24 December 2008 | 9 comments

Prosperity teaching without the bling Nicole Starling

Roger Gallagher24/12/2008 05:24 PM

Hi Nicole,

A good post. It’s one of those areas where you can see the speck in the other person’s eye, but be blind to the log in your own.

Andy Chance25/12/2008 12:38 AM

This is not directly related to the main theme, but your comment about applying Scripture caught my attention.  How can I learn to apply Scripture better, especially in public preaching and teaching?

Megan du Toit25/12/2008 02:10 AM

Hi Nicole, just came across from your blog. I preached on this just last Sunday and did get more specific and hard hitting for the reasons you state above. Now I’ve spent all week since feeling very convicted that I don’t practice what I preach!

Tony Payne25/12/2008 02:24 AM

A bullseye, Nicole.

Three quick reactions:

1. The ‘silent example’ has always been a problem for me personally. I see a Christian brother I respect with a new X (iPhone, plasma TV, etc.), and it’s amazing how much more easily I start to justify my greed for those very things. “Well, he’s got one after all.”  It’s not envy. It’s a sense of validation.

2. Enjoying God’s creation is good, and some of us need encouragement to let a little fun into our lives. All work and no play etc. But your perception of how easily that also turns into a licence for self-centred living and materialism is on the money (so to speak).

3. Practically speaking, I think this is the biggest obstacle to reaching our city for Christ. Faith comes through hearing the Word, and hearing the Word comes through people giving their time to pray, to make contact with others, and to share the Word with them. But we’re all too busy raising our families in paradise to do this.

Thanks again for an excellent post.
TP

Warren Doyle25/12/2008 03:12 AM

Thanks Nicole for a timely reminder!
I find that having on my daily prayer list places for the disadvantaged and poor, the struggling church overseas doing without the human and material resources we take for granted and our brothers and sisters in Christ facing daily persecution we would find unimaginable , a great help in seeking to live out God’s world view and looking out rather than in. With time it also impinges on my use of money and how & where I spend it.
  It is all about love,for God and for my neighbour.I need to daily ask my heavenly father to help me to love as he loves and to carefully consider the implications this brings.

Cathy McKay25/12/2008 10:33 AM

Thanks Nicole. I wholeheartedly agree.

I think superficial views of contextualisation can also justify our greed (eg. “I need a certain standard of interior decor so that my neighbours will feel comfortable visiting me”.)

May God give us more of a “pioneering” spirit to set a different example in our Christian (and unbelieving) communities.

Dianne Howard25/12/2008 11:03 AM

Hi Nicole

Do you think part of the problem may stem from a failure to understand the scriptures such as 1 Tim 4:1-5 in its immediate context in the first place and so people are lead to distorted ‘applications’?
As I understand it, these verses are not a case for indulgence. The passage is a rejection to the thinking that abstinence is holy.

I suggest the desire for earthly prosperity focuses around two things:
o   our lack of appreciation of the gospel - unwillingness to obey when we hear scripture
o   our failure to understand what the scriptures are saying (tendency to distort and legalise)

Therefore we tend to overlook our response to the Gospel of grace and focus on/judge/covet others. When I struggle to be generous it is because I don’t want to be generous – my heart is the problem. So I need to keep hearing the gospel.

Di

Juliette Hackett25/12/2008 02:53 PM

Thanks once again Nicole! You tend to put into words my half-formed thoughts on so many things. I am very thankful to have some godly Christian leaders as my example in this; they consistently have a lower standard of living than almost everyone else in church and yet seem quite content with their lot. Not that they go on about it, either, but as you say, you do get to look at the silent example of those around you. I am very inspired by some of our Christian friends too, who do <cite>live simply, so that others may simply live<cite>.

Chris Little25/12/2008 05:29 PM

Thanks Nicole

I think Christians might also put blinkers on our definition of ‘prosperity’, leaving some areas for us to indulge ‘guilt-free.’

There’s no direct dollar value cost or credit card expense for aiming at nice middle-class jobs, or formal educational achievement. Most of us wouldn’t look at a person being promoted to a new international location the same way we would look at a guy with an expensive sports car - perhaps we should.

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Tony Payne

Paul is one of the Staff Editors at Matthias Media. He is married to Cathy and has three fantastic kids. He loves student ministry, reading, writing music and playing the saxophone, and is looking forward to meeting Jesus face to face.

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