I attended this Christian fellowship in the afternoon for the first time and I am worried. The message given was supposed to be on "following the way of God", but all I heard was man's ways, not God's way. It was man-centered and sounded like prosperity gospel.
This statement was said several times in the message - "Walk in the way of God and you will be walking in his supernatural blessings and your life will be awesome". The speaker then told us how her life was awesome because she walks in the way of God and how the lives of the people she shared with us were not awesome in comparison.
I was aghast. I get worried when Christians tell themselves they must be thankful because they are so blessed compared to the others, that they are so blessed whilst others are suffering. But where is the love? Where is the compassion?
This is not the Gospel of Christ. We don't follow the way of God so that our lives become awesome and that the lives of others are not as great. We belong to Christ only because of his grace, which we do not deserve. Our lives belong to him and we live in honor of him, in good times and in bad, and there will be bad. Life is not all awesome, and when it is not awesome, it does not mean that God has forsaken us. It is in bad times that we have God to depend on, he is all-faithful.
And it is a commandment that we have compassion for others. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31)
(Check here for more on Prosperity Preaching: Deceitful and Deadly.)
Anyway, the irony was that while I was leaving, slips of paper with bible verses were given out. The one that I got was this: Therefore each one of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbour, for we are all members of one body. (Eph 4:25)
Err...does this mean I need to do something about it? But what? I certainly need to pray about it.
pearlie
We, who are believers in Jesus, The Christ, must let our little lights shine in this dark and darkening world. God is Sovereign.
ReplyDeleteI have found that blessings have little to do with material things. I wrote a devotion about it in July (read it here).
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