True Wealth is a topic that’s been on my mind lately.

I think it’s because I have been challenged  over the last couple years by this and have been trying to sort through my own definition of true wealth and its implications for my life.

In 2007 things were going well.  Business was increasing, I was making more money and I had grand plans for taking it to the next level.

Then the 2008 Economic Tsunami hit!

And just like a lot of others, I had to deal with the aftermath.  I had to evaluate our spending, savings, and ultimately what was truly important.

I firmly believe God used the Great Recession to check my priorities.   In a weird sort of way, the recession was good for me!

And that’s when I realized that something needed to change.

I Can’t See, The Wipers Won’t Move Fast Enough!

Have you ever driven through a torrential down pour? 

You know the kind where the rain is coming down so fast and is beating against the windshield so hard that it’s nearly impossible to see?  

A few months back we were coming home from visiting some friends and we drove through a nasty storm on the highway.  It was freaky.  I wanted the wipers to move faster to keep up with the rain, but they couldn’t – I finally had to pull over because I couldn’t see a thing!

I’ll admit, during the worst part of the 2008 market meltdown, it was very tough for me to see beyond each hour of the day. 

As a financial planner, I was feeling the weight of clients’ dreams, goals and investments on my shoulders – there were some days I felt so horrible that I just wanted to pull off the side of the road and wait for the storm to pass.

Every day, I heard story after story from panicked clients looking for answers to things that were so beyond our control and yet affected each one of us.

It was painful. 

I don’t say that looking for sympathy, I simply want to give you an understanding of the journey I’ve been on to realize a huge life lesson that I hope others will learn too.

I Can See Clearly Now…

The rain is gone.  Thank you Jimmy Cliff for summing it up perfectly for me.

Once the markets began to simmer down a bit, I began to think critically about what I had witnessed. 

We weren’t out of the woods yet in terms of the economic crisis, but I started considering what was most important in life and in business.

I started working through a definition of True Wealth.

I started this blog as an extension of what I was thinking through and as a way to help others with personal finance and more importantly, understand the foundation of building your financial house. 

I also reworked the mission and vision statements, revised the goals and reordered the priorities for my business to incorporate my understanding of True Wealth.

And I’d like to share my learning with you.

True Wealth and the 3 P’s

So here’s what I came up with:

True Wealth is not defined by commas or net worth – it is characterized by the quality of relationships; pursuing your passions and living life with a purpose. 

In other words – it’s the pursuit  of People, Passion and Purpose!

Or the 3 P’s as I’m calling it. 

Understanding True Wealth encourages the pursuit of what’s most important, which improves happiness, enlivens the soul and blossoms contentment.

People

At the end of the day, life is about relationships.  Unfortunately, we seem to forget that truth so often just like Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart did as well. 

Sadly, he didn’t realize it until he was on his death bed.

How are you doing with investing into your important relationships?  I know I need to continue to work on this.

Passion

What are you passionate about?  If you could do anything, what would you do? 

Those are the things that enliven the soul. 

Whether it’s helping the poor; giving time to charity; using your personal finance learning to help others understand how to save money; using your passion of capturing memories on film to start a photography business (like my wife did); or using your creative talents for woodworking, cooking, writing or any number of other things.

Use your natural creative talents to live life with passion.

Purpose

Lastly, True Wealth is taking those passions you’ve identified and figuring out what sort of purpose you have with those.

Why are you here?  What were you created to do.  We all have a purpose.   

True Wealth is figuring out what that purpose is and using your passions to build into people!

So that’s my journey.  A long road, but a good one.  And a lesson that I hope I continue to learn and you do too!

What Are Your Thoughts?

What do you think True Wealth means?

I’m constantly struck by how many times the Bible mentions  helping the poor and needy!

What kills me is that I read that and think to myself, why is it that I’m not as concerned as I should be when it comes to helping the poor, weak and marginalized members of society?

If God has such a huge heart for them and cares deeply for their needs, what is it about me that needs to change?

My guess is that you and I are in the same boat.  Sure, we care about the poor, but if we were honest with ourselves and others - we’d have to admit that we aren’t as generous as we should be!

So, as usual, I take the areas that I’m convicted in and try to turn it into a post.

I started brainstorming some reasons why we, as Americans, are not as generous as we should be.  American Christians are the wealthiest Christians to have ever lived (does Solomon count?) and yet we, on average, give a measly 3% to church and I imagine much less to the poor and needy.

