The Thief in the Mirror

By David Feddes

You shall not steal. (Exodus 20:15)

Meet the Robinson family: Robert, his wife Robin, and their thirteen-year-old son
Robby. Robert works for an advertising agency, and his future looks bright. Why, just
this week, after seeing Robert's latest design for a promotional campaign, his boss
exclaimed, "Wow, Robert, have you got the touch! You make people who've never
before heard of a product feel like they can't live without it. You sure know how to get
people to part with their money." Robert beamed with satisfaction.
Thursday night, as the Robinsons were finishing supper, Robin said, "Guess
what? Mimi Klepto next door just loaned me a bunch of new computer programs and
games. She said we can copy whatever we want onto our hard drive. There's some
great new software that I think we'll both like, Robert. And Robby, you're going to love
the games. Oh, and Mimi also loaned me some movies and music albums to copy. All
that stuff would cost us a fortune if we had to buy it at the store."
Friday evening, the Robinsons were on the road, hoping to enjoy a weekend
away from home. As they drove, Robin patted her purse and said, "The Johnsons paid
me today for painting their bedroom. I got paid in cash, as usual. That's another $400
tax-free that the government will never know about."
The family pulled into a restaurant and enjoyed a fine meal. It tasted even better
when Robert looked at the bill and noticed that they'd been undercharged by $10. He
chuckled and said, "Well, if they don't know how to add, that's their problem, not mine."
The Robinsons then checked into a motel, and Robert put the room charge on his
company's expense account.
Saturday morning the Robinsons went to the amusement park. The sign at the
entrance said that kids twelve and under got in for $5 less than older kids. Robby looked
a bit small for thirteen, so Robin told the person at the gate, "Tickets for two adults and
one twelve-year-old, please."
The Robinsons were standing in line, waiting to go on one of the rides, when
suddenly Robin's purse was torn from her hands. Robin whirled around and saw a man
racing away. She screamed, "Stop! Thief!" Robert galloped off in pursuit, but the thief
had a head start and disappeared around the corner of a building. By the time Robert
got to the corner, the thief had blended into the crowd. People were walking around as
though nothing unusual had happened. Panting for breath, Robert hurried back to his
distraught wife and son. "The guy got away," he gasped. "I can't believe this! Isn't there
any place that's safe from crooks? The police ought to catch robbers like that and lock
them up and throw away the key." Robin and Robby agreed.

Other People’s Money

In the Ten Commandments, God says, "You shall not steal." Most of us would
say "Amen" to that—at least when it comes to people who might steal from us. Nobody
likes to get robbed, but many of us don't mind robbing other people. Even if we're not
burglars or purse snatchers, we're still thieves. Like the fictional Robinson family, we
don't mind taking what isn't rightfully ours, but we're shocked and angry when someone

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rips us off. It's okay to manipulate people to buy stuff they don't need. It's okay to copy
software and videos we haven't paid for. It’s okay to want to get rich quick on a
something-for-nothing deal, to take cash income and not pay taxes on it, to keep the
money when we're undercharged, to pad a company expense account, to cheat on the
cost of admission for a child. That's all okay. But a purse snatcher? Now that's robbery!
Police must get tougher on crime! Judges must sentence thieves to more prison time!
When God says, "You shall not steal," he's not just talking to somebody else.
He's talking to you and me. You and I need to take a hard look in the mirror and at the
values of the society we embrace. We may be guilty of a lot more stealing and
freeloading than we'd like to admit. We may be as eager as anyone to get rich without
working for it, to get maximum income for minimum work. Just about all of us fiercely
oppose the ways others might steal from us, but we're much less upset about the ways
we manage to grab other people's money.
Take Anthony, for example. According to news reports, Anthony walked into a
New York bank with a gun and walked out with a bag full of cash. He left the bank and
quickly blended in with the people walking on the sidewalk outside. But as Anthony was
strolling along, someone brushed against him, grabbed the bag, and ran off with it.
Anthony was furious. How dare someone steal the money he had just stolen for
himself? He was so angry that he told the police what had happened. The police never
caught the man who ran off with the money, but they did arrest Anthony for bank
robbery.
We may laugh at a dimwit like Anthony, but is our own approach all that
different? When we take from others, it's okay, but when someone steals from us, we're
furious. Many of us try to grab what isn't ours in just about any way we can get away
with, yet we squawk about the evils of crime. We'd like nothing better than to get piles of
other people's money without having to work for it, and yet we complain that welfare
bums ought to learn what honest work is all about.
Stealing is rampant in our society. I’m not just talking about break-ins, holdups,
carjacking, and so forth. Those are the kinds of stealing that make the evening news,
but ordinary people also steal. Workers take tools home from a business or factory,
figuring a big business won't really miss them. Businessmen pad their expense
accounts, thinking they deserve a little something extra. Citizens don't report taxable
income, thinking they already give too much to the government.
Joy Davidman told how a shopkeeper explained business ethics to his son:
"Suppose a customer buys something in a hurry. I give him change for ten dollars, but
the minute he goes out I see he's given me a hundred dollar bill by mistake. Now here's
the question of business ethics: should I tell my partner?"

A Steal of a Deal
So far we've been focusing on examples of theft that are pretty clear-cut. They're
common, we often don't think they're all that serious, we might not like to call them
stealing—but that's what they are, and we know it. We know we're ripping someone off.
But besides these clear-cut rip-offs, there are other, more subtle forms of stealing.
In the fine art of deal-making, the seller often pretends an item is worth more
than it really is, while the buyer pretends it's worth less than its true value. In Proverbs
20:14, the Bible describes the bargaining process: "'It's no good, it's no good!' says the

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buyer [when he's haggling about the price]; then off he goes and boasts about his
purchase." Isn't that the truth? We like to brag when we get "a steal of a deal." Buy low;
sell high. "That's not stealing," we tell ourselves. "It's just good business." But what if
getting "a steal of a deal" really is stealing? Not all haggling over price is dishonest. Not
every good investment is evil. Not all dealing is stealing, but sometimes it is—and more
often than we'd like to admit.
When we come to the world of business and stock exchanges and future markets
and government contracts and all the rest, it gets more complicated. It's not always easy
to see where smart business ends and stealing begins. It's almost impossible to make
and apply exact guidelines that would cover all the particulars. But just because it's
complicated doesn't mean we should think anything goes. When a business wins a
contract away from a competitor by pulling a few strings; when a company underpays its
employees or overcharges its customers; when a corporation uses advertising to
manipulate people into buying a useless product; when stock regulations and prices are
manipulated for the advantage of insiders; when elected officials give inflated contracts
to political contributors, or when government takes more of its citizens' money in taxes
than it returns to them in benefits and services—that's stealing.
Sad to say, even religion itself can become the domain of thieves. The Bible
often condemned religious leaders for using their position to manipulate people for their
own profit. Jesus himself declared that God's temple had become a den of thieves. He
grabbed a whip and went on a rampage through the temple area, overturning tables and
driving out the rip-off artists.
That wasn't the last time manipulators have used religion to rob people. I
remember hearing a TV preacher say that if you want to improve your financial
situation, all you need is more faith. And how should you show this faith? Well, if you're
in serious financial trouble, said the preacher, what you should do is scrape together
$150, and even if you think you can't afford it, send the $150 to this preacher as proof of
your faith. Then God will have no choice but to bless you and make you richer for
showing such marvelous faith. Amazing! The preacher said all this with a straight face.
He was trying to rob poor people of their last few dollars, using the name of the very
Jesus who drove out the moneychangers. We ministers can't preach "You shall not
steal" when we're overly eager to use religion to take away people's money.

Grabbers Becoming Givers

In saying "You shall not steal," God condemns taking other people's money; he
condemns the self-centered, lazy, greedy, something-for-nothing attitude that lies
behind it; and he calls us to make our living through honest work. But he takes us even
beyond that. According to the Bible, the command against stealing isn't concerned only
with how we get our money. It also applies to how we use our money.
Ephesians 4:28 says, "He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must
work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share
with those in need." God shows us that the opposite of stealing isn't not stealing; the
opposite of stealing is sharing. If you're in tune with God, you won't just be honest and
hard-working; you'll also be generous. God calls us to not be grabbers but givers. A
grabber’s attitude is, "What's yours is mine." A giver's attitude is, "What's mine is yours."

