while the most accepted interpretation is that jabez asked for blessings for the sole purpose to ‘expand their opportunities to serve God’, it is very easy to twist it to become a demand for prosperity from God. Unlike the Book of Job, it sometimes could be interpreted unconsciously as a self-centred extract. On a whole, it doesn’t help if things don’t go your way and what if God doesn’t seem to answer our prayers the way we want it to.

Anyway, the purpose of the old testament is to point towards the cross, and the purpose of the new testament is to point back to the cross which highlights its priority in predominantly every aspect.

Not that the prayer of Jabez isn’t important, but it doesn’t require as much emphasis.

*same anonymous person as above =)

I would like to point out two things.

1)My main point on the omission or the twisting of the cross in popular Christian culture was made in relation to the Purpose Driven Life and the Passion of the Christ.

2) The Prayer of Jabez, and Your Best Life Now, was an aside on my distaste at the viral marketing of unbiblical, reputedly Christian, books.

I acknowledge your point that the Prayer of Jabez was written originally for a Christian audience. However, I will assert again that it is a profoundly unbiblical book that does damage to the cause of Christ when anyone reads it, especially as it promotes the idea that we can compel God to answer us, an idea which is opposed to the grace of God displayed on the cross, and just generally opposed to what God is really like. While not directly claiming to be, its message is not unlike that of the prosperity movement teachers today.

That being said, this is not the place or time for a thorough critique of the book, and there are already many others who have written very good critical reviews on it. I would only be repeating their criticisms and adding fuel to a fire already gone cold. And I would like to stress this as a critique of the book, rather than the person, for I will never know what lies in a person’s heart and mind.

In considering whether I can lift up the primacy of the cross in this manner, it is certainly not my preferred manner. However, I believed I had good reason to adopt Paul’s approach to the Athenians, taking what was in culture, and building upon it through deconstructing the untruths and spelling out the fundamental truths.

Finally, I want to add two questions for you to consider. I would love to hear your answer. When you say that Jesus, Peter, John and Paul did not include every key element of the Gospel every time they taught or preached, what are the key elements your refer to?

And the second question is, what do you mean by the Gospel?

The cross is truly amazing.