The only people who lived in comfort and ease in Israel were the Romans who ruled and their local collaborators, the tax collectors. Add a note, In short, all we are and have is given to us by God.
Now you don’t have to envy anyone else’s money. Are the words, "You are my beloved child, in whom I delight" an endless source of joy and strength? choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. “The main sign that we are into success idolatry is that we find that we cannot maintain our self confidence in life unless we remain at the top of our chosen field.”, “I don’t believe the economic motive and the erotic motive account for everything that goes on in the world. Add a note, This biblical theme, that forgiveness always requires a suffering servant, finds its climax in Jesus, who fulfills the prophecies of a Suffering Servant who will come to save the world (Isaiah 53). . “Rejoicing” is a way of praising God until the heart is sweetened and rested, and until it relaxes its grip on anything else it thinks that it needs. The people called Zacchaeus a “sinner” (Verse 7), which meant apostate or outcast.

Add a note, If salvation had been something earned through obedience to the moral code, then Zacchaeus’s question would have been “How much must I give?” However, these promises were responses to lavish, generous grace, so his question was “How much can I give?” He realized that while being financially rich, he had been spiritually bankrupt, but Jesus had poured out spiritual riches on him freely. She did not seek revenge, she trusted God to be the judge of all. We can look upon our political leaders as “messiahs,” our political policies as saving doctrine, and turn our political activism into a kind of religion.Read more at location 1203Add a note, One of the signs that an object is functioning as an idol is that fear becomes one of the chief characteristics of life.
The human heart always wants to justify itself and this is one of the easiest ways. . Por este motivo, los ídolos no se pueden erradicar eliminando sencillamente los de superficie, como el dinero o el sexo. It often takes an experience of crippling weakness for us to finally discover it. If you knew that, you would be both more relaxed and secure and more humble and just. God was saying, 'I am the real bridegroom. To whom was Abraham ultimately giving his heart?Read more at location 265, Abraham’s affection had become adoration. To whom was Abraham ultimately giving his heart?Read more at location 265Add a note, Abraham’s affection had become adoration. Es una cosa u otra. Once you are able to afford to live in a particular neighborhood, send your children to its schools, and participate in its social life, you will find yourself surrounded by quite a number of people who have more money than you. In one word, the love object is God.

If you think you earned your position through your own merit and works, you will continue to be both scared and cruel.”Read more at location 1436Add a note, The king looked over his realm and as he did so the pride of his heart asserted itself. Look at your most uncontrollable emotions.121  location 1936, “Has something or someone besides Jesus the Christ taken title to your heart’s functional trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear and delight? That would have been idolatry, and all idolatry is destructive.Read more at location 339 © 2019 churchleaders.com, All rights reserved. Add a note, The first dream had been, in a sense, an academic lesson. If God’s love meant more to me than my children, I could love my children less selfishly and more truly.”Read more at location 352Add a note, Anna could not imagine that God might have a plan for her children’s lives wiser than her own. They are the ones who climb the moral ladder up to heaven. Once you are able to afford to live in a particular neighborhood, send your children to its schools, and participate in its social life, you will find yourself surrounded by quite a number of people who have more money than you. Many would say today that this is the new reigning ideology.Read more at location 1280 The answer was—money. Wow…what reasoning regarding giving and tithing. Having no limitation as your only limitation.” It is the settled tendency of human societies to turn good political causes into counterfeit gods. Add a note, No person, not even the best one, can give your soul all it needs. submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to location 1744, His idolatrous love for his own country and his moral self-righteousness had removed Jonah’s compassion for the great cities and nations of the world. Add a note, Some have pointed out that “moralistic, therapeutic deism” could only develop in a comfortable, prosperous society among privileged people. What could seduce a man to betray his family and country and live as a pariah in his own society? All Quotes . We can also look to politics. It spoke in general terms about the character of God, and the character of human power. Wow…just wow…the insight in this paragraph is killer. But there is another candidate to fill this spiritual vacuum. But that kind of spiritual humility is hard to muster. Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, our self-understanding and identity, our view of the world. As I have argued at length elsewhere, 104 the default mode of the human heart is to seek to control God and others through our moral performance. I likely won’t do this for every Keller book I read/listen to, but Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters was so incredibly rich, that for personal learning purposes, I wanted to revisit the book and pull out the quotes that punched me in the face. Add a note, Anna could not imagine that God might have a plan for her children’s lives wiser than her own. This is the God who saves by grace.

The academic lessons had not helped.Read more at location 1428 . We are not nearly as responsible for our success as our popular views of God and reality lead us to think.Read more at location 1395Add a note, Most of the forces that make us who we are lie in the hand of God. location 1732, When people say, “I know God forgives me, but I can’t forgive myself,” they mean that they have failed an idol, whose approval is more important to them than God’s. That did not work either. Idolatry functions widely inside religious communitiesRead more at location 1545Add a note, Another form of idolatry within religious communities turns spiritual gifts and ministry success into a counterfeit god. BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, There are “deep idols” within the heart beneath the more concrete and visible “surface idols” that we serve.46 Sin in our hearts affects our basic motivational drives so they become idolatrous, “deep idols.” Some people are strongly motivated by a desire for influence and power, while others are more excited by approval and appreciation.Read more at location 862 Tax collectors were the wealthiest people in society, and the most hated.Read more at location 763