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If you're able to make more money than you need, sharing isn't just an option. It's an
obligation.
Maybe God has blessed you with the ability to be productive and make lots of
money. If so, be thankful to God, and be generous with others. When God says, "You
shall not steal,” he's telling me to make money honestly and not rip off other people's
money. However, he's also telling me to “do whatever I can for my neighbor's good, that
I treat him as I would like others to treat me, and that I work faithfully so that I may share
with those in need" (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 111).
How do we measure up to God's standard of sharing instead of stealing? Not
very well, I'm afraid. We rob others in various ways, and when we think about what to do
with our money, sharing is often the last thing that comes to mind. Our stealing may not
be a big deal to us, but it is to God. In the Bible God says that "neither thieves nor the
greedy ... will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9). Stealing is sin, and people
who remain in sin end up in hell.
So how can we become right with God and leave stealing behind? Through a life-
changing encounter with Jesus. The Bible tells the story of Zaccheus. He wasn’t the
kind of thief who got arrested and thrown in prison. He was a bureaucrat, a government
tax collector in a corrupt system. He could overcharge people on their taxes and keep
the extra for himself. Zaccheus had the power to take people's money and seize their
property, and they couldn't do a thing about it. Zaccheus ripped people off. He got rich
abusing the system. He was a thief but was never charged with any crime. Then he met
Jesus.
Jesus came to Zaccheus's town and asked if he could come to his house. For
some reason, Zaccheus was delighted, and he welcomed Jesus gladly. The people who
saw this began griping. They wondered why Jesus would have anything to do with a rip-
off artist like Zaccheus. They thought Zaccheus should be written off entirely. He was
too wicked to be saved.
But Zaccheus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I
give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out
of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.
Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house... For the Son
of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19:8-9).
Salvation came to Zaccheus's house when Jesus came to his house. Jesus forgave his
wicked, thieving past, and Zaccheus became a new man. The grabber became a giver.
If you look in the mirror and see a thief under God's judgment, you need to do
what Zaccheus did. Welcome Jesus into your life. Receive his forgiveness. With his
help, start living a new life. Be a giver, not a grabber. Then Jesus will tell you what he
told Zaccheus: "Today salvation has come to this house."

Originally prepared by David Feddes for Back to God Ministries International. Used with permission.

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The Sluggard Syndrome
By David Feddes

A lazy bum was out on the sidewalk begging for money when a woman stopped
and glared at him. She asked, "Have you ever been offered work?"
"Only once," replied the man. "Apart from that, I've been shown nothing but
kindness."
That’s the kind of person who has the sluggard syndrome. He considers work a
form of torture. To him, a job offer is a form of verbal abuse. He celebrates Lazy Day,
not Labor Day.
The word sluggard isn’t an everyday word, but many English translations of the
Bible use the word in various passages. A sluggard is not a slugger. A slugger may be a
home run hitter who slugs a baseball and knocks it out of the park, or a slugger may be
a boxer who slugs his opponents and knocks them out of their senses. But we’re not
talking about a slugger; we’re talking about a sluggard: S-L-U-G-G-A-R-D. Dictionaries
define a sluggard as "a habitually lazy and inactive person." A sluggard takes a sluggish
approach to life. A sluggard is a lazybones.
In Proverbs 26, the Bible describes several symptoms of the sluggard syndrome.
According to Proverbs 26:13, "The sluggard says, 'There is a lion in the road, a fierce
lion roaming the streets." He can't possibly go to work today. What if there's a lion out
there? What if something terrible happens to him on the way to work? The sluggard
uses any excuse, no matter how ridiculous, to avoid working.
Proverbs 26:14 says, "As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his
bed." Mr. Lazybones is so fond of sleeping that it's like he's permanently attached to his
mattress. It's a big job for him just to turn over in bed.
Proverbs 26:15 says, "The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to
bring it back to his own mouth." Even the most basic task is too much for him. He’s too
lazy to feed himself. He thinks he's being overworked if he has to lift his own sandwich
from his plate to his mouth!
Proverbs 26:16 says, "The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men
who answer discreetly." The sluggard thinks he's a genius! He figures work is for those
who are too stupid to get out of it. In the sluggard's own humble opinion, he's smarter
than seven brilliant university scholars. After all, he knows how to live without working,
and those professors don’t.
Okay, so maybe nobody is quite that lazy. These biblical proverbs are making fun
of the sluggard. They’re exaggerating the way political cartoonists in the newspaper
draw a caricature that exaggerates each feature. Probably no sluggard is quite this bad
(though some people come mighty close). But the Bible is showing us in a funny and
memorable way four basic symptoms of a person who's infected with the sluggard
syndrome: (1) he's an expert at making excuses; (2) he'd much rather relax than work;
(3) he thinks that even the most basic task is too much; and (4) he measures his
intelligence by how little work he can get away with.

Below the Surface

The sluggard syndrome is a mindset, an approach to life that treats laziness
almost like a virtue. The fact that it's a mindset, an inner attitude, a way of approaching

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life, means that you can't determine whether a person is a sluggard simply by asking
whether or not that person has a paying job. You need to look below the surface.
Take people who are unemployed. Some are lazy freeloaders who don't want to
work, but many unemployed people aren't that way at all. If you're out of work, you may
be hoping to find a job as soon as possible. And when you already feel terrible about
not having a job, the last thing you need is for someone else to label you as lazy. Many
unemployed people aren't looking for a handout; they're looking for a hand up. So we
need to avoid snap judgments. The fact that a person is unemployed is by no means
proof that he or she has the sluggard syndrome.
Likewise, the fact that people have a paying job is no proof that they don't have
the sluggard syndrome. What about people who pick up their paycheck each week but
don't carry their share of the load, who have good jobs but do poor work? The head of a
New York business firm put a message on the company's notice board:
Some time between starting and quitting time, without infringing on lunch periods,
coffee breaks, rest periods, story-telling, ticket-selling, holiday planning, and the
rehashing of yesterday's television programs, we ask that each employee try to
find some time for a work break. This may seem radical, but it might aid steady
employment and assure regular paychecks.
There are men and women who punch the time clock every day, but between punching
in and punching out, they do as little as they can possibly get away with. So it's clear
that the sluggard syndrome can't be measured simply by whether or not you have a
paying job. Some people who don't have jobs are willing to work, while some who do
have jobs are lazy.
Not only that, but you can actually have a paying job and work very hard at your
job and still not be free from the sluggard syndrome. A man goes at his work with gusto.
He's ambitious; he's energetic; he drives himself hard. He takes pride in his work, and
he does it well. You look at the man, and the word "lazy" is about the last thing that
comes to mind. But watch him when he gets home from his job. He slumps into his
cushioned chair and pops open a beer. If his wife asks him to do even the smallest
thing, he mumbles and grumbles and groans and moans. If his kids want him to play a
game or read a book with them, the task is too overwhelming. He doesn't feel like
studying the Bible or giving spiritual leadership to his family. He never volunteers a
minute of his time to community service or to working in his church.
When this guy is on the job, he may be the hardest worker around, but in every
other part of his life, he's as much a sluggard as the lazybones described in Proverbs
26. Okay, so he doesn't talk about a lion in the street to get out of work. But he's got
plenty of creative excuses for doing as little as possible for his family and community.
He may not quite be hinged to his bed, but once he gets home, he does seem rather
attached to his La-z-boy recliner. He may have enough energy to lift the food from the
plate to his mouth, but that's about it. Ask him to get something for himself from the
cupboard or help clear the table after dinner, and he acts like the stress will cause him a
heart attack. He may not claim to be smarter than seven scholars, but he does think
he's quite clever for avoiding any task around home that isn't directly related to his
career.
I hope it's clear that when we think about the sluggard syndrome, we can't just
focus on people who prefer welfare checks to paychecks. They may be the most blatant

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sluggards, but they certainly aren't the only ones. People who have jobs but do them
with minimal effort are also sluggards. And even people who are workaholics when it
comes to their career may be sluggards when it comes to other important aspects of
their lives.

Threefold Failure
The Bible says a great deal about what will happen if the sluggard syndrome
remains unchecked. The final result can be summed up in one word: failure. The failure
is threefold: you fail yourself, you fail other people, and you fail God.
Let's look first at how you fail yourself when you're lazy. If you can get away with
laziness, you may think you're smarter than seven geniuses, but it's more likely that you
don’t have the intelligence of an insect. The Bible says in Proverbs 6,
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no
commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and
gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will
you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the
hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an
armed man. (6:6-11)
A sluggard doesn't even have the brains of a bug! The ant is at least smart enough to
look to the future, while the sluggard thinks only of what is easiest right now; he doesn't
see that laziness now means failure in the future. If you're too lazy even to look for a
job, you're going to be stuck in a lifetime of poverty, stumbling from one crisis to
another. If you have a job but don't really work at it, you'll probably end up getting fired
and find yourself without a paycheck.
The bulletin board in a Detroit business office posted this notice:
The management regrets that it has come to their attention that workers dying on
the job are failing to fall down. This practice must stop, as it becomes impossible
to distinguish between death and the natural movement of the staff. Any
employee found dead in an upright position will be dropped from the payroll.
Ouch! The sluggard syndrome can stop your paycheck and block your cash flow.
And the workplace isn't the only place we fail ourselves by being lazy. We've
already seen that the sluggard syndrome can infect more than just our job performance.
If you're too lazy to put any effort into your marriage, don't be shocked if you wake up
one day to find yourself alone or else moping along in a marriage with no excitement or
romance. If you don't put time and effort into rearing your children, you may regret it
when they don’t amount to anything but trouble. And if you don't put any effort at all into
studying your Bible or working for God, your spiritual life can end up in ruins. When you
approach any part of life or any important relationship with a lazy attitude, you're
cheating yourself.
Does this mean that any time we fail, we must have been lazy? No, hard work
doesn't always guarantee success. Many things in life are beyond our control. Still, even
though hard work doesn't guarantee success, laziness usually brings failure.
When you're lazy, you fail not only yourself, but you also fail others. Proverbs
says, "As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is a sluggard to those who
send him" (10:26). Many things in life are irritating. A mouthful of sour vinegar can really
make your mouth pucker up. Smoke and soot can sting your eyes and make them

