WHAT WOULD YOU DO FOR $1 MILLION Wellspring Community Church 01-28-01 quoting Steve Farrar, Family Survival in the American Jungle, p. 68
What’s the most outrageous thing you’d do for cash? Many years ago a Chicago radio station, WKOX, offered $10,000 to the individual who could devise the most outlandish way to get the money. More than 6,000 people responded to the challenge.
The eventual winner was Jay Gwaltney of Zionsville, Indiana, who consumed an 11-foot birch sapling - leaves, roots, bark and all. For the event he wore a tuxedo and dined at a table eloquently set with fine china, sterling silverware, candles and a rose vase.
Armed with pruning sheers, the Indiana State University sophomore began chomping from the top of the tree and worked his way, branch by branch, to the roots. His only condiment: French dressing for the massive birch-leaf salad.
Consuming the tree took 18 hours over a period of three days. When it was all over, Gwaltney complained of an upset stomach.
That seems crazy doesn’t it? Eat a tree for $10,000? Ridiculous! But what would you be willing to do for $10 million? In their book, The Day America Told the Truth, authors James Patterson and Peter Kim reveal some shocking statistics on how far people in this country are willing to go for money:
(25%) Would abandon their entire family
(23%) Would become prostitutes for a week or more
(16%) Would give up their American citizenship
(16%) Would leave their spouses
(10%) Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free
(7%) Would kill a stranger
(3%) Would put their children up for adoption
There is a reason why "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" is the highest rated prime time show. There is a reason why dozens of intelligent, attractive women would parade and degrade themselves to marry a multimillionaire on national TV. There is a reason why Americans owe $400 billion on their credit cards. There is a reason we work ourselves into an early grave, ignoring the people and things that matter most in life.
The reason: we view money and the things it can buy as the answer to all our problems. We perceive the good life as an abundance of bigger and better things. If we start to feel guilty about this pursuit we often put it off on our kids and piously state that we want them to have the things we didn’t have growing up.
We are infected with a cultural disease one author has termed "affluenza." Influenza used be a major killer eighty years ago. In 1918 some 548,000 Americans died of what we know as the flu. Today influenza is no longer a threat, but affluenza is.
Here are the symptoms of affluenza:
ü Desire for more and more, despite what we already have
ü Insatiable drive to be successful without ever experiencing contentment
ü Practice of consistently choosing career over family
ü Unchecked yearning for more possessions and wealth
ü Unwillingness to settle for less than the best of everything

WHY A "PIGGIE" BANK? Why do Cowboys wear High Heels? Jeff Rovin

We don’t actually know the artist’s name, but we know why he or she did it. In medieval England, clay was known as "pygg." People would usually put their coins in pygg dishes or jars when they came home. These were commonly referred to as "pygg banks."

One English potter, around the year 1600, was asked to make several pygg banks. Unfamiliar with the term, he made several banks shaped like pigs, with slots in the back for the coins. The customer was not disappointed and, in fact, ordered more for friends. The charming idea caught on and quickly spread through Europe.

Interestingly, pigs - the animals - took their name from the same root word. Instead of being made from mud, they were animals who lived in mud.

IF THERE’S BLACKMAIL, WHY ISN’T THERE WHITEMAIL? Why do Cowboys wear High Heels? Jeff Rovin

There used to be. In 16^th century England, the word "mail" meant rent, tax or tribute. If you were wealthy, you typically paid your debt in silver: this was known as "whitemail," from the color of the silver. If you weren’t as well-to-do you paid in some other form, from grain to meat. Since these came from the dark earth, they were known as "blackmail."

Because everyone knew exactly what an ounce of silver was worth, whitemail had a set value. Blackmail, however, did not. Thus, if the person receiving the black mail didn’t approve of the amount, they were able to demand more. It was this extortion that gives us the current meaning of the word.

QUOTE: Contentment comes not from greater wealth but from fewer wants.

ROBBING OURSELVES? Sermon Fodder 11/7/2000
Back in 1887 in a small neighborhood grocery store, a middle-aged gentleman named, Emanuel Nenger, gave the assistant a $20 note to pay for the turnip greens he was purchasing. When the assistant placed the note in the cash drawer, she noticed that some of the ink from the $20
came off on her hands, which were wet from wrapping the turnip greens.
She'd known Mr. Nenger for years and was shocked! She ponders, "Is this man giving me a counterfeit $20 note?" She dismissed the thought immediately and gave him his change.
But $20 was a lot of money in 1887, so she notified the police who, after procuring a search warrant, went to Emanuel Nenger's home where they found in his attic the tools he was using to reproduce the counterfeit $20 notes. They found an artist's easel, paint brushes, and paints which Nenger was using to meticulously paint the counterfeit money. He was a master artist!
The police also found three portraits that Nenger had painted - paintings that ultimately sold at public auction for just little over $16,000!
The irony was that it took him almost as much time to paint a $20 note as it did to paint the three portraits that sold for more than $5,000 each.

