How to Make Wise Choices by Brian Houston
This book, along with a number of others, including How to Live a Blessed Life, is part of Brian Houston's “The Maximised Life” series (AUD $12.95 each, which make them a little expensive, given their size). The books are well-presented, featuring attractive typefaces and photographs.
As in How to Live a Blessed Life (and indeed much of the material coming from Hillsong), in How to Make Wise Choices themes of judgement and sin are downplayed. Mention is made of Jesus but it is scant, although he is acknowledged as a good example of wisdom. Again, material wealth features prominently as part of the benefit of making wise choices. Pointing to Solomon and Abraham to back up his case, Brian tells us that “The pursuit of money or fame won't build your life, but they are counted among the rewards of God's wisdom because they have purpose” (p. 41).
That purpose, according to Brian, is to bless others. Brian insists that wisdom outlasts money: “Some 400 years before Christ, the Ancient Greek playwright Sophocles wrote, ‘Wisdom outweighs any wealth’” (p.43). However, in the next sentence this statement is immediately followed by the careful qualification, “Much has been said about wisdom and wealth, but the two often go hand in hand”. It's an important qualification as much of his book deals with how wisdom will make you wealthy in a material—as well as a spiritual—sense.
Given that Brian covers a great range of Bible verses dealing with wisdom, it is an unfortunate oversight that he fails to mention a passage in 1 Corinthians that speaks of the true nature of the greatest wisdom:
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor 1:21-24)
The consequences of this oversight are not small. Neither this book, nor How to Live a Blessed Life make any mention of the greatest wisdom and blessing of all: Jesus' death on the cross as a ransom for the sins of the whole world. Scripture is used out of context, it is misinterpreted and misapplied. “The Maximised Life” series may be attractive little booklets with nice covers but they are dangerous and misleading.
As a bonus for CHN readers who have read this far, here is a verse from 2 Corinthians:
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Cor 8:9)
Is it worth noting that Paul is talking about the wealth of the Kingdom of Heaven rather than the wealth of this world.