Jared C. Wilson's Blog, page 57

Contentment, The Stealth Prosperity Gospel, and Spiritual Greed

The real devil in the details of the prosperity-type teaching permeating so much of evangelicalism is not really that it skips over the stuff about sin. Sure, it does that too, but the pernicious paradox of this stuff is that it champions “victorious Christian living” yet does not equip believers for sustainable discipleship. It emphasizes feelings and “outlook,” not the power of the Spirit, which is hard for some folks to notice since the latter is often conflated with the former (so that being optimistic or a go-getter is ipso facto being Spirit-empowered). The problem over time is that, going from victory to victory, expecting victory after victory, cultivates a contagious form of spiritual greed. (Is it any wonder that this sort of teaching often goes hand and hand with talk of financial riches and prosperity?) The real stuff of discipleship — what Eugene Peterson calls “a long obedience in the same direction” — involves hard stuff like discipline and the fruit of the Spirit. In pop discipleship discipline is replaced by steps, tips, and amazingsupercolossal breakthroughs.

When my children were tiny, we had a couple of Laws of Raising Children active in the house. The first law is that no item in the universe is more interesting than the one a sibling is currently holding. The second law is that no matter where you are (and it could be Disney World), there is some other place you’d rather be.
Getting what we don’t have, being somewhere we aren’t. That defines the childishness of the children in our house. But they are children, so they have an excuse.

Prosperity gospel, then, which promises an abundantly fulfilling life, ironically breeds discontentment. We are never abiding with God where we are, because we always consider what we have less than what’s available (or at least less than what our neighbor has). We always think of today as less than tomorrow. But you cannot get to resurrection day without going through the cross.

There’s a fine line between contentment and complacency, also, and I think this implicit confusion is why contentment is rarely spoken of these days. It implies stagnation or laziness. But complacency isn’t about not caring. Contentment is about caring for the needs of the moment. It is about obedience and faith. Paul was not complacent about his repeated imprisonment and torture. But, amazingly enough, he was content.

Contentment trusts God to be God. Discontent evidences our fear of everything but God — it fears for safety, for financial solvency, for what others might think of us, for even “spiritual maturity.” The content soul, however, fears God (Prov. 19:23).

So the great irony of prosperity gospelism — and more people teach and believe this stuff than the walking cartoons on TBN, trust me — is that it actually cultivates its own need for itself. It is built on discontentment and greed and desire and accumulating (whether stuff or “spirituality”), and therefore it turns in on itself, self perpetuating, continuing to create the needs it promises to fill. We all know what happens when you try to fill a God-shaped void with anything not God-shaped. We all know that money doesn’t buy happiness, etc etc.
But contentment! Being content with what we’ve got, with where God has us, whether it be on top of a mountain surrounded by beauty or down in a valley walking toward a pit we cannot see — now is true gain!

But there are no easy steps to contentment. The word “content” evokes feelings of peace and tranquility, of being carefree. And those things are true, in a sense. But the way to contentment is difficult, and the place of contentment itself may be in a harsh and barren land. That is, after all, how you know you’ve reached contentment anyway. Being content involves the tough stuff of trust and discipline and obedience and biblical love. As Chesterton said:

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.

Christians are to essentially believe that “God loves you and has a difficult plan for your life.”

So how do we get it? How do we reach contentment?
We start where we are, not looking ahead to what is next. We begin with a hope for deliverance, provided we are really in need of it, but also with a trust that God is refining us through the circumstances in which He’s presently placed us. It just that — being present. Show up, in this moment, for submission to God. Trust that the cross you are bearing is not the end of His story, but accept that cross as necessary and get everything out of it that is there to get.

There are no formulaic steps or aphoristic strategies. Just the Spirit and the power He gives by His good pleasure. You cannot achieve discontentment with your achievements all by yourself. You will need the convicting, chastening God of love.

I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

– Philippians 4.12-13

Your Best Links Now – 1/29/14

Research Shows that When Planned Parenthood Disappears, Teen Pregnancies Decline

Owen Strachan offers some takeaways.

Translating Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians Into a Terrible PowerPoint Presentation

This piece by Gabriel Rossman is funny but also insightful.

Why Do Our Presidents Always Say the State of the Union is Strong?

Joe Carter writes, “[Pr]edicting that the state of our union will be described as ‘strong’ is about as safe a bet as you can make when it comes to politics . . . [I\t was Ronald Reagan who started the ‘strong’ trend in 1983.” And it was Gerald Ford who was the last president to say the state of the union wasn’t good.

Your Chick-Fil-A Sandwich Has Got a Lot of Not Chicken In It

These sandwiches are so good, and what more delicious way to get your daily recommended amount of dimethylpolysiloxane as an anti-foaming agent? You don’t want to foam, do you?

Big Cat Video in England?

One of the more modern fascinations in the cryptozoology world is the recurring sightings of “big cats” — leopards, pumas, cougars, even tigers — in Great Britain, where these animals supposedly don’t live. The photo evidence is slightly better than that for Bigfoot in the U.S., but here’s a fairly compelling video and report by the BBC of a policeman’s alleged sighting of a puma.