DESTINATION SICKNESS Ray Stedman – Peninsula Bible Church

We all tend to think that liberty is doing what you want to do whenever you want to do it. But nothing could be worse. There is no greater form of slavery. You need have only a little experience of it to see how empty, how binding, how boring that kind of life is:

I have been privileged to travel extensively and to speak oftentimes to rather wealthy audiences. I was in Hollywood, Florida, a few weeks ago, on the so-called "gold coast" of Florida. Every morning I taught the Scriptures to a crowd of five hundred or more. These people, I was told, represented well over a billion dollars' worth of accumulated wealth. I had the opportunity to talk with many of them individually. I found that most of these, by their own testimony, though they had all the money to buy anything they wanted, had arrived at the place where they were suffering from what someone has so aptly called "destination sickness" -- the malady of having everything that you want, but not wanting anything you have, and being sick and empty and lonely and miserable because you can do anything you want to do.

No, that is not liberty. Liberty, God says, is being freed from inner bondage, inner shackles of guilt and fear and anxiety and hostility. And it begins with redemption, with the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

IN GOD WE TRUST Pisgah Christian Newsletter, November 2000

The slogan "In God we trust" may get more attention soon. A non-binding measure passed by the House of Representatives encourages the display of the national motto in public buildings. Currently the phrase appears over the entrance to the Senate chamber and above the Speaker’s dais in the House…. The slogan goes back to 1864 when Abraham Lincoln signed a law putting the motto on all American currency. President Eisenhower in 1956 made it the official national motto.

MONEY THOUGHTS Thomas Wiseman The Money Motive

There is blood money and bride money, conscience money and stolen money, easy money and money that has been earned by the sweat of the brow, money to burn and money as the prize of merit; there is money that is a king’s ransom and money… to squander and so much money as will make it difficult for its possessor to get into heaven; there is.. pocket money, spending money, hush money, and money in the bank; there are the wages of sin and the bequests of rich uncles; there is the price that every man has, and the pricelessness of objects, and the price on the outlaw’s head; there are the 30 pieces of silver and also the double indemnity on one’s own life.

It is characteristic of money that, in the words of Isaiah, "it satisfieth not," or as one of the rich singers of the past put it:" I can’t get no satisfaction." And yet the pursuit and amassing of this unsatisfying stuff is probably the strongest motive-force in our culture, although this will often be strenuously denied by the very people who are most deeply committed to the money-goal.

In Matthew 22:15-22, Jesus encourages the Pharisees to take an inventory of their lives. The Pharisees approach Jesus with the question, "Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
In order to answer the question, Jesus asks for a coin and says, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"

"Caesar’s," they reply.

Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s."

Now the part about the coin, you and I easily understand. But it is the 2^nd part of Jesus’ statement that causes us to wonder, "What is it that bears God’s image?"

The answer is found in Genesis 1:26. It reads, "Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…’" We are made in God’s likeness. Therefore, to give to God that which belongs to Him means that we must give all of ourselves to Him. We belong to God.

THE SHELL OF RICHES Herb Goldberg & Robert Lewis Money Madness William Morrow & Co.

… those who devote themselves to money… money seems to eat them away, inside out. Inside they lose their joy and spontaneity and generosity of impulse. Outside, they seem to wither, to become pale and drawn and fragile looking. It is difficult, of course, to decide how much of the aging process. But certainly not all old men look as ravaged as Howard Hughes did or as desiccated as Rockefeller or Mellon or J. Paul Getty. These men all complained of fatigue, sleepless nights and digestive ailments. They all appeared wispy and mummified.

We squander Health

In search of Wealth

We scheme and toil and save

Then squander Wealth

In search of Health

And all we get’s a grave.

We live and boast of what we own

We die and only get a stone.

OVERWHELMING WEALTH Leadership, Fall of 1983.

William Boice, "Wealth"-- Dear Lord, I have been re-reading the record of thc rich young ruler and his obviously wrong choice. But it has set me thinking. No matter how much wealth he had, he could not -

ride in a car,

have any surgery,

turn on a light,

buy penicillin,

hear a pipe organ,

watch TV,

wash dishes in running water,

type a letter,

mow a lawn,

fly in an airplane,

sleep on an innerspring mattress,

or talk on the phone.

TOO RICH FOR YOUR HEALTH? By Valerie Andrews WebMD Medical News

April 17, 2000 (Greenbrae, Calif.) -- Tired of reading about the Silicon Valley Gold Rush and the techies who've struck it rich with the latest IPO? Well, hold the envy; these self-made millionaires often feel alienated and anxious, and there's increasing evidence that sudden wealth is bad for you.

"People don't realize how hard it is to adjust," says Angela Jones, who founded a successful start-up company with her husband. The Joneses (not their real names) found themselves spending so much time at work that they had a special room built there for their infant.