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water. But is there anything more irritating than when you count on someone who turns
out to be lazy and unreliable? "As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is a
sluggard to those who send him."
Ask anyone in business about the frustrations of having employees who don't get
the work done the way they should. Ask anyone who's married to a sluggard how
frustrating it can be to find out you married a parasite instead of a partner. Ask a child
how much it hurts to have parents who won't spend time and effort on their kids.
Laziness is not just irritating to others; it’s downright harmful. Proverbs 18:19 says, "One
who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys." In other words, a sluggard isn't
much better than a vandal. His laziness is destructive, both to himself and to other
people.
But perhaps the sluggard's most serious failure is that he fails God. Every person
has a purpose in God's plan. Each of us has God-given opportunities to honor the Lord,
and we ought to make the most of them. Any time we do less than our best, we fail the
God who made us and gave us those opportunities. Christians, especially, should avoid
the sluggard syndrome. We carry the name of Christ, and if we're lazy, it doesn't reflect
well on the one we claim as our master. Jesus calls you to be a servant, not a sponge.
At the time the apostle Paul was writing his epistles of the New Testament, some
church people in the Greek city of Thessalonica decided to stop working. They said that
Jesus might return any moment and then their work wouldn't matter anyway.
Meanwhile, as they sat around waiting for Jesus to come back, they paid their bills by
depending on other people’s generosity. In a letter to the Thessalonians, Paul set them
straight. He told them they were foolish to set a date for Jesus' coming, and he told his
readers that laziness is a serious sin—so serious that they should distance themselves
from sluggards until those people came to their senses. Paul wrote,
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away
from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you
received from us... "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are
busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to
settle down and earn the bread they eat. And as for you, brothers, never tire of
doing what is right (2 Thessalonians 3:6,10-13).

Renewed Energy
If we want to avoid failing ourselves and others and God, we've got to get rid of
the sluggard syndrome. And to do that we need renewed energy. At the root of the
sluggard syndrome is a lack of energy, a deep apathy, a lack of motivation, a lack of
purpose. How can your energy be renewed? Through a renewed relationship with God
and a renewed view of work.
A vibrant relationship to God changes attitudes and builds energy. Once you
know God through Jesus Christ, you've got a new joy and vitality. You know that God is
at work in you and that you've got a special place in his plan. How can you lack energy
when you're energized by God himself? How can you feel no sense of purpose when
you know that God created you with a definite purpose in mind? How can you be
satisfied failing yourself, failing others, and failing God, when you know that Jesus gave
up his life to overcome your failures?

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 The Bible says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do
good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10). When you
realize that you're God's workmanship, you'll want to produce the highest quality
workmanship. When you discover that God prepared good works in advance for you to
do, you'll want excellence to characterize everything you do.
A renewed relationship to God produces a renewed view of work. So if you find
yourself being dragged down by the sluggard syndrome in any dimension of your life,
take another look at your relationship with God. If you aren't already committed to
Christ, if you've never really said, "I give all of my life to you, Lord,” then now is the time
to do it. Turn your life over to Jesus. Find out what a difference Jesus can make in your
life and in your work when you start living and working for him.
And if you're already a Christian but you've grown soft and lazy like a slug, it's
time rediscover who you are in Christ. You are his workmanship. Realize that you owe it
to him and to others and to yourself to make the most of your work. Even if your duties
aren’t a thrill a minute, it's important to God, and it should be important to you. A
renewed relationship to the Lord and a renewed view of work will give you renewed
energy.

More Than a Job

And remember: God is talking about more than just your job; he's talking about
your work. Your work is more than your paid employment. It's more than your career.
Your work involves every part of your life. You need to see everything you do in the light
of God's plan. So if you're paid to do a job, by all means do it just as well as you
possibly can, but at the same time be sure that you're not being lazy about the other
unpaid work God has given you to do.
Your job is just one part of your total work, and it may not even be the most
important part. Take the apostle Paul: he earned his money making tents—that was his
"job"—but his "work" was much bigger than that. His main focus was on telling people
about Jesus and starting new churches. Paul’s greatest impact was not in the tents he
made but in the many people he led to Christ. Or look at Jesus himself: Jesus may have
worked as a carpenter, but that's not the most important thing he ever did. No doubt
when Paul worked on making a tent, he tried his best to produce a quality product. No
doubt when Jesus was making something from wood, he did an excellent job. But the
jobs of tentmaking and woodworking were only a part—and not the most important
part—of their overall work.
Some people who don't have a job at all, nevertheless, have very important work.
In many families, one parent chooses to stay at home when the children are young
while the other continues to hold a job. Sometimes it's the man who stays home, but
more often it's the woman. Sometimes a woman will say, "I don't work. I'm just a
housewife." There is no such thing as "just a housewife." How can you say you don't
work? You work, alright. You just don't get paid for it. It's hard to imagine any work more
important or more challenging than the shaping of a child's life. So let's get rid of the
notion that the only work worth doing is the work we get paid to do.
And by the way, if you've retired from your job, don't think for a moment that you
now have the right to retire from your work. There's more to life after 65 than a golf

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course. Some of your richest opportunities to serve God and others come when the
daily demands of a job no longer prevent you from pursuing other possibilities.

Encouragement for the Jobless

What if you're unemployed right now and looking for work? Well, even then, don't
think you're useless or that there's not work for you to do. In Today's Christian Woman
magazine, Annie Oeth told how her husband Ed lost his job due to cutbacks in the
company he worked for. Ed felt devastated. It was a serious financial concern, of
course, but it was also a crushing blow to his dignity. Ed and Annie wondered how a
loving God could let something so awful happen to them. Some days were okay as Ed
looked for a new job, but on other days, says his wife Annie, Ed "stayed in bed past
noon, let his face stubble grow, and watched television all afternoon and into the night."
The pain and discouragement of being unemployed could have driven Ed into the
sluggard syndrome.
But as time went by, said Annie, something happened:
For the first time in our marriage, my husband and I had plenty of time to spend
together. We started taking walks, and stayed up late to talk. Our oldest boy
became his father's shadow, following him and imitating him whenever possible.
My husband was able to watch his boys grow up day-by-day, something he had
missed when he was traveling and earning a large salary.
Annie goes on to tell how they played games together as a family, and how her
husband "was able to spend precious time with his father, who was dying of cancer." At
the same time, they also learned to feel a deep compassion for the unemployed and
homeless that they hadn't felt before.
When Ed finally got a good new position ten months later, he not only had a fresh
excitement and appreciation for his job, but he also had a renewed involvement in all
the other important work and relationships that God had given him. In losing his job, he
had discovered his work. At first, the experience of unemployment had made Ed feel
useless, but God ultimately used that experience to make Ed more useful than ever.
So whatever your situation is right now, don't give in to the sluggard syndrome.
God has work for you to do. The Bible says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your
heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an
inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving" (Colossians
3:23-24).

Originally prepared by David Feddes for Back to God Ministries International. Used with permission.

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Finance for Dummies
By David Feddes

Eric Tyson’s book Personal Finance for Dummies begins by assuring me, the reader,
that although the cover of the book says it's for dummies, I’m not really a dummy—or else I
wouldn’t be reading such a fine book! "Here’s what dumb is," writes Tyson.
Dumb is the man who walked into a convenience store, put a $20 bill on the counter,
and asked for change. When the cashier opened the register, the man pulled a gun
and demanded all the cash. The crook took the loot—$15—and fled, leaving his $20
bill on the counter. Or how about the criminal in Charleston, South Carolina, who
robbed a person who lacked cash? The victim offered the assailant a check, which the
assailant later attempted to cash at the bank, where—surprise, surprise—he was
arrested.
Now, most of us aren’t dumb enough to accept a check in a holdup or come out $5 behind in a
robbery, but a good many of us have a lot to learn about money, and Personal Finance for
Dummies can help. Some advice sounds laughably obvious. For example, the author says:
To accomplish your financial goals, you must live within your means. To live within your
means involves three steps:
1. Spend less than you earn.
2. Save what you do not spend.
3. Invest what you save.
Do we really need a book to tell us that? Well, as a matter of fact, maybe we do. Many of us
spend more than we earn, go deeper into debt to finance our spending, and don't save or
invest much of anything to help pay for our kids' education or our own retirement. So although it
may sound obvious to say, "Spend less than you earn, save what you don’t spend, and invest
what you save," it doesn’t just happen automatically. Many of us need these basic ideas
impressed on us, and we need practical pointers on how we can indeed cut our spending,
increase our savings, and invest wisely.

