Brothers, many of our people have barely begun to grasp this. Too many are more shaped by the consumer culture than by the economics of Christ. They still operate on the simple rule: If you earned it, you deserve it. It’s yours; use it for your own material comfort ……………………………..Very few of our people have said to themselves: we will live at a level of joyful, wartime simplicity and use the rest of what we earn to alleviate misery. But surely that is what Jesus wants. I do not see how we can read the New Testament, then look at two billion un evangelized people, and still build another barn for ourselves. We can only justify the exorbitance of our lifestyle by ignoring the lostness of the unreached and the misery of the poor.
Brothers, we are leaders, and the burden of change lies most heavily on us. The place to start is our own lives. Is it the thrill of your life to live in such a sacrificial way that all can see that God is your treasure, not things? Are your home and clothes and cars and recreation the mark of a wartime lifestyle? Is your giving to the church pacesetting (not that your people will know what you give, but God does)? Does your burden for the unreached and the poor stab your people’s love for luxury and comfort?”
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