When Microsoft bought their company, making them instantly rich, Angela thought she'd be able to take it easy. But things only got worse. "We were still caught up in the workaholic lifestyle. We lost a lot of friends and ended up divorced."

Americans are enjoying the longest economic boom in history -- a record 107 months -- but this newfound prosperity isn't bringing us security and happiness. Instead, it's making people far more anxious. Recent studies indicate that the more you have, the more vulnerable you feel -- and the more worries you rack up.

University of Chicago researchers divided 800 teenagers into four groups according to the income levels of the communities in which they lived for one study published in the October 1998 issue of Monitor on Psychology. They found that the wealthier the community, the less happy the teenager.

And while personal income has more than doubled between 1960 and 1990, the percentage of adult Americans who describe themselves as happy has declined, according to Edward Diener, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Sudden Wealth Syndrome

"The Silicon Valley creates 64 new millionaires each day," says Lisa Becker, a researcher at MyCFO.com, a company that caters to the needs of the newly rich. "And between 1998 and 2008, the number of millionaire households in this country will quadruple."

"These are boom times, but there's also a tremendous fear that the economy will all coming crashing down," adds Barry Glassner, Ph.D., a sociologist at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and author of The Culture of Fear. Glassner believes that the more prosperous we become, the more we fall prey to irrational fears. "The newly wealthy buy home security systems and car alarms and hide themselves away in gated communities, even though the crime rate is the lowest it's been in 30 years."

That's what happened to Jones after selling out to Microsoft. "Once your net worth is public, you feel like you're a target for thieves and kidnappers -- even though you're living in a nice suburban town," she says.

Therapists Stephen Goldbart, Ph.D., and Joan Di Furia, MFT, of Kentfield, Calif., treat families like the Joneses, and have coined the term "sudden wealth syndrome" to describe the worries that beset the newly rich. Guilt is at the top of the list, Goldbart says. The newly rich feel alienated from family and friends, unable to trust investment counselors, and fearful their children will grow up spoiled. Their identities are thrown into crisis because they no longer need to work.

"It takes awhile to help them get their balance emotionally," says Di Furia. "After all, they haven't been trained to deal with wealth, like the Kennedys or Rockefellers."

At their Money, Meaning, and Choices Institute, Di Furia and Goldbart offer the young and suddenly wealthy some basic advice on how to select a good financial advisor, set a sustainable budget, and make a list of their priorities. Like lottery winners, Goldbart says, many of these newly rich make risky investments and end up losing big.

Next, Di Furia and Goldbart encourage suddenly rich families to adopt a favorite cause and use it as a way to teach social responsibility to the next generation.

For example, one entrepreneur made sleeping bags for children who'd lost their homes in the war in Bosnia. His kids suggested that they also send teddy bears so the children would have something to hold. Says Di Furia. "Charity is the best antidote to anxiety and guilt -- because it builds connection and community."

THE EMPHASIS OF JESUS Howard L. Dayton, Jr.

Jesus talked much about money. Sixteen of the 38 parables were concerned with how to handle money and possessions. In the Gospels, an amazing one out of ten verses (288 in all) deal directly with the subject of money. The Bible offers 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith, but more than 2000 verses on money and possessions.

There once was a rich man who was near death. He was very grieved because he had worked so hard for his money and he wanted to be able to take it with him to heaven. So he began to pray that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him.
An angel hears his plea and appears to him. "Sorry, but you can't take your wealth with you." The man implores the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules.
The man continues to pray that his wealth could follow him. The angel reappears and informs the man that God has decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man gathers his largest suitcase and fills it with pure gold bars and places it beside his bed.
Soon afterward he dies and shows up at the Gates of Heaven to greet St. Peter. St. Peter seeing the suitcase says, "Hold on, you can't bring that in here!"
But, the man explains to St. Peter that he has permission and asks him to verify his story with the Lord. Sure enough, St. Peter checks and comes back saying, "You're right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I'm supposed to check its contents before letting it through."
St. Peter opens the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaims, "You brought pavement?"

QUOTE: Like fire, money is neither good nor evil. It is neutral, its character determined by the eye of the perceiver, the hand of the user. - Jerrold Mundis Making Peace With Money (Andrews McMeel)

Junior had decided what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said, "I’d like a million dollars, a big house, and no bathtubs."

"Why no bathtubs?" asked his mother.

"Because," he said," I want to be filthy rich."

WHICH TOOTH FAIRY DO YOU USE? Today’s Christian Woman, "Small Talk" 9/98

Roxanne Malecek told the following story about her 2^nd grade daughter, "Rachel discovered then when a friend of hers lost a tooth, her friend received $10 from the tooth fairy. Realizing that when she lost a tooth, she only received $2 Rachel asked her friend’s mother, ‘Mrs. Kraft, would you mind doing me a big favor? Would you please call my mom and tell her which tooth fairy you use?’"

