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Just to share and reflect:
Do you think that this particular message is 'condemning' Christians? The wording is quite strong especially the last portion of the email.
Do you think that God only will bless us spiritually and not materially? If only materially then why should we Christians help people to build destroyed home materially? Isn't spiritual homes enough in that case?
No I do not think God only bless us spiritually, He bless us materially as well. If not, then why should we be successful in business? Why do we have the ability to earn money? Prosperity message is not all wrong and must be in the context of God's love for His children.
Jesus already said to them, "Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight, and tell him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,' and he from within will answer and say, 'Don't bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give it to you'? I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs. "I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won't give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, he won't give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" Luke 11:5-13
So if God ready give the Holy Spirit, which is everything good, so material blessing is part of it. If material blessings is bad, then Africa is the most blessed amongst nations because it is the poorest! No, far from it! We have witnessed so many bad news from Africa for such a long time.
We who are blessed are empowered to help even more in areas of need and that include money. If the US is not richly blessed, people affected by Katrina will face an even worse disaster. Money is not the problem, ultimately it is our attitude towards money that displaces God in the priority list that create unhappiness in our lifes for "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil."
The one way that God disciplines us is the tithe. I can share lotsa stories about just how tough it can be just to stick to tithing of 10%. The end result is that I am blessed in a lot of areas both financially and spiritually because of following this particular instruction from God. I am not as 'sticky' to money as last time and has instead place people before money which in turn free me from lotsa worries.
Secondly, I particularly feel that the message is asking us to 'work' in area of spiritual life which honestly, do not free Christians but bond us into the area of fear and inadequacy, ultimately undermine the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, which has given us a hope that despite our sins (which includes not reading bible, not praying enough, not paying tithes etc etc), we are already certain of our salvation because of Jesus. So anything that we think will help in gaining salvation is not helpful but instead will damn our faith in Christ into oblivion.
Brother Chin Beng, still like to thank you for sharing the mailers. It perks me up when I am down during work. I am not attacking you but just sharing what the author of the newsletter is writing because the way he wrote just shows that he attributes the Katrina disaster to the lack of spiritual sensitivity to God. Yes, we ought to be sensitive to God, but after going through some personal turmoil, the best way to do so is to remind ourselves the Love of God.
Be strong in faith, through the realisation of the extend of God's limitless love
Do you think that this particular message is 'condemning' Christians? The wording is quite strong especially the last portion of the email.
Do you think that God only will bless us spiritually and not materially? If only materially then why should we Christians help people to build destroyed home materially? Isn't spiritual homes enough in that case?
No I do not think God only bless us spiritually, He bless us materially as well. If not, then why should we be successful in business? Why do we have the ability to earn money? Prosperity message is not all wrong and must be in the context of God's love for His children.
Jesus already said to them, "Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight, and tell him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,' and he from within will answer and say, 'Don't bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give it to you'? I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs. "I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won't give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, he won't give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" Luke 11:5-13
So if God ready give the Holy Spirit, which is everything good, so material blessing is part of it. If material blessings is bad, then Africa is the most blessed amongst nations because it is the poorest! No, far from it! We have witnessed so many bad news from Africa for such a long time.
We who are blessed are empowered to help even more in areas of need and that include money. If the US is not richly blessed, people affected by Katrina will face an even worse disaster. Money is not the problem, ultimately it is our attitude towards money that displaces God in the priority list that create unhappiness in our lifes for "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil."
The one way that God disciplines us is the tithe. I can share lotsa stories about just how tough it can be just to stick to tithing of 10%. The end result is that I am blessed in a lot of areas both financially and spiritually because of following this particular instruction from God. I am not as 'sticky' to money as last time and has instead place people before money which in turn free me from lotsa worries.
Secondly, I particularly feel that the message is asking us to 'work' in area of spiritual life which honestly, do not free Christians but bond us into the area of fear and inadequacy, ultimately undermine the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, which has given us a hope that despite our sins (which includes not reading bible, not praying enough, not paying tithes etc etc), we are already certain of our salvation because of Jesus. So anything that we think will help in gaining salvation is not helpful but instead will damn our faith in Christ into oblivion.
Brother Chin Beng, still like to thank you for sharing the mailers. It perks me up when I am down during work. I am not attacking you but just sharing what the author of the newsletter is writing because the way he wrote just shows that he attributes the Katrina disaster to the lack of spiritual sensitivity to God. Yes, we ought to be sensitive to God, but after going through some personal turmoil, the best way to do so is to remind ourselves the Love of God.
Be strong in faith, through the realisation of the extend of God's limitless love
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