Control Spending and Borrowing

What's necessary in order to spend less than you earn? You might say, "That's easy. I
just need a bigger income. If I were making more money, I could make ends meet." But would
more money solve your problem? Probably not. The Bible says, "Of what use is money in the
hand of a fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom?" (Proverbs 17:16). Many people don't
need more money; they need more wisdom in how to handle it. The fact is, you only have so
much money coming in. And even if you had more money, you might just come up with new
ways to spend it. The Bible says, "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever
loves wealth is never satisfied with his income" (Ecclesiastes 5:10). Some people who make
over $100,000 a year are deep in debt and think they need a higher income, while others with
much less income are debt-free and even save money. So instead of wishing for a bigger
income, the surest way to fix your finances is to get smarter and spend less.
A major part of spending less is borrowing less. If you can’t pay for something on the
spot, don’t buy it. Don't run up credit card debts or buy consumer items on payment plans. Buy
only what you can pay for. A credit card is okay as a handy way to pay for things without
needing to carry too much cash, but if you don't pay off your entire credit card bill every month,
you are pouring money down the drain. If you make only the minimum monthly payments, your

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debt will grow and grow with the high interest charges. If you keep spending money you don't
have, you'll never have any money. So if you haven't been paying off your entire balance every
month, or if you can't resist the temptation to use credit cards to buy things you can't pay for up
front, trash your credit cards and pay the remaining balance as fast as you can.
The Bible says, "The borrower is servant to the lender" (Proverbs 22:7), and it also
says, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another"
(Romans 13:8). If you want to be in debt, go ahead and feel like you always owe more love to
others—but don't get yourself into a situation where you always owe more money. Otherwise,
you lose your financial freedom. As a borrower, you become a servant to the lender.
Merchandisers have come up with countless ways to buy now and pay later: credit
cards, monthly payment plans, rent-to-own, and who knows what else. Don't fall for these
things. Don't borrow to buy anything that decreases in value. Don't buy new clothes and shoes
and jewelry and furniture on credit cards that aren't paid off. Don't buy a big-screen TV or hot
stereo system on a monthly payment plan. Wait till you can pay for it completely, or better yet,
don't buy it at all. Learn to be happy with fewer fancy gadgets.
Suppose you're shopping for a computer. The salesperson may tell you to get the
cutting edge, expensive model (even if you don't have the money right now) and to buy it on a
payment plan. Don't do it. Buy the one on the next shelf that costs only a third as much. After
all, just six months ago that cheap machine was cutting edge. And if the cheap one isn't good
enough for you and you feel you absolutely must have that splendid computer the salesperson
wants you to buy, just wait six months. The machine you want so badly now will be the bargain
basement model by then. You'll be able to pay for it up front, and you'll be glad you waited
instead of being stuck with months or even years of payments on a machine that is losing
value every day you have it.
One of the biggest credit rip-offs is renting-to-own. A $200 item in a rent-to-own store
can end up costing over $750! Don't use credit or payment plans to buy consumer items that
lose value—and that includes cars. A car dealer may brag that you can drive a shiny, new
model for only $199 or $249 or $399 a month. That may sound okay, but you end up paying
month after month after month, year after year after year. When your car isn't shiny or new
anymore, you'll still be making payments and your car will still be losing value. If you can't pay
for a car up front, don't buy it. Use public transit, or find a decent used car you can afford.
Never let your cravings get ahead of your savings. The Bible says, "The sluggard's
craving will be the end of him, because his hands refuse to work" (Proverbs 21:25). You might
wonder, "What's that got to do with buying on credit? It talks about laziness, and I'm not lazy.
I'm willing to work." Fine, but are you willing to work enough to pay for the things you want
before you actually go out and buy them? If not—if you want it all now, even before you've
worked for it—then what you've got is just a more complicated case of laziness. It's not that you
won't work at all, but you always want something before you work for it, and you always want
more than you've worked for. The end result, though, is that you end up with less and have to
work more just to pay off the bills you've run up.
There may be a few things, such as buying a home or paying for education, that make it
necessary for you to take out a loan. But unlike consumer items, houses usually keep their
value, and education increases your earning power. What's more, the interest on home and
education loans is much lower. Still, even with home and education loans, don't go overboard.
It's better to go to a solid school with modest tuition requiring smaller loans than to go to an
elitist university where you have to borrow enormous amounts. Likewise, it's wiser to buy a

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modest home with payments you can afford than to splurge on a mansion with a monster
mortgage.
If you're deep in debt and can't control your spending, there are countless books on
personal finance which offer detailed advice on ways to deal with debt and become debt free.
They offer advice on making a budget. They also offer money-saving tips, such as buying food
in bulk, not wasting money on brand names, eating at home more and in restaurants less,
cutting your phone bills by researching the best available plan, getting the best rates on
insurance, refinancing your mortgage, paying no more taxes than necessary, cutting out costly
alcohol and cigarette habits, not buying lottery tickets, and so forth. Gambling in particular is
criticized in Personal Finance for Dummies. Eric Tyson says,
It's been well-documented that lotteries and casinos obtain most of their business from
those least able to afford them—primarily middle- and low-income earners. Government
endorsement of gambling promotes the get-rich-quick mentality. Why get an education
and work hard over the years when you can solve all your financial concerns with the
next ticket you buy or slot you pull? Gambling, like alcohol and tobacco, can be
addictive and destructive. In the worst cases, gambling and gambling debts can split up
families and lead to divorce or suicide. It's bad enough that legalized gambling exists.
It's even worse that, in the pursuit of short-term profits and a quick fix, more local
governments are piling into this business. Government is fostering an irresponsible
attitude toward money.
That's not a preacher talking. As a matter of fact, I don't recall any mention of God in Tyson’s
book. But even from a non-religious, common sense perspective, gambling is financial folly.
Any level-headed financial expert, Christian or non-Christian, would agree with the Bible
when it says, "He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases
fantasies will have his fill of poverty" (Proverbs 28:19). Trying to get rich quick almost always
makes a person poorer. And even if a few people do succeed in grabbing a pile of easy
money, they often end up losing it. As the Bible puts it, "Dishonest money dwindles away, but
he who gathers money little by little makes it grow" (Proverbs 13:11). Easy come, easy go; but
hard-earned money tends to grow. The surest way to accumulate wealth is to work for it, save
a little at a time, and invest it wisely.

Save and Invest

Once you learn to control your spending and borrowing, the next step is to save what
you don't spend and to invest it wisely. Too many people, even if they manage to avoid credit
problems, are still living paycheck to paycheck and are far too quick to spend any extra money
that comes their way. If they think they might have a tax refund coming, they plan how to spend
it even before they get it. If that's your approach, you need to learn how to save—and the
motivation for saving is seeing beyond right now and looking ahead.
The first level in saving is to build up an emergency fund. Financial advisers say that if
at all possible, you should have three to six months worth of living expenses in an account you
can use any time. That way, if you face an illness or a change in your job situation, you'll have
the money to make it through. The Bible encourages us to trust God to care for us each day,
but Scripture also encourages us to work hard, think ahead, and store up some reserves. Even
if you had only the brains of an insect, you'd want to do that. "Go to the ant," says the Bible,
"consider its ways and be wise! ... it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at
harvest" (Proverbs 6:6-8). If ants have the good sense to store up during good times in order to

3
be ready for leaner times, shouldn't you also use times of good health and steady income to
save something for times when you might not have it so good? Shouldn’t a human be at least
as smart as a bug?
Thinking ahead and saving for the future begins with building an emergency fund large
enough to cover several months of expenses, and once you've done that, you can start saving
and preparing for other things that may await you. If you're going to need another car and want
to avoid borrowing to get one, you need to save money ahead of time, instead of buying on
credit and making payments for years afterward. If you don't own a home but want to do so,
you'll need to save at least enough for a down payment. If you have children or hope to have
some, you may wish to put something aside for education expenses. And it's wise to save
money in special retirement accounts, especially since retirement investments grow tax-free. If
it's wise for ants to save for the future, it's wise for you, too.
As you save money, you need to decide how to invest it. Money you may need soon,
such as your emergency fund or your savings for a car or home purchase, should be invested
in low-risk savings or money market funds. For longer term goals, such as college for the kids
or retirement, you might be willing to take a somewhat higher risk on long term investments in
stocks and mutual funds. The risk of short-term fluctuations is greater, but the likelihood of long-
term returns is also greater.
It's never wise to invest in something you know little about. Avoid hasty decisions and
do some careful planning and diligent research. "The plans of the diligent lead to profit," says
the Bible, "as surely as haste leads to poverty" (Proverbs 21:5). So don't be in too big a hurry to
invest. First become informed about mutual funds, tax-exempt retirement accounts, and other
matters relating to personal investment and finance. Good books on the subject can help you
understand how mutual funds can diversify your investment across many businesses, across
many sectors of the economy, and even across many nations, reducing your overall level of
risk. You can also learn how to avoid high-commission salesmen and brokers and find
recommendations for good funds with low expense ratios and solid returns.

