“God’s Word teaches a very hard, disturbing truth. Those who neglect the poor and the oppressed are really not God’s people at all—no matter how frequently they practice their religious rituals nor how orthodox are their creeds and confessions.”
Ron Sider in Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005) 58.
Read moreHere are the lyrics to a 2:23 video, which my daughter helped produce in San Diego this summer for Operation Christmas Child.
Every year we celebrate
Getting presents is really great
But we all know there’s more than that
Cuz getting them is nice, but giving’s where it’s at
So when you’re wrapping presents with your family
Think about those people who need you and me.
Christmas is here again
Everybody sing it out
Christmas is here again
And you know without a doubt
Join the rhyme and make the time to freely give
So let’s help one another live
As we make our Christmas list
Wondering if there’s something we have missed
People out in the world somewhere
Need to know that somebody cares
So when you’re wrapping presents with your family
Think about those people who need you and me.
Christmas is here again
Everybody sing it out
Christmas is here again
And you know without a doubt
Join the rhyme and make the time to freely give
So let’s help one another
Christmas is here again
Everybody sing it out
Christmas is here again
And you know without a doubt
Join the rhyme and make the time to freely give
So everyone
Join the fun
Help someone
Christmas is here again
Get out there and give.
Operation Christmas Child Musical – Get Out There and Give!
Performed by Christian Youth Theater – Sophie Hoag has blonde hair, is wearing a lime green shirt and appears from 0:20-0:39 and briefly at 1:45-1:46 of this 2:23 video. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgpGSTdlP1U
C.T. Studd was a rich and famous English athlete who sold his entire estate, gave it away and went to the mission field to serve Christ. He summed up the perspective that motivated him: “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
C.T. Studd (1860-1931) as recounted by Randy Alcorn in Money, Possessions, and Eternity (Tyndale House: Wheaton, 2003) 417.
Read more“God’s will is that our lives should be “a perpetual crisis of dependence on him.” We defeat his will in our lives when we lay up treasures on earth.
The life of faith does not follow automatically when a person becomes a Christian. It requires deliberate action on our part. This is especially true in an affluent society. The believer must put himself in a position where he is compelled to trust God…
It is only as he gets rid of his reserves and other false supports that he can truly launch out into the deep…
God pours out his choices blessings on those who are anxious that nothing shall stick to their hands. Individuals who value the rainy day above the present agony of the world will get no blessing from God…
How utterly in keeping with this age of grace it is for us to sell our prized possessions–our diamonds and other jewelry, our original paintings, our antique furniture, our sterling silver, our stamp collections–and put the proceeds to work in the salvation of souls throughout the world.”
William MacDonald in True Discipleship (Kansas City: Walterick Publishers, 1976) 92-93, 108.
Read more“Wealth takes away the sharp edges of our moral sensitivities and allows a comfortable confusion about sin and virtue. The difference between rich and poor is not that the rich sin is more than the poor, that the rich find it easier to call sin a virtue.”
Henri Nouwen in Gracias!: A Latin American Journal (Harper and Row, 1983) 159.
Read more“Wherefore do you applaud yourself in those vain and silly conceits, as if you were withheld from good works by fear and solicitude for the future? … Yea, confess what is the truth…
You are a captive and slave of your money; you are bound with the chains and bonds of covetousness; and you whom Christ had once loosed are once more in chains. You keep your money, which, when kept, does not keep you…
Why do you watch in loneliness over your riches? Why for your punishment do you heap up the burden of your patrimony, that in proportion as you are rich in this world, you may become poor to God?
Divide your returns with the Lord your God; share your gains with Christ; make Christ a partner with you in your earthly possessions, that He also may make you a fellow-heir with Him in His heavenly kingdom.”
Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200-258) in On Works and Alms 13.
Read more“I continually find it necessary to guard against that natural love of wealth and grandeur which prompts us always when we come to apply our general doctrine to our own case, to claim an exception.”
William Wilberforce as recounted in 1001 Quotes, Illustrations and Humorous Stories for Preachers, Teachers, and Writers, ed. Edward K. Rowell (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997) 178.
Read more“Affluenza is a strange malady that affects the children of well-to-do parents. Though having everything money can buy, the children show all the symptoms of abject poverty—depression, anxiety, loss of meaning, and despair for the future. Affluenza accounts for an escape into alcohol, drugs, shoplifting, and suicide among children of the wealthy. It is most often found where parents are absent from the home and try to buy their children’s love.”
David McKenna in “Financing the Great Commission” in Christianity Today 15 May 1987: 28.
Read more“If you wish to leave much wealth to your children, leave them in God’s care. For he who without your having done anything, gave you a soul, and formed you a body, and granted you the gift of life, when he sees you displaying such munificence, and distributing your goods, must surely open to them all kinds of riches…
Do not leave them riches, but virtue and skill. For if they have the confidence of riches, they will not mind anything besides for they shall have the means of screening the wickedness of their ways in their abundant riches.”
John Chrysostom (c. 349-407) in Homily on Romans, 7.
Read more“Reserves are crutches and props which become a substitute for trust in the Lord. We can’t trust when we can see. Once we decide to provide for our future, we run into these problems. How much will be enough? How long will we live? Will there be a depression? Will there be inflation? Will we have heavy medical bills?
It is impossible to know how much will be enough. Therefore we spend our lives amassing wealth to provide for a few short years of retirement. In the meantime, God has been robbed and our own life has been spent seeking security where it cannot be found.
How much better it is to work diligently for our current necessities, serve the Lord to the maximum extent, put everything above present needs into the work of the Lord, and trust Him for our future.”
William MacDonald in True Discipleship (Kansas City: Walterick Publishers, 1976) 96-97.
Read more