Monday, September 22, 2008

Financial Ruin

I know that I am getting away from 2 Corinthians, but I have been reading in Daniel lately and this is unbelievably timely. I wrote this in my journal yesterday. Look at this:

Dan. 9:8-10 "O Lord to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets."

Wow. How timely. I am preaching today. Weird...me preaching. I am talking about God's word and its importance in our lives and how we need to obey it and get to know Jesus through it. In the middle of all of this, we have this threat of financial collapse in the country. If the markets go, we go. If the banks go, we go. If the insurance companies go, we go. No longer the proud, pompous country we have been, but a humbled country, a shamed country, an embarassed country. Why? v 10 Because we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws...

This shame fo face, this embarassment extends to our president (kings), our congress (princes) and get this to our fathers - us. None of us are innocent. We have all screwed up. We have all gone after greed and selfish interests and now we are reaping what we have sown. Kind of depressing, but something we all have to deal with. We all have to look deep within and ask, "Am I a part of the problem?" How do I live my life? Selfishly? Greedily? Is it all about me? The problem is that this is sin. It is missing the mark that God has placed in front of us/me.

The cool thing is verse 9. To the Lord our God belng mercy and forgiveness even though we have rebelled against Him.

Plead for God's mercy, confess our sin, claim His forgiveness. Where am I?

More tomorrow.

Postscript: What I told people yesterday was that we love to blame other people for our problems. We love to throw it all on Washington or Wall Street. Sure, Washington and Wall Street operated with unbridled greed. The problem is, so did we. Buying houses we knew we could not afford, getting stuff that we do not need that we did not have the cash for so we put it on our credit cards, using home equity loans to get us deeper in debt. We are all greedy. We are all at fault and we all have to pay for our error. If only we had remembered the words of that wise man who wrote thousands of years ago: "The borrower is servant to the lender." Prov.22:7 Unfortunately, now, with a $700 billion bailout that we do not have the money for, we will all be serving someone...Maybe China. Something to think about: The decisions that you make in your house are more important than the decisions they make in the White House. We need to make sure they are decisions that are Biblically based.

1 comment:

Betty said...

Glen:

Again...I must thank you for sharing what God has laid on your heart. It really touched us. Jack and Chelsea both commented on how God used you yesterday to reinforce those fundamental truths.

As I have been studying Daniel ...God has shown me how I have been seduced by our culture in ways I didn't realize. To most, it is harmless but boy it is more self-indulgent and self-absorbed than I care to admit. The enemy is sly and disguises himself as an angel of light. I have been fasting in an area that God pointed out to me...and every time I think about what I am fasting from, it reminds me of our self-absorbed, self-indulgent culture. Unless a Christian takes a serious self-evaluation of this matter, he may not even realize, he has been a victim.

Isaiah 47:10 "You felt secure in your wickedness and said, 'No one sees me,' Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you; For you have said in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one besides me.'