Greed vs Generosity
Last Sunday our Pastor's sermons was awesome. (To be honest they usually are.) He used one word to sum up America's problem. Greed. You can listen to his sermon in its entirety at http://sermon.net/FBCBrownstown/sermonid/2695173.
That's been on my mind a lot.
I made some poor decisions when I was younger and charged way too much on credit cards that I couldn't pay off--I refused to file for bankruptcy and as a result I have the pleasure of still paying for things that have long since worn out and been thrown away. But my prayer? (this is truly my journal being publicized) my prayer is that I never forget how I feel right now...so that I never end up here again. Because some day I will get out of debt, and some day I will be faced with the decision again: to be greedy, or be generous. Most people wouldn't think of charging things on credit cards as a form of greed, but it most certainly is. It shouts "I'm entitled to this, I earned this, I deserve this, me, me, me!" After all isn't greed's ugly cousin selfishness? If we don't learn from our mistakes, they tend to repeat themselves.
Some things to consider....
A recent report on spending reveals the following annual expenses of American households:
Tobacco and alcohol: $89 Billion
Clothing and Personal Care: $284 Billion
Entertainment: $310 Billion
Transportation: $1 Trillion
This survey was taken after the economic crash of 2008, how much of that money do you think was put on plastic?
In contrast, half the world--more than 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day. Eighty percent of the world lives on less than $10 a day. An estimated 24,000 children die of starvation everyday. 400 hundred million children live with no access to safe water.
What Americans spend on Starbucks a year (9.6 Billion) would provide water for more than three billion people.
Read Luke 18:18-30 really focus in on vv 24 and 25.
..."its easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." What rich people can't go to Heaven? No, that's not what I'm saying at all...it's an observation, not a judgment. Craig Groeschel says in his book Weird: being rich makes it harder to depend on God, being rich distracts you from true priorities, and being rich gives you greater responsibilities. Being rich blinds you.
Now most of us read those verses and say so what, who cares, I'm not rich! But, according to the statistics above you are! If you live in America you are rich.
I'm greatly burdened that we feel like those blessings God has given us by living in America were to make our lives more comfortable. God blesses us so that we can bless others. He gives us churches to serve in and to use our spiritual gifts in so we can make a difference in this world. He has blessed us so abundantly, why? I can't for one minute think it's for us to buy more toys. We're suppose to be different, interestingly enough, lost individuals match us dollar for dollar when it comes to giving. They actually out give us in some areas.
We've made some changes in the Deal household over the last year, based on these convictions that I write about. We no longer buy Christmas or Birthday presents for example. We rarely eat out anyway due to Matthew's diet restrictions, but that has scaled back immensely as well. The changes we have made are barely a start. They are no where near a true sacrifice.
God takes how we spend our money very seriously. The Bible includes more than 800 verses about money. The topic of money/possessions/wealth is second only to the kingdom of God in Jesus' list of teaching topics.
I teach a young adult Sunday School Class, this month we will be studying this topic a little deeper. I am very excited. Think of what could happen if we all changed some of our habits to reflect generosity instead of greed.
I'm not saying that we all need to sell everything and go serve in Africa (unless of course God calls us to) but we can all do SOMETHING.
That's been on my mind a lot.
I made some poor decisions when I was younger and charged way too much on credit cards that I couldn't pay off--I refused to file for bankruptcy and as a result I have the pleasure of still paying for things that have long since worn out and been thrown away. But my prayer? (this is truly my journal being publicized) my prayer is that I never forget how I feel right now...so that I never end up here again. Because some day I will get out of debt, and some day I will be faced with the decision again: to be greedy, or be generous. Most people wouldn't think of charging things on credit cards as a form of greed, but it most certainly is. It shouts "I'm entitled to this, I earned this, I deserve this, me, me, me!" After all isn't greed's ugly cousin selfishness? If we don't learn from our mistakes, they tend to repeat themselves.
Some things to consider....
A recent report on spending reveals the following annual expenses of American households:
Tobacco and alcohol: $89 Billion
Clothing and Personal Care: $284 Billion
Entertainment: $310 Billion
Transportation: $1 Trillion
This survey was taken after the economic crash of 2008, how much of that money do you think was put on plastic?
In contrast, half the world--more than 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day. Eighty percent of the world lives on less than $10 a day. An estimated 24,000 children die of starvation everyday. 400 hundred million children live with no access to safe water.
What Americans spend on Starbucks a year (9.6 Billion) would provide water for more than three billion people.
Read Luke 18:18-30 really focus in on vv 24 and 25.
..."its easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." What rich people can't go to Heaven? No, that's not what I'm saying at all...it's an observation, not a judgment. Craig Groeschel says in his book Weird: being rich makes it harder to depend on God, being rich distracts you from true priorities, and being rich gives you greater responsibilities. Being rich blinds you.
Now most of us read those verses and say so what, who cares, I'm not rich! But, according to the statistics above you are! If you live in America you are rich.
I'm greatly burdened that we feel like those blessings God has given us by living in America were to make our lives more comfortable. God blesses us so that we can bless others. He gives us churches to serve in and to use our spiritual gifts in so we can make a difference in this world. He has blessed us so abundantly, why? I can't for one minute think it's for us to buy more toys. We're suppose to be different, interestingly enough, lost individuals match us dollar for dollar when it comes to giving. They actually out give us in some areas.
We've made some changes in the Deal household over the last year, based on these convictions that I write about. We no longer buy Christmas or Birthday presents for example. We rarely eat out anyway due to Matthew's diet restrictions, but that has scaled back immensely as well. The changes we have made are barely a start. They are no where near a true sacrifice.
God takes how we spend our money very seriously. The Bible includes more than 800 verses about money. The topic of money/possessions/wealth is second only to the kingdom of God in Jesus' list of teaching topics.
I teach a young adult Sunday School Class, this month we will be studying this topic a little deeper. I am very excited. Think of what could happen if we all changed some of our habits to reflect generosity instead of greed.
I'm not saying that we all need to sell everything and go serve in Africa (unless of course God calls us to) but we can all do SOMETHING.
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