So here are five reasons why we are not as generous as we should be:

Pride

“I worked hard to get where I am today!  The poor need to get off their butts and get jobs!  If I did it, they can too!”

Ever think that? 

“You know what their problem is, they’re just too lazy!” 

“They milk the system”

“They want everything for free!”

Ever say those things?

That’s a sure sign you suffer from pride.  You are great and they are not.  Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.  Many poor folks are victims of circumstance.  Not all, but many of them.

Many of them would love to get jobs and work hard, but they lack opportunities - or they lack the education, the transportation, the network, the social skills, the marketing skills etc. etc.

Ask yourself this – if you were born into those same circumstances that many of our poor are born into, what would you be doing today?

Be careful with pride – God hates it, and it kills your generosity!

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Debt

Credit card debt, over-extended mortgages, home equity lines, auto loans – they all have a way of choking out generosity because our additional resources are going towards monthly payments!

So many Christians are paying ridiculous amounts of interest on stuff they thought they needed. Most of those trinkets will end up in a landfill in a few short years.

We are far to easily amused by gadgets and other items that we’ll plunge ourselves into crazy debt in search of joy.

What if we as Christians decided to simplify our lifestyles and live debt free?  Imagine how generous we could be without massive debt looming over our heads.

Greed

Jesus warns people way more often about greed than he does about sex and yet almost no one thinks they’re guilty of greed. 

I think we all need to begin with an attitude of “this could definitely be an issue for me”. 

Because greed hides so deeply, and is so pervasive in our westernized, American Dream culture , we need to take a serious look at our own hearts. 

Are we clamoring for more stuff and squeezing out generosity in the mean time?

Stinginess

Proverbs 23:6-7 says, “Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.”

Penny-pinchers do not have generous hearts – they calculate every last cent to ensure no one gets more than they should.  

Busyness

Busyness robs us of true wealth.  We miss opportunities to be generous when we’re overly busy.

We often numb ourselves with self-centered activities, hobbies, and endeavors and give little regard to our neighbors let alone the poor, weak and disenfranchised.

Are we too busy to give freely of our time and money?

What About You?

Any other reasons why you’re not as generous as you should be?

A Practical Way to Live Missionally With Your Money

A couple weeks back I wrote a post called What It Means to Live Missionally With Our Money, which defined Missional Living.

I followed that up with How to Live Missionally With Our Money, which discussed the concept of living with Open Hearts and Open Hands, which means:

We live our lives with hearts that are open to the needs around us.  Our hearts should be open to blessing others through our finances to help extend God’s mission of reconciliation and restoration.

It also means we live with hands that do not cling to earthly treasures or clutch tightly to our trinkets.  Instead, we live with hands that are open to give freely and graciously to those in need. 

In other words, our money is a way for us to extend God’s grace.

An Opportunity to Make a Difference

Earlier this year, our church decided that each small group should get an allotment of money to be used for community outreach and missions.

The possibilities to use the funds were limitless.

Over the weekend, I learned of a really great opportunity to practically live out the Open Hearts and Open Hands concept from some friends of ours.

They decided to take their funds and have a fundraiser breakfast for another local church. 

Yes, you read that right – for another local church.

Berean Fellowship Baptist Church, is located in Gary, IN led by Pastor Raymond Dix.  I’ve gotten to know Ray through one of the Pastors at our church and also through a community assessment our church is doing to discover the biggest needs and issues affecting our county.

Ray has a heart for the Lord and a huge passion for racial reconciliation and unity in the body of Christ. 

Although Ray’s church and our church are from different parts of the Region and consist of predominantly different races and backgrounds – we have had multiple conversations with him about how we can partner together to unify the body of Christ to reconcile the Region by serving the common good.

The breakfast is going to raise funds for Ray’s church and its members to provide for the following needs:

Repair and replace parts of the roof of Berean

Remodel the nursery (The surrounding neighborhood of Ray’s church has a large population of single mom’s that the church simply cannot minister to because of the lack of a nursery area.)

Paint exterior of building

Repair gutters

God’s Kingdom is Bigger Than Our Church or Your Church

In Christian circles we often talk about extending God’s kingdom, but unfortunately what we mean is extending our church’s influence.