Is Investing Gambling?
You may wonder whether there's any real difference between investing and gambling,
since both involve risk. Well, some types of extreme speculation may be little better than
gambling, but overall there's a huge difference between gambling and solid, long-term
investing, both morally and financially.
Morally, the difference is that gambling tries to get lucky at someone else's expense and
take their money while investing tries to help others expand their enterprises. Your money
helps various companies to grow, and they in turn help your money to grow. Each party helps
the other, instead of trying to rob each other.
Financially, the difference between gambling and investing is that gambling almost
always makes you poorer, and investing usually makes you richer. With gambling, a few
people win big, the rest lose, and the casino or lottery pockets at least 40% of all the money
gambled. By investing in business through stocks, bonds, or mutual funds, people make
money most of the time. There are downturns, but over the long haul, most investors come out
ahead. Stock investments have grown an average of 11% each year over the past seventy
years. To make this personal and practical, if you spend $20 a week on lottery tickets, you're
likely to get nothing out of it, but if you take that same $20 a week—$1,000 a year—and invest
in a good mutual fund retirement account over a period of thirty or forty years with

4
compounding returns, you have a good probability of ending up with hundreds of thousands of
dollars. "He who gathers money little by little makes it grow" (Proverbs 13:11).
No investment is risk-free, of course, but if you do your homework, avoid get-rich-quick
schemes, choose mutual funds that invest broadly across the national and international
economy, and are patient enough to hold your investments long-term, your risk is likely to be
rewarded. The Bible doesn't encourage gambling, but it does encourage in investing. "Cast
your bread upon the waters," says the Scripture, "and after many days you will find it again"
(Ecclesiastes 11:1). In ancient times, merchants would send goods out on the waters in ships.
It was a risk, and they sometimes had to wait quite awhile, but usually the ship would return,
bringing a handsome profit. Modern investment vehicles give ordinary people ways to invest
with greater diversification and less long-term risk than ancient merchants and with prospects
for good returns.
It's fair to say that a book like Personal Finances for Dummies is offering sound advice
when it says to spend less than you earn, save what you don't spend, and invest what you
save. Those guidelines and many practical tips on how to carry them out are consistent with
the Bible's practical wisdom on finance.

The Ultimate Dummy

But the Bible doesn't stop there. In fact, it's possible to do everything we've talked about
so far and still be a financial fool. When the Bible asks, "Of what use is money in the hand of a
fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom?" it can be directed at people who squander
everything no matter how high their income, but it can also be directed at those who spend
carefully, save regularly, and invest wisely—but pay no attention to God.
Jesus tells the story of a man who seemed to be a financial whiz. He spent less than he
earned. He saved what he didn't spend. He invested what he saved and got even richer. He
had all the security and insurance anyone could imagine. He was so successful that his only
problem, it seemed, was where to keep all his wealth and how to spend it. So he decided to
retire early and enjoy himself. He told himself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many
years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry."
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.
Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'"
"This is how it will be," says Jesus, "with anyone who stores up things for himself but is
not rich toward God." (Luke 12:19-21)
That puts the phrase "finance for dummies" in a whole new light, doesn't it? A man does
everything a financial counselor could want. He stores up a huge stash for retirement, and what
does God say? "You dummy! You fool!" If you're not rich toward God, your money is
worthless. If you're not ready for eternity, your retirement plan is beside the point. Hell is a really
lousy place to retire. "What good is it," says Jesus, "for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit
his soul?" (Mark 8:36)
Maybe you know much more about finance than some of us who need books or
financial advisors to teach us. Most of this article hasn't told you anything you don't already
know. You know it's financially foolish to carry big debts on a credit card or payment plan; you
know it's financially foolish not to plan ahead and save regularly; you know it's financially foolish
not to invest wisely; and perhaps you don't do any of those foolish things. But are you making
mistakes that are even more foolish? Are you good at storing up things for yourself but not rich
toward God?

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 Take the financial principles we've talked about and apply them to your spiritual life. If
being debt-free is so important, isn't it far more important to be free of the debt you owe God
because of your sin? If it's important to save for emergencies and plan ahead to be ready for a
few decades of retirement, isn't it far more important to be ready for death and plan ahead for a
never-ending eternity? If it's important to invest wisely for the long-term, isn't it far more
important to invest in the eternal kingdom of God and in people who will live forever?
To pay the debt of sin, you can't count on money. Scripture says, "Wealth is worthless
in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death" (Proverbs 11:4). Only the blood of
Jesus Christ can pay your debt, and only the righteousness of Christ credited to your account
can deliver you from death and hell. The Bible says, "The Lord is like a strong tower, where the
righteous can go and be safe. Rich people, however, imagine that their wealth protects them
like high, strong walls around a city" (Proverbs 18:10-11 TEV). "The wages of the righteous
bring them life, but the income of the wicked brings them punishment" (Proverbs 10:16). You
need your debt paid through faith in Jesus, and you need to look beyond your immediate
circumstances to heaven. Jesus says not to store your treasure on earth, where it's always in
danger of being lost, but to store up treasure in heaven, where it can never be lost (Matthew
6:19-20).
How do you invest in heaven? By investing in God's kingdom and in other people.
Many books on personal finance say a lot about saving and investing, but few of those books
tell you to invest in God's work through your church, through missions, and through helping the
needy. Invest at least 10%—and even more than 10 percent if you can afford it. The Bible
says, "Honor the Lord with your wealth" (Proverbs 3:9). When you give generously, you're
honoring the Lord. You're saying, "Lord, everything I have is yours, and you've been so good to
me that even with 10% less, I'll have more than enough." And guess what? As you give to
God, he keeps giving to you. He supplies the money you need, along with blessings that
money can't buy. People who love money but not God end up miserable, but, says the Bible,
"The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it" (Proverbs 10:22).
So trust in Jesus to pay your debt of sin, seek first the kingdom of God, lay up treasures
in heaven, and you may be confident that God will supply anything else you need in this world.
As a matter of fact, spiritual wisdom can increase your financial wisdom, and heavenly wealth
can enhance your earthly wealth. When you possess true spiritual wealth, you know that
"godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6), and you're not so tempted to
overspend on other items in order to feel good or be happy. You don't fall for gambling and
other get-rich-quick schemes. You know that the God who calls you to love him above all also
calls you to be financially wise.
The Bible says, "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business
and to work with your hands... so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so
that you will not be dependent on anybody" (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). God doesn't want you
to worship money, but he doesn't want you to be so careless and foolish with money that you
leave a bad impression on others and can't pay your own way. Earn your living, handle your
money in a responsible way that deserves respect, and be self-supporting.
To love money and ignore God is the root of all kinds of evil, but to love God and see
money as a God-given responsibility is a source of great good. So don't be a financial dummy.
Instead, rejoice in eternal riches, and make wise use of earthly riches. Enjoy financial freedom
without burdening others, and use the blessings God gives you to honor him and bless others.

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The Real Owner
David Feddes

Who owns the money that you have? Who owns the cash in your wallet? Who
owns your paycheck or business income? Who owns your bank account? Who owns
the equity in your house and car? Who owns the stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other
investments in your portfolio? Who owns all this? You might say, "That's obvious. It's
mine, of course. It's my cash, my paycheck, my bank account, my house, my car, my
portfolio. If it's in my possession or under my name, it's obviously mine." Not so fast.
What if someone else is the real owner, and you have things only to manage them for
him?
It makes a huge difference who really owns the money you are handling. If the
money belongs to you and you alone, then you can do with it whatever you like. But if
the money is really someone else's and you're only managing it, then you have to
handle the money the way the real owner wants, and you have to answer to the owner
for how you manage his money.
The truth about money is this: you don't own a single penny. I don't own a penny.
Nobody on earth owns a penny. So whose money is it? It's God's money—every penny
of it. Whatever money we have is ours to manage, not to own. We must handle money
God's way, and we will answer to him for the way we deal with his property.
Does that sound good to you? Do you like the thought of treating your money as
not really yours but God's? Maybe not. You might prefer to have God stay out of your
finances. But like it or not, there's really no such thing as your finances. There's only
God's finances, which he allows you to handle for a while. This might not appeal to you
at first, but treating your money as God's money turns out to be a privilege and a joy. It
honors God, and it blesses you enormously.
Handling money God's way is one of the vital signs of a healthy relationship to
God. Jesus Christ has a great deal to say about money, and so does the rest of the
Bible. The Lord says things about wealth and marriage, about dealing with debt, about
spending and investing, and many other things. But the most basic thing to deal with,
the first thing to settle in your mind is the question of who is the real owner of the money
and all the other property you have.

