Reply to is joel osteen a false preacher?

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "is joel osteen a false preacher?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]When Jesus called this young rich man to give up his money, the man started to grieve, because money was the center of his identity. It wasn’t that the man was rich; it was that his money was the most important thing in his life; not God.

The Bible doesn’t say that someone who is rich can never go to heaven. In fact, some of the Bible’s most faithful men and women were also wealthy (or at least prosperous)—people like Abraham and Job in the Old Testament, or Joanna and Lydia in the New Testament.

But the Bible does warn us about the dangers of wealth—and one of the greatest dangers is that it can keep us from God. Instead of putting God first in our lives, we put our money and wealth first, and end up ignoring God. We also can become proud, and we trust our money for our security. This is why the Bible warns us that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”

Not having money or being prosperous- but loving money above all things, that’s the problem.

The Talmud, a collection of ancient rabbinical writings, records the second-century Rabbi Bar Yochai saying, “Better had a man throw himself into a fiery furnace than publicly put his neighbor to shame.” This is similar rhetorically to Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:29: “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”

Should we actually pluck our eyes out or jump into furnaces? No. Jesus is simply showing us that sin is serious, and we should do whatever it takes to avoid it. We don’t have to pluck out our eyes, but we should not forget that our eyes could lead us into sins like lust and adultery (see Matthew 5:27). Likewise, we don’t have to literally sell all that we own, but our wealth can lead us into sins like greed and exploitation. St. Paul even warned Timothy “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10).

God doesn’t want is to be poor and hungry and wandering the streets in His name. He wants us to take care of ourselves and those we can help with our blessings.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics