Archives by: Gary Hoag

“The foundational spiritual principle related to money is this: God is the owner of it all, and we are the managers. The Bible says, “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deut 8:17-18).

The principle carries with it some very important implications: First, if God owns it all, then He has all of the rights to what He owns. And since I only have what has been given to me, what I’ve been allowed to have, then I operate primarily in the realm of responsibilities. That means that when it comes to money, there is a trust relationship between me and God. God has trusted me with certain resources that, in truth, He owns and has rights to. My job is to live by that trust by managing it well, according to His design and desire. He trusts me to do it.

A second implication is that if God owns it all, and I am someone who has simply been given the responsibility to manage those resources in a way that honors Him, then every financial decision is a spiritual decision. Whether it’s buying a car, taking a vacation, investing in a mutual fund, paying taxes, or buying groceries—every spending decision is a spiritual decision, because I am managing the resources God has given me to manage. God cannot be shut out of any transaction, excluded from any purchase, omitted from any decision, or removed from any investment. It is, after all, His money.

A final implication is that we are all accountable to God for this management. If all the money is His, and we are the managers of what He’s allowed us to have, then ultimately we are accountable to Him for our money management. We’ll all stand before a holy God one day and give an accounting for how we did with what He gave.”

James Emery White in You Can Experience a Spiritual Life (Word, 1999), Chapter 9.

“The healthy church teaches its members that they are stewards of their God-given resources and challenges them to sacrificial generosity in sharing with others.”

Stephen A. Macchia in Becoming a Healthy Church: 10 Traits of a Vital Ministry (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999) 197.

“The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognize in each other the Christ who is present in the body; they receive and meet each other as one meets the Lord, in reverence, humility, and joy.” (Cf. Matthew 25:31-46).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community (New York: HarperCollins) 20.

“God does bless in temporal ways those who put implicit trust in Him.”

Oswald Chamber (1874-1917) in a letter dated 23 June 1897 as recorded in Abandoned to God by David McCasland (Grand Rapids: Discovery House, 1993) 67.

“My observation and experience of all the flourishing nations everywhere, what is taking place, so help me God, is nothing but a conspiracy of the rich…these depraved creatures, in their insatiable greed, have divided among themselves all the goods which would have sufficed for everyone…where everything belongs to everyone, no one doubts that (as long as care is taken that the public storehouses are full) nothing whatever will be lacking for anyone for his own use. For the distribution of good is not niggardly; no one is a pauper or beggar there, and though no one has anything, all are rich.

Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) Utopia (Yale University Press, 2001) 130-132.

“The wealth accumulated by churchgoing people [in the United States] has reached record levels. And despite unprecedented opportunities for global ministry, American Christians give proportionately less today to the church than we did during the great depression.”

Andy Stanley in Fields of Gold (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 2004) 115.

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:27-31

“What is the reason for this Christian conduct? The reason is that it makes us like God, for that is the way he acts. God’s sends his rain on the just and the unjust. He is kind to the person who brings him joy and equally kind to the person who grieves his heart. God’s love embraces saint and sinner alike. It is that love we must copy; if we, too, seek even our enemy’s highest good we will in truth be the children of God.”

William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke (Louisville: Saint Andrew Press, 2001) 95.

“Don’t stockpile possessions here on earth where moths eat cloth, rust corrodes metal, and thieves break in and steal our valuables. Instead, stockpile treasures in heaven, where there aren’t any moths, rust or burglars. Put your valuables where you want your heart to be, because that’s what’s going to happen anyway. Our hearts and our treasures stick together.”

Leith Anderson in Jesus: An Intimate Portrait of the Man, His Land, and His People (Grand Rapids: Bethany House, 2005) 82.

Sometimes I think
What will people say of me
When I’m only just a memory
When I’m home where my soul belongs

Was I love
When no one else would show up
Was I Jesus to the least of those
Was my worship more than just a song

I want to live like that
And give it all I have
So that everything I say and do
Points to You

If love is who I am
Then this is where I’ll stand
Recklessly abandoned
Never holding back

I want to live like that
I want to live like that

Am I proof
That You are who you say You are
That grace can really change a heart
Do I live like Your love is true

People pass
And even if they don’t know my name
Is there evidence that I’ve been changed
When they see me, do they see You

I want to live like that
And give it all I have
So that everything I say and do
Points to You

If love is who I am
Then this is where I’ll stand
Recklessly abandoned
Never holding back

I want to live like that
I want to live like that

I want to show the world the love You gave for me
I’m longing for the world to know the glory of the King

I want to live like that
And give it all I have
So that everything I say and do
Points to You

If love is who I am
Then this is where I’ll stand
Recklessly abandoned
Never holding back

I want to live like that
I want to live like that

Sidewalk Prophets: Live Like That. YouTube Music Video:

Today’s meditation is dedicated to Bud Sleek (June 9, 1936 – May 19, 2012). Bud was one of the most generous, humble, godly fly fisherman I have ever met. He is home where his soul belongs, with our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything he said and did pointed to Jesus. I want to live like that!

“Our faith in Jesus will be tested by our desire for earthly possessions. The things of this world can have a powerful hold on us. We can be set free only by seeing the things we possess as gifts to be shared. They do not belong to us as we are only stewards of God’s gifts. We cannot love both the world and God. But God’s love in us can enable us to see what we possess as a gift rather than as a god.”

Bill Adams in The Redemptorists of the Denver Province blogpost for 28 May 2012.