What Could I Do If I Had No Debt ... I Mean None

As our nations economy spirals helplessly out of control and is teatering on the edge of that magical cliff, I am still convinced that we not only haven't figured out how to fix things, but we won't even admit how we got here.  Nobody in Washington seems to want to realize that is an individual had done what we have done as a country and simply printed more money any time we run out that there is a felony called counterfeiting and we would be found guilty! 

 

I am by no means the smartest man in the world but I am thankful for my parents and Mrs. Wilson would taught be basic math as a child.  From basic math I was able to transfer knowledge to finances and established early on that if the price of what I wanted was more than the amount of money I had, the I couldn't buy it.  It was amazing how that worked.  I was serious about it.  I even kept a list in my desk drawer in my room of the serial numbers on my dollar bills and marked them off the list if I spent them.  Obviously I didn't have many but when you have to draw a line through each one you spend it has an amazing way of making you hang on to them.

 

I wonder what would happen if our leaders in Washington had to do the ... oh nevermind.  Why dream of something that makes so much sense? 

 

Then came high school and a car and real paychecks instead of dollar bills and it was harder to keep track of my money, but still diligently reconciled my checkbook every month so I knew exactly how much money I had on any given day.  I was maturing and growing up and taking on responsibility and then I went to college.

 

Did you know that every company in the world will give a college student a credit card?  You did!  Oh no they got you too.  But why should a college student worry about running up a few hundred or a few thousand dollars in credit.  What's that compared to several trillion?  Our young people are really good learners, they watch their leaders and wonder why they can't do exactly what their leaders do.  They can. They have. They will therefore continue to dig a hole so deep that the sides will fall in on top of them.

 

But what could they do with no debt?  What could you do with no debt?  Look at your bills right now.  Which ones are current?  What do you owe that is accruing interest?  If you were able to make those bills including your mortgage go away would your life be simpler, better, less stressful?   What could you do with just that money?  Maybe make more money because you could collect interest instead of paying it.

 

What about the church you worship at?  They had to build a space for you to come and sit in on the weekend.  But that usually meant they had to go in debt.  What if that suddenly went away?  Can you imagine how many people could be helped with the annual interest paid on church mortgages?  If we got our own house in order, then we could get God's house in order. 

 

What about our country?  What if churches started taking care of people with the money they used to spend on debt service in a way that eliminated the need for government entitlements?  Who would you rather have take care of you anyway?  Money hungry bureaucrats trying to build a bigger government or people who have a personal relationship with the Great Physician, the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills and the one who created life and the ability to acquire wealth?  What if the country didn't have to pay for entitlements and people actually worked and earned their own money and had a sense of self-worth?

 

What could we do if ...

God Was Not Caught Off Guard

My day Friday was busy and hectic.  My morning started with a drive to Frankfort for breakfast at Cracker Barrel with my parents, my aunt and uncle, and my son.  When we returned to town traffic was all rerouted because a truck had careened into three parked cars.  Then as we prepared to head to Louisville to do some Christmas shopping I stopped for gas close to our church and watched in shock as a vehicle ran through the corner stop sign, across the major thoroughfare, through a yard and into the front of the house across the street.  I yelled for help and ran across the street to help the man and to make sure no one was in the house. It was a pretty bizarre morning for our little town, but I hadn't had a radio or television on since 7:30 in the morning. So I had no idea what was going on in a little town in Connecticut.  Suddenly my day seemed like a mundane fog. I wanted to find my grandchildren and hug them tight.  I want to find my daughter, and suggest a career change.  I thanked God for the unbelievable change in my son's life.  After all that we have been through, I still have them all.  I couldn't then and still can not imagine what the families in Sandy Hook were feeling.  

But it is not just Sandy Hook.  We can't lose sight of twenty two children slashed and stabbed in China on Friday as well.  We can't lost sight of families who lost family members who were innocently shopping in malls in Denver and Portland.  We can't lose sight of planes flying into buildings and our world being changed forever.  One of my first childhood memories was the unrest of my parents following the assassination of John F Kennedy.  Then five years later the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King.  I remember as a high school student trying to make sense of a preacher named Jim Jones and something unbelievable in Jamestown.   I still can't make any sense of what is being done to children in Kenya and Uganda that are being stolen and made slaves of blood diamond gangs. 

The insanity of our current world is nothing new.  It took no more than three chapters of scripture for insanity to enter the world in the form of a serpent who introduced sin into our world.   Evil was here and it will remain until Christ returns.  We live in a very broken world and when there is brokenness, things are shattered.  Lives have been shattered from sin since the garden of Eden and they are still shattered around the world today.  This season of the year reminds us of the only possible answer to the brokenness of our world.  Jesus came to be the only answer.  He is the only hope!  

Many are asking, so where was God on Friday? On June 25^th, 1962 we took prayer out of the public schools in America.  On June 17^th, 1963 we took the Bible out of schools in America.  Then on November 17^th, 1980 we were told to take the Ten Commandments off the wall because if the children read them they might follow them.  We live in a time when we have systematically legislated God out of our schools.  But when Columbine, Heath, or Sandy Hook happens people why He wasn't there.  What I wish people could see is that was neither surprised or caught off guard by any of these tragedies.  The nature of an omniscient God is that He is always aware of what we are going through.

That same God was not caught off guard when the doctor told you it was cancer.  He was not caught off guard when your spouse told you that there was someone else.  He was not caught off guard when the employer told you your services were no longer needed.  He was not caught off guard when your child went through a difficult period in their life that broke your heart.  He is omniscient, so He knows, but He is also omnipotent and so He has the power to see you through anything. But why doesn't He stop it?

We will never know what He has stopped.  I don't want to imagine what our world would be like it not for a loving God.  But we deal with the consequences of fallen, broken, shattered world!  Those poor innocent children were not being punished for the sins of the world and Pharisees like those from Westboro Baptist Church will pay a heavy price when they stand before a loving God for claiming that he was punishing these children for the sins of the world.

That is why Jesus came in the first place. But why do little children die?  Because of evil in this world.  Moses was the survivor of a violent mass murder of children to prohibit boys growing into men who could fight against an Egyptian army.  Jesus was the survivor of a evil violent mass murder plot by Herod to eliminate any child that might be the king who would rescue the Jews.  People have been killing innocent children since evil entered this world.  Before we cast all of our anger upon school shooters, gangs who kidnap children, and the Pharoah's and Herod's of history who have destroyed thousands of innocent lives, we must examine the blood on our own hands.  When Pilot could not presude the people not to kill Jesus he washed his hands to symbolically try to remove his guilt in his murder.  We need to realize as long as the elected officials allow the insane murder of innocent children while they are still in their mothers womb, their blood is just as much on our hands.

There is clamouring for gun control and many other laws to stop things like school shootings.  People talk of how desperately these shooters needed medication and psychologist.  Those things would most definitely have helped some, but what they all need is Jesus.  He is is the only hope that can ever heal a broken world.  In 2 Chronicles 7:14 we read telling words.  It is an IF - THEN scenario that can change our world.  God said, "IF my people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, THEN (and only THEN) will I hear from heaven and heal their land."

THE Great I AM is a good shepherd that truly cares for His sheep.  God truly cares for you!  He always has, He always will!

I have also included links to blogs from two wonderful friends who have shared hope, much more eloquently than I could.  Ben Cacharias, is the pastor of Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland.  Here is his blog.  http://outofmymind.cc/    Bob Russell is the retired minister of the SOutheast Christian Church in Lousiville, Kentucky, please read his blog  http://www.bobrussell.org/2012/12/16/where-was-god-during-the-connecticut-massacre/