THE DREAM IS TWICE THE DISTANCE AWAY from a 1999 sermon quoting Amy Bernstein

According to US News and World Report, for Americans with household incomes under $25,000, it would take $54,000 a year to fulfill the American Dream. Those who make $100,000 plus crave an average of $192,000 to live as they want. In other words, the American Dream usually lies nearly twice the distance away.)

QUOTE: If you give your child a quarter for the Sunday offering and later give him $3 to go to the movies, you may be teaching him a set of values he will keep the rest of his life.

QUOTE: Money is a wonderful thing, but it is possible to pay too high a price for it.

- Alexander Bloch

CHECKMATE OF POSSESSIONS Charles Buxton

In life, as in chess, one's own pawns block one's way. A man's very wealth, ease, leisure, children, books, which should help him to win, more often checkmate him.

ADVANTAGE... Bill Balance, Hip Book of Nifty Moves (Wilshire)

When a man is in love or in debt, someone else has the advantage.

I'LL TEACH THEE TO GET ALONG WITHOUT Warren W. Wiersbe Making Mountains Out of Molehills Pulpit Helps 3/97 p. 8

Are you trapped in the tyranny of things? A wealthy man was moving into a new house, and his next door neighbor happened to be a Quaker. The Quakers, as you know, believe in simplicity and plainness of life. The Quaker neighbor watched as the movers carted in numerous pieces of furniture, a great deal of clothing, and many decorative pieces. Then he walked over to his wealthy new neighbor and said in his quaint Quaker way: "Neighbor, if thee hath need of anything, please come to see me - and I will tell thee how to get along without it." Jesus would have agreed with that advice: for He said one day, "A man' life does not consist in the abundance of things that he possesses." (Luke 12:15).

THE POWER OF CREDIT R.Digest 4/96 p. 32

My husband and I owned a meat market, and one day a customer informed me she had gotten some unexpected money and wanted to fill her freezer. She picked out about $200 worth of meat and handed me her credit card. "I thought you got some unexpected money," I remarked jokingly.

"I did," she replied. "They raised the limit on my credit card"

MONEY'S POTENTIAL AS A HUSK Bits and Pieces 3/2/95 4/27/95 p. 8

Money may be the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants but not faithfulness; days of joy, but not peace and happiness. Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian dramatist

WE'LL TELL YOU HOW TO GET ALONG W/OUT IT Gothard Ministers' Gathering 3/96

Out West there is a General Store on the edge of nowhere. As travelers stop in they are greeted by a sign that says "If you can't find it in this store, just ask us about the item, and we'll tell you how to get along without it."

THOUGHTS ON MONEY AND GIVING Bill Gothard Ministers' Gathering 3/96

God holds you accountable for how you make your money, how you spend your money, how you invest your money, because 100% of your money belongs to God.

Some people ask whether they should give on the "Gross" or "Net" of their income. I reply, it all depends on what you want from God in return, for He says "With the same measure you give, you shall receive.

People need to learn how to get along with what they have. Churches should teach their people to buy groceries, fix their own cars, do their own repairs. We Christians need to learn to do without "new" products on occasion. Many times, having that which is new is a result of pride, not need.

New car? Everybody is driving used cars.

Want to save 10% at a restaurant? Drink water.

Buy your mattresses at garage sales for $50. "But," you might object, "you don't know who has slept on that mattress, it might have diseases that we don't know about." But that same objector will go spend a night at Holiday Inn for $150 on a mattress that has been used by hundreds.

People should learn to give their "1st fruits." Often though that is not so. My church charted the season of largest income for the church and found that it was in the month of December. Why December? Because that's the end of the year and they are faced with the choice of giving their money to the Government or to their God. They heed the voice of their accountant over the voice of their Savior. A faith driven giver will give more heavily in January as the first fruits so that he might receive greater gifts from his God.

Our question of God should be "what would you have me to give." Whatever God tells you to give, God must supply.

People should learn to give to Jesus, not to "Projects."

THE GREENBACK DOLLAR FACTS 2nd Bathroom Reader

The Federal Government didn't start printing paper money until 1861.

- When the Civil War broke out, people began hoarding coins - and soon there was virtually no U.S. money in circulation. So Congress was forced to authorize the Treasury Department to Create paper currency.

- These bills were nicknamed "Greenbacks" after the color ink used on one side. Lincoln, then president, was pictured on them.

- Congress stipulated that paper money had to be signed either by the Treasurer of the United States or people designated by him. Today the signature is printed on the bills, but in 1862 money had to be signed by hand. So 6 people: 2 men and 4 women-worked in the attic of the Treasury building every day, signing, sorting, and sealing our first $1 and $2 bills.

Today, paper money worth over $12 billion is printed every year - an average of more than $10 million a day.

