NO CREDIT AND PLENTY OF CRUNCH

December 2008 article by Andrew Pritchard

So to the news. Yes the news dominated by the credit crunch. It is not just local, it is not just national, it is worldwide. Banks are in difficulties, businesses are closing or in receivership, jobs are being lost- all pretty depressing. Walking my dog down the road the other day I noticed how silent it was. Normally there are builders, roofers, painters etc at one house or another, but nothing, no work going on at all. It seems everyone is cutting back. Cutting back from what? - well of course the spending of money. It seems in society in general today and for the last few years, spending money has become easy, indeed spending money that it has not got. The age of the plastic card has ensured this and frequently we hear of those in debt, increased advertisments to help those in debt and an age where the offer of yet another credit card through the post seems to be on a weekly basis.

So the bubble has burst and the world economy cannot take any more. While acknowledging that it is more complex than that which I have painted above, nonetheless what I have described is a significant factor. Money itself is not the problem, we can all spend wisely, it is the temptation to spend beyond our means, which is generally based on the love of money and a ‘must have’ attitude whatever the cost.

Paul in 1 Timothy 6 v 10 says ‘For the love of money is the root of all evil’- it is the consequences of this with its sorrows that we are seeing today. On top of this is the word covetousness, an old fashioned word to some, but its meaning of greediness and extortion is a very modern issue. Jesus speaks of this in Luke 12 v15 where he says ‘Take heed and beware of covetousness’:  Jesus also says in  Luke 14 v 28 ‘ For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it’. It seems the world in general has not and so we face the problems as outlined today. There is the need to stand back and rather than count the cost of our money, consider what is the true value of our lives. Again Jesus says in continuation of Luke  12 v 15 ‘For a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things he possesseth’.

The current credit crunch and economic meltdown is but the tip of the iceberg, there are more problems yet to come as prophesied in God’s word, The Bible, pointing to the return of the Lord Jesus. So we do well to think on these things now and consider what are the true riches and prepare for the coming of the true King who will bring peace and righteousness to this troubled world, as spoken in Romans Ch 11 v 33 ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God’