tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29606082.post270995961356093741..comments2023-10-03T06:25:41.357-05:00Comments on Grace Roots Blog: The abundant life...Joel Bruesekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10395847887953875757noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29606082.post-34487503444854860082007-10-20T10:21:00.000-05:002007-10-20T10:21:00.000-05:00Those are great thoughts, Gary. We hear stories o...Those are great thoughts, Gary. We hear stories of Christian martyrs throughout the ages, and for the most part I don't think we can relate to how they viewed the abundant life, if that's what it meant. Paul had learned contentment no matter what his circumstances, and from that point of view I believe he lived more abundantly than the richest of the world's richest people today.<BR/><BR/>I like your thought about recalibrating our idea of what a blessing is and what our need is.<BR/><BR/>I'm certainly not in a place where I'm going to deny that a person with an abundance of material possessions has been blessed by God, but I'm just in an ongoing process of thinking and rethinking through all this...Joel Bruesekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10395847887953875757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29606082.post-83976413953068886562007-10-20T07:31:00.000-05:002007-10-20T07:31:00.000-05:00Joel,I don't know if I know the answer. Certainly...Joel,<BR/><BR/>I don't know if I know the answer. Certainly God can and does bless us materially. Maybe we have a wrong notion of what a need is. We could take the stance (and I have in the past) that if God didn't give it to us then we didn't need it. I don't think that explanation satisfies me completely. Our bodies need food. Does that mean that God is a liar if we die of starvation in a prison cell because shared the Gospel in China?<BR/><BR/>Maybe the person that won the contest and the person that didn't are both blessed by God, but in different ways. The person that won is blessed monetarily and the one that lost is blessed by being drawn to a closer walk with God.<BR/><BR/>I remember being told by different people at different times not to pray for patience because the way God gives it to you isn't very pleasant. It certainly would be a blessing to have patience, but at the same time do we view the process God used to give us patience as being part of the blessing? But how can we separate a blessing from the hand that dispensed the blessing?<BR/><BR/>So I guess that in my view there are two sides to the coin. We need a recalibration of our idea of what a blessing is and what our need is. I think that the only thing that we really need is Christ and everything else, even our lives, are considered loss for the sake of the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus.<BR/><BR/>In Christ,<BR/>GaryGary Kirkhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12870342469118915243noreply@blogger.com