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“Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it. But, I’m afraid He would ask me the same question.”

A thought by Brandon Hatmaker, (2011-10-18) from his book, Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture (p. 34). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

The truth is He has.  Take food for example.  There is enough food in the world to feed everybody in the world.  The problem with most all the problems of the world is that when God created us He gave us a free will and He is not going to go back on that.  Some people are so afraid to not have enough food that they choose to hoard it and so others are deprived because of it.   

I like an illustration that Pastor Scott Daniels at Pasadena First Nazarene Church gave yesterday.  He bought out one roll of toilet paper and also a package of 30 rolls of toilet paper.  He said that so many people have a one toilet paper view of life and they are so afraid that they will run out so they do all they can to make sure they don’t run out.

Back when Johnny Carson was on the Tonight Show he made a joke in his opening monologue one night that there was a toilet paper shortage and sure enough the next day there was.  Everybody went out and bought all they could and then there was a shortage.

I like the other view of things.  Because God has an abundance of toilet paper then their need not be a shortage.  I can live my life with no fear.  God is not a hoarder.  He is a giving God and if we His people would take on His characteristic of giving then the world would have more than enough.

I believe the problem is we live by fear and not by faith.  I have to hoard because I am afraid that I won’t have enough when God said that the righteous who live by faith will never grow hungry.

What if the twelve apostles would have hoarded the five loves and two fish?  Then they wouldn’t have been fed let alone the five thousand.  But because they brought what they had to Jesus they were all fed and they had twelve baskets left over.  One basket for each apostle. 

 So what are you hoarding out of fear?
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