Are You Recession Ready?
It has been officially announced that the Malaysian economy is contracting and we are running into technical recession. Even though globally there has been an upward surge in petroleum and palm oil prices, Malaysia is only expected to recover in mid-2010.
Our manufacturing industries have been badly affected with this financial meltdown, and have reported a negative growth. April factory output fell by 13 percent, according to a Reuters poll. Other economists believed that industrial output was likely to fall further due to weakening exports.
Is the spiritual barometer of the Malaysian Church dictated by the economic state of the country? In times of uncertainty, how can the unchurched find hope through us? Is God saying something in all this international mess that we might not have been able to hear in other ways?
In his message at the recent Global Day of Prayer event at SIB KL, NECF Malaysia Chairman Rev. Eu Hong Seng quoted Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Canter's call to "return to simplicity" when she was asked to comment on the "global crisis".
Scriptures calls followers of Jesus during times of crisis not to abandon our role to the community but to find more creative approaches in sharing our resources.
We have to dig deep into our inventory of available resources to convene classes on financial stewardship focusing on the biblical principles of reducing debt, budgeting, giving and saving. In short, the church should take the lead in financial mentorship.
We are to promote lifestyle changes that can save money and free up funds to help those in serious need. We are to demonstrate to our youths new perspectives by encouraging them to learn about sustainable lifestyles from older people in their communities.
In a public prayer, Jehoshaphat speaks frankly about the effects of the siege, "If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague, or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us." Later in the same prayer, he says, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you" (2 Chron. 20:9, 12). Jehoshaphat prays like a broken man who knows that Jerusalem's salvation can come only through direct deliverance from the God of Israel.
So too the Church of Malaysia must come to God with a contrite heart and pray with conviction that God will hear and act, always remembering that "to obey is better than sacrifice." |
