Bible and Theology on The Material World

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A Fixed Pie Or A Growing Pie?

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Scripture

Genesis 41:46-57 , Proverbs 31:10-31, Deuteronomy 8:17-18, Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 12:13-21, Psalm 128:1-2

Seeing that wealth is neither to be avoided nor praised but rather stewarded wisely and generously, how should we think about material wealth creation? This is an important question worthy of thoughtf...

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Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

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Christianity is without doubt the earthiest of all religions. Unlike most other religions, it doesn’t call you out of the physical, out of the body, or out of the world. Rather it tells you that God e...

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Author

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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Scripture

Ephesians 1:22-23, Psalm 139:13-14, Acts 17:28, 1 Timothy 4:4-5, Psalm 24:1-2

By virtue of Creation, and still more the Incarnation, nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see.

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Zacchaeus' Real Power

Author

Diana Butler Bass

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 19:1-10

In her book, Grateful: The Subversive Practice of Giving Thanks , Diana Butler Bass provides an insightful reflection on how Zaccheaus rose to become chief tax collector of Jericho: Since Zacchaeu...

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Surrounded by Possessions

Author

Jeff Manion

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 6:19-21, Luke 12:33-34, Luke 12:15, Hebrews 13:5, 1 Timothy 6:6-8, Luke 16:13, Matthew 6:24

Members of the Natomo family sit on the flat roof of their mud house in Mali, Africa, posing for their early morning photograph. Their earthly belongings are arrayed in front of them. Two kettles, pla...

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The Message of the Resurrection

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 15:17-22, Colossians 1:13-14, Philippians 3:10-11, 1 Peter 1:3, Revelation 1:18

The message of the resurrection is that this world matters! That the injustices and pains of this present world must now be addressed with the news that healing, justice, and love have won…If Easter m...

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The Heresy of Body/Spirit Dualism

Author

Christopher West

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:31, 1 Timothy 4:4-5, Colossians 1:16, Romans 1:20, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Christianity Does Not Reject the Body The “spirit-good / body-bad” dualism that often passes for Christianity is actually an ancient gnostic error called “Manichaeism,” and it couldn’t be further from...

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Author

Augustine of Hippo

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We shall in the future world see the material form of the new heavens and the new earth in such a way that we shall most distinctly recognize God everywhere present and governing all things, material ...

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Author

Warren W. Wiersbe

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Wealth

Material wealth is either a window through which we see God or a mirror in which we see ourselves.

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God the Artist: Crafted to Make a Statement

Author

JR Woodward

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:10, Isaiah 64:8, 1 Peter 2:9, 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, John 17:18

When I think of masterpieces, I think of art. But what is art? I like the way that Thomas Hoving, who was the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, put it: “Art happens when anyon...

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The Goodness of the Physical World

Author

Christopher West

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:31, 1 Timothy 4:4-5, Colossians 1:16, Romans 1:20, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

God is the author of the physical world, and in his wisdom, he designed physical realities to convey spiritual mysteries. “There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God,” as C. S. Lewis insist...

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Author

Dorothy Day

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Whenever I felt the beauty of the world in song or story, in the material universe around me, or glimpsed it in human love, I wanted to cry out with joy. The Psalms were an outlet for this enthusiasm ...

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Ancient Creation Accounts Were Functional, not Material

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:1, Genesis 1:14, Psalm 33:9, Isaiah 45:18, John 5:17

John Walton argues in The Lost World of Genesis One that rather than concerning material creation, the creation account in Genesis one concerns functional creation, because that is how ancient reade...

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Author

Robert Wuthnow

Keywords

Materialism is not fundamentally an economic problem, but a cultural one... a spiritual issue. It runs to the depths of our souls, and, for this reason, needs to be understood less in terms of budgets...

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The Generosity of Oseola McCarty

Author

Jen Wilkin

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 20:35, Luke 21:1-4, 2 Corinthians 8:12, Matthew 25:40, Proverbs 3:9-10

Generosity is not strictly for those who have material abundance. Because Oseola McCarty recognized this truth, the world is a better place. Born in 1908 in rural Mississippi, she quit school after si...