God’s kingdom is bigger than our church or your church – it is the movement of God – the reign and rule of Christ extending through neighborhoods, towns, cities and regions.

What I love about this idea of community outreach and particularly this fundraising breakfast is that it is seeking to extend God’s kingdom, not just our church’s influence, through the Northwest Indiana Region where we live.

It’s about a bigger picture of unity – precisely what Jesus prays for in John 17.  

It’s about two churches from two totally different areas, with a totally different make-up of members coming together with one common mission – God’s mission.

Here’s What You Can Do

Pray!!  Pray that Ray’s church will be a beacon of light in their neighborhood while advancing God’s mission.

Come to the breakfast!  If you are from the NWI Region – you can come to the breakfast!  It’s Saturday, July 24, 2010 from 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. at Bethel Church (10202 Broadway, Crown Point, IN)

Donate Time – you can come and help at the breakfast or you can help with the repairs that are needed at the church.

Donate Money – Repairs can’t happen without the funds.  Please consider living with open hands by donating money to this project.

If you’d like to donate money – please contact me and I will put you in touch with the small group leaders who are putting on the breakfast!  All donations are tax-deductible.

Thanks for your partnership in God’s mission!

Last week I talked about What It Means to Live Missionally With Your Money.

In that post we defined Missional Living as viewing our whole life through the lens of God’s mission of redemption, restoration and reconciliation.

We seek God’s mission at work, during play, in our neighborhoods, at the campus, in meetings, and with our families.

Instead of compartmentalizing our faith and thinking of it as something we only do on weekends, we need to realize that our faith in Jesus is the very fabric of our being – in other words, it is who we are and we should live that out in all areas.

That includes how we handle our money.

We should be asking, “How would God have me handle my money to best reflect His mission?”

Here’s an example.  Instead of viewing our jobs as just a way to earn a living and get ahead in life – let’s think radically different!

Ephesians 4:28 says: 

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with those in need.

Work is no longer about achieving the American Dream – it is about earning a living so that we can share with those in need. 

We become “conduits of grace” as John Piper calls it.

So how do we live missionally with our money?  We can sum it up through two concepts – Open Hearts and Open Hands.

Open Hearts

This comes as no shock, but God has a heart for the poor.  He cares for the weak, the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the one on the outskirts of life.

In fact, there are over 2,100 verses in the Bible that talks about God’s heart for the poor. 2100! 

We need to let the gospel transform our hearts so we have a heart like God’s and not like the world, which seeks after earthly goods.

What stops us from having that open heart that God has for the poor? 

Luke 12:13-34 points out two areas:  Greed and Worry.

Greed s killing our ability to have God’s heart for the poor.

Worry is killing our ability to be generous to those who are truly in need. 

Our desire for and anxiety over our trinkets robs us of a heart for the poor and robs us of our joy!

When we get to the end and we stand before God on that last day, will we be glad that we built up $2 million dollars in our retirement account or are we going to wish we would’ve given lavishly to those in need!?

Who is called to help the poor, weak and marginalized?  I can tell you right now that it is NOT the government!

The Church (institutionally and individually) is called to care for them! 

We need to develop an open heart  like God has for those in need around us.

Open Hands

Generosity should be the mark of every Christian! 

We should not clutch so tightly to anything in this world, but should be willing to have a loose grip on all our possessions!

Why?  So we can give to others.

Luke 12:33 says,

Sell your possessions, and give to the needy.

Have you ever thought about just selling something so you can give?

Why is it that God has such a heart for the poor and the marginalized and our hearts are so not for the poor and needy. 

Some of us can’t live with open hands because we’re so loaded with debt!  It’s killing our ability to seek the kingdom and live with loose grips on our possessions.   We love our trinkets more than we love God and others.

We need to detach ourselves and learn how to live with open hands and we need to live with open hearts.

Look to the One Who Lived With Open Hands and an Open Heart

The only way to strip ourselves from our own selfishness and start living missionally with our money is to reorient ourselves back to the gospel!

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 2 Cor. 8:9

God opened up His heart and sent His only Son to live the life you never could, He wanted to rescue you from your path of destruction and wanted to give you hope and a future. 

And Jesus opened wide His hands and took the nails for you so that you didn’t have to die the death that you deserved! 

This is the gospel, this is the good news!  This is God’s open heart and His open hands for you.

