Let’s start with the Bible. Earlier tonight, while reading what Paul wrote to a young guy named Timothy, I was struck by the way Paul shrewdly diagnoses the current disease in the U.S. Read this:
1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. (II Timothy 3:1–5)

These are obviously “terrible times.” We all know this is the worst economic time in America since The Great Depression in 1929. The stock market is in a free-fall. No one knows where it’s going to end. Most of us with retirement investments have lost 40% in one year. People everywhere are asking, “How did this happen? And then to rub salt into our wounds, we read about one of the companies the government bailed out – AIG – taking a $440,000 pleasure junket to the posh St. Regis Hotel on the Pacific Coast in California – AFTER getting an economic bailout with OUR tax dollars! Have these people no shame?
At the risk of being thought simplistic, I believe that the Bible captures the heart of the cause – we’ve become a nation of “money-lovers!”

v. 2 – “lovers of money.” And…”boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…treacherous, rash, conceited, and lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” (To cite some of the things from the list above!)
Yes, I believe our current financial crisis is a symptom of much deeper spiritual problems. The Bible tells us it is going to be this way in the “last days.” Sure seems like “last days” to me when I read the list. I could provide multiple illustrations for every point in the list Paul provides.
If Americans don’t stop living like this, they can expect more of the same.
It’s time for America to turn back to God and godly living. Nothing else is going to turn things around. Billion dollar bailouts don’t work! (As we’ve seen.) Who moves into the White House isn’t the ultimate answer. (As we will see.) Financial advisors (God love them…) don’t know how to stop this.

I love the way the Psalmist puts it in Psalm 42:11 –
“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? PUT YOUR HOPE IN GOD, for I will yet praise Him my Savior and my God.”