Thursday, September 24, 2009

religion article for week of sept 30

This article is also attached in Word format. 

 

Peace on your day!

Jeremy Klaustermeier

 

 

Throughout this financial and economic crisis there has been great blessing.  What?  How can you say something like that pastor?  Have you been blind to the ills of the world?  Don't you see that unemployment is close to an all time high?  Don't you see all the businesses closing?  What about all the foreclosures? 

            Can you imagine anything else in all the world that has more control over our mood and our circumstance than money?  We even call the time when this country had run out of money "The Great Depression."  Yet, I have talked to many a Christian who was "poor" during that time but who also describe that time as the happiest in their life.  I have also seen many a "rich" person who was completely depressed because of the burden of that love of money. 

            Let me share with you several verses that will help explain what I am trying to say.  The first verse is 1 Timothy 6:10.  It says, "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."  Or how about this one from James 5:1-6 "Come now you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.  Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten.  Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire.  You have laid up treasure at the last days.  Behold the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you…."  Or this one from Ecclesiastes 5:10 "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income.  All this is vanity."

            How is this present situation a blessing?  It is a blessing because we have all too painfully been able to see how easily all of the physical and material things we have can be taken away.  It is a blessing because for too long we have been made to put our trust in money instead of in the one who gives us the money and even the abilities we have to earn the money in the first place.  It is a blessing because our present tough circumstance has caused us to turn back to him for guidance and support. 

            I can look back throughout my life and point to specific times in it that the Lord has turned me back to him, giving me no choice but to rely on Him for goodness and grace.  It is in the toughest of times in my life that I have grown the most in my faith life.  I praise and thank God for those tough times, because without them, God would not have made me the man who is able to write this article to you today.  As Paul put it, "suffering produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us" if our hope is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

I urge you in Christ to do whatever you need to do so that your hope and security doesn't lie in your finances or your economic circumstances but in the one who is in control of those circumstance.  Take control of your finances.  Pay off your credit cards and any other debt you have.  Give your tithe.  (By the way the word "tithe" means 10%, so if you don't have a job or, at this time, for one reason or another, have a negative cash flow, no one expects you to give anything.  In fact, we as your brothers and sisters in Christ are expected to give to you as you have need.)

Have a garage sale and get rid of all the stuff you don't need.  Give all that extra clothes away.  Give what you don't use but someone else can to Agape or the charity of your choice. Don't be burdened by the love of money and things.  Let God take control of it for you by going to Him in prayer and giving all those concerns to Him.  He will guide you in all truth. 

In other words, use this tough time for your spiritual benefit and for the spiritual benefit of others.  Grow in spiritual wealth for a change instead of material wealth.  Simplify your earthly life so that you can make time and space for your spiritual life in Christ.

 


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