Die With the Most Toys!

By now, a couple of things should be obvious.
Debt is still sin.
Having gone through the steps of creating an ‘autopsy’ budget, one has realized that they probably spend more than they earn. At the very least one has more debt than income.

The saying goes, "Our Yearning will always be more than our Earning!"

Up to this point, this has been primarily a learning process. It has been intellectual. Yes, one is challenged to decide to start giving a portion their income to God and decide to get out of debt.

One is asked to do some difficult things like creating an ‘autopsy’ budget.

HERE, NOW, the true challenges begin.
In order to ‘balance’ a budget, live within one’s income, and get out of debt, one has to change behavior. More specifically, in most cases, one has to lower their standard of living. No one has said this will be easy, in fact just the opposite, it is hard.

One has to answer the question, “How much am I truly willing to sacrifice to obey God?”

Let us face it; America is not a place where we are challenged to make sacrifices for God. We, in general live in a ‘world’ of easy, ‘feel good’ Christianity. We live in a country where ‘televangelists’ preach prosperity (debt) not the Word. We live in country were there is an abundance of churches that ‘preach’ upbeat messages designed to entertain and ‘make people feel good about themselves’.

Sorry, that is not what the Bible says. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?”

To be a Christian, walk with God, and become more Christ-like every day means opposing the World. Christians should feel like they are swimming against the current in an ever increasing deluge of evil. It is not easy to be a Christian...if it is then one is doing something wrong. No, in America, we generally are not ‘persecuted’ for our beliefs - a ‘persecution’ that means jail, torture or death. We do not have to hide our Bibles and worship in secret, hiding in basements. Our ‘persecution’ takes on a different form. We are inundated with amorality. We are seduced into compromise. We are lumped into a derided group. As divided as Christians are in America, by denomination, doctrine, and theology, we are still lumped into one group that is scorned by the media. Almost every day some comedian or journalist abuses Christians for their beliefs. We laugh at their jokes. Like Peter, we deny Christ. No, if asked directly, “Are you a follower of Christ?” most of us would not deny it. However, we do deny Christ in our attitudes, our actions and our lifestyles.

The line from an old campfire song comes to mind, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” What do we love that makes us different? If we love the things of this world, we are no different from them. Therefore, what do we ‘love’ that makes us different?
If “they will know we are Christians by our love,” what do we love?

Loving God and Christ, means we must obey the Word.
About this time, some are asking what the point is.
Simply; obeying the Word in this case is opposite to everything one has been taught, and the World preaches. To get out of debt, requires one to decrease their standard of living...Every bone in one’s body, all the propaganda in the world, and every standard of ‘success’ in the World says just the opposite.
“He who dies with the most toys, wins!” Don’t we use that phrase as our measuring stick?

Again, remember Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Add to that 1 John 2:15, 16, in the Message Bible it says, “Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world - wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important - has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him.”

The next verse answers the question, “Why should I get out of debt, and WHY should I lower my standard of living?” 1 John 2:17 (The Message Bible), "The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out - but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity."

“He who dies with the most toys...still dies!” After death, comes eternity. Do you want to be ‘set’ in this world, or eternity?