Some thoughts to ponder on Black Friday...

A picture of human greed...

• On November 17th Sony released it's PlayStation 3 gaming console.
  
• In Hartford, Connecticut, at 3am on that morning, two armed thugs approached people lined up to buy it outside Wal-Mart and demanded their money. One patron resisted and was shot.
  
• About 30 miles away in Manchester, another shopper was beaten by 5 men and robbed of his console 3 minuts after he bought it.
  
• In Fresno, California, a frenzied crowd trampled a few people in a parking lot as they stampeded when the store's doors were opened.
  
• In Sullivan, Indiana, a man was sent to the hospital with a critical stab wound after he and a friend (weilding a tire iron and a chain) tried to rob a man of his PS3, which he'd waited in line 36 hours to buy.
  
• An Englewood, Ohio store was held up by two men in ski masks and sunglasses, who made off with 5 of the consoles.
  
• In Allentown, Pennsylvania, a teenager was also robbed of his new PlayStation by a man who tapped on his car window with a handgun.
  
• Police had to fire a talcum powder ball at the ground outside a Target store in Henrico, Virginia, to get the attention of an unruly crowd of about 350 people who were waiting to buy one of the shop's eight consoles.
  
• Sony's PlayStation 3 is now selling on Ebay for as much as $4,500.00

Some indicators that Jesus knew how badly we'd be tempted to greed...

• Jesus addressed money and material posessions more than any other single topic in scripture.
  
• He talked more about it than about the topics of faith and prayer combined.
  
• He talked more about it either heaven or hell.
  
• 15% of all of Christ's recorded words were devoted to the topic of material wealth and how we relate to it.
  
• Sixteen of Christ's 38 parables were devoted to the topic of money (and he was talking to the poor of his time).

God's kindness to Americans inspite of their greed...

• Americans, since 1950, have used more resorces than the Roman Empire at it's height, the entire Third World population, and all the Americans who have lived before us.
  
• If you brought in a mere $1500 last year, you made more money than 80% of the world's population.
  
• If you have adequate food, sufficient clothing, live in a house or an apartment and have reasonably reliable transportation, you're among the top 15% of the worlds wealthy.
  
• If you have all these things plus a savings, more than adequate clothing, a hobby that requires any kind of regular expenditure or gear, and own your own home, you are among the top 5% of the worlds wealthy.
  
• America is the wealthiest society that has ever existed.

God's instructionss concerning greed...

"Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs." --1 Timothy 6:6-12

Black Friday gets its name from the retailers' belief that their stores will go from red with debt to black with profit. Let's remember what Christ had to say about money and material posessions on this, the biggest retail day of the year, and not blacken the 'black' in this Friday with our greed.

If you're interested in diving deeper into the topic of greed, my church did a great preaching series on it called "Affluenza". You can access it by going to my church's website, clicking on "tools for growth", then "sermons - past". Scroll down to January 8, 15, and 22.