How Then Shall We Live: Save All You Can

"Wise men and women are always learning, always listening for fresh insights."

Proverbs 18:15 (The Message)

A lack of monetary resources has been, and is likely to continue to be, a problem for the Conference. We have goals we would like to accomplish - goals that seem reasonable, goals that seem important, goals that seem Godly - that are beyond our means. What can we do?

Learning to Spend Less

"Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food."

from Isaiah 55

When we created our first budget, we discovered that I spent a lot of money on food that did not satisfy.

Alternatives to Spending for Pleasure

"How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Jesus of Nazareth

Wealthy Christians have been remarkably clever at finding non-obvious interpretations of this text throughout the ages. Doing so seems unnecessary; it is in all three Synoptics, it echoes ideas found throughout Jesus' teachings and the rest of the New Testament, and there have been witnesses in every age who have testified that voluntarily following Jesus' teachings on money has led them to joy.

Save All You Can

This is an ad in an official publication from the General Board of Pensions and Health Benefits.
I weep for our church.

Store Up Treasures in Heaven

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

Jesus of Nazareth (from Matthew 6)