Tag: 1 Timothy 6:17-19

How to Be Rich

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Everyone wants to be rich. Unfortunately, most people aren’t very good at it. We make the assumption of consumption with frightening ease, and things gradually fall apart from there. Things don’t have to be this way, though. In his first letter to his protege Timothy, Paul offered some counsel on how to be good at being rich. As we wrap up our teaching series, How Big Is Your World, we are talking today about the secret to keeping the world-shrinking assumption of consumption at bay, and living fully in the big world God has for those who trust in Him.

How to Be Rich

If you are someone who still watches major network TV series, we’re in that awkward, in-between season. All of the shows that run on the normal fall/spring cycle have been done for a couple of months now. But it’s not time for the new seasons to start just yet. This wouldn’t be such a bad thing except there aren’t really any sports to watch right now either. Football season hasn’t started. There isn’t any basketball to speak of. And baseball hasn’t gotten in the mid-September playoff chase excitement. Making things even worse is that these days when the competition is exceedingly high among the various networks and streaming services to attract and retain viewers in order to get the advertising revenue that is their lifeblood, while most series wrap up a plotline or two at the end of the season, they’ll also leave the viewers with a cliffhanger of some sort in hopes of drawing them back to find out what happens next. 

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Get Moving

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In this second part of our conversation, What’s Next, we took a look at how the ideas of growing and reaching and help give us clarity in terms of our next steps now that we understand our identity a bit more fully.  Keep reading to see how these can guide us.

 

Get Moving

Well, last week, after spending the previous four talking about our God-given identity as a church, we began a new conversation seeking to answer the question, “What’s Next?”  So we know a little better than we did before who God made us to be.  What are we supposed to do with that?  What are some of the things we can be doing now to start moving us down the road in the direction of becoming fully that church?  Certainly we’re not going to get there all at once, but what are the steps we can take now no matter who we are and where we are in order to start the ball rolling in that direction?  Perhaps to ask that another way: How can we begin adjusting our behavior as a body in light of who God made us to be such that even if we’re not fully that church yet, we’re putting ourselves in a place to begin becoming that church? Read the rest…

Moring Musings: 1 Timothy 6:17-19

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As this new year dawns, I am now six months into this venture. It came after a long period of thinking about it, with much encouragement from several sources, most notably my beautiful bride. Thus far it has proved to be more work than I imagined, but also more satisfying. I love to write and this provides an outlet for that. More importantly, you, the good folks who take time out of your day several times a week to read what I have to say, make it possible. Thank you for your time, your thoughts, and your willingness to share when something has struck your fancy. I am looking forward to what the future brings. Happy New Year! Here is 2018’s inaugural Morning Musing. And stay tuned for yesterday’s sermon this afternoon. We’ll talk about how to have the best new year yet. Blessings to you!

“As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes in the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.  They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

To borrow a bit from an idea that Andy Stanley has been proclaiming for several years, there is nothing inherently wrong with being rich.  The problem is that most people who are rich aren’t very good at it.  Most rich people think their resources are primarily for them.  They think they own them.  They think they can do with them mostly as they please.  If that’s how you are being rich, you’re not doing it right. Read the rest…