Posts Tagged: "Dave Ramsey"

Good Ideas From Bad Individuals

In my tale of two grandmothers, I described my “bad” grandma…

My swearing-smoking-drinking-gambling grandmother was a constant, loving, generous, steady, faithful, and gracious presence in my life – until she died of lung cancer when I was 19 years old.

Life is interesting that way.

It’s far less black and white than we think. Our categories don’t always have the space for what is actually there. We want to use the labels “good” or “bad,” “sinner” or “saint,” but the truth usually is found in the AND…

We are simultaneously both good AND bad, sinner AND saint.

Paul the Apostle (who is credited with the taking Christianity to the world and writing more books of the New Testament than anyone else) acknowledged this “sinner AND saint” truth when he wrote,

This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. —1 Timothy 1.15

I love that Paul didn’t say, “I WAS the worst of them all,” but chose instead to admit, “I AM the worst.”

Here we have the “worst sinner” writing the Bible under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit…

He’s both good and bad, sinner and saint.

And so are we.

The idea that we learn all the good things from good people and get all our bad ideas from bad individuals is… Read More

Catholics Aren’t Christian

Growing up in Pentecostal church, I picked up on this idea: Catholics aren’t Christians. The typical charges against them were things like praying to Mary, worshiping the Pope, praying to the saints, and elevating the teachings of saints and church leaders to the same level as Scripture. They also had cool necklaces – and I wanted to wear one.

And then there were the wild accusations from the end-times obsessed folks, claiming the current Pope is most definitely, 100% for sure, obviously THE Antichrist (these guys are still doing this too).

I was smart enough to detect the crazy on the doomsday prophets, but the underlying message “Catholics aren’t Christians” stuck with me. When you hear something enough times, you just begin to believe it.

So I believed Catholics aren’t Christians… Read More

Richer Is Always Better

When I was in first grade, one of the kids in my class told me how girls get pregnant. Before this, I hadn’t given it much thought. But now I knew the facts of life because Steven explained them to me. Here’s what he said:

If you look at a girl’s belly button, she’ll get pregnant.

I took it as a warning. And for a while, I was pretty concerned that I might accidentally see a girl’s belly button and get her pregnant… Read More