If we really believed the gospel and saw the absolute treasure that Jesus Christ is – we’d be willing to give up everything to know Him more and live missionally so others may know Him too!

Are you in debt?

Things a little tight right now?

Have your savings dwindled?

You just need to make more money, right!?

Get Below the Surface

If you could just make a little more money, everything would be OK.

That may be true on the surface. 

You might need a few hundred bucks extra per month to pay some bills, but guess what – it’s just a surface issue.

I’ve talked previously about our yard problems.

Basically, we are trying to get landscaping done including sod.

We’ve been unable to lay it because we’ve been waiting for our sump pump to get trenched.

Our sump hasn’t been trenched because it’s been raining so much – it’s an endless cycle!

Needless to say, our yard was overtaken by weeds – and I let them get a bit high.

So this week I got the trimmer out and did a little weed-whackin’!

After I was done, you could see that the weeds were trimmed, but you could also tell they were still there. 

All the weed-whacking did was deal with the surface issue – I didn’t fully eradicate the weeds because I didn’t deal with the roots. 

The only way to kill the weeds is to kill the root.

Making More Money Doesn’t Deal With the Root

Maybe you’ll get a part-time job, turn a hobby into a business, or find some other ways to bring in a little more money but that still won’t deal with the root cause of why you are in the position you are in.

As a side note – yes, I totally understand that there are sometimes extenuating circumstances that put you in a tough spot financially.

But for the most part, the majority of us are in financial troubles because we spend too much money, don’t stay on track with our financial budgeting and lose our focus!

Worse than that, we bow down to the god of money and serve our posessions rather than the God of the universe!!

In order to fully eradicate the weeds of your financial woes you must deal with the root!

How to Deal With the Root

So how do you actually deal with the root causes of what’s going on with your finances?

Begin by answering these questions:

• Are using money as an escape from reality.
• Are you too attached to your money?
• Do you spend to make yourself feel better?
• Is money your Functional Savior?
• Do you allow your money to define you?
• Is money your idol?
• Are you a “Receiving Addict?”
• Are you greedy?
• Do you think your financial situation will just work itself out?
• Have you become numb to your financial situation to where you don’t even want to deal with it anymore?

Get your financial house in order!  As Christians we have a responsibility to be good stewards of what God has given us.

Realize that money won’t satisfy you - making more money isn’t the answer to all your problems! 

Once we realize that, we can begin to do the right things and get our finances in order and start plugging away at getting on track financially and staying there!

You have to do the right things no  matter how much money you make.  It’s not rocket science – spend less than you make, cut back, simplify your lifestyle and make the sacrifices you need to make to get on track!

And realize also that sometimes, less is more!

One of the reasons I wanted to do this post is because I’ve been challenged by this type of thinking lately – that is, about viewing our money and how we handle it as part of a larger mission.

Viewing my work, my blog, my activities all through one common lens – missions.

So, I figured I would jot down some of my own thoughts, ideas and challenges I’ve been working through lately and hopefully they resonate with you or challenge your framework as well.

What is Missional Living

First we need to define what it means to live missionally  if we are to understand how to live it out with our money.

We need to understand that every Christian is a missionary, not just the ones your church sends to Africa and calls missionaries.

If we are all missionaries, then we all need to live missionally.

Missional Living means viewing our whole life through the lens of God’s mission.  It means seeking the reign and the rule of Christ on earth in every facet of our lives.

We seek God’s mission at work, during play, in our neighborhoods, at the campus, in meetings, and with our families.

But what is God’s mission?

It is reconciliation, redemption and restoration.

God reconciles us back to Himself, redeems us with the precious blood of Jesus and restores us into a right relationship with Him.

That relationship was hijacked in the Garden of Eden, when sin entered the world and messed things up!

But God had a rescue plan.

God is a missional God – He sent His Son Jesus to us on a mission – “to bear our sins in His body on that tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24)

So, if we are to live missionally we must look at the life of Jesus (who perfectly lived out God’s mission) and determine what we are to do.

We live as Jesus lived, we walk and talk how Jesus talked – of course we do it imperfectly, but that’s the goal. 

Why Missional Living is Radically Different

When you read what missional living is, it probably doesn’t sound all that unique – most of you will probably say, “Yeah, that makes sense”.