Retro Photos from 1980′s Shopping Malls

Maybe you have to be a child of the 70′s or 80′s to appreciate this, but I think this selection from the work of photographer Michael Galinksy is, like, totally boss. There is a peculiar nostalgia at work here, and not just in the gawkiness of 80′s fashion but in the mall culture heyday and a time when people walked around without staring at phones, but just trying to look, you know, rad and whatever.

Biff from Back to the Future Wants You to Stop Asking Him the Question

From actor Tom Wilson’s standup routine, this song is hilarious.

Let Praise Not be the Boss of Us

Luther, from his Commentary on Galatians:

The trouble with these seekers after glory is that they never stop to consider whether their ministry is straightforward and faithful. All they think about is whether people will like and praise them. Theirs is a threefold sin. First, they are greedy of praise. Secondly, they are very sly and wily in suggesting that the ministry of other pastors is not what it should be. By way of contrast they hope to rise in the estimation of the people. Thirdly, once they have established a reputation for themselves they become so chesty that they stop short of nothing. When they have won the praise of men, pride leads them on to belittle the work of other men and to applaud their own. In this artful manner they hoodwink the people who rather enjoy to see their former pastors taken down a few notches by such upstarts.

“Let a minister be faithful in his office,” is the apostolic injunction. “Let him not seek his own glory or look for praise. Let him desire to do good work and to preach the Gospel in all its purity. Whether an ungrateful world appreciates his efforts is to give him no concern because, after all, he is in the ministry not for his own glory but for the glory of Christ.”

A faithful minister cares little what people think of him, as long as his conscience approves of him. The approval of his own good conscience is the best praise a minister can have.

But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. — Galatians 6:4

Your Best Links Now – 1/28/14

Matthew Lee Anderson on Hobby Lobby and the Reductio ad China

“If we attend for a second to the various relationships at work then it becomes clear why the *reductio ad China* is nothing more than a bit of sophistry.” Well, now Matt’s gone and done it.

What Macklemore Got Wrong . . . and Right by Denny Burk

I personally think Macklemore’s “Same Love” is the musical equivalent of a teen girl’s Instagrammed inspirational aphorisms graphics, but Burk goes a little more deep than that.

Stephen Hawking Says There’s No Black Holes

Sure, whatever you say, Einstein. I’ve got a terrible Disney movie from the 70′s that says otherwise.

Need a Miracle? by Pete Wilson

“I’m not saying that every time you’re obedient to God there will be a miracle. Many of you have been obedient and still no miracle. I can’t promise you that. What I can promise is if you’re ever going to see a miracle it will more than likely come on the other side of obedience . . .”



Are We Living in a Golden Age of Christian Publishing?

Challies thinks so. I do think we have an embarrassment of riches in this regard, and I also think we are quite fortunate to see the reclamation and resurgence of the ancient and traditional but long-neglected truths of gospel-centrality.

Bigfoot Caught on Vermont Trailcam?

Or is it an owl? You decide! (But if you say owl, you’re wrong.

More NFL Bad Lip Reading

You can joke all night but no no kung-fu. And having yucky people like you is just the worst.

Your Best Links Now – 1/27/14

Valuing Life by Wendy Alsup

On the importance of being pro-all-of-life.

The Pope’s Peace Doves Were Released and Immediately Attacked by a Gull and a Crow

This means something.

Fully Pleasing to Him by Ray Ortlund

“This is not legalism. The One whose mercy flows freely to the undeserving is not a machine. He is not a mechanical Grace Dispenser. He is a person. His smile is not an all-approving grin . . . Is the only message we’ll hear and receive the word of justification and acceptance and affirmation? What if our Savior wants to get up in our faces about things in us that displease him?”

Christ in the Old Testament at Monergism.com

The “Christ in the Old Testament” category page at Monergism has lots of good stuff.

Unmasking D.B. Cooper

At New York Magazine. “On a rainy night in 1971, the notorious skyjacker jumped out of a 727 and into American legend. But recently, a chance lead to a Manhattan P.I. may have finally cracked the case.”

What Does Boiling Water Do at -22 Degrees?

My daughter shot this video of me trying not to burn myself 3 years ago. Temperatures have been pretty cold up here lately but not this cold during the day quite yet.

What Happens to Boiling Water in -22 Degree Air? from Jared Wilson on Vimeo.

Your Best Links Now – 1/24/14

Church Planting in a Trailer Park

A RAAN interview with Phil Fletcher, a black pastor who planted a church in a majority-white trailer park in Arkansas and started a non-profit focused on community renewal besides. The gospel force is strong with this one.

7 Signs You’re Reading a Book By a Prosperity Preacher by Aaron Armstrong

“Every so often we all stumble into prosperity theology, usually unwittingly. While occasionally you’ll get a nugget of helpful truth (in the same way that you’ll find some helpful things in your average self-help book), there’s a lot of goofiness which can make for a fun night of “Joel Osteen or Fortune Cookie.” So, how do you know if you’re reading a book written by a prosperity preacher? Here are seven signs . . .”

