May 23

Proverbs 3:9 Honor the Lord with your wealth.

Proverbs 22:7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

More than 250 years ago, while the original 13 colonies were still part of Great Britain, Professor Alexander Tyler did an analysis of the Athenian Republic, which had fallen 2,000 years earlier, he declared:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves excessive gratuities from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy and is always followed by a dictatorship.”

It's a stunning fact of history that the average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. According to that reckoning, American may be living on borrowed time. But to add to the 200 year figure Professor Tyler also showed the sequence through which these nations pass:

From BONDAGE to SPIRITUAL FAITH;
from SPIRITUAL FAITH to GREAT COURAGE;
from GREAT COURAGE to ABUNDANCE;
from ABUNDANCE to SELFISHNESS;
from SELFISHNESS to COMPLACENCY;
from COMPLACENCY to APATHY;
from APATHY to DEPENDENCY;
from DEPENDENCY back to BONDAGE.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that we are very far into this cycle. But I am not one to sit around predicting the end of the world, there is work for us to do right now.

The hope for this our great nation rests not upon what takes place in Washington, DC but what takes place in the individuals that sit in church tomorrow. This is the plan to change the world this Memorial Weekend.... ask God to change your heart, then ask God to change your family, following that, ask God to change Fairfield County, CT, New England and then the Nation.

Frankly, it boils down to one person – You!! Have you allowed God to change your heart concerning money? Today’s scripture verses speak about honoring God with our money, staying out of debt and using money to help the poor. As Christ followers we need to reject the propaganda from our culture. We don’t need to buy the latest gadget sold to us for three easy payments of $19.99.

We need to cling to the principles of spirituality, discipline, delayed gratification, integrity, work, and make a commitment to God to follow with complete obedience His financial principles. Only then will our lives, our families, our city and our country have a chance to roll back the tide of the inevitable collapse.

It is late..... but it is never too late with God!!!!