Archives by: Gary Hoag

Now the overseer is to be…no lover of lover of money…In the same way deacons are to be…not pursuing dishonest gain…1 Timothy 3:3, 8

“This requires that he must be free from avarice, not mercenary, not stingy. The desire for money must not be a ruling motive in his life…Nor must they be “greedy of filthy lucre,” that is, “eager for base gain,” turning the opportunities of their office into a means of personal profit.”

D. Edmund Hiebert in 1 Timothy (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1957) 66-69.

“How we treat the poor is how we treat God. For this reason, Jesus asks us to make a preferential option for the poor:

When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Luke 14:12-14

Reaching out, preferentially, to the poor is an essential component of the spiritual life.

Ronald Rolheiser in The Holy Longing: The Search for Christian Spirituality (New York: Doubleday, 1999) 65.

“The more we count the blessings we have, the less we crave the luxuries we haven’t.”

William Arthur Ward (1921-1994) in Thoughts of a Christian Optimist: the Words of William Arthur Ward (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1968) 89.

“In God we trust.”

These words appeared first on U.S. coins in 1860 during the presidency of James Buchanan, a devout presbyterian.

These words became the official motto of the United States of America in 1956 during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, also a presbyterian.

In 1957 the motto also began to be printed on paper money. Their legacy continues to appear on our money to this day.

May this motto be the legacy of each of our lives and may our money serve only to remind us of this reality: “In God we trust.”

I take Christ at His Word: “on Earth as it is in Heaven.” We’ve got to start bringing Heaven down to Earth–now.

Bono, lead singer for U2, in Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas (New York: Riverhead, 2005) 254.

Hermas warns the rich about vainly spending their resources on their own pleasures: “God gave wealth to the rich,” he says, “not for luxury but in order that they might come to the aid of the afflicted and of widows and orphans.”

Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

Shepherd of Hermas (second century) early Christian writing quoted in Beginning to Read the Fathers by Boniface Ramsey (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2012) 183.

“You can’t measure your worth by the values we place on our possessions. A calamity of only a few seconds can change all of that. Real worth is determined by what you do with what you have…be it large or small.”

William F. Chatlos (1889-1977), builder and founder of the Chatlos Foundation which supports Bible colleges and seminaries; religious causes; medical concerns; liberal arts colleges; and social concerns. This quote can be found on their website: www.chatlos.org

“That God gives good things to the wicked is—if you want to understand why—for your growth and does not indicate a divine perversity. Yet I see that you still do not grasp what I said. Listen therefore to what I was telling you who blame and accuse God because he gives these earthly and temporal goods even to wicked persons, which according to your way of thinking he ought not to give except to the righteous alone…

Gold, silver, every type of money, clothing, clients, relatives, cattle, honors—all these are externals. If these lower, earthly, temporal, transitory goods were not given to the wicked as well, they would be considered great by the righteous. And so God, who gives these things to the bad, teaches you to long for higher things.”

Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo, in Sermon 311.13.12-14.13.

“The inward reality of simplicity involves a life of joyful unconcern for possessions. Neither the greedy nor the miserly know this liberty. It has nothing to do with abundance of possessions or their lack. It is an inward spirit of trust.”

Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 86-89.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

“Simplicity itself becomes idolatry when it takes precedence over seeking the kingdom. In a particularly penetrating comment on this passage of Scripture, Søren Kierkegaard considers what sort of effort could be made to pursue the kingdom of God.

Should a person get a suitable job in order to exert a virtuous influence? His answer: no, we must first seek God’s kingdom. Then should we give away all our money to feed the poor? Again the answer is no, we must first seek God’s kingdom.

Well, then perhaps we are to go out and preach this truth to the world that people are to seek first God’s kingdom? Once again the answer is a resounding: no, we are first to seek the kingdom of God.

Kierkegaard concludes, “Then in a certain sense it is nothing I shall do. Yes, certainly, in a certain sense it is nothing, become nothing before God, learn to keep silent; in this silence is the beginning, which is, first to seek God’s kingdom.”

Søren Kierkegaard in Christian Discourses (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1940) 322-344; also cited in Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 86-89.