“If you want
to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people He gave it to.”
– Dorothy Parker
William Barclay said this of money:
Money in itself is neither good nor bad; it is simply dangerous in that the love of it may become bad. With money a man can do much good; and with money he can do much evil. With money a man can selfishly serve his own desires; and with money he can generously answer to the cry of his neighbor’s need. With money a man can buy his way to the forbidden things and facilitate the path of wrongdoing; and with money he can make it easier for someone else to live as God meant him to live. Money brings power, and power is always a double-edged thing, for it is powerful to good and powerful to evil.
-From William Barclay’s Letters to Timothy
What Money Can’t Buy
Money can buy a bed but not sleep, a hammer but not a carpenter,
“things” but not friends, a toy but not a child’s happiness,
a pen and paper but not an author, a pencil but not an idea,
a house but not a home, an agreement but not peace,
paints but not an artist, eyeglasses but not eyesight,
a chair but not rest, a computer but not wisdom,
a school but not students, death but not life,
a flag but not patriotism, a gun but not a soldier,
a book but not knowledge, a machine but not a skill,
a desk but not a teacher, a name but not a man,
a church but not a faith, an altar but not salvation,
and a cross but not a Savior.
-Ellen Meisberger
In 1925 George Merrick, who first developed Coral Gables, Florida, was taking
in one million dollars a day! By 1927 he was broke. In 1881 Hamilton Disston
owned four million acres of land in Florida! By 1896 he was broke. In 1993 the
television news reporters covered the story of a Georgia couple who had won
twenty million dollars in the Florida lottery. Four years later they were
divorced and two million dollars in debt!
Solomon was right: “Riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly
away” (Prov. 23:5).
There are about 6,033,686,000,000 dollar bills in circulation in the United
States at any one time. That’s six trillion, thirty-three billion, six hundred
and eighty six million. With so many bills in circulation I wonder how it
happens that I have so few of them! I also wonder how it happens that so few of
them find their way into church collection plates!