Rich People

"The man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish." Psalm 49:20

The sons of Korah, who are temple assistants and worship leaders for David share their last song here in a series of seven. Several noteworthy concepts about riches are illustrated in this passage that we use all the time. I'm sure you are aware of the commonly used phrases.... "you can't take it with you".... "you can't buy your way into heaven" "no person except Christ can redeem another person for any price". Before I go any further let me remind us that we are rich. A little lesson in numbers always helps to bring us back to reality when we like to compare ourselves only to the "super-rich". Here is a list of facts that are very, very convicting. If the world were only 100 people.

51 would be women and 49 men, 70 would be other than Christian, 80 would live in sub-standard housing (no running water or electricity), 50 would be malnourished living on one small meal or less each day, 70 would be illiterate, 6 of the 100 would live in the USA and possess 50% of the world's wealth

I hope no one is wondering who those six people are and that we should force them to share with everyone else. Let's get real. It's us. Over 50% of the world's population lives on less than $2 per day. 6.6 Billion people on the earth (remember... a billion is a thousand million) 300 million in the USA and that is only 6% of the world's population, and we have over half the wealth. I know we struggle with this concept, because of the graft and politics in this world, and the solution is far more complex than math. But, regardless.... Psalm 49 is about us. I looked up Dawn and I on globalrichlist.com and found out that we are the 47,250,732nd richest people in the world or more wealthy than 99.22% of everybody. More than a little convicting I think.

Maybe you are wondering, why Pastor Fred has so much dang money? Go look yourself up before you guess, any more. Just put in your annual income as a single or couple (be sure to do it in $US dollars) and you'll get the data for you, and then if you like, you can compare to us. The purpose of sharing this information with you is so that when I tell you the meaning of Verse 20, it will sink in. Because, if you don't have understanding, you are just like a cow in a field, or a dog in the street. What is that about? Well, let's think, the biggest difference between us and the cows and dogs are that we have a soul and a conscience, and they don't. So the scripture is saying that if you don't accept or understand about your riches you don't have a conscience or a soul. In verse 17 after it says we can't take it with us, it says our splendor will not descend with us after death. I know I'm planning on ascending (going up instead of down) I wonder where he is implying we descend to... hmmmm? Sooo, let's all take a deep breath and thank God for what we have, accept the fact that we are rich and be better stewards of the vast resource available to us. Oh yeah could we please stop complaining so much about how hard times are? I know I have so much to deal with in this area and so do you. May He gently deal with you, too.

In His service,
Pastor Fred

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