God wants beauty for his church not the ugliness earthly or demonic wisdom produces when we quarrels and slander. James likens these quarrels to murder and adultery because we hate what we should love, we become faithless to God and … Read more
Category: Wealth
James 2:1-13. Wealth and its costs
James writes of two types of glory, the glory of Jesus Christ (2:1,5,13) and the glory of wealth. His point in this passage is that we use one glory or the other to assess people. [Audio | Notes]
Michael Flynn… Read more
Matthew 19.1-30. Commitment
Jesus opens up the topics of sex, power and money, topics that were as difficult to speak about when he addressed them as they are for us today. His solution is not to proclaim our rights in these areas but … Read more
Matthew 6.19-34. Wealth and worry
We may be successful or moderately successful or fail in the pursuit of wealth but the cost of making this our core value is anxiety and stunting the character traits that make our lives worth living. The love of wealth … Read more
Luke 16.19-31. Life after life
In our times we have set aside concern for life after this as a distraction to us seeking wealth, happiness and success now. Jesus, in his story of the rich man and Lazarus asks us to do a cost/benefit analyisis … Read more
Ecclesiastes 1 & 2. Satisfaction
When a book opens by telling us that any quest for meaning or satisfaction will face many frustrations the skeptics amongst us think… “yep, that is about right”. Some Christians wonder why this film-noir book is in the Bible but … Read more
Revelation 17 and 18. Money, power and ideals
In chapters 17 & 18 of Revelation there are allusions to many empires: Rome, Persia, Babylon, Greece and perhaps more. As we have seen before (e.g. 11:8), this is how this genre of visionary writing expresses general truths that are … Read more