- About 2/3 of the paper money printed is $1 bills.

- A $l bill lasts for about 1-1/2 years in circulation.

- The average bill is exchanged 400 times in its lifetime.

- It costs the government about 2.5 cents to print a $1 bill. It costs the same amount to print a $100 bill.

- Modern U.S. currency is printed on special paper, a blend of rag bond, cotton, and linen, supplied by a single manufacturer, Crane and Company of Massachusetts.

- U.S. paper money is printed three separate times--once each for front and back, and then it's reprinted with an overlay of green ink.

- The current U.S. dollar is 1/3 smaller than it was in 1929.

VITAL STATS

Size of a bill: 2.61 inches x 6.14 inches.

Thickness: .0043 inches. (233 of them make a stack an inch high.)

Weight: 490 bills equals a pound. A million $1 bills weigh approximately a ton.

NO MONEY? MUST BE HEAVEN R.Digest 8/94 p. 160

During a sermon our preacher stated that money wasn't important in the afterlife, because in heaven, there is no money. I overheard one parishioner whisper to her mother, "Did you hear that, Mom? we're already in heaven."

Richard C. Neese relates one of Ben Fisher's stories (Mountain Preacher Stories: Laughter Among the Trumpets) to illustrate how stories can indeed underscore and reflect the preaching and teaching of Christian values.

My cousin, Dan Moore, for many years was a circuit judge in western North Carolina. He later became governor of the state and then served on the North Carolina Supreme Court. He was holding civil court once in Waynesville, and not far from that city, in a small mountain community, was a Baptist church whose members had added on some Sunday School rooms. The contractor had said that when they got down to the last thousand dollars, he'd donate that. The contractor was killed in an accident, but the congregation felt that they didn't owe the money and had refused to pay it. However, the estate sued the church; consequently the case had to be tried.

It came to court, and Dan Moore told me, "I sat on the bench, and it seemed a very clear-cut case; it didn't take long for it to go to the jury. I instructed the jury," he said, "and it didn't seem to me that there was much doubt that the jury was going to have to find in favor of the plaintiff, and the little church was going to have to pay that money."

He said the jury was gone, and gone, and gone. An hour passed, and they were still gone, and he said, "I just couldn't understand it. I was afraid we were going to have a hung jury, and I was about to send the bailiff to find out what was going on."

Finally, they filed back in, and the foreman of the jury stood up and said, "Judge-."

Judge Moore said, "Wait a minute. Have you reached a verdict?"

"Yes, we have, but I wonder if I could make a statement?"

The judge said, "Certainly. Go ahead."

"Well," he said, "Judge, it didn't take us ten minutes to decide the case. It was very clear-cut.

We found for the plaintiff, and the little church is going to have to pay this thousand dollars. But the reason we've been out so long is that we've been making that money up, and we're still short about two hundred dollars. I wonder if we could take an offering here in the courtroom?"

Dan said, "They passed the hat to me first, and we passed hats around through the courtroom, and we oversubscribed that thousand dollars" (pp. 36-37).

Neese then concludes: "The 'merciful justice' of the Waynesville jurors expose the truth and consequences of teaching Christian values-at its heart the enterprise is incarnational and wrapped in narrative" (Faculty Dialogue, Winter, 1993, p. 10).

ABOUT MONEY The Sword & Staff Vol 33 #1 1995 -Submitted by a S. D. Reader

How odd to call money dough when everyone knows dough sticks to your fingers.

Money may talk but who can keep it long enough to begin a conversation?

Money may talk but you sure have to turn up the volume to hear it.

Stop worrying about the dollar; it's not worth it.

A dollar may not do as much for us as it used to, but then we don't do as much for a dollar either.

Biologists say that there are millions of germs on a dollar bill; that's ridiculous, even

germs couldn't live on a dollar these days.

It used to be only Washington's face on our money; now Washington's hands are on it too.

No matter how low the dollar may fall, it will never fall as low as some people will stoop to get it.

"Good bye" is what money says when it talks.

TOOTH FAIRY TALES contributed by Martha Heil FROM: March 1995 R. Digest pg. 40

When our granddaughter visited the dentist, he informed her that she had only two baby teeth left. "Well," she replied philosophically, "there goes my main source of income."

We often put our affection on stuff that has a price tag. I read recently about an old, rich man with a cranky, miserable attitude who visited a Rabbi. The Rabbi was a simple man whose heart was right and he lived a simple life. They weren't together very long before the Rabbi got a wonderful idea on how to illustrate to the man what was wrong. He took him by the hand and he led him over to his window and he said, "Now look out the window and tell me what you see."

The man stood there and said, "Well I see some men and some women and I see a few children."

The Rabbi took him by the hand and led him across the room to a mirror and said, "Now look there and tell me what you see."

The man frowned and said, "Well obviously I see myself."

