Not my words...

While studying and researching for a lesson/discussion for next Sunday I came across this awesome chunk of the Bible in Ephesians.  I'd rather not mess it up for you by giving you all of my thoughts about it, just take it in, more than once.

Here it is, Ephesians 3:14-21...

Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth

 ¹⁴ When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, ¹⁵ the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. ¹⁶ I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷ Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. ¹⁸ And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. ¹⁹ May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. ²⁰ Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. ²¹ Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

So...which one is it?

I've beginning to learn that a lot of things in this life, at their core, are neutral.  This covers a lot of different things, but I'm going to keep it to one topic for now so you'll actually read the whole post.

Money.  This is something everyone can relate to, especially when I'm considering selling plasma with the way these gas prices are headed (I'm joking, but seriously...).  So many thoughts exist on this topic, and it especially gets tricky when money is discussed in Christian contexts.

The go to quote that I hear is, "Money is the root of all evil."
That line is close to what a Bible verse says (1 Timothy 6:10), but with some distinct differences,
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil."

Catch the subtle differences?  Money by itself is not evil, but the love of money is a root to all kinds of evil.  The real issue here is where a person's heart is.  A millionaire is a millionaire, but differences in attitudes and where their heart is affect things.  This can lead them to one extreme or the other, a great philanthropist, or "that guy" who has so much money us normal people can't even fathom what we would do with that much cash!  If a Christian is poor it doesn't necessarily mean that they feel they must be poor to be a "good" Christian and if Christian is rich he isn't inherently corrupt and a hypocrite.  Those profiles exist but we can't peg that on the whole lot, see my recent post "Generally Speaking" for more on that.

It comes down to stewardship, or managing for an easier term.  Manage well, and it will be rewarded.  So, which one is it? Will we use money wisely to help build up our families and our neighbors, or will we fall into an unhealthy attachment to it (ok, you got me, just a long way of saying "being greedy")?

P.S. - One guy who knows his stuff and is refreshingly straight-forward and helpful with financial matters, see Dave Ramsey's work.