Who Owns You?

Your answer to that question depends on your answer to an even more basic
question. The most basic question of all is not who owns the money or property, but
who owns you?
There's a story about a missionary who was talking about the Lord Jesus to the
chief of a tribe. The chief tried to impress the missionary with gifts of horses, blankets,
and jewelry. But the missionary replied, "My God does not want the chief's horses,
blankets, and jewelry. My God wants the chief himself."
The chief smiled and said, "You have a very wise God, for when I give myself to
him, he also gets my horses and blankets and jewelry." Do you understand what that
chief understood? If God owns you, then he owns your money and everything else too.
Have you given yourself to Jesus in response to his claim on you? Do you believe that

1
Jesus died on a cross to pay for your sins? Jesus' blood doesn't just pay for sins; it pays
for you. It purchases you as God's own possession.
God already has a rightful claim to own all people and all things because he is
the Creator and owner of everything. And if you receive his salvation and trust the blood
Jesus paid as the price of your sin, then God has a double claim to own you. The Lord
is your owner both as the Creator who made you and as the Savior who paid to get you
back from sin. "You are not your own; you were bought at a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20).
If you reject God's claim of ownership and want to be your own person without
answering to the Lord, you might think it will bring you more freedom. But it will cause all
sorts of worries and problems for you, and if nothing changes, it will eventually land you
in hell. If you choose to spend your life without God, you will spend eternity without God.
But if you accept God's claim of ownership, if you put yourself and everything you
have in his hands, you will be blessed. When God owns you, your problems are his
problem. Your cares are his concern. He will guide you and help you flourish in this life
and for eternity. The key to financial freedom is realizing that all your money is God's,
and the key to spiritual freedom and comfort is knowing that you are not your own but
belong to Jesus Christ as his treasured possession.

Tithing Off the Top

Belonging to the Lord is a splendid spiritual relationship, but being spiritual
doesn't just mean having dreamy good feelings. The spiritual is practical and affects all
areas of life, including the financial. If you belong to God, so does all the money and
property you have. And if you accept God as the owner of your money, you won't just
think it or say it. You will show it in what you actually do with God's money. In fact, the
very first item in a biblical budget is your tithe.
What is a tithe? A tithe is a part of your income that you set aside to give directly
back to God's church and mission. You make it your number one financial priority,
before you even think about paying for taxes, food, clothes, transportation, or housing.
In the Bible, the tithe was usually 10% of your income. Taking that ten percent off the
top and giving it right back to God was a way to acknowledge that your entire income
came from God and that all of it was still his. If you were a farmer (as a lot of people in
the Bible were), you gave God the first 10% of your crop—often called the firstfruits—
before you stored any of it to meet your own needs or to sell to others.
Giving your firstfruits, your tithe, is an act of commitment, thanksgiving, and faith.
It's an act of commitment because, in giving that symbolic 10%, you are saying that the
other 90% belongs to God as well, and you commit yourself to using it according to the
Bible's guidelines. It's an act of thanksgiving because, in giving 10%, you are saying
thank you to God as the one who gave it all to you. And it's an act of faith because, in
giving 10%, you are trusting that God generously gives more than you need and that
you can get along just fine in the future on less than the full amount of income he
supplies. When your other needs are met and you still have plenty to spare, you may
choose to give well beyond the 10% figure to the Lord's work and to people in need. But
that first 10% comes even before you address your various needs. The tithe is your
testimony of commitment, thanksgiving, and faith.
Now, if that's what tithing means, then what does it mean not to tithe? It means
lack of commitment: you don't honor God as the master of your money. It means lack of

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thanksgiving: you're not thanking God for what he has given you. It means lack of faith:
you're not showing trust that God will provide all you need and much more even if you
let go of 10%. If you give nothing, or if your giving comes from your spare change
instead of making the tithe your number one financial priority, then you have a spiritual
problem. The tithe is the cream off the top of your income, not whatever happens to be
left at the bottom of the barrel. If you're in tune with God, give him the firstfruits, not the
leftovers.

Robbing God, Robbing Yourself

Now, when I talk about tithing, you might get suspicious of my motives, and I
don't blame you. In some radio and TV ministries, programs about God's claim on your
money include appeals to make big donations to that particular ministry. But that's not
the case here. I'm not a fundraiser. Give your tithe to a good local church and to other
ministries that honor God, and you'll be richly blessed in your giving, even if you never
give a penny for this program. My goal is not to raise funds for the Back to God Hour but
to raise your relationship with God to a higher level. I want God to be honored and you
to be blessed as you tithe and recognize the Lord as owner of all you have.
I want to spare you from the experience of a married couple I spoke with. I first
talked with them a number of years ago. Their finances were tight. Both of them had
jobs, but they couldn't get ahead. They felt they couldn't afford to give any significant
amount to God. That year they gave only twenty dollars to their church. Meanwhile, they
spent more than that every month on cable TV. When they got a tax refund in the mail,
they immediately spent it all on a new electronic gadget they didn't really need.
When I heard from this same couple years later, their finances had not improved.
They still were buying on impulse, they still weren't able to save money, and they still
weren't giving much to God. Injuries at work, car troubles, other unexpected expenses,
and tensions in their marriage strained their finances further and made life hard for
them. Worst of all, they felt hollow and aimless in relation to God.
I'm not eager to judge this couple, but I wonder how many of their troubles came
because they didn't honor God as the master of their marriage and the owner of their
money. If they had started tithing years ago, one blessing would have been learning to
manage the other 90% of God's money more wisely. Another blessing would have been
a fuller, deeper sense of being God's friends and partners. By not tithing, they robbed
God and robbed themselves of God's blessing.
In the Bible book of Haggai, God spoke to people who wanted fancy houses for
themselves but were in no hurry to give anything for God's house, the temple.
Somehow, no matter how much money they made, it seemed to disappear faster than
they could earn it. Even when they did manage to buy things, those things did not
satisfy them. God said, "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but
have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your
fill. You put on clothes but are not warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse
with holes in it" (Haggai 1:5-6). What a picture! Even if you have money pouring it, it can
pour back out as though you have holes in the bottom of your purse. Your food doesn't
really nourish you, your clothes don't really make you comfortable, and you plant big
investments but harvest small returns.

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 That's what happens when you think only of yourself and ignore God as the
owner of everything. God may let your finances drain away or else he may let your
money and luxury increase but not let you feel happy and contented with it. You can't
rob God without robbing yourself. Listen to these words from the Bible book of Malachi:
"Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord Almighty.
"But you ask, 'How are we to return?'"
"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me?"
"But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'"
"In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse because you are robbing
me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my
house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open
the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have
room enough for it" (Malachi 3:7-10).
Would you like God to flood you with blessings? Would you like to be free of financial
worries and have more than enough for body and soul? Then don't try to rob God by
claiming his money as your own.
Test God. Find out if he really means what he says. Hand yourself and your
financial affairs over to him, and see what happens. Answer the question, "Whose
money is it?" by saying, "It's your money, Lord." And don't just say it with your voice.
Say it with your tithe, giving God the first and best part of what is already his.

God Doesn't Need Gifts

Why does God tell us to give him tithes and offerings? It's not because he needs
any money from us. God says, "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine" (Haggai 2:8). If
you could give God 300 tons of gold, 600 tons of silver, plus piles of precious gems, you
wouldn't be giving God anything that wasn't already his. In fact, when King David was
gathering materials for his son Solomon to build the temple of the Lord, David and other
leading officials really did give 300 tons of gold, 600 tons of silver, and many priceless
jewels. They didn't give reluctantly. They gave "freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord."
And what did David pray when he offered this vast wealth to the Lord? David said,
Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things... Now, our God,
we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and who are
my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything
comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand (1
Chronicles 29:12-14).
That should be the prayer of all God's children in offering gifts to the Lord: "We have
given you only what comes from your hand." Let's never think God needs our gifts, and
we're doing him a huge favor. We're merely giving back to him a little of what he has
given us. We're like little children who can't afford to buy our father a birthday present
unless he first gives us the money to do it. Whenever we give God a gift, it's God's own
wealth that paid for it. As a loving Father, God enjoys his children's gifts, but he enjoys
the gifts as expressions of our love and loyalty, not as resources that he desperately
needs from us.
If the Lord desperately needed our money, he would be more interested in
wealthy people than in poor widows. But that's not the case. One day, Jesus watched a
bunch of wealthy men give large amounts of money at the temple. Then he saw a poor

4
widow put in two, small, copper coins that didn't even add up to a penny. But Jesus
liked her gift best. Why? Because the rich men gave money they could easily spare,
while the widow gave all she had at the time. That's how much she loved and trusted
God. Jesus is more interested in what our giving shows about our love for God than in
the actual size of our gift. He dearly wants our hearts; he doesn't desperately need our
money.
In Old Testament times, one part of worship was bringing animal sacrifices.
Sometimes people were tempted to think that God somehow needed these animals,
that they were doing him a big favor in bringing sacrifices, and that God was in their
debt. To such people, God said, "I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats
from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were
hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it" (Psalm 50:9-12).
How can we do God any favors when he already owns the world and everything in it?
We can't. So why give gifts to the Lord who already has everything? To demonstrate
and deepen our commitment, thankfulness, and faith in a way that pleases God and
honors him as the rightful owner of everything we have. If you are a steward of God's
money and aim to please him in all financial decisions, then money—which could
otherwise draw your heart away from God—becomes a means to strengthen your daily
walk with the Lord.

