# God and Money  ## Metadata - Author: [[John Cortines, Gregory Baumer, and Randy Alcorn]] - Full Title: God and Money - Category: #books ## Highlights - God intended one of these three tithes to be used to throw a giant festival! God desires that we use His gifts of provision for our own enjoyment, in addition to serving others. ([Location 224](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=224)) - The theme is clear: wealth is a gift from God, and one of the functions of wealth is to provide for one’s community, especially the poor. ([Location 235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=235)) - From Boaz’s example we learn that one of the essential functions of wealth is to support “the least of these,” and that maximizing one’s own assets at the expense of those in need is an ungodly practice—on par with stealing, oppression, and injustice. God expects those of us blessed with plenty to actively serve the needs of the poor in our communities. ([Location 246](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=246)) - As Old Testament scholar Christopher Wright puts it, David “acknowledges the true source of all wealth (God Himself) and the comparative unworthiness of all human giving, which is merely giving back to God what already belongs to Him” (1 Chronicles 29:14). ([Location 256](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=256)) - It is not poverty in itself that makes one blessed by God, but the humble, dependent, God-trusting disposition that we often find accompanying the oppressed poor in Scripture. Likewise, riches themselves are not wicked, but only if they are unrighteously obtained or used, a condition that is found only too frequently in this fallen world. ([Location 344](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=344)) - This parable starkly highlights the futility in accumulating wealth here on earth without a vision to use that wealth for eternal purposes. ([Location 365](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=365)) - Note: Speaking of the parable of the rich fool - Rather than accumulating wealth in this world, we should accumulate “wealth” in heaven by doing God’s work here on earth. ([Location 384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=384)) - These traits of our giving—voluntary, generous (even sacrificial), cheerful, and supportive of local ministers and the poor—all reflect God Himself in His generous giving (James 1:17-18). ([Location 496](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=496)) - A faithful reading of Scripture leads not to the question, “How much should I give?” Rather, it leads to the question, “How much do I need to keep?” ([Location 650](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=650)) - Even when we “earn” something (e.g., when we work hard to save money for a down payment on a house) we do so by using skills given to us by God (Psalm 144:1), in a job gifted to us by God (Exodus 20:9), with the support of an organization and a political economy that are both ordained by God (Romans 13:1-2), all of which are held in existence moment-by-moment through God (Colossians 1:17). ([Location 679](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=679)) - Stewardship is the active and responsible management of God’s creation for God’s purposes. ([Location 690](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=690)) - While God’s purposes certainly include delivering justice to the underprivileged, His purposes also include our enjoyment of His blessings. Both purposes are legitimate. ([Location 703](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=703)) - “Their property held them in chains. . . . They think of themselves as owners, whereas it is they rather who are owned: enslaved as they are to their own property, they are not the masters of their money but its slaves.” ([Location 869](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=869)) - Authors Don McClanen and Dale Stitt argue that “[Money] becomes Mammon whenever our passion for nice things is stronger than our compassion for the wounded in our world.” ([Location 872](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=872)) - Temporally, Spenders maximize value today, Savers maximize value in the future, and Servants maximize value in eternity. ([Location 1603](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=1603)) - His lifestyle is fixed, while his generosity grows with his earning power. ([Location 2023](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=2023)) - it will be a life beautifully lived if you can begin to blur the lines between Spending and Serving. ([Location 2043](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=2043)) - We also must fight against the temptation to believe that we have somehow been bestowed this wealth because we deserve it; that is a spiritual danger most profound. It is not something we deserve, it is something with which we have been entrusted and we need to use it to change the world, not to make ourselves more comfortable. ([Location 2500](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09CWL8Z2F&location=2500))