Money will buy
A bed but not sleep;
Books but not brains;
Food but not appetite;
Finery but not beauty;
A house but not a home;
Medicine but not health;
Luxuries but not culture;
Amusements but not happiness;
Religion but not salvation;
A passport to everywhere but heaven.
Original source unknown
What some people will do for money. In an attempt to collect 40,000 euros ($44,780) in insurance payments, a 58-year-old German landscape gardener had a friend cut off his thumb and forefinger with a chainsaw.
According to authorities, the gardener held onto a cutting board while his accomplice, a 28-year-old trucker, sawed off his friend’s fingers. The gardener then threw the severed digits away before claiming money from two different insurance companies. The police arrested both men after one of them was overheard bragging about the ruse.
Both men were convicted in a Wuerzburg, Germany, courtroom. The eight-fingered gardener was given a probationary sentence of one-and-a-half-years, while his chainsaw-wielding accomplice (because of a previous criminal record) received a jail sentence.
Reuters (15-09-03)
Christians tend to have a love/hate relationship with money – we hate to talk about it, but talk about it more than any other subject.
Spirit Level by Ann Bird, Methodist Publishing p5
Money has been described as power that is portable, transferable and storable.
Spirit Level by Ann Bird, Methodist Publishing p5
There are approximately 700 direct references to money in the Bible and hundreds more indirect references. Nearly two thirds of the parables of Jesus dealt with the use of money.
Spirit Level by Ann Bird, Methodist Publishing p5
If money talks – what does it say?
Do we value other people by the size of their pay packet? If so, what does that say about the level of ministerial stipends and payments to lay workers?
Do we measure our committment to a cause by the ammount of money we give to it? If so, what does that say about our committment to the Church?
Spirit Level by Ann Bird, Methodist Publishing p5
There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches.
The wrong comes when riches possess men.
Billy Graham
Loot, lolly, dosh, smacker, bob, grand, monkey, pony, tanner, tenner, tilbury, score, Oxford, ‘alf an Oxford, Nicker or Quid, Readies (Nelson Eddy’s), Ton, Century, Skin Diver (or Deep Sea Diver or Sky Diver), Sprarsy Anna, Bullseye, Wicker Basket, Lady Godiva, Aryton Senna, Plenty, Thrifty, One-er, Mother Hen, Archer, Nugget, Plum, Squid, Cock and Hen, Wedge, Bottle, Carpet, Rofe, Jacks Alive, Tom Mix, Nevis, Poorly Fish, Pavarotti (tenor), Rocket, Commodore, Nifty, Bag of Sand, Bernie, Jackson, Long ‘un, Bag (of sand), Dirty, Ching, Maggie, McGiver, Melvin, Browny, Edge Pence, McGarret, Bar, Alan, Spanner, Bobby Moore, Beer Token
What most people need to learn in life is how to love people and use things instead of using people and loving things.
Author Unknown
More than 60 scientists have been given millions of dollars in funding to help humanity find happiness. A popular movement among psychologists called “positive psychology” is an attempt to elevate and focus its research on peoples’ strengths rather than only trying to deal with human weaknesses and problems.
Although the U.S. standard of living has increased since W.W. II, there is no increase in the number of people who regard themselves as happy. A U.S. News & World Report on the subject says, “Once income provides basic needs, it doesn’t correlate to happiness. Nor does intelligence, prestige, or sunny weather. People grow used to new climates, higher salaries, and better cars.”
Many years and millions of dollars studying and treating depression have succeeded in reducing most people’s levels of sadness, but they are not necessarily happier. Researchers have found that self-esteem, spirituality, family, and good marriages and friendships are key to a happy life. So are hope, meaning, and discovering and pursuing the right goals. Even helping others to be happy can “jump-start a process that will lead to stronger relationships, renewed hope, and a general upward spiraling of happiness.” Just seeing others do a good deed results in that “heartwarming” feeling and influences people to do the same.
Gratitude is another key ingredient to a happy life. People who made a daily and/or frequent practice of being thankful were “not only more joyful; they were healthier, less stressed, more optimistic, and more likely to help others.”
