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Agree with most (if not all) of what you wrote
Ridiculous but God is good .... (Eternally Saved)
Some conclusions from the discussion. (John Doe 666)
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hi JD,
Just some comments on what you wrote: You: 1. God indeed blesses us. Me: Amen. You: 2. It can come in many forms, wealth, health, salvation, friends, peace, gifts of the Spirit ( love, Joy,..etc ), etc... Me: Yes. You: 3. Our citizenship is in heaven. and certain blessings will have a long term ( beyond this world ) impact on our lives. Me: Agree. You: 4. Our ultimate end is to become like Christ ( Not through self effort ). Thus the blessings should bring us there eventually, or the blessings should help us to get there eventually. OfCourse not by our OWN effort. The Holy Spirit in us is actually working in us to do and to will those good works. ( Not related to salvation ). I will call it gratitude-works. Me: Amen. You: 5. God uses poverty, sickness, troubles, loss of jobs..etc as a blessing ( in disguise if you may ) to create the character of Jesus in those affected. That is the blessing. No one can say that poverty is bad! ( We can say, if God wasn't alive, then poverty is hell ; But God is not dead ) Me: I know where you are coming from and I agree with most (if not all) of what you are saying here. Only thing is that I would phrase things somewhat differently from you, to avoid creating the misconception/ misunderstanding that poverty, sickness, troubles, loss of jobs ARE BLESSINGS FROM our Father. I know that is NOT what you are saying, because you wrote: "God USES poverty...AS a blessing". Quite clearly, you are NOT saying that poverty, sickness etc by themselves are blessings from God, but God can use these bad situations and turn them into blessings for us. I just have this feeling that some of us may mis-read what you are really trying to say here. We obviously agree that our Father God can and is using all kinds of situation (good or bad) for the good of His children. By His wisdom, He can turn what is bad into what is good for us. Although I still think that poverty in and by itself is definitely bad, I agree with you that with the Living God for us, noone and nothing (even poverty and sickness) can be against us (a very good example is Joseph's life as recorded in the OT). So in that sense, I can say I agree with you that even poverty can turn out to be good for us. You: 6. Wealth and health or for that matter any physical blessing is NOT the Gosple. The Gosple is for salvation of the Lost souls. Me: Yes. Make no mistake about that. The Gospel is first and foremost about our salvation. The Gospel is Jesus Christ. Wealth and health is not the gospel. They are merely secondary blessings that the Provider and Healer wants to bless us with. We should expect and enjoy, but never exalt the blessings above the One who blesses. You: 7. As I have heard numerous times from various pulpits in Singapore, the number one problem for Christians in Singapore is materialism. We should pay extra attention in this area. Esp. We should not encourage the prosperity gosple.! Me: Agree. In fact, materialism is a commom problem for many christians from other parts of the world as well. I'm sure our common prayer is for all believers to be truly Christ-focused. Many of us tend to focus on the wrong things: we focus on the blessings instead of the One who blesses, we focus on the prayers instead of the One we pray to, we focus on the way we praise and worship instead of the One we are praising and singing to...and the list goes on. Let us pray for the Church to be truly Christ-focused. In His grace, Keith
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