"Interesting", the Rabbi replied. "In the window there is glass, in the mirror there is glass. But the glass of the mirror is covered with a little bit of silver. And no sooner is the silver added than you cease to see others, and only yourself." Maybe our troubles started when just a little bit of silver was added and we stopped looking through and starting looking at.

In 1923, nine of the world's most successful financiers met at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel. Financially, they literally "held the world by the tail" -- anything that money could buy was within their grasp -- they were rich -- rich -- rich! Read their names and the high position each held:

1. Charles Schwab, the president of the largest steel company.

2. Samuel Insull, the president of the largest electric utility company.

3. Howard Hopson, the president of the largest gas company.

4. Arthur Cutten, the great wheat speculator.

5. Richard Whitney, the president of the New York Stock Exchange.

6. Albert Fall, the Secretary of Interior in President Harding's Cabinet.

7. Jesse Livermore, the greatest "bear" on Wall Street.

8. Ivar Kreuger, head of the world's greatest monopoly.

9. Leon Fraser, president of the Bank of International Settlements.

A tremendously impressive group -- right? Would you like to change positions with one of them? Before you decide, let's look at the picture 25 years later -- in 1948:

1. Charles Schwab was forced into bankruptcy and lived the last five years before his death on borrowed money.

2. Samuel Insull not only died in a foreign land, a fugitive from justice, but was penniless.

3. Howard Hopson was insane.

4. Arthur Cutten became insolvent and had died abroad.

5. Richard Whitney had just been released from Sing Sing prison.

6. Albert Fall had been pardoned from prison so he could die at home -- broke.

7. Jesse Livermore had died a suicide.

8. Ivar Kreuger took his own life.

9. Leon Fraser also committed suicide.

Now, are you still impressed with this group? A vast amount of talent and potential went down the drain with these men. What happened?

Their lives were out of balance!

A wealthy television evangelist was dying in his mansion, and his flock gathered round to ask him for his last wish. "Before I die," he said, "I would like to take a ride." And they asked the rich pastor what he required for that final ride before entering the kingdom of heaven. And he said, "I would like a very small camel and a very large needle."

The "Associated Press" tells of a small Baltimore congregation that found an answer to its financial troubles -- hanging in the church. And it had been there for more than 25 years! The discovery came at a critical time, because inflation and a declining membership had left the church's future in doubt. But someone noticed that in the chapel was a piece of art that depicted the annunciation: the angel telling Mary she would give birth to the Son of God. It turned out to be a valuable woodblock print by Albrecht Durer, dated 1493. Some members expressed disbelief. They said in effect, "If it were real, why would it be hanging here?"

The event announced on that woodblock print is often treated with the same kind of underestimation by God's people. Yet the value of Jesus' birth is more than enough to eliminate the spiritual poverty that faces so many congregations. The truth that God came to earth in human form is reflected in the art, the hymnbooks, and the Bibles used by these churches. The significance of Christ's incarnation, however, goes unrecognized. Instead, attention is given to activities, strategies, and futile discussions that fail to consider the immeasurable worth of knowing who that baby was.

RICHES IN EMPTY HANDS -- Unknown

One by one He took them from me

All the things I valued most; 'Til I was empty-handed,

Every glittering toy was lost. And I walked earth's highways, grieving,

In my rags and poverty. Until I heard His voice inviting,

"Lift those empty hands to Me!" Then I turned my hands toward heaven,

And He filled them with a store Of His own transcendent riches,

'Till they could contain no more. And at last I comprehended

With my stupid mind, and dull, That God cannot pour His riches

Into hands already full.

Dear Ann Landers:

The letter from the woman married to the tightwad -- she couldn't get an extra quarter out of him -- reminded me of my wonderful aunt who was beautifully warmhearted and had a great sense of humor.

Aunt "Emma" was married to a tightwad who was also a little strange. He made a good salary, but they lived frugally because he insisted on putting 20 percent of his paycheck under the mattress. (The man didn't trust banks.) The money, he said, was going to come in handy in their old age.

When "Uncle Ollie" was 60, he was stricken with cancer. Toward the end, he made Aunt Em promise, in the presence of his brothers, that she would put the money he had stashed away in his coffin so he could buy his way into heaven if he had to.

They all knew he was a little odd, but this was clearly a crazy request. Aunt Em did promise, however, and assured Uncle Ollie's brothers that she was a woman of her word and would do as he asked. The following morning she took the money (about $26,000) to the bank and deposited it. She then wrote a check and put it in the casket four days later.

This is a true story and our family has laughed about it ever since.

"Millionaires who laugh," said Andrew Carnegie, "are rare." Sir Ernest Cassel, who spent vast fortunes for the benefit of mankind, a multi-millionaire, the friend of kings and emperors, said to one of his visitors: "You may have all the money in the world, and yet be a lonely, sorrowing man. The light has gone out of my life. I live in this beautiful house, which I have furnished with all the luxury and wonder of art; but, believe me, I no longer value my millions. I sit here for hours every night longing for my beloved daughter."

