How should we view our money and property?

The command "not to steal" proves that property can belong to one person and not to another.

Do not want anything that belongs to someone else. Don’t want anyone’s house, wife or husband, slaves, oxen, donkeys or anything else. - Exodus 20:17

The Law lays out strict rules for the protection of private property, requiring restitution for property violations.

Yet God wanted some input on our property.

No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me—it isn’t your land, and you only live there for a little while. - Leviticus 25:23

In fact, a farmer's field had to be left unplowed and unused every seventh year. Although land could be bought from others, when Jubilee came every fiftieth year, parcels of land were restored to the families from which they came. When land was sold, the transaction price was determined by how many years remained until Jubilee. 

If it is a long time before the next Year of Celebration, the price will be higher, because what is really being sold are the crops that the land can produce.- Leviticus 25:16

Every seventh year was the year of release when all debts were cancelled.  This practise prevented permanent indebtedness and servitude. 

Be careful! Don’t say to yourself, “Soon it will be the seventh year, and then I won’t be able to get my money back.” It would be horrible for you to think that way and to be so selfish that you refuse to help the poor. They are your relatives, and if you don’t help them, they may ask the Lord to decide whether you have done wrong. And he will say that you are guilty.  You should be happy to give the poor what they need, because then the Lord will make you successful in everything you do. There will always be some Israelites who are poor and needy. That’s why I am commanding you to be generous with them. - Deuteronomy 15:9-11

What is our deepest desire and need?

As the deer longs for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God.
I thirst for God, the living God.
When can I go and stand before him? - Psalm 42:1-2

O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water. - Psalm 63:1

How precious is your unfailing love, O God!All humanity finds shelter
in the shadow of your wings.
You feed them from the abundance of your own house,
letting them drink from your river of delights.
For you are the fountain of life,
the light by which we see. - Psalm 36:7-9

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! - Psalm 34:8

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."  Matthew 5:6

On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! 38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart - John 7:37-38

“It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life." - Revelation 21:6

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.           Revelation 22:17

I wonder how many of us have found any of these verses part of our prayer and worship in our earlier days following Jesus and now would find it hard to repeat them for the heart has grown a little bit colder.  I wonder for how many your relationship with Jesus has found newness to the point that you are shouting amen as you read these out loud.  My prayer is that all of us would make sure that our hearts are in a place where God can meet our desires and our needs.

What is the chief end of man?  The Westminster Shorter Catechism of 1647 says, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."  

Augustine wrote the Confessions - here is what he wrote.

During all those years [of rebellion], where was my free will? What was the hidden, secret place from which it was summoned in a moment, so that I might bend my neck to your easy yoke . . .? How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose . . ! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood, you who outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who see all honor in themselves. . . . O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation.

What a Savior - Laura Story

Our Deepest Desires

Our Deepest Desires

UNDERSTANDING OUR DEEPEST NEEDS