Hope and spirituality work together to provide an important basis to a happy life. “Hope fosters optimism, and faith is, by definition, hope for the future. And the churchgoing form of faith can be a built-in social support network. This is not to say that atheists can’t be happy, but it helps explain why so many do find happiness in faith, and why researchers continue to find connections between faith, optimism, and physical health.”
Holly J. Morris, “Happiness Explained,” U.S. News & World Report (9-03-01), pp. 46-54; submitted by Jerry De Luca, Montreal West, Quebec
A man serves pie to all the expenses in his life. He is about to eat the last piece when he notices one more person at the table: the One who brought the pie.
Take John Wesley for example. He was one of the great evangelists of the 18th Century, born in 1703. In 1731 he began to limit his expenses so that he would have more money to give to the poor. In the first year his income was 30 pounds and he found he could live on 28 and so gave away two. In the second year his income doubled but he held his expenses even, and so he had 32 pounds to give away (a comfortable year’s income). In the third year his income jumped to 90 pounds and gave away 62 pounds. In his long life Wesley’s income advanced to as high as 1,400 pounds in a year. But he rarely let his expenses rise above 30 pounds. He said that he seldom had more than 100 pounds in his possession at a time.
This so baffled the English Tax Commissioners that they investigated him in 1776 insisting that for a man of his income he must have silver dishes that he was not paying excise tax on. He wrote them, “I have two silver spoons at London and two at Bristol. This is all the plate I have at present, and I shall not buy any more while so many round me want bread.”
When he died in 1791 at the age of 87 the only money mentioned in his will was the coins to be found in his pockets and dresser. Most of the 30,000 pounds he had earned in his life had been given away. He wrote,
I cannot help leaving my books behind me whenever God calls me hence; but in every other respect, my own hands will be my executors.
In other words, I will put a control on my spending myself, and I will go beyond the tithe for the sake of Christ and his kingdom. (Quotes from Mission Frontiers, Sept./Oct., 1994, No. 9-10, pp. 23-24)
Quoted from: www.soundofgrace.com/piper95/09-10-95.htm
A husband and wife team of researchers, the founders of Empty Tomb, Inc., in Champaign, Illinois, have tracked American and American Christian expenditures as well as global needs. John and Sylvia Ronsvalle have estimated that $70-$80 billion a year could meet the most essential human needs around the world. “Projects for clean water and sanitation, prenatal and infant/maternal care, basic education, immunizations, and long-term development efforts are among the activities that could help overcome the poverty conditions that now kill and maim so many children and adults.”
The Ronsvalles go on to write, “That figure of $70-$80 billion may sound like anything but good news. God may be generous, you may agree, but has he been that generous? Consider this: If church members in the United States would increase their giving to 10 percent of their income, there could be an additional $86 billion available for overseas missions.”
Craig L. Blomberg, Preaching the Parables (Baker Academic, 2004) p. 51. Updated statistics from www.emptytomb.com
The strong man at the circus was demonstrating his strength by taking a green stick and squeezing the sap out of it. When he had squeezed out several drops, he asked if anyone from the audience would like to try, and a frail-looking little lady came forward, took the stick in both hands, and squeezed. To the amazement of the strong man, a stream of sap ran down over her knuckles.
“Who are you, anyhow, lady? he asked?
“Oh, I’m just the treasurer at the Baptist church, she replied.
Quoted from net153.com email list
The last part of a person to be converted is their wallet.
Spirit Level by Ann Bird, Methodist Publishing p5
The congregation knew the roof was leaking and needed replacement, but they kept putting it off. Finally some areas of the ceiling in the sanctuary began to sag. They called a congregational meeting to address the problem, and the richest member of the congregation rose to say that he would pledge $1000 toward fixing the roof. Just then a small piece of the ceiling fell and hit him on the head. Somebody in the back of the church said, “Hit him again, Lord!”
From the Eculaugh website
This is how a communist explained the success of his ‘religion’: ‘Of salaries and wages we keep only what is strictly necessary, and we give up our free time and part of our holidays …. How can anybody believe in the supreme value of the [Christian] gospel if you do not practice it, if you do not spread it, if you sacrifice neither time nor money for it? We believe in our communist message and we are ready to sacrifice even our life. But you people are afraid to soil your hands.’
Quoted from Through the Year with David Watson p318