Bulletin 8.11.24

The best things in life are free

But you can keep 'em for the birds and bees

Now, give me money (That's what I want)

That's what I want (That's what I want)

That's what I want, yeah (That's what I want)

That's what I want

— Berry Gordy, “Money (That's What I Want)”; final track on  the 1963 Beatles album, With the Beatles, and  track six on the eponymous 1979  album The Flying Lizards

Add the third rule to the two preceding: having, first, gained all you can, and, secondly, saved all you can, and third then “give all you can.” Consider, when the Possessor of heaven and earth brought you into being, and placed you in this world, He placed you here, not as a proprietor, but a steward: as such He entrusted you, for a season, with goods of various kinds; but the sole property of these still rests in Him, nor can ever be alienated from Him. As you yourself are not your own, but His, such is, likewise, all that you enjoy. Such is your soul and your body, not your own, but God’s. And so is your substance in particular.

— John Wesley, The Use of Money, a 1760 sermon on Luke 16.9

As P. T. Forsyth says, “It is an item of faith that we are children of God; there is plenty of evidence in us against it.” The faith that surmounts this evidence and is able to warm itself at the fire of God’s love, instead of having to steal love and self-acceptance from other sources, is actually the root of holiness. We are not saved by the love we exercise, but by the love we trust. 

— Richard Lovelace. The Dynamics of Spiritual Life

St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 1:2-8a 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. 

(Prayer)