But here’s why it’s radically different.  Most Christians are not living this way!  The majority do their faith thing on Sundays and that’s about it. 

Their faith has no impact on how they do their job, how they engage their neighbors, how they spend their time or money – their faith is lifeless and nothing more than a hobby.

Unfortunately, this is how I viewed my faith for many years.

I thought that as long as I put a smile on my face on Sundays when I went to church, and as long as I didn’t go out to eat on Sunday (my church’s unwritten rule because they didn’t want you to make anyone work on the Lord’s day) then I was good to go.

The rest of the week I lived how I wanted to live with no special care as to what God would have me do with my time, money, or energy.

But that is not what God has called us to.

Our faith should impact every facet of our lives!

We should be passionately engaging culture, pursuing relationships with others, living out Christ-like love and doing our best to represent God’s mission of reconciliation at work, at school, at the gym, and at home.

God’s mission permeates throughout our whole lives.

We don’t beat people over the head with the Gospel. 

We don’t look at how many “souls we can win” as if it were some competition with our friends to see who can put the most notches in the front cover of our Bibles! 

We view people as people, not some number, and we seek to have a relationship with them! 

Why Live Missionally With Your Money?

If missional living means viewing our whole lives through the lens of God’s mission, than surely we must view our money through that lens as well!

Money is not ours – it is Gods. 

We are responsible and held accountable for the way we use it, save it, give it and grow it.  Money isn’t some compartmentalized portion of our lives that God ignores!

We are called to be stewards of what God gives us – so we must view our money through a missional lens always asking ourselves – “What would God have me do with my money?”

How to Live Missionally With Our Money

We’ll save this part for the next post!

What are your thoughts?

This was an original post I did over at ChristianPF - you can check it out in its entirety there.

My wife and I recently built a new home and moved in a few months ago.  It feels good to be done with the process!

There are some good financial lessons to be learned from building a home.  If any of you have done it, you know what I’m talking about.

There’s a lot that goes into building and each step needs to be done in a certain order otherwise nothing will get accomplished!

The same can be said for our personal finances.  We need to have a good plan and make sure things get done correctly, otherwise we’ll be spinning our wheels.

So, here are some lessons learned from the building process and a blueprint for all of us to build our financial house:

Footings

Under every house is a foundation, and under most foundations are footings. Footings are extremely important because they are the basis on which the foundation is laid. 

Improper footings will not allow the foundation to withstand the give and take of the soil.So what are the footings in personal finance?

Giving

A heart of generosity and a willingness to let go of our own stuff to meet the needs of others is one of the footings on which we build our financial house. 

Why? Because God was so generous to us – therefore that characteristic should flow through us as well.

I know what some of you are thinking, “But I don’t have enough money to give” – well certainly there are other things you can give, like time.  But let me ask you – how much have you prayed about your giving?  Have you considered selling things you do have to help meet the needs of others? 

Giving is a critical footing that we must not simply ignore.

Proper Attitude

An attitude of stewardship - not ownership – should be a key footing as well. In other words, as stewards we should desire to make more money, get out of debt, and get our spending under control because we are handling God’s money – not ours.

When we realize that we are to be responsible managers for God’s currency and that our money is simply a conduit of grace, we can begin to have the proper motivation to get a handle on our money.

Foundation

The foundation is the next crucial piece to building a house.  The foundation for constructing a well-built financial house are things like cash flow, emergency funds and a commitment to getting rid of non-mortgage debt! 

Cash Flow

This is simply your income minus expenses. 

Why is this so important?  Because the secret to getting ahead financially is that there is no secret – spend less than you make.  Everything else hinges on this very point.

Emergency Funds

This also is extremely important because inevitably things come up.  Cars break down, roofs leak, furnaces go out.  So you must have the ability to pay for the emergencies without racking up credit card debt.

Framework

Framing is one of the exciting parts of building a house.  You finally get an idea of what the house will be like.  It’s also key because you need the proper beams in the right places to support the house.

Paying off  Non-Mortgage Debt

Credit cards, car loans and the like are mole hills in a garden.  Working hard at getting rid of those types of debts will help free you to give more, save more and invest for your future.

Insurance

Proper insurance coverage is your support beam for your financial house.  This includes reviewing and acquiring proper health, home/auto, disability and life insurance. 

