Thoughts on Stewardship is a blog written by the founder of Insights on Stewardship, George Hutchison. It is here that he shares his thoughts on biblical financial stewardship as it applies to current events.
The Bible contains more verses dealing with money and possessions than all the verses combined about prayer, faith, heaven and hell combined. About fifteen percent of everything Jesus said had to do with money and possessions. It is pretty obvious that money is a subject that is near to God's heart, but did you ever wonder why God devoted so many verses to this subject?
We teach biblical financial principles and apply them to our family budget all the time, but why do we stop there? If the church is the bride of Christ and we as the church are the family of God, shouldn't we take these principles into the church?
Our entire lives we are told to save to accumulate for retirement, or to accumulate enough money to buy that car. And we get the idea that the pathway to riches is by holding on to everything we can. But like so many other principles in God's Economy the pathway to riches is presented as a paradox. Let's see if a cow and a pig can help us understand the paradox of Proverbs 11:24-25 that shows us that in God's Economy there is another path to riches.
Why do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight? And why do banks have the doors open to the vault and the pens chained to the counters? Our society is full of apparent contradictions or paradoxes. Sometimes navigating through them is like trying to back your car with a trailer hitched to the back. If you want the trailer to go right you have to turn the steering wheel to the left and vice versa. But not only is our society filled with paradoxes—so is the Word of God. And more specifically, many biblical financial principles are given in the form of paradoxes. Did you ever wonder why?
At some point in our lives most of us will ask the question should I buy or rent my next house. There are a number of good websites to help us answer this question from a financial perspective. Here is one from New York Times and one from Crown Financial Ministries. But as Christians our first place should not be a calculator or website, but the counsel of God. Although the Bible does not speak directly to this question, it does give us a number of cautions and principles that are very useful in making this decision. Let’s look at a few of them.
Experts are saying that the next debt crisis facing America will be student loans. According to CNNMoney the average student graduating from college will have over $20,000 in student debt. But that is just the beginning of the story. Read on...
Last time we talked about the question “Is God Fair?” By the world’s definition, (everyone gets treated the same) we certainly cannot say that God is fair. If He were fair we would all spend eternity in hell paying for our sins. But the discussion cannot stop there.
Recently I was sitting in church and the speaker was speaking on the attributes of God and he mentioned that God is fair and just. I think I heard a hearty “amen” from the Amen section of the church, but for some reason, that just did not feel right to me.
This can seem like a ridiculous statement when half the time we are struggling to pay our bills, debts and just get by. But cheap is not always the best answer and sometimes it is simply the wrong answer. While being frugal can bring about many positive changes in your life, being cheap at the wrong time can cost us, not only in this life but in eternity as well. Cheap can also destroy relationships and send us into financial isolation.
There have been many sermons preached and articles written about the church being the bride of Christ as portrayed in marriage...These pictures not only help us understand God’s love for the church and Israel, but also set a high standard of what marriage should look like.
