{"id":1158,"date":"2011-07-25T05:18:35","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T09:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/?p=1158"},"modified":"2011-07-21T16:25:17","modified_gmt":"2011-07-21T20:25:17","slug":"spam-real-hope-during-difficult-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2011\/07\/spam-real-hope-during-difficult-times.html","title":{"rendered":"SPAM: Real Hope During Difficult Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Godonomics: Prepare for Good Times and Bad\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/37vfb5UknGI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>The economy continues gasping for air. \u00a0 Credit cards continue to be used to buy essentials like food and groceries according to <a href=\"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2011-07-21\/consumers-in-u-s-relying-on-credit-as-inflation-erodes-incomes.html\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg<\/a>. \u00a0The inflation caused by the Federal Reserves devaluing our dollar makes prices go up on food as well as the price of Gold which reached over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitco.com\" target=\"_blank\">$1600<\/a>\u00a0with silver hovering around $40 an ounce.\u00a0\u00a0 The jobless rate continues to go <a href=\"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2011\/07\/21\/us-usa-economy-idUSTRE7662I420110721\" target=\"_blank\">up<\/a>. \u00a0So, with the continual\u00a0litany\u00a0of bad news, where can we find hope?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1160\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/201\/2011\/07\/mpspamimages-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"126\" height=\"126\" \/> The Bible challenges all of us to deal with our SPAM. \u00a0 Not the SPAM in Monty Python or worse the Spam and eggs they sell at McDonalds for breakfast. (True story, I walked by a McDonalds selling SPAM for breakfast&#8230;see photo.)\u00a0 I&#8217;m not sure how much you&#8217;d need to pay me to eat SPAM, but I think the answer will always be &#8220;a little bit more.&#8221; \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/files\/2011\/07\/spam-msg-114392218871-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1159\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/201\/2011\/07\/spam-msg-114392218871-2-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"234\" height=\"175\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Bible says that human beings all worship something. \u00a0We all have something in our lives that is our ultimate source of hope, life, strength, and hope. \u00a0Rather than turning to God as our center, we turn to SPAM.<\/p>\n<p><strong>S<\/strong> \u00a0is for Staus<\/p>\n<p><strong>P<\/strong> is for Performance<\/p>\n<p><strong>A<\/strong> is for Appearance<\/p>\n<p><strong>M<\/strong> is for Money<\/p>\n<p>Every culture offers an idol in the form of SPAM. If it&#8217;s status, then we find our worth in our clothes, our car, our reputation in the community. That idol will bless us when things are going well, but curse us when things are going poorly.\u00a0 If we are our <strong>S<\/strong>tatus, our worth leaves when our status wanes.\u00a0 Others of us find our value in our <strong>P<\/strong>erformance.\u00a0 It may be the way we perform as an employee, a spouse, a mother, or an athlete.\u00a0 We feel good when we perform well.\u00a0 We are crushed if we fail. \u00a0Our identity is all about our performance. \u00a0 Some of us build our lives on our <strong>A<\/strong>ppearance. We need to be skinnier. \u00a0We wish we were taller or had fewer wrinkles. \u00a0Blonds have more fun&#8230; no, I wanted to be a brunette.\u00a0 As long as our appearance is our identity, we will be caught in a cycle of pride (&#8220;I look better than others&#8221;) or a cycle of fear (&#8220;I wonder if I will ever be desirable?&#8221;).\u00a0 More times than not, our sense of self-worth is tied to our <strong>M<\/strong>oney.\u00a0 It may be our savings, our spending, our assets, or perhaps our retirement.\u00a0 When the numbers are up, we feel safe and good. When the numbers are down, we are\u00a0devastated. \u00a0Our money is our life.<\/p>\n<p>God offers us a new source of hope and peace. God Himself, the maker of the universe and the owner of all the cattle on a thousand hills chose us.\u00a0 He chose to love us.\u00a0 He chose to die for us.\u00a0 He gave us riches beyond imagination in Christ. \u00a0We who receive him are heirs, joint heirs with Christ. \u00a0We have riches that neither moth nor rust can touch. \u00a0Though we may gain or lose the whole world, we cannot lose our soul which is kept by Him.\u00a0 We may have a vault full of cultural SPAM or we may be runny a little low on SPAM these days, but we have something of surpassing value which is the eternal security of grace, the power of being kept in His hand. We know that nothing can separate us from His love: neither height, depth, principality, or power. \u00a0 How Great is our God.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.godonomics.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[bcvideo vid=&#8221;901530767001&#8243; pid=&#8221;96582452001&#8243; height=&#8221;410&#8243; width=&#8221;480&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The economy continues gasping for air. \u00a0 Credit cards continue to be used to buy essentials like food and groceries according to Bloomberg. \u00a0The inflation caused by the Federal Reserves devaluing our dollar makes prices go up on food as well as the price of Gold which reached over $1600\u00a0with silver hovering around $40 an&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,72,58],"tags":[323,267,320,322,321],"class_list":["post-1158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emotional-needs","category-gospel","category-liberty","tag-finances-and-bible","tag-god-and-money","tag-idols-and-money","tag-riches-in-christ","tag-salvation-in-christ"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SPAM: Real Hope During Difficult Times - Godonomics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SPAM: Real Hope During Difficult Times - Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The economy continues gasping for air. \u00a0 Credit cards continue to be used to buy essentials like food and groceries according to Bloomberg. \u00a0The inflation caused by the Federal Reserves devaluing our dollar makes prices go up on food as well as the price of Gold which reached over $1600\u00a0with silver hovering around $40 an&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2011\/07\/spam-real-hope-during-difficult-times.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-25T09:18:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-21T20:25:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/files\/2011\/07\/mpspamimages-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"chadhovind\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SPAM: Real Hope During Difficult Times - 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Chad Hovind","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#\/schema\/person\/b94809cbc6e13eafdb08a63d1825e37a","name":"chadhovind","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5ce\/5ce450f147d7562d63fa6a7f70df8143x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5ce\/5ce450f147d7562d63fa6a7f70df8143x96.jpg","caption":"chadhovind"},"description":"Chad Hovind is Senior Pastor of Horizon Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated from Moody Bible College in Chicago, majoring in pastoral ministry and communication. His love for ministry and creativity can be seen in many forms: leading teams, expository teaching, acting, and video production. He has served as pastor at two high-impact churches in Georgia: Cumberland Community Church and New Community Church. Chad received an M.A. in Ministry from Moody Graduate School in 2008. He loves volleyball, movies, and hanging out with his wife Beth and their three children.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/author\/chadhovind"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1158"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1163,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions\/1163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}