Let’s take for example life insurance.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions when purchasing these policies, so you need to make sure you ask the right questions before you buy life insurance.

Exterior Shell – Roof, Brick and Windows

Now this is where building really gets fun and the house begins to take on the character of what you were envisioning when you began the process.

In personal finance the exterior shell would be things like:

Saving for Retirement 

Funding your 401k plan, IRA or Roth IRA is a big step toward getting your financial house in order.  This is the fun part!  Seeing these accounts build up and realizing that you are saving toward a long-term goal is exciting.

Saving for Other Goals

This could be college savings for your kids, saving for a rental home or even your first house.  Having the ability to sock some cash away for these things is a great feeling.

Final Touches

Getting the drywall in and painted, the flooring and carpet in and making some final touches on the inside is when the house comes together and you’re just about ready to move in.

From a financial standpoint some of these final touches may include things like:

Tax Diversification 

This simply means utilizing your investment accounts from the best tax perspective so that you’re not left holding a huge tax time-bomb in retirement. 

You may want to consider shifting your savings around to help diversify yourself from a tax stand point.

Investment Strategies

At the beginning, it’s good to just get saving.  But as you progress and your account balances begin to grow, you may want to re-evaluate your portfolios to determine if you should employ more sophisticated investment strategies to help maximize your returns and minimize losses.

Something to Remember

Building a house is a process that takes time, effort and energy – and things don’t always go as planned.  Don’t get discouraged, and keep plugging away.  The end result will be well worth it!

Yesterday we looked at Gordon Gekko’s mantra – “Greed is Good!” and what Jesus might have to say to Mr. Gekko. 

We also looked at Luke 12:13-15 where Jesus warns against greed.

He actually says to guard against it – as if it’s something that we need to fight against.

And he doesn’t just say it – he emphatically warns us about it.

So today we want to look at and try to wrap our arms around why Jesus would be so insistent, so strong, so unmistakably against greed.

What is it about greed that makes it something we should fight?

We Have to Guard Against Greed Because It’s So Dangerous! 

Look at what Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs!”

Notice the language – loving money and craving it will ultimately destroy your soul. 

Uh, Ok – that’s pretty serious!

Jesus also talks about how it’s easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God  (Matt. 19:24)  and that loving God and loving money cannot coexist.  (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13)

Being rich isn’t the issue, but greed is a very dangerous sin.

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We Have to Guard Against Greed Because It’s So Subtle! 

Greed has a way of blinding us into thinking that we don’t have a problem with it. 

Did you catch that?  Let me say it again because this is so important:

Greed has a way of blinding us to think that we don’t have a problem with it!

Here’s what I mean – we think others are the ones with the money and greed problems.

We all tend to view others within our socioeconomic lens – in other words once we are in a certain bracket we begin comparing ourselves to others in that bracket and we see that there are plenty of others who have more than us.

So we justify ourselves in thinking, “Well I don’t live as well off as they do!  I surely don’t have a problem with loving money.”

Or, maybe even more convicting - we look at them and think they are the ones with a money problem.

Jesus warns people way more often about greed than he does about sex and yet almost no one thinks they’re guilty of greed. 

I think we all need to begin with an attitude of “this could definitely be an issue for me”. 

Because greed hides so deeply, and it is so pervasive in our westernized, American Dream culture we need to take a serious look at our own hearts.  I know I do.

Greed Reveals What Our Hearts Worship.

When your mind starts daydreaming, what does it gravitate to? 

Does it start thinking about how great God is or does it go to that new car, those new gadgets, new ways to make money, or new things to buy   — does it look with jealousy towards others who have nice things?

Does it worship Him or does it worship money?

Jesus says that your life doesn’t consist of the abundance of your possessions – in other words, you’re not defined by your clothes or your car or your job. 

The very fact that we clamor for these things reveals our idol worship of money!

What Greed Could Never Provide

Greed over-promises and under-delivers!  It promises to make us wealthy and happy!  But it never does, it never leaves us satisfied – it always leaves us wanting more.

Greed can never provide what our hearts really want.  We were made to find out joy and satisfaction in a right relationship with God himself. 

That’s how He wired us – if He made us, He certainly knows how we work. 

Take time to think about God’s plan for a reconciled relationship with Him!

Do you remember the famous words of Gordon Gekko, the fictional character that Michael Douglas played in the 1987 movie Wall Street?

