This is the second of Piper's five points on God's purposes for a recession. Start with the previous post if you haven't read #1. It is really good for me to read things like this and it makes me think beyond earthly reasoning to consider what God may have purposed these events for. Of course God's ways and thinking are infinitely higher than mine, and he sees the beginning to the end and everything in between all at once and for all eternity. It is incredible that I would ever question his ways when I have such a small amount of knowledge. He knows every effect and every event in every city, country, every person's heart, and every thought. Below is quoted from Piper's sermon. So good... Oh and just to clarify, Bethlehem is the name of the church where Piper serves as Pastor (he mentions it at the end).
2) To Awaken Us to World Poverty
It’s astonishing how blind prosperity makes us to the miseries of the world. God has some remedies for that kind of indifference. For example, it says in Hebrews 13:3, “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.”
Recession hurts us. It imprisons us. What is God’s aim? That we would wake up. Does this recession bother us? If it bothers us, we should be bothered by the fact that millions always live in recession. Only live in recession.
One billion people do not have safe water to drink.
Sixteen thousand children die every day from hunger related illnesses.
Almost eighteen million children are orphaned in sub-Saharan Africa.
Our family prays through the Global Prayer Digest each morning. For January 29, 2009, we prayed for the Afar people of Ethiopia:
It’s 3:00 a.m., and the Afar father is still awake. The desert night is cold. He snuggles up to his wife and newborn baby to keep them warm. Their stomachs rumble with hunger. Should he slaughter his scrawny goat to feed his wife, hoping she will produce enough milk for their baby? Or should he beseech the clan elders to move again, in search of weeds for the goat, or maybe even some fresh water?
They are fortunate; both his wife and their baby survived the birth. The Afar people have the highest maternal fatality rate in the world. Women give birth without benefit of sterile conditions, or even clean water. Of the babies born alive one-third die before age five. Afar people roam throughout one of the most desolate places on earth: the Ethiopian desert.
Drought and malnutrition make them vulnerable to diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, conjunctivitis, and other water-borne illnesses. Of 13 million Afar people, three million are infected with HIV/AIDS.
It is good to know these things. And to pray about these things. And to cultivate a radical culture at Bethlehem in which hundreds of people dream of ways that their lives can count creatively and long-term for the relief of suffering. Recession has a way of making us wake up to the endless recession of millions. It has a way of changing our priorities and releasing effort and money for others.
Ok, that is the end of quotes from Piper's sermon... I'll post purpose #3 next: To Relocate the Roots of our Joy in His Grace, Rather than our goods.
PS - In cake news, I have 3 upcoming cakes this week. I will post pictures this weekend.
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