Jeremiah Burroughs shares the Secret to Enjoyment and Contentment

“A godly heart enjoys much of God in everything he has, and knows how to make up all wants in God himself.”

Jeremiah Burroughs, (1600-1646), Puritan Preacher, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (1648; Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 1964) 65.

“Christian stewardship is the practice of systematic and proportionate giving of time, abilities and material possessions, based on the the conviction that these are trusts from God to be used in his service for the benefit of all mankind in grateful acknowledgement of Christ’s redeeming love.”

Helge Brattgård, God’s Stewards: A Theological Study of the Principles and Practices of Stewardship, trans. Gene J. Lund (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1963) 5.

“It may be admitted that the man amassing millions is a bit of an idiot; but it may be asked in what sense does he rule the modern world. The answer to this is very important and rather curious.

The evil enigma for us here is not the rich, but the Very Rich. The distinction is important; because this special problem is separate from the old general quarrel about rich and poor that runs through the Bible and all strong books, old and new. The special problem today is that certain powers and privileges have grown so worldwide and unwieldy that they are out of the power of the moderately rich as well as of the moderately poor. They are out of the power of everybody except a few millionaires—that is, misers.

In the old normal friction of normal wealth and poverty I am myself on the Radical side.

I think that a Berkshire squire has too much power over his tenants; that a Brompton builder has too much power over his workmen; that a West London doctor has too much power over the poor patients in the West London Hospital. But a Berkshire squire has no power over cosmopolitan finance, for instance. A Brompton builder has not money enough to run a Newspaper Trust. A West End doctor could not make a corner in quinine and freeze everybody out. The merely rich are not rich enough to rule the modern market.

The things that change modern history, the big national and international loans, the big educational and philanthropic foundations, the purchase of numberless newspapers, the big prices paid for peerages, the big expenses often incurred in elections—these are getting too big for everybody except the misers; the men with the largest of earthly fortunes and the smallest of earthly aims. There are two other odd and rather important things to be said about them. The first is this: that with this aristocracy we do not have the chance of a lucky variety in types which belongs to larger and looser aristocracies.

The moderately rich include all kinds of people—even good people. Even priests are sometimes saints; and even soldiers are sometimes heroes. Some doctors have really grown wealthy by curing their patients and not by flattering them; some brewers have been known to sell beer. But among the Very Rich you will never find a really generous man, even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egoistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.”

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), “The Miser and His Friends” in The Miscellany of Men (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1912) 170.

“Christ hungers now, my brethren; it is he who deigns to hunger and thirst in the persons of the poor. And what he will return in heaven tomorrow is what he receives here on earth today.” (cf. Matthew 25:31-46, Philippians 4:17)

Caesarius of Arles (470-543), as recounted by Jill Haak Adels in The Wisdom of the Saints (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) 15.

“[Those] who add forests, and who, excluding the poor from their neighborhood, stretch out their fields far and wide into space without limits…Such a one enjoys no security either in his food or in his sleep. In the midst of the banquet he sighs, although he drinks from a jeweled goblet; and when his luxurious bed has enfolded his body, languid with feasting, he lies wakeful in the midst of the down; nor does he perceive, poor wretch, that these things are merely gilded torments, that he is held in bondage by his gold, and that his is the slave of his luxury and wealth rather than their master.”

St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (c. 218-249), in Epistle 1.12, as recounted in Brian Rosner, Beyond Greed (Kingsford, Australia: Matthias Media, 2004) 78.

“The heart of Christianity says that you haven’t given God anything until you have given God everything.

At 30, Florence Nightingale wrote in her diary, “I am thirty years of age, the age at which Christ began his mission. Now no more childish things, no more vain things. Now, Lord, let me think only of Thy will.”

Years later, near the end of her illustrious, heroic life, she was asked for her life’s secret, and she replied, “Well, I can only give one explanation. That is, I have kept nothing back from God.”

Florence Nightingale as recounted by Rick Ezell in “Two Sermons on Giving: The Heart and Soul of Christianity” (December 5, 2003).

“Thou shalt have not other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3

“The simple meaning of this commandment is, You shall worship me alone as your God. What do these words mean and how are they to be understood? What is it to have a god, or what is God?

Answer: A god is that to which we look for all good and where we resort for help in every time of need; to have a god is simply to trust and believe in one with our whole heart. As I have often said, the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. If your faith and confidence are right, then likewise your God is the true God. On the other hand, if your confidence is false, if it is wrong, then you have not the true God. For the two, faith and God, have inevitable connection. Now, I say, whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.”

Martin Luther in Luther’s Large Catechism: God’s Call to Repentance, Faith and Prayer trans. John Nicholas Lenker (Minneapolis: Luther Press, 1908) 44.

The father welcomed his wayward child,
a sign of God’s generosity and love.
May we be generous toward others,
willing to forgive past sins
and to welcome others as God welcomes us.
Lord hear us.

God of love,
You have reconciled us to yourself
and made us your children.
Listen to our prayers
and grant what we need
through Christ our Lord. Amen

Hugh McGinlay Prayers of the Faithful: For Sundays, Feasts, and Seasons (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2006) 29.

“The most disturbing thing about the fact that greed is idolatry is that hardly anybody owns up to being a worshiper. Imagine the response of disbelief in the local church if it were revealed that the vast majority of its members were secretly worshipping other gods. Yet if our analysis of the religion of money is right, the unthinkable may not be so far from the truth.

The most convincing evidence that greed is idolatry concerns the answer to a simple question: what do idolaters do with their idols which believers are meant to do with God? The answer is that they offer their idols love, trust and obedience. In each case that is exactly what the greedy do with their money.” (cf. Eph 5:5; Col 3:5)

Brian Rosner in Beyond Greed (Kingsford, Australia: Matthias Media, 2004) 52-53.

If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person. Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:17-18

“John describes the selfish believer of whom three things are true. First…John describes a person with an adequate though perhaps not lavish physical livelihood.

Second, this believer sees a fellow believer in need. Similar language in other NT texts reveals this was a frequent issue in the early church: some “had need” in the Jerusalem congregation (Acts 2:44; 4:35); Paul labored to supply the “needs” of himself and his coworkers (20:34); Paul commanded that “the needs of the saints” be met via sharing (Rom 12:13; cf. Eph 4:28; Tit 3:14). Such activity requires not only industry and economy but also willingness to give. In the scenario that 1 John 3:17 envisions, the former may have been present, but the latter was not.

Third, this believer with means “is callous” toward the one in need…To “close” this faculty is to be hardened, whether through indifference or brazen heartlessness…

First John 3:18 concludes with a terse exhortation to match confession with tangible action.”

Robert W. Yarbrough, 1-3 John BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008) 203-204.