Living in the Spirit
July 25, 2018
Scripture Reading: Psalm 14
Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
there is no one who does good.
The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind
to see if there are any who are wise,
who seek after God.
They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse;
there is no one who does good,
no, not one.
Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers
who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and do not call upon the Lord?
There they shall be in great terror,
for God is with the company of the righteous.
You would confound the plans of the poor,
but the Lord is their refuge.
O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,
Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.
I bore myself sometimes because I write so much about greed, yet I will continue to write a lot about greed until it is not a primary driver of behavior in our world today. I guess the real question is will that happen because we the people repent from the sin of greed or are destroyed from within because of the rotting side effects of greed? It is our choice.
The Psalmist above uses very graphic language describing greed. Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the Lord?
Today, I am going to yield anytime you might spend reading what I might have written to encourage you to read the Current US Poverty Statistics accessible below* and pray about them. While we brag about a low unemployment rate we have more people living in poverty. There is something very wrong with that picture.
Prayer: Lord, forgive us our foolish addiction to greed. Heal our souls. Help us build a society where everyone at least has enough. Amen.
*https://kairoscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Poverty-Fact-sheet-Jan-2017.pdf