Thursday, July 16, 2009

Satisfied In Christ?

A pet peeve of mine in the church today is the prosperity message. It has creaped into many church's in a subtle way.

Just the other day someone told me that God always heals if you have faith.

Is that so? Explain to me then why a lady I know, who loves the Lord, lost her precious baby Anna. Was it lack of faith? Was it her sin?

To often this is taught in churches and it angers me.

What do we say to the persecuted christian in China, India, Bangladesh who's child or spouse is taken from them and beat almost to death for their beliefs? In front of them. Do we say, " I am sorry, Brother In Christ, for your pain but if you would just have faith this would have never happened."

God forbid!

Then there are the churches who also teach if you have faith, you will be blessed. This can be true but false also. We are always blessed for we deserve NOTHING from Christ. But they speak of it in a different way.

Have faith, sin not, and you will have a nice house, nice car, nice clothes, etc. Oh, they don't usually say it like that, they casually put in conversation or a message where it seems so innocent and true. I know, I used to go to churches who taught these things.

Two things that were said that I won't forget at these churches were the following:

During prayer requests a man made mention of another man who was sick and looked as if God was going to bring him home of having a massive heart attack. He was sad that this man was dying. "If he would just have truth faith he would make it through this" Sigh. How sad. I do hope this man did not say this to his friend or his wife.

The other instance, the church was in financial need and they were asking who had enough faith to pledge to God money they did not have to the church. "If you have faith, God will make it happen."

Sadly a sweet couple made a pledge, before God, for $10,000! They were already in debt! In the end, they wondered what was wrong with their faith and struggled for a time with this. They never did give the money. They did break their promise to God.

This prosperity message happens in all religions, yes, Baptist, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Full Gospel and more.
I pray God would show these preachers and brethren in Christ their error. Some whom I know truly love God they are just brainwashed in this belief system.

Here is a video that just hits home with me.

( Remember to hit "pause" on my playlist before you listen.)





In your life, Is God the giver of cars or is He alone the portion of your life?

Are you most satisfied in Christ?

5 comments:

Amy said...

Great message from Piper!! Thanks for the this reminder. Is God enough...He sure is so why do we complain all of the time. Man, do I need to repent so often of these things.

Jenn said...

What a good post to think on for the night. You are so right about Faith. It is amazing how people can mess it up. Thank you for this!

Kristy said...

Oh, that was so good. I struggle so much with this message as well. A very good friend always says it is God's will to heal, or to bless us in a a certain situation. Or that everything will always work out for our good. But does it? I don't see that scripturally - or in everyday life. Yes, ultimately, it will work out for our good, but not here on earth. Also, I always hear how God will never give us more than we will bear, but 1 Cor. 10:13 says, "..And God is faithful; He will not let you be TEMPTED beyond what you can bear.."

Thanks for posting this - John Piper never fails to bring conviction to me!

Joelle said...

Thanks for posting this, we need to be reminded of this always. We so often forget to be grateful for the greatest gift of all: our salvation and to keep the cross always before us. May Christ always be our all in all.

Robin said...

I enjoy your blog. Yes, I agree...the prosperity message is such a lie. Thanks for posting this.