Week 2 Discussion: The "American Dream"

The American dream is to get the good job, make lots of money, buy a home, raise a family, send the kids off to their great jobs, retire and live out our years in an RV or traveling the world or fishing. Isn't that right? How does that match up to what Jesus has told us?

How about using what we have been given (we didn't truly earn all this, did we?) to raise Christians? We could then say that we could use our education, and the education money we are saving for our children, to help meet the needs of others. Is this what Jesus meant?

Are our churches (even GBPC) urging us to continue to venture into the American dream? What about the churches who say that God wants his people to prosper? Tony says that it is wrong to be rich. He says that living by the law (as in the Old Testament) has been trumped by living by the grace of God, taught by His Son, Jesus Christ.

Tony mentions that there are 900 verses in the Bible- more than about any other topic- about how we deal with our wealth. They all say we should give it away. Otherwise, are we following Jesus?

Are we Christians if we don't "follow Jesus?"