When was the translation “what do you want?” made? My guess is it was sometime way this side of the 12th century, at which time the word meant to lack or to need. Actually, in today’s usage, the 3rd or 4th definition in the dictionary still carries the 12th century meaning.

The distinction is often made (I amended my comment of 9/21 because of it) between a want and a need, when they are, in fact, the same, particularly in a spiritual context. Either word describes something lacking. Somewhere along the line, society made a distinction that a want is necessarily frivilous and a need is something to be reckoned with.

I’m starting to roll here, so I think I’ll take my little soapbox over to my blog and post about this there.

Carolyn

PS You seriously lost me with the bullet and gun quote.

In our small group tonight we talked about how when John & Andrew first started tagging along after Jesus the first thing he asked them was, “What do you want?” (John 1:38) We found it interesting that Jesus did not ask them first what they needed, but wanted them to tell him instead what they desired.

Not sure how that plays into the prosperity question, but I did find it to be an interesting distinction.

I’d rather not make a comment on prosperity preachers per se, (because I can’t bring myself to like them), but I will say that prosperity is one of our birthrights. I say this with reference to 1Chronicles 4:10 “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’”

Of course you might think I’ve got some issues…

Giving is fundmental, but when it’s preached about… and because there really is a degree of reciprocity involved in God’s kingdom… human nature looks, reasons, and say’s “You’re conning me out of my money”.

I think that the “prosperity gospel” teaching does get out of balance though, because God does allow us to financially prosper… so that we can sow more… so we can reap more… so that we can sow more… so that….

What you say about those looking for their own benefit is nothing new, is it? Those kinds of folks existed even as far back as the book of Acts, eh?

Would you say that our own motives are more important indicator of our success than how prosperous we are?

But what about the rest of the folks out there?

Are the Prosperity Preachers on the right track or charlatans? Or are they somewhere in between?