think it makes you look wiser and superior to show me pity for my ignorance.

But now that I have explained to you that it's a matter of my own conscience, you should have no reason to feel pity or to look down upon what you think is my poor inferior understanding of God's blessings. Instead, you should determine not to put a stumbling block in front of me by encouraging me to do something that goes against my own conscience (See Romans 14).

I am not coercing you to do anything against your will, just as God won't because He will not force His kids to receive His blessings no matter how much He wishes them to be blessed.:o

I did not use the word "coerce". I said entice and encourage.

If you had a friend with an eating disorder - someone who obsessively overate - would you say to that friend "Don't you know you could have a cupcake if you just asked for one?" And if she said "no, I don't want to ask for a cupcake" would you feel pity for her that she didn't want to ask for a cupcake? Would you say to her "oh, you should want to have a cupcake, you should ask for a cupcake."?

Like I already said... material blessings are enticing enough on their own. Like a cupcake to a glutton. The glutton doesn't need any encouragement to want it. And we shouldn't feel pity on a glutton who is determined not to cave to temptation. Rather, we should encourage him/her to put his/her focus elsewhere.

Which is why it is incomprehensible to me that some people go around encouraging one another to want, ask for and demand material blessings. Pu-lease. Show me a human being who has never been enticed by greed and I'll show you Jesus Christ. The rest of us are seduced by it at least once in our lives. And for most of us materialism is such a part of our everyday life that we don't even realize we are being drawn away by it.

 

[JimB]

I think you are finally getting it j - the VAST majority on BOTH sides are not teaching the EXTREME -

So why are we concentration on JUST the EXTREME cases and not helping people by teaching the balance that the VAST majority really follow -

We loose so much time and effort addressing the 5 or v10% wacko fruit and granola fringe teachings that we miss the beauty of what is right in front of us.

Why? Because it is always the minority extreme that leads the majority into error. Is it wise to ignore it or fail to identify it? Aren't we to purge out the leaven and mark those who cause division among us?

~Jim

If the first step in an argument is wrong everything that follows is wrong.​

~C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain​

​

 

[hislegacy]

Why? Because it is always the minority extreme that leads the majority into error. Is it wise to ignore it or fail to identify it? Aren't we to purge out the leaven and mark those who cause division among us?

~Jim

If the first step in an argument is wrong everything that follows is wrong.
~C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain​

I don't believe for one minute that the minority leads anyone other than the minority. Logic dictates that if they had a lot of people following them, they wouldn't be a minority for very long - would they?

Why not take all this time and effort and teach what is right instead of complaining about what is wrong -

 

[lismore]

Billie Bob's (Mis) Fortune
by Steve McVicker
"Winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me."

I dont think that case is prosperity though. That was obscene wealth like Soloman had and look what happened to him!

IMO prosperity is having enough for your own needs and a surplus to share with others/ put away for the future.

Only a madman would not want that!

 

[JimB]

I don't believe for one minute that the minority leads anyone other than the minority. Logic dictates that if they had a lot of people following them, they wouldn't be a minority for very long - would they?

Why not take all this time and effort and teach what is right instead of complaining about what is wrong -

Are you complaining about my complaining, B? Or do you call your complaining something else?

Actually, I just posted a story in the OP without comment. Is that what you call complaining? Or is your constant harping against those who disagree with you or who will not buy into your beliefs complaining?

I guess complaining is in the eye of the complainer.

~Jim

If the first step in an argument is wrong everything that follows is wrong.​

~C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain​

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