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The Creation of Light

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:3-4, John 8:12-20, 1 John 1:5-10, Psalm 27:, Matthew 4:12-17

In The Lost World of Genesis One , John Walton points out that the creation of light and the division of day and night is profoundly puzzling if we understand light in the modern way, as a material o...

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Author

Basil of Caesarea

Keywords

The world is a work of art, set before all for contemplation, so that through it the wisdom of Him who created it should be known …"

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The Perfect Soil for Winemaking

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

My first call to ministry was in Eastern Washington state. It turned out to be one of the most prolific winemaking regions in the country. One of the things I learned from a local winery was really qu...

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Everyone: Holy God, we live our lives

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:8, Luke 15:11-32, Luke 10:25-37, John 4:1-26, John 3:16, Ephesians 4:32, 2 Timothy 1:9

Everyone: Holy God, we live our lives struggling in our own burdens and failing to trust You with all the things that hold us down. Leader: Your Scripture says, "Come to Me all you who are wear...

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A Triumphal Procession: Sermon Illustration Tuesday

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Just about 80 years ago, a crowd gathered on a humid August day to commence what was to be an unparalleled event for its time. Hundreds of thousands of spectators, police officers, and soldiers gather...

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Author

Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 113:7-8, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Luke 1:52-53, Matthew 11:25, Luke 6:20, Matthew 5:3, James 2:5

The claim here is not that the poor are inherently more righteous or sanctified than the rich. There is no place in the Bible that indicates that poverty is a desirable state or that material things a...

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Afraid of Myself

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 10:12, Romans 7:24-25, Ecclesiastes 7:20, 1 John 1:8, Mark 7:21-23, Romans 7:18-19

Adolf Eichmann was one of the Nazi architects of the Holocaust who escaped after World War II to South America, where he was caught in 1960 and taken back to Israel for a trial. He was tried, found gu...

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Image Bearers in the Garden

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

If we are to be God’s image-bearers with regard to creation, then we will carry on his pattern of work. His world is not hostile, so that it needs to be beaten down like an enemy. Rather, its potentia...

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Set Aside Your Culture when Reading the Bible

Author

Jonathan Walton

Keywords

Rather than translating the culture, then, we need to try to enter the culture. When people want to study the Bible seriously, one of the steps they take is to learn the language. As I teach language ...

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The Dark Side of the Web

Author

Andy Crouch

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 25:40, Romans 12:21, Luke 4:18-19, James 1:27, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17

In October 2014 Wired magazine reported on the dirty work every social media company must somehow handle: moderating the deluge of exploitative, degrading content posted in unimaginable quantities aro...

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Saving Souls Without Discipling?

Author

Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:28, James 2:15-17, Romans 12:2, Isaiah 58:6-7, Micah 6:8, Colossians 1:19-20, Matthew 28:19-20

I had just finished presenting much of the material in this chapter [on the role of the Church helping the poor] to an audience in Africa. A very tall and muscular African man in the audience approach...

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Born Again Bodies and Christian Weight-Loss

Author

Liuan Huska

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Timothy 4:8, Matthew 6:25, 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, John 9:1-3, 1 Timothy 4:8

In recent decades, many Christians have tried to make sense of the tension between our bodies and spirits by swinging to the opposite pole. Instead of saying, “The body doesn’t matter,” they have said...

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The Problem of Forgetfulness

Author

Eugene H. Peterson

Keywords

One of humanity’s problems is forgetfulness. Forgetfulness can happen at multiple levels, from a simple problem of recall to a posture of hard-heartedness and disobedience toward the command-giver. Wh...

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The Great Wall of China & The Desire for Safety

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 4:23, 1 Samuel 15:22, Matthew 7:24-27, 1 Corinthians 3:11, Psalm 127:1

The Great Wall of China was an immense and costly project, built with tremendous effort and resources, designed to provide security and protection. Yet, within a few years of its completion, it was br...

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Two Examples of Long Memories

Author

Kenneth E. Bailey

Keywords

The Reliability of Scripture

As an amateur yet serious student of the American Civil War, I am constantly amazed at the sheer volume of material, which was preserved orally for half a century and longer, surrounding the key figur...

bible and theology on The Material World

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