QUOTE: "If a man's religion does not affect his use of money, that man's religion is vain."

-- Hugh Martin

For the Christian, the source of goals and objectives in financial planning is the Bible. In his tape series "Mastery of Materialism," John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, said that "sixteen out of thirty-eight of Christ's parables deal with money; more is said in the New Testament about money than Heaven and hell combined; five times more is said about money than prayer; and where there are five hundred-plus verses on both prayer and faith, there are over two thousand verses dealing with money and possessions." Obviously, the Bible has much to say about money management.

A husband and wife were attending a county fair where, for five dollars per person, a man was giving rides on an old biplane. The couple wanted to go up but they thought the price was too steep. Consequently, they tried to negotiate a lower price. "We'll pay you five dollars for both of us," they said to the pilot. "After all, we'll both have to squeeze into that tiny cockpit that was built for only one person." The pilot refused to lower his price, but he made a counter-offer. He said to the couple, "Pay me the full price of ten dollars and I'll take you up. And if you don't say one word during the flight, I'll give you all your money back." The couple agreed and got into the plane. Up they went and the pilot proceeded to perform every trick he knew, looping and whirling and flying upside down and lots more. Finally, when the plane had landed, the pilot said to the husband, "Congratulations! Here's your ten dollars; you didn't say a single word." To which the man replied, "Nope, but I almost did when my wife fell out."

The Apostle Paul has written that the desire for money can plunge us "into ruin and destruction" (1 Tim. 6:9). He might have said also that the thought of parting with some of our money can plunge us into absolute silence.

NAIL IN THE TILL -- "Let's Talk About Money", a sermon by A. Leonard Griffith

At one time at the City Temple in London, there was in the congregation a restaurateur named Emil Mettler, who was a close friend of Albert Schweitzer and a kind of agent for Schweitzer in Britain. Mettler would never allow a Christian worker to pay for a meal in his restaurant but once he did happen to open his cash register in the presence of a Secretary of the London Missionary Society. The Secretary was astonished to see among the bills and coins a six-inch nail. What was it doing there? Mettler explained, "I keep this nail with my money to remind me of the price that Christ paid for my salvation and of what I owe Him in return."

There is an ancient Scottish legend that tells the story of a shepherd boy tending a few straggling sheep on the side of a mountain. One day as he cared for his sheep he saw at his feet a beautiful flower -- one that was more beautiful than any he had ever seen in his life. He knelt down upon his knees and scooped the flower in his hands and held it close to his eyes, drinking in its beauty. As he held the flower close to his face, suddenly he heard a noise and looked up before him. There he saw a great stone mountain opening up right before his eyes. And as the sun began to shine on the inside of the mountain, he saw the sprinkling of the beautiful gems and precious metals that it contained.

With the flower in his hands, he walked inside. Laying the flower down, he began to gather all the gold and silver and precious gems in his arms. Finally with all that his arms could carry, he turned and began to walk out of that great cavern, and suddenly a voice said to him, "Don't forget the best."

Thinking that perhaps he had overlooked some choice piece of treasure, he turned around again and picked up additional pieces of priceless treasure. And with his arms literally overflowing with wealth, he turned to walk back out of the great mountainous vault. And again the voice said, "Don't forget the best."

But by this time his arms were filled and he walked on outside, and all of a sudden, the precious metals and stones turned to dust. And he looked around in time to see the great stone mountain closing its doors again. A third time he heard the voice, and this time the voice said, "You forgot the best. For the beautiful flower is the key to the vault of the Mountain."

A missionary in Africa had been witnessing faithfully to a certain individual. Following their conversation one day, the unconverted man placed a small statue and a silver coin on the table before him. Then he took two slips of paper and wrote something on each. Putting one beside the image and the other with the money, he turned to the Christian worker and said, "Please read this." On the note by the idol were written the words, "Heathen god." The sheet next to the coin bore the inscription, "Christian god." From what that needy soul had observed in the lives of the merchants from so-called "Christian" nations, he concluded that money was the object of their devotion!

HOME AN IDOL? -- Howard Hendricks

My wife Jeanne and I once dined with a rich man from a blueblood Boston family, and I asked him, "How in the world did you grow up in the midst of such wealth and not be consumed by materialism?"

His answer: "My parents taught us that everything in our home was either an idol or a tool."

So how do you view your possessions?

MONEY SUPPLIES ALL BUT... A London newspaper offered a prize for the best definition of money It was awarded to a young man whose definition was, "Money is an article which may be used as a universal passport to everywhere except heaven and as a universal provider of everything except happiness."

