At what point does need become greed?
One author writes: 'Rarely does a person wake up and say, "I've been living for an ego trip...I'm going to get rid of the big car and the fancy yacht and go and live in the slums...working with the poor."
God deals with us individually. What may be okay for some, isn't necessarily okay for others.
When Pastor Renny Scott began wrestling with this issue...he said, "I just couldn't resolve the tension of living in a peaceful bedroom community while hell on earth was all around me in the form of hunger and poverty." He went to Africa with World Vision, which was the beginning of involvement with the needs of others.
Next he moved into the inner city... That was the second step. Then he took a church of 50 which met in a school cafeteria. When a deacon suggested they give the entire Sunday morning offering to missions, Scott swallowed hard - because his salary was included! Eventually he and his wife came to grips with their lifestyle and did something I've challenged many to do...
Cap your lifestyle and say, "This much and no more"; and everything above that was given away... The little church grew into a body of 1,800 people who matched dollars for buildings with dollars for missions. Today they've taken on the challenge of helping homeless people find affordable housing.
Scott said, "I had to pause and ask myself what I'd want to be doing if Christ returned today. And I found myself answering from Matthew chapter 24 and 25 ...to take my talents and invest them [where the need was]."'
(Commandment 2):
No other God
Written by Bob & Debby Gass
Sunday, 12 January 2014
APPS available here
