Bewildered, the man asked God, "But Father, why is it that these unbelievers are so prosperous and your own people are always struggling?!" God replied and said, "Unbelievers are very loyal. My people are not." "But God!” he said, "You don't know these unbelievers! Maybe it's because you're in Heaven. I’m on earth with them. They're not loyal at allll!" Then God broke it down to him; the average unbeliever may not be loyal to God, but he is certainly loyal to whatever he believes in. True story; I heard it from the horse's mouth...
This was the analogy he used: Give a group of unbelievers an equal amount of money to spend (say £100), and watch what they do with it. They’ll be very predictable. The alcoholic will go out and spend his money on drinks. The staunch Arsenal football fan will steer clear of the Chelsea merchandise store and head for the Arsenal one to get their latest kit or tickets to the next game. Similarly, the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fanatics will treat themselves to as many of the books and movies as they can afford, and the committed gambler will go to the bookies to place some bets, leaving the music lovers to splash out on the magazines, latest albums releases or concert tickets that they’ve had their eyes on for a while. Get the picture? Their commitment is such that some of those football fans are ready to die for the teams they support (I believe they’re also known as hooligans), and when push comes to shove for the gambler, the man is ready to sell his child!
Now, give the same £100 to a group of believers and watch them. What do they do with it? The SAME things the unbelievers did...! I generalise, but isn’t it funny how true this is in the lives of most professed believers? We have the entire back catalogue of an artiste like Jay-Z or Michael Jackson (I’ll be the first to put my hand up on this one and say I’ve been there), but we don't own a single album of Israel Houghton or Donnie McClurkin. We've devoured the autobiographies of Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama, but we haven't got a clue about Billy Graham or Oral Roberts. Our personal libraries are filled with books by the likes of Jackie Collins and Jeffrey Archer, but we own zero Christian literature. We sacrifice punctuality to accommodate the second half of a football match and spend money on alcohol every weekend when we go out, but if a church event clashes with anything else, the church event must give way - and were yet to be seen smiling when the offering basket comes round during the Sunday service (let’s not even go into the subject of tithes here). A good proportion of our time is spent with TVs blaring through our homes and we know the channels for CNN, MTV and ITV by heart, but we can't even hazard a guess as to what channel God TV is on - and we certainly couldn’t tell you what series they have aired this year. We’re amazing at cramming all sorts of events into our very tight schedules; parties, weddings, cinema & theatre trips, concerts...you name it... But ask us about the last kingdom event we’ve been at apart from church on a Sunday and we'll draw a blank – I’m talking no bible study, no conferences, no worship events...nothing!
