A girl that I went to college with at North Greenville University passed away this week in a car accident. To her family, God is enough. I didn’t know Tiffany huff super well, but I did have some music classes, and concert choir with her. She was sweet and you could tell that she loved God. To her family, God is enough.
I had a friend that I grew up with named Julia Saunders, a great girl whom I loved pass away unexpectedly in May of 08. To her family, God is enough.
My paternal grandfather, Papaw, passed away after battling cancer for one year on December 21st 2006, 2 months after I got married, to my family, God is enough.
My maternal grandfather, Papaw Bud, just 7 months later on July 16th, 2007 passed away unexpectedly. To my family, God is enough.
I am trying to make sense of death, and life, breathing, God, sin, the world, the church, family, community, abortion, miscarriages, infertility, being infertile, to those things I say
GOD IS ENOUGH.
And to make myself vulnerable, quite honestly it HURTS to say that.
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Hey, I found your blog from my friend Sara’s blog.
Such a powerful video…
Wow.
Thank you.
Powerful words, made more powerful by the video.
It brought me to tears.
Again, thank you.
I’m left feeling very confused by this video. Is it saying, then, that if God DOES give you “good and perfect gifts” that are “from above” and you credit those gifts as gifts from God, that you are making God look bad? The vid is totally one sided. I would think that, yes, through pain and loss, you give God thanks, but that you also give him thanks we he does bless you. And doesn’t he? He doesn’t always make you suffer. I feel like this video is telling me that I should always be poor and always be suffering…and I don’t believe that.
Well, a big ole key is in the definition of “prosperity gospel” – there’s clear untruth if a preacher basically says that you come to Christ and all problems are cleared up instantaneously. However, there’s as much heresy in teaching that God causes evil or like evil, that there are areas of your life (such as the material) that God cannot or will not bring blessing. While it should be obvious to any Christian that God does not fix everything immediately, that material gain is far from the point of the Gospel of Christ, that all good (and long-term) things come to those who WAIT, it should be equally obvious that God created us for dominion (Genesis), that His plans are to prosper us and NOT to harm us (Jeremiah 29:11), to have the desires of our heart IF we seek our joy in Him (Psalm 37:4), that whatever we give up for Him we will receive back (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields—and with them, persecutions – Mark 10:30), that through Apostle John the beloved in Christ are to prosper in ALL things as our SOUL prospers (3 John 2), and on and on… are their people called to martyrdom in Christ? Yes. Should ALL true Christians experience adversity? In some way, yes. Does anything come without good seed being planted in the ground and time allowed for growth? No. But does this ascetism and hatred of God’s material creation sicken our Creator? Absolutely. Love the Creator first, be satisfied in Him, FIRST repent to take care of the spiritual life, focus always on that, but EVERYthing subsequent to that is ok if it does not replace Christ. It isn’t the trial that God delights in, it is the attitude we have. It is more of a test and more obvious faith when we rejoice even in the pain, but God does not cause or condone pain. If you can’t praise and glorify God until you’re suffering, then keep suffering, but as long as somebody preaches repentance and forgiveness by grace through faith in Christ, quit with the Catholic and Muslim hatred of abundance. We were set free for freedom and Jesus came to give us FIRST spiritual and THEN all other abundance. By, through, in, and for His Kingdom, peace!
The point of this video is not to say that any material blessing God gives us is bad and that we should reject it. The point is that we should have the attitude of Paul, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”
Christ is the gospel. Christ is the blessing that we should be seeking. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our wealth.
These people go to 3rd world countries and convince them that God’s purpose is to give them material goods. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” In Christ, we’ve already received every “spiritual blessing.” Why do we need more?
Of course you may have heard something I haven’t, and it would be terrible to focus anybody in any circumstance or continent on prioritizing material goods if their soul is in jeopardy, but as for health and prosperity (abundance) in every arena of life (which God created), dying, starving, disease-afflicted people do need to know that although God’s priority is the spiritual restoration of His people, He has a WHOLE life planned for you after that is taken care of.
Why did Jesus feed, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and drive out demons, and then tell the 12 and then tell the 72 to do the same? To display that the message is true that the Kingdom of Heaven is here. Unfortunately for skeptics, more people are led to Christ in non-denominational situations where ministers are speaking to the whole man in the name of Christ than in any situation where the Kingdom of Heaven is promised later but not manifested now. And before you skepticize yourself to death, no Kingdom divided against itself can stand. Remember they told Jesus the same junk, that He was possessed or just fake.
I don’t know about what you have heard, though. Who are “these people” you refer to? I genuinely want an answer with names, places, and quotes, because all too often “those prosperity preachers” teach things that I have never heard anybody teach, and it’s often people who haven’t listened to their messages who accuse them of such.
You should update your blog so we know you’re still alive up there in the cold. Miss you!
Howdy!
You mentioned NGC – I graduated NGC in 1999. What a wonderful school – most of my Christian Study classes were like ‘worship services’ (then again, isn’t all of life worship!). Most of my professors loved Jesus with a ferevnt passion and they did a great job of instilling that passion within us students. It was there at NGC, as a result of Dr. Walter E. Johnson’s Systematic Theology classes that I realized that God chose me. My first and continuing response to this day has been one of worship and adoration for the King – “Why me!?!?”
My wife and I are raising 5 children on a small farm in Northwest Pennsylvania and all of us have had an absolute ball singing and dancing to your husband’s silly calvinist song – we love it! So know that you all have brought joy and laughter to our home!
In Christ,
Hank