“Greed is good!”

This line has become so famous that even political leaders have used Gordon Gekko’s line in speeches.

Here’s the full quote from Gekko:

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works.

Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind

But does greed really mark the upward surge of mankind or does it propel us into a downward spiral that eventually destroys us?

What would Jesus say to Gordon Gekko if he met him in his luxurious corner office overlooking the city? 

We get a sense of what he might say in Luke 12, where Jesus is preaching and teaching to a huge crowd when some random guy shouts and asks Jesus  to help him get his Father’s inheritance that is not being shared by his brother.

Jesus uses this as an opportunity to teach about money and greed:

Then someone called from the crowd, “Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.” 

Jesus replied, “Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?” Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” Luke 12:13-15 NLT

Greed Is Good?

What is Greed anyway? 

Greed is an overwhelming desire to have more of something than is actually needed! 

How often do we think we need new clothes, more shoes, a bigger TV, a better car, a nicer house – I could go on and on.

Greed is an overwhelming desire to have more of something than is actually needed!

So I imagine Jesus sitting in Gekko’s office chair, looking around his posh corner office and saying,

“Gordon, you know, you think that greed is good – that all this stuff you have is really what you want - but it’s not.  

Greed is not good – in fact, you really need to guard against it – you need to detach yourself from it!  And I say this to you because I love you and I know what’s best for you.“

Maybe he’d say something like this,

“Gordon, you are not defined by your work, your office or your investment portfolio – those things never last.  Pursue things that will last!  Pursue True Wealth!

Or this,

“Gordon, you think your little empire will make you happy, but you are empty – money is acting as your functional savior - you have no lasting fulfillment - true joy doesn’t come from money, but from a right relationship with me.”

So why would Jesus say things like this? 

Why would Jesus say  ”Guard against every kind of  greed”?

I think there are three main reasons – and we’ll save that for tomorrow’s post.

What Do You Think?

Readers, what else do you think Jesus would say to Gordon Gekko?

Should Christians Donate to Charity or To The Local Church?

So a couple weeks ago we looked at the question of, “How Much Should Christians Give?”. 

Part One set the stage and Part Two really delved into why we want to know how much to give and why the New Testament is eerily silent on the topic of tithing and percentages to give.

Today we want to address the issue of WHO.  Who should we give to – or as my Grammar Nazi’s would correctly state - To Whom Should Christians Give?

Should Christians donate to charity or give to their local church first?

Interesting Question

Last week I received this question from a reader:

Is it better to give to a Christian organization that does good work, or does it matter if it’s a secular organization that does good work?

The work, in either case, is done for the good of people which God desires, but one promotes God’s name, the other doesn’t. How would that factor in to the believer’s decisions? Does it matter?

This is a great question!  Should we donate to charity – good organizations doing good things – or only “Christian” organizations. 

I think this raises the bigger question of who should a Christian give to?

So what I’d like to do today is give my opinion and then I really want to hear from other readers on this issue!

My Two Cents

I think we should first and foremost give to organizations that we are receiving the most blessing from – that is usually (or at least should be) the local church you belong to.

Think about it: the church has a lot of expenses to operate from week to week. 

They are providing a place to (hopefully) hear the Word of God preached, a place of comfort for those who are in a tough spot and a place of community.

They provide avenues for ministries, which takes money to make that happen.

Unfortunately in today’s Christian consumerist culture we hop around, looking for something to make us feel good with no ties and certainly no obligations to give.

I’m sure the early church had problems with giving too, but I read some of the stories in Acts that demonstrate people’s willingness to give generously to the body of Christ as it had need.

The church should take the directive with that.

The church does have a responsibility for good stewardship just like individuals have, so going to the leaders and finding out what they do with the money is an important thing.

As far as giving to Christian organizations or non-Christian ones, we should probably have a priority to Christian ones that meet needs, share Christ and practice good stewardship.

I don’t think it’s wrong to give to your local American Red Cross or other non-Christian organizations – I do think that we need to have a priority list.

At the end of the day we need to realize that our greatest demonstration of our faith comes in seeking the common good of our cities and communities.

I think giving our time, energy and resources to promoting that is a good witness.

Your Two Cents

It’s your turn!  What do you think?

Should Christians only give to their local church?

Should Christians donate to charity or “non-Christian” organizations?