Things I wish I had had time for on Sunday

Well, one thing that I had in my notes and that time just did not allow for on Sunday was in relation to the idea of finances and blessing. The idea that finances can be a curse... I mentioned King David's affluence and the wives he had because of his attempts to gain affluence, AND the subsequent downfall of his own family as a result. The rest of the thought goes along these lines.

In America, money seems to be the key blessing by which all other blessings are measured. But in the New Testament GREED is called a form of idolatry. (It is hard to get any lower in your affronts to God than idolatry!) It seems to my mind pretty ridiculous for us to assume that God would use as a primary form of blessing - something that rewards that kind of despicable sin. Now, I do believe that in some cases, there are financial blessings!!! I also believe there are financial challenges (I was going to say 'curses' but I'm not sure what I think about that yet). I think financial blessings are more rare than financial challenges.

I have, in fact, discovered in my life that many times my blessings and my curses have the very same name....

Another part of my thoughts on 'blessing' goes back to what is taught to us over and over again in the Psalms. Namely that our blessings are our children. We have recently discussed this in our Life Group as we have been studying one small section of the Psalms called the Psalms of Accent. When they are babies we think of them as blessings, and then we seem to get caught up in the job of "training them up in the way they should go" and the idea of blessing becomes more and more removed from our relationship with our children. Ohhhh, we will always say that they are blessings... for sure. And I think that we genuinely believe they are blessings. BUT, we focus on them more as work and our financial focus remains more squarely in the realm of blessing.

And what about poor people. OR, what about lower middle class people who don't choose to better their socio-economic station. Are they not blessed? Are they not blessed because they have learned like Paul to be "content in whatever his circumstance"? OR, can we affirm what Bruce Wilkinson taught me in his big little book, THE PRAYER OF JABEZ; that blessing is simply the state of being right where God wants you to be, right when He wants you there?

It is so convenient to look for a blessing to be something tangible, something we can see, name, touch, own, control. But it is much more Biblical to take an eternal and less tangible view of such things.

Well, I have a couple of other thoughts brewing... I hope to have time tomorrow to share them. I'll get the wordle up quickly tonight. But right now I have a meeting.

Thanks for reading my friends. I miss some of you. I love all of you. (I miss those who are far. That wasn't a slam on some people who I'm glad to be away from...)