
When we are not buying lottery tickets or watching big
winnings on game shows, one of our favorite national pastimes is wandering
through shopping malls just to see what else we can want.
Our
shop-till-you-drop society has produced the Home Shopping Network and all its
spinoffs, displaying products on television to be purchased just by making a
phone call. And even more so on our day is online shopping; you don’t
even have to get off the couch to buy anything you could possibly desire.
Amazon and Ebay are among the most visited websites on the internet. Our
culture has a materialistic obsession.
What is the result of the riches that we so desperately
desire?
Dr. Aaron Beck did a ten-year study of patients who are
hospitalized with suicidal tendencies. What he said was, "risk of suicide
increases, with resources." The more
stuff you that the more likely you are to kill yourself. Poor people rarely do
it.
Another medical study proved, and I quote, "Subtract two years from your life if
your family income is over $40,000 a year."
Another study showed the moral decline and family
devastation of this obsession with money, "Among
both men and women the incidents of marital infidelity rises in conjunction
with an increase in income. Of the married men earning $20,000, only 31 percent
conducted extramarital love affairs. Of the men earning more than $60,000, 70
percent did.
Money is the number one motive for committing a crime.
We are paying dearly for chasing what is cheap. As
Christians we must not fall into the trap of loving money. The riches of this
world can in no way compare to the riches of the Kingdom of God.
9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap
and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and
destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of
evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced
themselves with many griefs.
Notice it does not say that ‘money is the root of all evil’;
it says ‘the “love” of money.’ As Christians we must be very careful not to
fall into the trap of loving money.
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