Charles Finney: Young converts to Christianity must be taught their role as stewards and acknowledge Christ as Master of themselves and their possessions.

“Young converts should be taught that they have renounced the ownership of all their possessions, and of themselves, or if they have not done this they are not Christians. They should not be left to think that any thing is their own, their time, property, influence, faculties, bodies or souls. “Ye are not your own;” (1 Cor. 6:19-20) all belongs to God; and when they submitted to God they made a free surrender of all to him, to be ruled and disposed of at his pleasure…It is just as much a matter of discipline for a church member practically to deny his stewardship as to deny the divinity of Christ.”

Charles Finney (1792-1875) in “Instructions to Young Converts” from Lectures on Revivals of Religion (New York: Leavitt, Lord & Co., 1835) 371-372.

“One would think, if a man did once hear of such unspeakable glory to be obtained, and believed what he heard to be true, he should be transported with the vehemency of his desire after it, and should almost forget to eat and drink, and should care for nothing else, and speak of and inquire after nothing else, but how to get this treasure. And yet people who hear of it daily, and profess to believe it as a fundamental article of their faith, do as little mind it, or labour for it, as if they had never heard of any such thing, or did not believe one word they hear.”

Richard Baxter (1615-1691) in The Practical Works of Richard Baxter (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981) 39-40.

“Church history is replete with examples of Christians for whom the proclamation of the gospel is absolutely number one, and yet they are not therefore ambivalent about the poor. George Whitefield and Charles Spurgeon are two great exemplars. No one could question their gospel credentials.

George Whitefield was arguably the greatest evangelist of the eighteenth century, having preached to hundreds of thousands of people in the UK and North America, and yet, in 1740 he founded the Bethesda Home for Boys—an orphanage in Georgia, which still operates today as a boys’ school.

Charles Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers and evangelists of the nineteenth century, with a church of over five thousand people. And yet, in 1867 he founded the Stockwell Orphanage in London, which still exists as Spurgeon’s Child Care.

These two men were outstanding preachers and evangelists, but they were not too busy to found orphanages. They were not so consumed by gospel strategy that they failed to care for the disadvantaged.”

Recounted by Con Campbell in “The poor are always with you” article in Issue 402 (p. 33) November-December 2012 of matthiasmedia.com/briefing

“Leading is not just teaching. If we preach what the Bible says in this area and we’re living unchanged middle-class lives, we’re hypocrites. If we ask people to be generous but we ourselves are not giving generously, we’re hypocrites.

Leading in finances is not just using neat techniques to raise money to put on a youth worker, as good as that is. It’s bringing to bear those hard-hitting calls to repentance from the Scriptures on ourselves and our flock. Teach it boldly, and in repentance live it out.”

Phil Colgan in “Leading in Finances” article in Issue 402, November-December 2012 of matthiasmedia.com/briefing

“Why is it so difficult for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God? It is no doubt the reverse of the reason that the poor are honoured: the wealthy tend not to be dependent on God. Wealth cultivates self-reliance, leading to pride. The proud are opposed to God, who hates pride. Again, it is not wealth per se that is the problem. In fact, wealth is a good gift from God. But the lack of humility and lack of dependence that often accompanies wealth is the issue.”

Con Campbell in “The poor are always with you” article in Issue 402 November-December 2012 of matthiasmedia.com/briefing

“Whatever good thing you do for Him, if done according to the Word, is laid up for you as treasure in chests and coffers, to be brought out to be rewarded before both men and angels, to your eternal comfort.”

John Bunyan (1628-1688) as recounted by Bruce Wilkinson in “Walk Thru Eternal Rewards” (Atlanta: WTBM, 1987).

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Matthew 13:44

“It is only when he discovers buried treasure that his perspective changes.

Suddenly his possessions look cheap and paltry. A joy is rising in him and an excitement that makes his sweat and tremble. There may have been regret about a cherished piece of furniture or a family heirloom. But it is only momentary. The choice he faces lies between his worthless bits and pieces and the field with buried treasure.

There is nothing noble about his sacrifice. There would, on the other hand, be something incredibly stupid about not making it. Anyone but a fool would do exactly as the man did. Everyone will envy him for his good fortune and commend him not on his spiritual character, but on his common sense.

What I have called “his miserable bits and pieces” are the things of this life to which we naturally cling—money, property, cars, prestige or a good job…If we were to grasp the glories he has for us we would realize how silly we are to cling to such rubbish.”

John White in The Cost of Commitment (Downers Grove: IVP Classics, 2006) 38-39.

But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. 2 Samuel 24:24

“David understood the religious imperative of true sacrifice. For him, religion that cost nothing was worth nothing, either to God or humanity…

In purchasing the Land from Araunah and then utilizing it for sacrifice to the Lord, David was apparently following Torah guidelines regarding the dedication of land to the Lord (cf. Lev. 27:20-21)…

Because of David’s decisive and costly actions, “the LORD answered prayer in behalf of the land and the plague on Israel was stopped.”

In making these sacrifices for his people, David foreshadowed the actions of Jesus, the ultimate son of David, who also gave sacrificially on a hill near Jerusalem for His people so that an even more tragic plague might be stopped.”

Robert D. Bergen in 1, 2 Samuel (NAC; B & H Publishing, 1996) 480.

“God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves (no matter how thankfully) what we ought to be using to alleviate the misery of unevangelized, uneducated, unmedicated, and unfed millions. The evidence that many professing Christians have been deceived by this doctrine is how little they give and how much they own. God has prospered them. And by an almost irresistible law of consumer culture (baptized by a doctrine of health, wealth, and prosperity) they have bought bigger (and more) houses, newer (and more) cars, fancier (and more) clothes, better (and more) meat, and all manner of trinkets and gadgets and containers and devices and equipment to make life more fun.

They will object: Does not the Old Testament promise that God will prosper his people? Indeed! God increases our yield so that by giving we can prove our yield is not our god. God does not prosper a man’s business so he can move from a Ford to a Cadillac. God prospers a business so that 17,000 unreached peoples can be reached with the gospel. He prospers a business so that twelve percent of the world’s population can move a step back from the precipice of starvation.”

John Piper in Desiring God (Portland: Multnomah, 1987) 163-164.

“There was once in man a true happiness of which there now remains to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself. He only is our true good, and since we have forsaken him, it is a strange thing that there is nothing in nature which has not been serviceable in taking His place; the stars, the heavens, earth, the elements, plants, cabbages, leeks, animals, insects, calves, serpents, fever, pestilence, war, famine, vices, adultery, incest. And since man has lost the true good, everything can appear equally good to him, even his own destruction, though so opposed to God, to reason, and to the whole course of nature.” (cf. Psalm 49).

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) #425, trans. W.F. Trotter.