Mine
If you have spent time around toddlers, then you have seen mankind at its most natural state. They can be loving and caring and adorable, but they can also be, well, let’s say – challenging. No parent teaches their child to go and snatch something from an innocent sibling or playmate and scream the word, “mine”, to them.
But that is what toddlers do. That is what you and I did. It is what children did decades and millennia ago. It is who we are.
But it isn’t mine. No matter how you play the game of life, as John Ortberg wrote, “when the game is over, it all goes back in the box.”
We live every day with this concept of scarcity. There is only so much of (insert item here) so I need to get mine. If things keep going like they are going, we are going to run out. For me to have more means someone will have less and I would rather be on the more side than the less side of that equation.
But that is a lie. Historically, it doesn’t even prove out. Each time we form decision on a scarcity mindset, something changes and our strategies no longer work. A famous example of this was the London Crisis of 1894. At that time there were enough people living in the city of London that a lot of transportation was required. The transportation of that day was horse, either individually or in carriages, wagons, etc. The problem wasn’t the horses themselves, per se, but what need to go into the horses and what came out of them. There was tremendous concern over enough land to grow feed as the city swelled into the countryside and whether that land could sustain both human and horse needs. There was concern over the growing piles of horse manure in the streets and the impact and costs it imposed. But, as we know, this entire problem simply went away with the advent of the motor-car.
The God who created everything out of nothing does not have a scarcity mindset and, if our focus is on the right things, we won’t either. If you start thinking about scarcity instead of abundance, remind yourself about love. Remind yourself about freedom, liberty, happiness, peace, joy, goodwill, praise, faith, hope, beauty, grace. Remind yourself about God.
Should I be focused on these things? Can society or a nation? It might be worth doing a search and seeing what is engraved on the Liberty Bell. It might ring true for today’s scriptures.
My Answers:
5.
a.
7×7=49, +1= 50th is another sabbath year. proclaim liberty throughout the land. All purchased farm land returned, all go home
b.
Freedom – freedom from slavery. Honoring of a covenant. The gifts of inheritance belong to the family of the King
6.
a.
to identify fairness in pricing of the selling of land since it would be returned in the Jubilee year – basically you are buying the output of the land, not the land itself
b.
Follow my decrees and obey my laws – safety, crop yield, blessings of abundance
c.
A sabbath year of rest for the land, yes – it has benefits for the land. A period of forgiveness of debts and return of property would not work as well because it would inhibit development, also our land was not a covenant land
7.
a.
to be the kinsman redeemer. Abraham rescued Lot. Boaz with Naomi and Ruth
b.
We have incurred debts we cannot pay and have become impoverished to sin. Jesus came as our kinsman and redeemed us by paying our sin and bringing us into His household as His family.
The Notes are Good 