Economy

I wonder which economy is most important to us?  This present age has an economy we have been pretty good at manipulating.  Part of the reason for this is that we were born in America, which I consider to be the greatest nation on earth.  I am thankful to be here, live here and have America as a base of operations for the business I am in.  What is MY business?  Make disciples of Jesus who love God, know God and serve God.  America gives me great opportunity to go forward as a soldier in this mission.  I can freely profess my faith, preach God's Word and make amazing connections through physical mobility, usable technology and other resources.  Because of these opportunities, our congregation (and those of our brothers and sisters in Christ) should be able to get God's message out in multiple ways.  So ... why is this so difficult and why aren't results what I would like?  I think there are several reasons.
Yes ... though this economy is struggling it is still vibrant when compared with most of the world.  But there is a dark side to our current economic system.  Jesus said it best when He said you can either serve 'mammon' (this economic system, the world's economy) or God.  We seem to be both servants and subjects of the economy that sustains us.  Our decisions revolve around our finances.  We worry about giving up funds for our church because it might have a negative effect on funding our excessive lifestyle.  We make excuses like "God doesn't need my money" and "they [the Church] is always talking about money."  Here is the paradox.  God's Word also says that if our attitude is focused on 'getting' then our pockets will seem like they have holes and we will try to fill ourselves but will never get enough.  I meet prisoners of our economy every week.
Sunday we will look at the two economies.  We will examine the story of the Free Store in Columbus, Ohio that has given away millions of dollars worth of goods, food, furniture, clothes and even prescription drugs, yet it seems to always have enough.  We will talk of a local ministry that is about to give back to its parent organization because of the abundance of giving.  We will pray to become part of God's economic system and to live under His definition of abundance.  And, we will ask for God's eyes to see His unseen economy in the midst of the falseness, the emptiness and the excessiveness of this present age.  Hope to see you there!  Randy