WATCH OUT FOR WOLVES Christian Standard Jan. 14, 1990

Imogene Carlson, longtime missionary to the Philippines indicates that a group in that country is sending letters to the U.S. soliciting money. Some of the people involved have been dismissed by the Cebu Bible Seminary and by a Church of Christ in the region for preaching false doctrine.

This is not an unusual case... do some checking before (you) contribute to a person or work unknown to (you). (page 3)

GETTY'S PAY PHONE "Not A Good Word About Anybody" Jane Goodsell (Ballantine)

J. Paul Getty had a pay telephone installed in his English country house so that he couldn't be charged for his guests' calls.

QUOTE: Greed is envy with its sleeves rolled up. (George F. Will)

MONEY WILL BUY... R.Digest 12/83 p. 194

Money will buy a bed but not sleep

books but not brains;

food but not appetite;

finery but not beauty;

a house but not a home;

medicine but not health;

luxuries but not culture;

amusements but not happiness;

religion but not salvation;

and a passport to everywhere but heaven.

HIGH INTEREST FOR PILGRIMS R.Digest 11/82 p. 138

Think today's interest rates are high? The Pilgrims borrowed $7000 from a London company of 70 investors in 1620, and devoted the next 23 years to repaying it at 43 percent.

REMARKS OF TITHERS Pulpit Helps 4/92 p.18

"I heard about it but we decided we could not afford it," said one. "Then as time went on and our troubles grew, we talked it over, prayed about it and decided to try it. Now a couple of years later we agree it was the best thing we did. We are out of our problems and glad we began tithing. God seemed to bless and prosper us."

"No," said one. "I don't tithe. I can barely make it now; if I gave one tenth to God I would be that much shorter in paying bills." That is what I told the man I worked with when he remarked that he had started out tithing a year ago, and he is glad he did. "God seemed to honor my nine tenths more than the ten tenths not tithed," he remarked.

"The church means more to me now, since I began to tithe. It brings the church right into the center of our home, into the center of the family."

"It may seem odd to you, but since we began to tithe, I noticed our family now often using the words, 'our church'. Always before it was 'the church.'"

I AM GLAD THIS CHURCH NEEDS MONEY Pulpit Helps 8/93 p.27 - Joe R. Barnett "The Edifier"

I am glad this church needs money! If it did not, it would mean it was not supporting missionaries and preaching the gospel in other places. No missionary zeal.

I am glad this church needs money! If it did not, it would mean it was not doing anything to support the homeless, helpless and needy. No Compassion.

I am glad this church needs money! If it did not, it would mean that it had "topped out" and was not interested in expanding into other areas of needed service. No vision.

I am glad this church needs money! If it did not, it would mean it was not interested in providing wholesome activities.

I am glad this church needs money! If it did not, it would mean it was not expanding its outreach. No evangelism.

I am glad this church needs money! If it did not, it would mean it was not interested in teaching children in those impressionable formative years. No future.

Yes sir, I am glad this church needs money! The fact that it does means it has not forfeited its zeal, compassion, expansion, vision, concern, evangelism, future. This church needs my gifts and I am glad of it. I would not want to be a member of any other kind.

MISERLY WENDELS Our Daily Bread June 2nd, 1993

John G. Wendel and his sisters were some of the most miserly people of all time. Although they had received a huge inheritance from their parents, they spent very little of it and did all they could to keep their wealth for themselves.

John was able to influence 5 of his 6 sisters never to marry, and they lived in the same house in New York City of 50 years. When the last sister died in 1931, her estate was valued at more than $100 million. Her only dress was one that she had made herself, and she had worn it for 25 years.

The Wendels had such a compulsion to hold on to their possessions that they lived like paupers. Even worse, they were like the kind of person Jesus referred to "who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward to God" (Luke 12:21).

QUOTE: The U.S. mint once printed on a run of its gold coins: "In Gold We Trust."

A CREDIT CARD AFFAIR r.digest December 1973

A young couple, after an evening of the town dining and dancing, were home getting ready for bed. When the wife was at her dressing table, she heard her husband say,, "Baby, I just couldn't get along without you." The unsolicited testimonial sent a quiver through every one of her female molecules. With moist eyes she slowly turned toward him. The crumb wasn't even looking her. He was talking to the credit card.

THE MONEY NOBODY WANTED More Fascinating Facts by David Louis p. 31

In 1347, when the Black Plague was raging through Europe, the citizens of Lubeck, Germany, to appease the wrath of God, descended on the churches and monasteries with enormous amounts of money and riches. The monks and priests inside one of these monasteries, fearful of contamination, barred their gates and would not allow the citizens to enter. The persistent crowds threw valuables, coins, gold, and jewels over the walls; the frightened monks threw all of it back. The back and forth tossing continued for hours, until the clerics finally gave up and allowed the riches to remain. Within hours piles 3 and 4 feet high arose, and for months following the incident - some say for years - the money remained untouched, a testament to the power of self-preservation over greed.