What would God say during an economic crisis??? [part one]

[Note: I meant to post this yesterday, but was side tracked by the mother of all migraine’s…sorry.]

This past Sunday at MCC we took some time to ask the question, “what would God say to a group of people, who were in our circumstances, during a economic crisis?” Over the next few days, I will post some of the thoughts and ideas we explored…

One thing that God would say to us during this economic crisis is…

Join the club.

Most of the world lives in a constant state of economic crisis.

Consider the following statistics:

• 3 billion people live on less that $1 a day.
• 1.2 billion people live on .23 cents a day.
• 1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water.
• Every sixteen seconds someone somewhere in the world dies of hunger.
• 1% of the world’s population owns a computer.
• 8% of the world’s population owns a car.

Contrast those with these:

• In the US annually we spend $17 billion on pet food.
• Americans consume annually 26 billion bottles of water.
• 1/3 of Americans own 3 cars.
• 2007 Holiday Retail sales: $474.5 Billion.
• This year Black Friday shopping increased 3%; the total is estimated to be $10.6 Billion…in one day!
• November-December 2007: Consumers added an additional $12.8 Billion in new debt…1/3 were still paying off debt from the 2006 Holidays.

Compared to most of the world…I am rich, and you probably are too.

This is not about guilt. Guilt does not bring lasting life change. It is about responsibility, about using the blessings that have been poured out on us to serve others. It is also about opportunity. Our blessings come to us wrapped in the opportunity to use them to make a positive, Kingdom of God difference in the world.

The question is whose imprint am I leaving on the world? Mine, which will fade and eventually not be remembered? Or God’s, which is makes an eternal difference?

For more see this post by my friend Pete Wilson…and John Ortberg gave a great teaching on this subject on October 19 [which helped form some of the thoughts I will post later on this week].

What are your thoughts?

josh