Can we afford it?

It's all about the Benjamin's baby :D There are many ways to try to quantify how someone is doing with God and where they stand. The typical unit of measure is time. Do people show up to things? Do they read their Bible? Do they pray? Do they do devos? These are quite standard because it's a resource everyone has and can be addressed in a straight forward manner. It also makes comparison easy. What do you spend your time on is what you care about. If your time is God's then it's good. If it's your own then it's bad. It's pretty obvious in that aspect that my peers have begun to question that. They are beginning to see and share God as the master of your entire life. It's as Tim Hughes' song, "Everything", where he is the God of your waking and God of your sleeping. This is how God is God of our Time.

In our world we run off two resources though, Time and Money. It's been interesting to me because as far as my peers God, the dealing with money is a less structured idea. We enforce that God is the God of our time and we should be in tune with him on that, money seems to have a disconnect. When spending money the question is about budgeting and if we can afford something. If we can and not go into debt we consider that responsible. We know debt as a bad thing and the Bible only speaks of debt as a bad thing. I feel like it eludes us to consider what "good" is. Is good accumulating wealth for your children? Is it making sure we give God 10%? Is it making lots of money so that you can contribute to the various church things? I think it's a lot of things but in the conversations I've had it's not been about anything beyond being responsible.

I think it's something that our generation needs to deal more with than the past. In the prior generation the things outlined are what it was about. The people and kingdom were poor. The people seem to be richer now and I'm not sure about the kingdom being any richer. I know there are shortfalls.

I've mentioned the 3 rules of money (or time) in the past
1) Better to have more than have less
2) Better to have now than have later
3) Better for me to have the money than you to have it

If this were about souls
1) Better to save more than save less (quantity)
2) Better to save now than save later (urgency)
3) Better for me to save than you to save (ownership)

Investing in the Kingdom. I keep thinking about this. There is so much I see as possibilities. I remember thinking about the return I have received from the LORD for what little I've been able to give and I desire for more. Can we afford not to invest in this? If it's an expenditure we want to spend as little as possible but this is an investment. If we live like it's a sure thing, we'd borrow money to get in on it.