A Heart For God

Using God's money for God's glory is a wonderful way of expressing what's in
your heart. Tithing is one part of handling money God's way, and I hope you're
convinced of that now. But let me add a caution. Even if you tithe, it doesn't guarantee
that you honor God as the owner of all your money, and it doesn't necessarily mean
your heart is in tune with God. It's possible to give large sums of money with wrong
motives.
In Jesus' time, the Pharisees were a religious group that tried to earn God's
approval by keeping religious regulations perfectly. They weren't motivated by trust and
love for God or by justice and mercy toward other people. They were self-righteous
legalists. Jesus didn't have much good to say about the Pharisees, but he did say one
good thing about them: they tithed. They were so strict about tithing, so insistent on
giving exactly one tenth, that they went through even the smallest items, such as spices
in the cupboard, to make sure God got paid his tenth. But while they were counting
spices, they were neglecting things that are far more important to God—justice, mercy,
and faithfulness. Their hearts were out of tune with God. This didn't mean they should
stop tithing, said Jesus. Tithing was good—but they needed to give their hearts to God
and grow in heartfelt concern for other people (Matthew 23:23).
God wants your tithe to be a tangible testimony that he owns all of your finances
and your entire heart. The Bible offers us the example of people who "gave as much as
they were able and even beyond their ability." What made them so generous with
money? The Bible says that before they gave the money, they "gave themselves first to
the Lord." The Bible goes on to teach that our giving comes from God's grace in our
lives and says, "See that you also excel in this grace of giving." Give not because you
have to as a requirement of God's law but because you want to in response to his

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grace. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for
your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2
Corinthians 8:5-9).
It all comes down to accepting that Christ owns you and trusting that his sacrifice
makes you eternally rich in every way. I’ve been emphasizing that God owns your
money and everything else you have, but here's what's really amazing. When you
accept that God owns everything which is yours, it turns out that you own everything
that is God's! The Bible tells Christians, "For all things are yours ... and you are Christ's;
and Christ is God's" (1 Corinthians 3:21,23). "He who did not spare his own Son but
gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all
things?" (Romans 8:32) Do you believe that the Lord has given you himself and all that
is his? If so, then give yourself and all that is yours to him. Give with a joyful heart,
trusting that God has given everything to you, not only material riches but also eternal
riches in Christ.
You may have a number of financial problems you want to solve or different
opportunities you want to pursue. But first things first. Before dealing with any particular
financial issue or problem, first trust God and become his partner. By faith accept
everything that he has, and by faith hand over to him everything that you have. The
Bible makes it clear that this is a great deal. You can't lose. "For God loves a cheerful
giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times,
having all that you need, you will abound in every good work" (1 Corinthians 9:7-8).

Originally prepared by David Feddes for Back to God Ministries International. Used with permission.

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When God Milks Cows
By David Feddes

Have you ever seen God milk cows? I have. I've also seen God fix car engines
and cook delicious meals. I've even seen God throw trash into a garbage truck.
What did God look like? Well, when I watched God do these things, I didn't see
him wearing a heavenly uniform with the letters G-O-D stitched on the pocket. When
God milked the cows, I saw the jeans and boots of a dairy farmer. When God fixed the
car, I saw the skilled hands and blackened fingernails of an auto mechanic. When God
was cooking, I saw my wife's face and clothing. When God hauled away the trash, I saw
the coat and gloves of local garbage haulers. In each case, God was working in the
disguise of a man or woman doing a job that benefited others.
You might not always recognize God behind these various disguises. When you
see other people working at something, or when you look at your own work, you might
not see the Lord of the universe in action. But the reality is that whenever a person
works at something worthwhile, God himself is working.
Take milk, for example. When a farmer milks cows, God himself is milking the
cows. When cattle breeders develop better lines of cattle, and when manufactures
make better equipment for feeding and milking, God himself is increasing the world's
milk supply. When workers at a milk plant process the milk, God himself is making the
milk safer to drink. When a trucker hauls containers of milk to the stores, God himself is
transporting the milk. When a store manager and checkout clerk make the milk
available to individual customers, God himself is bringing the milk to those who need it.
When a parent pours some of the milk into a glass, smiles, and hands it to a child, God
himself is pouring and smiling. And so, even though the milk has come to the child
through the efforts of many different people, it's absolutely right for the child to bow at
mealtime and thank God for it.
How do we know God is involved in all the different tasks of bringing milk to a
child? Well, the Bible says, "The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at
the proper time" (Psalm 145:15). This means that all food and drink, including every
glass of milk, is provided by God. And if God provides it, then God is at work in each
task in the entire sequence which brings milk.
This is true not just of milk but of every good thing we enjoy. The Bible says that
every good gift is from above, from the heavenly Father (James 1:17), so every good
thing which comes to you through other people's work and every good thing that flows
to other people through your work is a gift from God. Whenever a person works at
something worthwhile, God himself is working.

Divine Design
Milking cows, fixing cars, cooking meals, and collecting garbage are down-to-
earth activities, but heaven's King is at work in them. Worthwhile work isn’t just human;
it’s divine. If you’re in the workforce, you’re going to spend a lot of time this year doing
your job. Even when you’re at home, you’ll spend a lot of time on household tasks. How
would it affect your energy level and your job satisfaction if you sensed that your work
was really God’s work? God doesn’t just care about praying and going to church on

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Sunday morning. God is active all week wherever people are working. Wouldn’t you like
to go through every hour of work and every day on this year’s calendar knowing that
when you’re working, God himself is working?
Work isn't always glamorous, but it's glorious, because God is in it and uses it to
bless others. If you're involved in farming and the food industry, God is using you to
nourish people. If you work for a car company or a repair shop, God is using you to help
people travel where they need to go. If you're a parent cooking, changing diapers, or
wiping runny noses, God is using you to care for precious children. If you haul garbage
away from people's homes or mop floors or clean toilets, God is using you to make a
cleaner, fresher, healthier environment for people to live in. Whenever a person works
at something worthwhile, God himself is working.
I see God doing all kinds of work, and if you pay attention, you too will see God
working. You'll see God prescribe medicine, pour cement, drive a police car, work with
computers, install carpets, run business meetings, fly aircraft, wash windows, teach
school, assemble parts, make clothing, conduct research, and do a thousand other
things. Whenever a person works at something worthwhile, God himself is working.
Let that sink in: Whenever a person works at something worthwhile, God himself
is working. Believe this, and let it transform your outlook. Don't take the good things in
your life for granted; instead, praise God and appreciate other people for all the work
that gives you these things. Don't see your own work as dull or degrading; instead,
rejoice that God himself is working through you and using your work to benefit others.
Value other people's work, and value your own work, as the Creator's way of caring for
his creatures.
Does that sound unrealistic? Can you honestly have such a positive attitude
toward work? It's easy for someone in a radio studio to say God milks cows—but does it
feel so divine if you're the guy who drags yourself out of bed in the wee hours of the
morning to milk a bunch of hard-headed Holsteins day after day, month after month,
year after year? It's easy for a preacher to speak of the glories of work, but does it seem
so glorious for working stiffs who are stuck in jobs they hate? It's easy to say that
whenever a person works at something worthwhile, God himself is working, but what if
you find yourself working with a bunch of negative, nasty people who are anything but
godlike? It sounds sweet to say that God uses people's work to help others, but what
about those who throw all their energy into occupations that are useless or even harmful
to others? And what about people who exploit workers and get rich from their work while
overworking and underpaying them? Those are important questions, and we'll address
some of them a bit later, but let's put them on hold for now.
Before we address the difficulties, we first need to accept the basic fact that work
itself is a good thing. Work isn't just a necessary evil; it's good, even God-like. Rebellion
against God can twist work into something bad, but work itself is good. It's a big part of
God's design for us, and it's even a way God works through us. Work is divine. If we
have the vision to see this, every task we do glows with fresh meaning.

