"A certain ruler asked [Jesus], 'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'
'Why do you call me good?' Jesus answered. 'No one is good - except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'
"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth." Luke 18 : 18 - 23
I think we would all agree that our world is broken. The number of those dying from starvation is staggering. Families are struggling to survive on a dollar a day. For there to be change, resources are necessary. Missionaries need to go, medicine needs to be distributed, money needs to be available.
It's easy for us to feel guilt when we hear of those struggling. However I don't feel Jesus desires for us to feel guilty. We are privileged to be living in the place and time that we do and to have the resources available to us. It is not our sin that we have much. Hearing these statistics should make us aware, not make us guilty.
So what does it mean for us that we have abundant resources? Two common responses that the Christian American Church has is to (1) shun money and (2) hoard it. I think we should embrace our wealth. We go to a school with an average starting salary of ~$64,000. I don't think God is calling us all to direct ministry, but God begs us to use wealth extraordinarily for the Kingdom; for us to live to be set apart and to love the world.
You can give emotionally, but we cannot ignore the earning potential we have. Look at a group of 50 engineers. Earning the average starting salary, if this group decided to live on $35,000 and give the rest of their money to ministry, they could be giving $1.5 million away each year.
This idea of a Mines Fellowship Fund has been a dream for at least of couple of years. I know a couple of friends that have committed to this and have been giving close to $80,000 for the Kingdom. They have seen God moving in incredible ways in different ministries and in their lives as well.
What you do doesn't have to be big, but it can be! What are you going to do differently? Will you?
