You Cannot Serve both God and Money

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Lee — 19 Comments

Money

Here is a comment that jesusandthebible made on my article, “Is Wealth a Blessing or a Curse?”

So you can love God and mammon, as long as your heart and character are right? But if your heart loves mammon–as well as God–Jesus says that heart actually hates God (Mt. 6:24). Jesus commands his disciples not to lay up treasures on earth (Mt. 6:19). Instead, sell treasured possessions, give to the poor, and have treasure in heaven; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Mt. 6:20-21; Lk. 12:33-34). The only rich follower who did that in the Gospels was Zacchaeus, who gave half of his goods to the poor and repaid four times as much as what he had gotten from fraud (Lk. 19:1-8).

Thanks for bringing up these passages! There’s more here than can be answered in a brief comment, so I’m taking it up in its own article.

When reading the Bible, it’s important to:

Pay attention to the exact words, not passing over or adding anything to the text.
Put particular verses and statements in the context of the story in which they are embedded, and of related statements elsewhere in the Bible.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at these passages.

For more on God and money, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: business, God, love, money, neighbor, poverty, service, spirituality, the Bible, wealth, you cannot serve God and mammon, you cannot serve God and money, you cannot serve two masters
Posted in Money and Business, The Bible Re-Viewed

Is Wealth a Blessing or a Curse?

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Lee — 16 Comments

John McAfee in Belize

As I write this, John McAfee is on the lam. Yes, the founder of antivirus software giant McAfee Inc. has now apparently been classified as a human “virus” by the police in the small Central American country of Belize, where McAfee has made his home since 2008. They are hunting for him as a “person of interest” in the murder of his American expatriate neighbor Gregory Faull. McAfee denies that he had anything to do with the murder. But he has gone into hiding, fearing that if the police catch him, they will kill him.

In a recently launched blog, McAfee alleges that he is being unfairly targeted by police and the media. However, the recently released e-book John McAfee’s Last Stand, by Wired magazine contributing editor Joshua Davis, paints a picture of McAfee as a man possessed by “ambition, paranoia, sex, and madness.”

For more on wealth, blessings, and curses, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: business, evil, John McAfee, Joshua Davis, money, poverty, service, sex, spirituality, the Bible, wealth
Posted in Current Events, Money and Business

How Do I Love My Neighbor?

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Lee — 30 Comments

What does it mean to love my neighbor?

Jesus said, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). But what is love? And who is the neighbor?

Though love may seem like some sort of vague emotion, it is really the substance of our lives. God is love—and so are we! Love is what drives everything we think, feel, say, and do. Loving our neighbor is not some pleasant add-on to our lives. It is the essence of our being . . . if we are being truly human. Love is also the attractive force that draws us closer to one another.

What does it mean to love? It means to serve others and give to others from ourselves, and to feel joy in other people’s joy. Love is not just a feeling. Love is also an action! And when we are acting from love, we will find the closeness that we long for with our neighbors.

And the neighbor? The neighbor means the various people around us. But more specifically, it means everything good about the people around us. Loving our neighbor is looking for the good in people and loving, appreciating, and supporting it in them. When we truly love our neighbor we bring out the best in them . . . and in ourselves.

For more on what it means to love your neighbor, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: community, God, Jesus Christ, love, mercy, neighbor, punishment, service, spirituality, the Bible
Posted in Spiritual Growth

The Gold Standard

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Lee — 4 Comments

The Gold Standard

In an article in the November 19, 2012 issue of Forbes magazine titled “Gold and the Wicked Magicians,” Steve Forbes advocates a return to the gold standard. If major world currencies such as the U.S. dollar were tied in value to gold, he says, the resulting monetary stability would provide a solid foundation for a prosperous economy.

On the political front, for decades Congressman Ron Paul has been advocating a modified form of the gold standard that existed in the United States throughout its rise to becoming the world’s leading economic power in the 1900s.

But this is not a financial or political website. It’s a spiritual website.

And I’ll go on record:

I’m for the gold standard . . . the spiritual gold standard.

For more on the spiritual gold standard, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: business, James A. Bland, love, money, neighbor, new Jerusalem, Revelation, Ron Paul, service, spiritual meaning, Steve Forbes, the Bible, wealth
Posted in Money and Business, Science Philosophy and History, The Bible Re-Viewed

“God Hates Divorce” vs. “Do Not Be Unfaithful to the Wife of Your Youth”

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Lee — 33 Comments

David and Holly Petraeus

Up until a few days ago (as I write this), David Petraeus had a life that many would envy, and that many more looked up to. He had retired from the U.S. Army as a four star General after a stellar career that included over thirty-seven years of distinguished service, culminating in some of the highest postings in the Army. Upon retiring from military service, Petraeus took up a new position as head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), having been nominated for that position by President Barack Obama and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate.

In his younger years, shortly after he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Petraeus married a highly intelligent and capable young woman named Holly Knowlton, daughter of Army General William A. Knowlton. The two of them have now been married for thirty-eight years. Holly Petraeus has become known as an advocate for military families. She is currently serving as director of the Office of Servicemember Affairs at the recently formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). David and Holly Petraeus have two adult children, Stephen and Anne.

The picture-book quality of this story of a highly distinguished general with a long and spotless career, and his long and fruitful marriage to a distinguished and capable wife, came to an abrupt end on November 8, 2012.

For more on divorce and unfaithfulness, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: abusive relationships, adultery, David Petraeus, divorce, domestic violence, God, pain, Paula Broadwell, sex, suffering, the Bible, unfaithfulness, violence
Posted in Current Events, Sex Marriage Relationships, The Bible Re-Viewed

Is Hurricane Sandy God’s Punishment on the Wicked?

