Meditations from Zion

Matthew 19:24
“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

That’s us, the rich man. I don’t think we want to hear that, but it’s true. I’m reading Rob Bell’s “Jesus Wants to Save Christians,” and found a list of disturbing facts. Here are just a few:

• The U.S. consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day. (Next in line is China, 5.6 million barrels a day.)
• America controls 20% of the world’s wealth with only about 5% of the world’s population.
• Every 7 seconds, somewhere in the world a child under age 5 dies of hunger while Americans throw away 14% of the food we purchase.
• Nearly 1 billion people in the world live on less than one American dollar a day.
• More than half of the world lives on less than $2 a day, while the average American teenager spends nearly $150 a week.
• 40% of people in the world lack basic sanitation while 49 million diapers are used and thrown away in America every day.
• 1.6 billion people in the world have no electricity.
• Most people in the world do not own a car; one-third of American families own 3 cars.
• One in seven children worldwide has to go to work every day just to survive.
• Americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half of the world does on all goods

I’m only saying: we’re the rich man. All of us. So, how will you get through the eye of the needle to enter the Kingdom of God?

I am counting on the mercy and grace of Christ. That’s it. There is no other way.