Lesson 41 - Love of Money

5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." - Hebrews 13:5

 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. - 1 Timothy 6:10

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. - 2 Corinthians 5:11-17

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    The love of money is something that is the foundation of America. Capitalism, while not meant to be what it has become, has become a greed infested blood bath. In many ways, our culture is what is described in Shania Twain's song "Ka-Ching." This is depressing as we were a country built on Faith; now we are built on the religion of money. Companies and industries only exist, in the words of Milton Friedman, to increase profits. While Milton Friedman also said to play within the "rules of the game," companies rarely do. These motives have spilled over into the thoughts of the individual, not just the companies. We chose a mate based on money, not love. We decide where to take our families based on money, not safety. We are making our lives about money, not God. Furthermore, where God is absent, there is chaos.

I am not, by any means, pointing fingers. I know that this has been an issue for me. I cannot completely blame the world in which I was brought up in either. I have to take responsibility for my own actions, as should America. I understand that, as the Movie Cabaret says, " Money makes the world go around." Still, it is my own error, my own lack of faith that causes my fear of not having enough when God has always provided.

Many can say that "I like money, I don't love it." My only issue with this statement is that if you think of it all the time, worry about it all the time, or if it destroys your family you love it enough to lose everything else -- even yourself. In many ways, this has been my life. I've always worried about, thought about, and seen what money can do. When you see what the lack of it can do to a family, it makes you think about it all the time; however, I have learned something that is profound: A family should not be destroyed by money if there is love in that family. Love will always prevail, especially if it is the love of money. A family that, even if they loose their home, loves each other will stick together. A family that is built on money, or the fear of money, will surely fall. If all you're in it for is the money, I can bet you you do not love that person, just what they give you. When this is all that is in your heart, God cannot be present with it as "one cannot serve to masters."

I have seen both sides to this story, what a family should really look like and what they are today. In my life, I have thought about, in a spouse, financial stability. This is one reason I wanted to become an Accountant, for the shear fact that I would be financial secure. Now thinking to myself, while I love accounting and I don't want to change it, financial security isn't everything. Homeless people, while not able to do everything they have ever wanted, are more pleased when they get the smallest item or scrap of food. When we give them "chump change" they are truly thankful. If you were hungry in this day and age and someone handed you a quarter, would you be happy? No! You'd be angered deeply. I would be! God knows what is in our hearts, He knows our motives. Our conscience should tell us what He sees. If you don't like what you see, change it. I have to.

Why can't we, as Americans, be content? Why do we always want more? We, like a fire, are never satisfied. Though God didn't warn about Americans and our always wanting more way of life, He did warn about the love of money. I've seen what it can do, I have felt what it can do. I am a product of what it can do. Because of that, loving God is what needs to consume my life. God will never leave you or forsake you like people or money will- remember that!

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"Ka-Ching" - Shania Twain

We live in a greedy little world--
that teaches every little boy and girl
To earn as much as they can possibly--
then turn around and
Spend it foolishly
We've created us a credit card mess
We spend the money that we don't possess
Our religion is to go and blow it all
So it's shoppin' every Sunday at the mall

All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store

[Chorus:]
Can you hear it ring
It makes you wanna sing
It's such a beautiful thing--Ka-ching!
Lots of diamond rings
The happiness it brings
You'll live like a king
With lots of money and things

When you're broke go and get a loan
Take out another mortgage on your home
Consolidate so you can afford
To go and spend some more when
you get bored

All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store

[Repeat Chorus]

Let's swing
Dig deeper in your pocket
Oh, yeah, ha
Come on I know you've got it
Dig deeper in your wallet
Oh

All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store

[Repeat Chorus]

Can you hear it ring
It makes you wanna sing
You'll live like a king
With lots of money and things
Ka-ching!

Lesson 6 - Deeper in Love

Love. So many people have different definitions of this word. Some people say it to their friends in a "love ya" sort of way. This only means, in my opinion, "thanks for doing whatever you just did for me that made me better." In other forms, "I love you," we feel there is more meaning behind. This is why when men tell women "love you" or "love ya" they get upset. They want to here the I in front of love that gives it more meaning to us and the world that we live in. However, as I said last time. We can't love God until we love everyone and we can't really love everyone without knowing God... interesting isn't it. I shared 2 and 3 John last time, but I'm going to share the scripture which everyone knows about love. 1Corinthians 13.

3 And if I bestow all my goods to feed [the poor], and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. 4 Love suffereth long, [and] is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; 6 rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; 7 beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Love never faileth: but whether [there be] prophecies, they shall be done away; whether [there be]tongues, they shall cease; whether [there be] knowledge, it shall be done away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 10 but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. 13 But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

1. Love never gives up,
2. cares more for others than for self,
3. doesn't want what it doesn't have,
4. doesn't strut,
5. doesn't have a swelled head,
6. doesn't force itself on others,
7. isn't always "me first,"
8. doesn't fly off the handle,
9. doesn't keep score,
10. doesn't revel when others grovel,
11. takes pleasure in the truth,
12. puts up with anything,
13. trusts God always,
14. always looks for the best,
15. never looks back,
16. it never dies.

Because of all these things that love does/doesn't do or is/isn't, I wonder if I could feel this for everyone as God wants us to do. I'm sorry, but I know that in this world, if you don't think me first, you won't have a job. If you don't want what you don't have, the economy would crash. If it puts up with anything, then people who are beat should just "take it like a man." I'm not sure that I'm ok with that last one especially! I would love to be able to think the best in people as we should judge others with the scales in their favor, but to think that I would have to believe everything that someone says, in this day in age, is freakin crazy. So many people lie; I lie! If I can lie, why should I trust anyone else not to? I understand that I should not lie, and I am going to try not to anymore; however, I will stumble, this I must acknowledge. So, I will try to do all of these things, I really will. But this in and of itself is going to take some time. This is the biggest lesson to learn. When I can love myself I can love others, when I can love others I can love God in the way that he states in 2 and 3 John. I must keep this in mind. I must remember these things.