12.8.13

Hosea 10:1 How prosperous Israel is-- a luxuriant vine loaded with fruit. But the richer the people get, the more pagan altars they build. The more bountiful their harvest, the more beautiful their sacred pillars.



My Thoughts
I read this and thought of our country... of the huge difference in our lives just since I was a little girl. The even bigger difference in our lives since my parents were little. There was a time in America where mortgage had to be paid off in just 7 years. So you worked up to a larger house you didn't start with one. Or you lived most of your life in a paid for house. Look at the size of an average American home and how it has grown. Just look at the size of a closet when you were a child compared to the size of a closet today!! We keep thinking more is better.

I read this and my mind went to our trip to Auburn when John-Robert graduated this past year... we walked past statues of famous football players! Big statues. Yet our church buildings get simpler and simpler.
The more God gives us the more we think we deserve just for being! The more God gives us the more we pay for and idolize entertainment and it's figures.
If my house was as simple as the house I grew up in it would cost less to heat and cool...less to furnish...less to keep up. And I would have to own less because I would have less place to put what I owned. I would have more to give to others!
I believe that all that I have is a blessing from God! I do. But I also believe that when God blesses me with much, He expects much of me in return. I need to find that balance in life. We are getting better...but we have room for improvement. A change in our country begins with each one of us doing our part in loving God. Doing our part in putting God above all else in our lives. The richer we become the more humble we need to become. I fear that instead we have become like Israel, proud and fickle building pagan alters, forgetting God.
I imagine that if we were to fill up our churches just one week the way we fill up football stadiums..that we would see a difference in our nation. God would bless our effort...then if we did it yet again...the change would be even bigger. We need a revival...and those start in the hearts of each one of us. What we do, what we say, what we spend time doing, what we put first in our lives matters. Our one life does make a difference. I think that maybe the biggest lie that Satan tells each one of us is that what "we" do does no matter, because it matters so much!!
We can treat what we have as what it is, a gift from God. Or we can treat it as something we deserve just because. Which makes more sense? When I look around at all that I have.. it must be a gift! Now I need to treat it as such!