What I've Learned - Part 2: Land Of Plenty

This is part two of 3 parts of a message that I gave in Clarksburg. This is a "semi-Transcript" so if you were there you may remember a lot of it - or maybe not :)

2) LAND OF PLENTY

This next lesson that I learned was a little tougher to swallow. It should convict all of us a little. We, as Citizens of he United States are blessed in a way unimaginable by most people around the World. We live in the Land of Plenty. We have so much and we have to be honest with ourselves. We have to realize that. We don’t just have a lot of money but we have a lot of places and things to spend it on.

Shannon and I both came home after just 3 months away and we felt the culture shock. It first hit me in San Francisco when after arriving late the night before; I went to Starbucks for a 3 month delay hit of caffeine. As I stood in line to potentially place my order I froze. In Costa Rica I learned that coffee was made two ways, with or with out milk. At Starbucks there were so many choices I couldn’t process them. Shannon went to Walmart to buy toothpaste, in Costa Rica, you have 2 or three choices, here you have a whole isle to choose from, again stunned by available choices.

Now I am not one of the people that stand in commercials making an emotional plea to send money and make you feel guilty for earning what you have. I fully disagree with people that use guilt as a motivating tool. What I am learning about God and how he works is that he gives people resources to go and bless others. He uses people to do his work. I know some wealthy people have a God given vision to increase funds to bless others. To make money so that they can support what God is doing. My fear is that we as a nation have grown into such consumers of good things that the resources God intended for us to use to bless others, have gone to blessing ourselves.

A book to read: The Treasure Principle, by Randy Alcorne

WHAT I AM LEARNING THROUGH MY EXPERIENCE: God has blessed me so that I can bless others.

Verse: Prov. 11:24, “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly but comes to poverty.”

Sharing the Experience,
Phil