WHAT IF… Christmas was not about me?

Okay, so WELCOME to my new ongoing series where i ask a WHAT IF question and invite you to respond, and possibly say a few things myself, or not.

Today’s question and the first of the series is WHAT IF CHRISTMAS WAS NOT ALL ABOUT ME? 

To Prosperity add Justice

This will be the last share of the chapter from Ron Sider’s super-challenging book, ‘Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger’ [do yourselves a favour and get hold of a copy and let it ruin you in the best of ways!]

We ended the last post with:

The threat of a curse always accompanied the promise of blessing

WHAT IF? [Intro]

i have been pondering this series in my head for a while…

Asking a WHAT IF question and seeing what responses i get from others and possibly adding some thoughts of my own.

Inviting people to step into the possibility of something they perhaps don’t believe in or are maybe sitting on the fence about.

For a moment, assume that thing to be true. What changes? What would also be true if that thing was true? That kind of thing.

Are we able to step outside of our comfort zones and look at something with an open mind and try and experience it from a different point of view? And if not, then are we as convinced about our ‘truth’ as we might think.

i don’t know where this will go, or even if it will go. But i thought it was worth a try.

So maybe this is one of my own WHAT IFs…

i hope you’ll join me for the ride. If you have a question or statement you’d like to see posed in this series, leave it in the comments section below.

WHAT If Christmas was not all about me?

Creative Christmas Ideas 2015

So the other day i posted this post about my Grinchiness [or lack thereof] which highlighted that it is not so much Christmas that i don’t like, but how crazy over-the-top consumeristic it is, which in the face of so many people living without in the world, feels pretty horrific. 

A Frikkin Hashtag: #2015WasTheYearThatIFinally

Another Wednesday, another Hashtag game… although this was not just another hashtag game. It was really interesting how this one played out…

RSA Min of Warts [@Stevens947] played the co-host role and we even had a co-co-host in the incredible Kesha Tedder [@KeshaTedder] who i have an online ongoing “nemesis battle” with, and it was a whole lot of crazy fun.

Prosperity as a Blessing from God

Continuing with a read through of this chapter from Ron Sider’s ‘Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger’ starting where we left off:

Possessions are highly dangerous. They lead to a multitude of sins, including idolatry. Western Christians today desperately need to turn away from their covetous civilisation’s grasping materialism.

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THE RING AND THE BELOVED

Possessions are dangerous. But they are not innately evil. Biblical revelation begins with creation. And created things, God said, are very very good (Genesis 1).

Tossing the Greedy out of the Church

As we continue to seek out A Carefree Attitude Towards Possessions through the lens of Ron Sider’s challenging book, ‘Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger’ let me go back a paragraph to remind us where we are and then continue with words i hope you will wrestle with and share with your friends:

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Matthew, Mark and Luke all recall the terrible warning: “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”(Luke 18.24, Mark 10.23, Matthew 19.23). The context of this saying shows why possessions are dangerous. Jesus spoke these words to His disciples immediately after the rich young man had decided to cling to his wealth rather than follow Jesus (Luke 18.18-23). Riches are dangerous because their seductive power very frequently persuades us to reject Jesus and His kingdom.