Posts

Response Blog #5

    The struggle for Christian's today against the temptations of the internet are at the level of a pandemic. It would probably be impossible to find a Christian man who has never struggled with lust at some point in their spiritual walk. It can be difficult to navigate conversations with people who struggle, but why is this? One reason why it is probably so difficult is because we do not want to offend those whom we love the most. This for me has always been one of the most difficult things. I hate confrontation. I hate division. I hate being uncomfortable; so approaching these conversations has always been something that I have struggled with, and at times, have fallen short of what I should have done.  One thing I really appreciate about what Paul Tripp says in his book Sex and Money  is this quote: " I knew in that moment that I would not help him by minimizing the daily temptations he was facing. I knew it wouldn’t help him to negate the power of the ...

Response Blog #4

 In a news article from 2019, it was found that about 40% of the people who moved to Florida moved there for the sake of retirement. This seems like it is the landing spot for everyone who retires. Everyone always wants to move to Florida. But why? It would not take one long to speculate that this is because (at least weather wise) Florida is the closest thing to paradise. There's the 80 degree waters, the long beaches, the hot summers. People move there because it is seemingly perfect (until a hurricane comes and destroys everything you own).  Paul Tripp speaks of something along these lines in his book Sex and Money . In the book, he talks about how eternity relates to us as people, and to our money/belongings. One thing that Tripp emphasizes is that if one is focused on eternity, their sex and money issues tend to decrease. But why is this so? We all have a values problem. Here it is: this side of eternity it is very hard to value in our heart what God says is important. T...

Response Blog 3

We have heard the passage many times from the gospels, "one cannot serve God and mammon". We have heard it preached on, money. Our parents have talked about it with us, our grandparents have given it to us. Everywhere we look, money is there, and there is simply no escaping it. In Paul Tripp's book Sex and Money, he talks about money in a very healthy way. I think it is very important that he both highlights the good and the bad aspects of money. In this post, I want to highlight why I think his discussion on the good aspects of money are particularly helpful, especially when it comes to dealing with the negative affects.  So often when the subject of money comes to the limelight, it is about the negative uses of it. Greed, theft, all-corrupting wealth, etc. Rarely are the positives taken to light, and even more rarely is it highlighted how the positive aspects of finances affect the amount of negative outcomes.  Two of the aspects of what Tripp says I want to talk about ...

Response Blog 2

     For the past month, my wife and I have been in a place of discontentment. Not only have we been waiting patiently to move into our new house (which we are now almost done doing), but in the mean time, she also quit her job (which supported us) and was unemployed for about 5 weeks. This was a tumultuous time for our marriage, and it felt like there was more than enough to be discontent about. We were stressed about packing up our entire life and moving it, as well as about finances, since we had no major source of income, amongst other things in life. It truly did feel like we were just waiting for the punches to end.  Thankfully, the Lord is a great provider. He is the Provider (Matthew 6). Through the support of our families prayers, and the few of ours that we were able to squeak out here an there, we were able to get through a time where it felt as if we had no stability. Yet this was not without discontentment playing some sort of role. In Jerry Bridges book...

Response Blog 1

      In a day and age where information has become so important, I find it interesting how at the same time it as also become less important at the same time. Much of the culture is screaming that truth does not matter, or that the only truth which matters is that which matters to us. To much disappointment, the church followed down the same route of ignorance as the rest of the culture. In a culture where the people only want to promote what matters to them, why does the church seemingly not even want to do that? In a 2014 poll by Pew Research, they found that about 40% of professing Christians believe that reading the Bible is an essential part of what being a Christian means to them. What does this tell us? This tells us that 60% of believers are not interested in the Christian scriptures. They do not feel the need to read them, and therefore are plunging themselves into ignorance.      Why is this significant? This is significant because in order ...