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Good News - Broward Edition
32 November 2013
Dr. John Hawkins, Sr.
Good News
Many American believers
find themselves struggling with
integrating their faith and their
culture at times. This is
especially true when it comes to
the idea of success, ambition
and goals in their lives. Culture
inf luences everyone including
Christians. Every American is
indoctrinated in the concept of
the “American Dream,” as well
as in capitalism early in life. Can
these philosophies co-exist with
biblical Christianity? After all,
Jesus
taught
humility,
servanthood and principles
such as, “The last shall be first.”
America is a materialistic
society with the negatives that
come with that philosophy.
Many
wonder,
“Am
I
compromising my faith by
having ambition, goals and a
desire to better my life?”
Define the terms
A good starting point in
answering this question is to
first define our terms. “The
American Dream” was a phrase
first used in 1931 by historian
James Adams in his book, The
Epic of America. He writes
concerning his subject, “That
American dream of a better,
richer, and happier life for all
our citizens of every rank which
is the greatest contribution we
have as yet made to the thought
and welfare of the world.” The
American Dream is about
equality of opportunity that
allows an American to aspire to
high achievement and material
success. Capitalism is an
economic system where all or
most
of
the
means
of
production and distribution are
privately owned and operated
in a competitive environment
through the investment of
capital to produce profits.
Christianity is a system of faith
based upon the person of Jesus
Christ. It holds that he was God
in the f lesh, born of a virgin,
lived a sinless life and died a
substitutionary death on the
cross to pay for the sins of all
mankind. These are three
different things, a national
ethos, an economic system,
and a religious faith. For
Christians, our faith is to
trump all else. So the other two
items need to be examined in
the light of Christianity and
see if they in any way violate
the truth of scripture.
God given desires
When desires are universal
among all people it is logical to
assume the Creator God has
built them into us. All God-
given desires have a purpose
and also a God-designed way to
be fulfilled. When it comes to
ambition, goals and the desire
to fulfill our life potential, the
problem is not these desires
themselves. The problem is
whose desires will be fulfilled.
Psalm 37.4-5 says, “Delight
yourself in the Lord, and he will
give you the desires of your
heart. Commit your way to the
Lord, trust also in him, and he
will do it.” God gives desires to
us and he says that as we trust
and follow him he will bring
those desires to reality. In
Jeremiah 29.11 God tells us he
has plans and dreams for our
future. God builds these types
of desires into us so they can be
channeled to carry out God’s
desires for us in relation to
furthering his kingdom on
Earth.
Material success is not
necessarily
wrong
or
inconsistent with Christianity.
There were several wealthy
believers in the Bible. The
problem is not money but rather
the love of money. The Bible
tells us that greed is the root of
all evil (1Timothy 6.6-11). When
CONSIDER
Jesus & the American Dream
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