Pastor Bruce’s blog

Who, us?  Yes, America is coming to grips with greed these days.  Corporate financial institutions, some of which have been around for decades, are crumbling.  Large concerns are being sold off piece by piece or falling into bankruptcy.  Some news sources are saying that except for government controls we would be experiencing the same financial meltdown that occurred during the Great Depression era.  How could this be?  Aren’t those people at the helm of those great institutions smarter than the rest of us and more able to avoid these difficulties? 

The problem is that they are people.  Fallen creatures like you and I.  And those folks who borrowed money from those lending institutions, they’re flawed too. We all are.  It wasn’t a matter of “smarts” that have caused the crisis we’re facing today.  It’s a matter of “hearts.”  Bankers liberalized their lending criteria in order to process more loans, make quotas and look good on the surface in order to pad their own income.  People stretched beyond their means to purchase houses and other properties that common sense would say “no” to.  Everyone presumed upon the future and hoped that housing values would continue their unrealistic rise.  In other words, the lust for more, greed,  trapped many and many are in dire straights now because of it.  It even threatens the financial stability of our entire economy. 

There’s a great lesson here.  Your short term longing for more and the acquisition of things beyond your ability to pay leads to many small decisions that one day add up to financial collapse.  Credit card debt, other loan debt can become a weight you one day cannot bear when the inevitable trials of the future limit your ability to service that debt.  “Owe no man nothing but love” is the exhortation of the Scripture.  Eliminate your debts.  “The borrower is servant to the lender” and unless it’s careful borrowing that you’re doing, you’ll possibly enslave yourself and your family to a cruel master. 

Be content.  Prayerfully ask the Lord to supply what you feel you need.  Wait for the answer.  Work toward the goal and believe that if the Lord knows you need that thing that He will enable you to earn it.  Godly contentment and wisdom is the antidote for greed.  May our nation learn that from this painful lesson. 

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