Dodging Haymakers Outside the Abortion Clinic by Owen Strachan

“I found myself in my own personal boxing ring. This one happened to be a four-lane street in the middle of rush hour. My erstwhile opponent was — I kid you not — a 4’10″ woman with murder in her eyes. How did I get here? I thought as I bobbed and weaved.”

Skeptic.com Explains the Mysterious Phoenix Lights

The most widely known modern mass UFO sighting in the United States was a formation of airplanes. Or that’s what “they” want you to think. (Cue ominous music.)

World’s Tallest Waterslide

“The new ride, named, Verrückt, stands at 17 stories high (bigger than Niagara Falls!) and will send brave riders down the slide at 65 miles per hour . . .” The only thing the article doesn’t mention is how you ride it without dying.

Your Best Links Now – 1/23/14

The Little Girl in the Famous Vietnam Village Napalming Photograph is Grown Up

Yes, she survived. And she has a great Christian testimony.

Oh, Oh, Ooh, Ooh, La, La, Whoa

Bob Kauflin: “Crowds are singing lengthy portions of songs using vowel sounds rather than actually singing words. Is this a good thing? Does it matter? . . .”

Regarding My Wife and Peyton Manning by Tod Worner

“Throughout his career Manning has written coaches and players who retire, as well as widows of coaches and players who pass away. He writes subjects of documentaries he’s seen and victims of tragedies he’s heard about. He writes his children every six months, even though they are years away from deciphering his cursive. Ashley buys his stationery, cream-colored cards with Peyton W. Manning in block letters at the top…It’s hard to find any coach, teammate or staffer who hasn’t received a note from Manning. ‘I got one when my dad passed,’ says Stokley, “and another when Peyton stayed at my house.’ ‘I got one when I retired,’ says former Colts video director Marty Heckscher. ‘It almost brought me to tears.’ ‘I got one when the Colts let me go,’ says Torine, the former strength coach. ‘It meant more than any paycheck.’”

Secret Code Left Behind By Grandmother Puzzles Family for Decades

The Internet solved it in fifteen minutes. (Well, one of them. Maybe you can help with the others since they appear to be biblical references…)

Man With Severe Autism Turns His Knack for Assembling Things Into a Business

“[F]or Brad Fremmerlid, building Ikea furniture is no problem at all. The 25-year-old from Edmonton, Canada, has severe autism. He can’t read or talk, according to the Toronto Star, but he can understand even the most confusing diagrams and blueprints . . .”

Man Has a Mannishness

“[I]f we begin with an impersonal universe, there is no explanation of personality. In a very real sense, the question of all questions for all generations — but overwhelmingly so for modern man — is ‘Who am I?’ For when I look at the ‘I’ that is me and then look around to those who face me and are also men, one thing is immediately obvious: Man has a mannishness. You find it wherever you find man — not only in the men who live today, but in the artifacts of history. The assumption of an impersonal beginning can never adequately explain the personal beings we see around us, and when men try to explain man on the basis of an original impersonal, man soon disappears.”

– Francis Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time

Your Best Links Now – 1/22/14

Are Arminians Semi-Pelagians?

Nathan Finn writes, “Synergism is not necessarily semi-Pelagianism, in much the same way that monergism is not necessarly fatalism.”

The Code Even the CIA Can’t Crack

Which is weird since it’s posted right outside the front doors of their headquarters. “People call me an agent of Satan,” says its artist creator, “because I won’t tell my secret.”



Helping Someone Through a Salvation Experience by David Platt

“How should we handle these moments on a practical level? What should we say and what should we do when God grants us the privilege of harvesting a new follower of Christ?”

14 Sweet Lines from Winnie-the-Pooh

e.g. “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.”

The Racially Fraught History of the American Beard by Sean Trainor at The Atlantic

All you beardos should love this slice of American history.

The 1972 Magnavox Odyssey

Commercial for the first consumer video game console. Still has fewer buttons than some of these newer-fangled video-doomaflatchies.

The Grace to Die

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness . . .”

– 2 Corinthians 12:9

Video below is a snapshot of wisdom from Nick Magnotti, diagnosed with stage 4 appendix cancer at 24. I do not know Nick, but he is the cousin of one of our church members. As our congregation has more than our share of people battling cancers of various kinds — and have lost two precious saints to the disease in the last 6 months — we have been praying with our sister Kathryn and following the story of her cousin Nick through her tears and updates.

The part that strikes me most is when Nick explains why he’s not afraid to die. There is a sustaining grace from God that will come at the dire moments needed, and not a minute sooner.

Nick passed into glory on January 7.

I burst into tears, “I need you!” I sobbed. “You can’t die! You can’t!”

“Corrie,” he began gently. “When you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you your ticket?”

“Why, just before we get on the train.”

“Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things, too. Don’t run out ahead of him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need – just in time.”

– Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place