IN CHRIST IS LIFE
Christ & You & MONEY
A national magazine recently ran an article entitled, “How to live on $50,000 a year.” And according to this article it isn’t easy. In fact after reading it you sorta feel sorry for the 83,280 families who have to struggle through the year on a 50 to 100 thousand dollar budget. In fact a family of four with an income of $50,000 is lucky to save 15 per cent after taxes. A budget expert works it out like this: 1) income taxes, $19,500; 2) shelter, $4,200; 3) general insurance, $240; 4) telephone, gas, electricity, $500; 5) maid service, $2,750; 6) food, $2,400; 7) liquor, $200; 8) clothes, $3,300; 9) education, $2,500; 10) medical, $1,000; 11) car, $2,600; 12) “walk-around money,” $2,600; 13) gifts, $750; 14) summers, $2,500; 15) contributions, $1,000; 16) life in surance, $2,000. That’s the grim picture. By the way, the article points out that the 2 per cent allowance for contributions (church, Red Cross, Commu nity Chest, etc.) is shamefully low, but all a family with an income of $50,000 a year can afford. (For the Christian viewpoint on this, see “What Is This Thing Called Tithing?” page 14, this issue.) Now most of us don’t have such money worries. But it’s a good illustration. Money can be a good thing, but it can also be a cold, steel trap that squeezes out all meaning and warmth of life. Just the other day we got a letter from an attorney friend in Idaho. We used to go fishing with him in the rugged, primitive backcountry of the Seven Devils Mountains. With a brilliant simplicity he wrote, “Many times it seems that all we strive to do in this life just leads right back where we started and if the material results are not coupled with some spiritual gain, it all adds up to a sorry mess.” There isn’t a single one of us that hasn’t at some time or another
experienced the naked reality of this “sorry mess.” Jesus Christ put it this way, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for your selves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also . . . . No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other 99 Perhaps you’ve been trusting in some earthly thing, and we all do. It may be money or a friend or a church or a loved one. And sud denly we find ourselves empty and alone and spiritually exhausted. There is no one to under stand or care. The things we clung to have rusted away and we are left without any worldly support. And when we admit defeat and confess our need to God we experience a gentle invitation. Jesus Christ says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Wonderful thought. And when He comes He deals with all our fears and failings and sins. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool . . . . I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy trans gressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.” Here is the sweet and absolute answer to all our needs. When we have found that all else has failed then we are ready to come to Him to find that in Christ is life. — L. H.
12
THE KING'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker