Engage the Nations

There is such a thing as having right expectations. There is also such a thing as having wrong expectations. Healthy living in this failing economic environment requires us to expect rightly. What we expect regarding the world economy hurts or redeems the quality of our lives in the face of current economic crisis. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:19 about what is and isn't right expectation as far us our world economies are concerned. He warns us to expect a sudden collapse or meltdown of our earthly securities and investments. He warns us that moth and rust are sure to nibble away on our lives' savings. We are seeing the spectacular fulfillment of these warnings in our time as huge Wall-Street conglomerates collapse overnight. They are taking with them thousands of dollars of investors' money and workers' jobs. Isn't this the rust and moth that Jesus is talking about? No matter how gigantic a worldly system might be, it will ultimately collapse. It is natural for it to

(In this picture: Christian Businessmen faced with hard times meet over breakfast coffee in Minneapolis to study what the Bible says about recession-proofing and to stand with each other through prayer. I shared with them these principles that I will be discussing). A few posts ago I wrote here on how to live well in the middle of economic anxiety (See October 8th 2008 post). My premise was that the Bible, more specifically Jesus, gives us a blue-print for recession-proofing our lives. I wrote that it is possible, in times such as ours, to live anxiety-free. I gave five approaches or principles to such a way of living which we find in Jesus' teaching from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:19-34. Among these principles was the principle of expectation (Vs 19) . Jesus warned that we should expect a sudden collapse or meltdown of our earthly economic securities and investments. He warned that moth and rust are sure to nibble away on our lives' savings. Over the next few po