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Lee — 3 Comments

Note by Hurricane Sandy Survivor Mike

Amid the destruction and death caused by Hurricane Sandy there are stories of hope and redemption. A young man named Mike, washed out into the bay from his home on the Jersey Shore, managed to make his way back to shore and the shelter of a neighboring home. There, in the dark, he wrote a desperate note asking anyone who found it to “tell my dad I love him,” and ending with the words “God all mighty help me.” Unlike over 100 other victims of Hurricane Sandy, Mike survived. He was reunited with his father. For Mike, God was a source of hope in the midst of a terrible tragedy and ordeal.

But already the voices have started. Already, fundamentalist Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and other clerics are calling Hurricane Sandy God’s justice and God’s punishment on the wicked people of New York, New Jersey, and New England.

It’s the same as after every tragedy and natural disaster. While hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people suffer and die, there are those who, instead of seeing God’s mercy and God’s help in the midst of human suffering, see only God’s wrath and God’s judgment upon those whom they believe God has condemned.

For more on punishment vs. mercy, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: children, Christianity, death, evil, fundamentalism, God, hurricanes, justice, mercy, natural disasters, punishment, suffering, the Bible
Posted in All About God, Current Events, Pain and Suffering, The Bible Re-Viewed

If there’s One God, Why All the Different Religions?

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Lee — 384 Comments

Do you Have to be Christian to Go to Heaven?

Since there are so many religions, which one is right?

Why are there so many religions? Isn’t there only one God? Why didn’t God say the same thing to everyone? How do I know which religion is right?

Perhaps God does speak the same truth to people all around the world. The question is, when God speaks, what do people hear?

Two people can listen to the same story and come away with very different meanings. We hear what we need to hear in order to face our own particular challenges. People of different times and cultures hear God differently, according to their own cultural and spiritual conditions.

It’s not that God is different for different people. God is eternally the same. It’s that we humans are different from one another, and we each see God in our own way. God gives every person and every culture what’s needed to know and love God, and to love and serve their fellow human beings.

It is common for people think their religion is the right one. Many Christians say you have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven. Yet the Bible does not focus as much on what we believe as it does on how we live. People who live good, conscientious lives of service to others are living in the spirit of Christ no matter what name they may use for God.

For more on many religions and one God, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Buddhism, Christianity, faith, God, heaven, Hinduism, Islam, Jesus Christ, Judaism, love, religion, salvation, the Bible
Posted in All About God

It’s Not All In Your Head (And It’s Not All Your Fault)

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Lee — 5 Comments

Recently I’ve been reading anewfreelife’s blog on “rising from the ashes of domestic violence.” Here is her description of the blog:

I am a survivor of domestic violence, and this is my voice. I am here to share with you what it feels like to be stripped of your dignity by those whom God and nature declare should care for you. And, I hope that this will be a place for other survivors to find their voices. Let the healing begin……..

The subject matter is not pleasant. But it is good reading. Her story of being abused throughout her childhood, and as an adult in her sixteen-year marriage, is heartbreaking. Yet her heartfelt, skillful, and evocative writing, and her ongoing story of breaking free and beginning a new life, is heartwarming. Give it a read. It’s well worth the time.

Many thoughts come to mind as I read her posts. For now, I’ll share just two:

First:

It’s not all in your head.

There’s an idea out there that’s especially popular in New Age circles: There is no such thing as evil. Nobody else can hurt you. Anything hurtful that does happen to you is the result of your own negative or misguided thinking.

BULL!

For more on how there really is bad stuff out there, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: abusive relationships, controlling relationships, domestic violence, evil, healing, karma, pain, poverty, punishment, reincarnation, spirituality, suffering, violence
Posted in Pain and Suffering, Sex Marriage Relationships

Which Tree is in the Middle of Your Garden?

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Lee — 35 Comments

For a video reading of this article on YouTube, click here.

The Tree of Life

In the spiritually symbolic garden that God planted eastward in Eden in Genesis 2—the garden where God placed Adam (a Hebrew word meaning “humankind”), and later Eve (a Hebrew word meaning “life”)—God also planted many trees.

Only two of the trees are specifically named. Their names make it clear that these are not literal trees—like oaks, maples, and hickories—but trees that represent something deeper about human character and life.

On the planting of those trees, some translations read something like this: “In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

But that’s not exactly what it says in the original Hebrew language.

Here is the verse in which those trees are planted, in a fairly literal translation of the Hebrew:

And Jehovah God caused to grow from the ground every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. And the tree of life was in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)

Do you notice the difference?

For more on the trees in your garden of Eden, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Adam, Eden, Eve, evil, God, healing, new Jerusalem, Revelation, spiritual meaning, spirituality, the Bible, tree of knowledge of good and evil, tree of life
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed

What Does the Bible Say about Video Games? Part 2

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Lee — 15 Comments

The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse, by Peter Paul Rubens

Michael and his Angels Fight the Seven-Headed Dragon

(I recommend that you read Part 1 of this article first)

A mighty warrior girds on his sword and shield and prepares for the great battle. Today is the day. The evil, multi-headed dragon has been taunting the world long enough, wreaking havoc on everyone in his path. Now comes the day of reckoning. Now comes the defeat of the raging beast.

Am I talking about this scene from the book of Revelation in the Bible?

Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. . . .

And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they did not prevail, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Revelation 12:3-4, 7-9)

Well . . . I certainly could be talking about that scene from the Apocalypse . . . .

For more on what the Bible says about video games, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: death, fundamentalism, new Jerusalem, online games, Revelation, sex, spirituality, the Bible, video games, violence, war, World of Warcraft
Posted in Sports and Recreation, The Bible Re-Viewed

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What does it mean to love my neighbor?

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Do you Have to be Christian to Go to Heaven?

Since there are so many religions, which one is right?

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It’s not all in your head.

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