Fruitful Development
Long ago God created the world and filled it with living things. Then he created
humanity, both male and female, in his own image. From the beginning, God meant for

2
us to work. The Bible says that God put Adam and Eve "in the Garden of Eden to work it
and take care of it" (Genesis 2:15). "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and
increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it'" (Genesis 1:28). God wanted humanity
to be fruitful by having children and also to be fruitful in another sense: to discover and
invent and work, to be productive as well as reproductive, to fill the earth and develop its
resources.
There are now billions of God's image-bearers on earth, and we're constantly
making new discoveries and coming up with fruitful inventions that make fuller use of
the world around us. We've discovered which plants are good to eat, and we're always
finding ways to grow them in greater amounts than ever. We've developed domestic
livestock which provide us with milk, meat, leather, wool, and other things. We've turned
common herbs into medicines, molds into antibiotics. We've taken oil—which was once
nothing but sticky black gunk in the ground—and turned it into something that powers
our cars and heats our homes. From plain old sand, we've made silicon microchips for
computers.
We've harnessed fire and electricity. We've invented lights that make our houses
as bright as day long after the sun goes down. We've gone from walking to riding, from
swimming to sailing to steamboats to ocean liners, from horse-drawn carriages to
locomotives to cars, and now we can even fly. We've discovered electromagnetic
waves; we've sent satellites into space; we use telephones to talk with far away people
and televisions to watch far away events. We've invented clocks to measure time, so
we're able to coordinate meetings, assembly lines, airline schedules, and who knows
what else. We've devised something called money, which helps us to trade goods and
services; we've created banks and stock exchanges and other ways to raise capital. Our
inventors and researches and business leaders keep looking for new things to provide
for people and for better ways to provide them.
All of this flows from God's powerful word to our first parents to be fruitful and
subdue the earth. He made a rich creation and gave us much power over that creation.
We haven't always used our power properly, but the fact remains that we have it, and
we have it because God has given it to us.
God is the one who has given us the ability to think and plan and work, and he's
the one who has given us a world to explore and develop in the first place. We didn't
create matter and energy; we didn't invent gravity or electromagnetic energy; we didn't
design atoms or molecules or chromosomes. We don't make the sun shine; we don't
make the wind blow; we don't make the world go round. God does all this. But God has
chosen to carry out some of his creative work through us as we try to harness the
potential that's in the creation around us and the creative ability that he's placed inside
us. God means us to be fruitful.

Resembling God, Connecting With Others

Why didn’t God create us in such a way that we would never have to work? If he
had wished, God could have given us an automatic food supply that required no work.
God could have built homes for us that required no human effort. God could have
dropped new inventions into our laps every few years without any research or work on
our part. God could have designed us to be like sloths, sitting around, munching our

3
food without doing much else or accomplishing anything new, and he could have
designed the world to reveal its secret potential without any study and to produce one
invention after another without any human effort. God could have done it that way, but
he didn't. He wanted to make us in his image, and as part of being like God, we are
designed to create and work and find satisfaction in doing so. We're not designed to be
a bunch of do-nothings. God made us to be creative workers.
We're also not designed to be completely independent of each other. God could
have created us so that each person would have his or her own private world. In that
case, each person would be born full grown with no need for parents to do the hard
work of rearing children. Each person would have every talent without needing the skills
of other people. Each person would have unlimited energy to do all jobs necessary
without burning out. Imagine it: just you, all by yourself, on your own personal planet,
doing everything for yourself, needing nobody else's work—while other people, each in
another private world, would not need your work. God could have made us that way, but
he didn't. He made a world with lots of different people with various abilities, where each
needs others' work and where one's own work benefits others. In God's design, people
are not self-sufficient. God has bound us together by giving each of us needs that only
other people can meet and by giving each of us opportunities to meet others' needs.
Here, then, are two great facts about work: first, that our work is designed by God
to be an expression of God's own work of creating and caring for his world; second, that
our work is designed by God to connect people with each other and benefit each other.
Put these two facts together, and it's clear that whenever a person works at something
worthwhile, God himself is working. We are God's coworkers in creation, his partners in
providence, his hands holding humans together.

Just a Janitor?
This means that every form of honest, useful work is honorable. It has dignity and
value. If your work is God's work, how could it not have dignity? If your work helps
others, how could it not have value?
Perhaps you've been measuring your job only in terms of status and money. If
your work doesn't involve a fancy title or high income, you may feel pretty low. You may
say, "I'm just a janitor," or "I'm just a secretary," or "I'm just a factory worker," or "I'm just
a waitress," or "I'm just a housewife." You may feel ashamed because you don't have a
high-paying, high-prestige position. But open your eyes! Look at your work the way God
looks at it. Work with the enthusiasm and energy of a person through whom God
himself is accomplishing something important, something which truly benefits humanity.
In our society, doctors usually get more money and recognition than janitors or
secretaries. I'm glad there are doctors, but doctors aren't enough. Unless there were
people to clean doctors’ offices and make hospitals spotless, many people would get
sick from the unsanitary conditions. Unless there were secretaries to set up
appointments, process paperwork, and handle insurance claims, doctors would be so
swamped with these details that they wouldn't be able to help nearly as many patients
and might not even be able to run their practice at all. God's work of restoring health
involves not only doctors but also all the people who make a doctor's work effective.

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 People need each other and each other's work. If you work at a high-paying,
high-prestige job, don't be too proud to acknowledge how much you depend on others'
work. If you work at a low-paying, low-prestige job, don't feel so low that you don't see
the value of your own work. All worthwhile work is honorable.

When Work is a Drag

So far this may sound too idealistic. Work doesn’t always feel honorable;
sometimes it feels humiliating. Work doesn’t always feel divine; often it’s a drag. We've
been looking at work in light of God's original design for it. Let’s also face things that
have gone wrong because of sin. When the first people, Adam and Eve, rebelled
against God, the Lord told Adam that a curse would affect his work and make it harder
and less enjoyable than it would otherwise have been. The effects of sin's curse are still
with us today.
Discomfort, frustration, and boredom can taint even work that is obviously
valuable. A plumber's work is important, but connecting pipes and smelling sewage
aren't always thrilling. A factory worker may help build a useful product, but doing the
same old thing day after day can get old. A corporate office may provide significant
services, but the office worker whose job is to enter names and information into a
computer hour after hour after hour may get sick of it. Flipping burgers or washing
dishes may be honorable work which benefits others, but that doesn't mean it's always
exciting or fun. Working as a consultant or in sales can be useful by helping people find
out about a good thing they might otherwise have missed out on, but all that travel can
get tiresome.
The curse of sin makes work more difficult and dull, and sin affects not only the
work itself but also the way people relate to each other. Employers may mistreat
workers and pay them less than they're worth. Employees may not care about those
they work for, and they become lazy and sloppy and accomplish less than they should.
There may also be a lot of bickering in the workplace, making it a miserable place to be.
Sin also causes some work and effort to be aimed in the wrong direction.
Individuals and even whole enterprises can devote their efforts to dealing drugs,
peddling pornography, ripping people off through gambling, killing unborn babies, trying
to clone humans, and so forth. It's true that whenever a person works at something
worthwhile, God himself is working—but it's also true that whenever someone works at
something wicked, Satan is working. Satan has many co-workers in casinos, abortion
clinics, and embryo research labs. Sin twists our God-given talents into the service of
demons. Skills which should help other people are instead used to harm others.
Now, if sin has done so much damage to the world of work, how should you
respond? It might be tempting to say that whatever God's original design for work may
have been, you might as well forget about it now that things are messed up. You might
as well just settle down in a grim routine of slogging your way through work you don't
like, surrounded by people you don't like, and do only as much as you have to. You may
even decide that if everybody is rotten anyway, you might as well do rotten things too
and try to get rich without being concerned about whether you're doing other people
more harm than good.

5
A Better Way
But there's a better way. Rather than taking a negative attitude toward work,
believe that your skills, your energy, and your opportunities are gifts from your Creator
to be used for his glory and the good of others. Admit that you've misused God's gifts
and fall far short of God's will for you, and ask the Lord to forgive you and help you to
change. Jesus Christ came into the world not only to save souls for eternity but to make
a difference in everyday life right now, including the world of work. Jesus' blood is more
than precious enough to pay for your sinful past, and his Holy Spirit is more than strong
enough to lead you into a better future in all you do. When Jesus accepts you and his
Spirit lives in you, you can experience more and more what it's like to work for him.
This is true even if you're working for someone you'd rather not be working for or
doing something that isn't your favorite thing to do. The Bible spoke to people who were
trapped in the worst work situation of all, slaves, and told these Christian slaves,
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the
Lord Christ you are serving" (Colossians 3:23-24). Did that mean slavery was good?
No, elsewhere the Bible told slaves, "If you can gain your freedom, do so" (1
Corinthians 7:21). Still, even though the system of slavery was bad, working to do
something useful was still a good thing. Those who were stuck in the slave system
could still work with a real sense of serving Christ and of accomplishing important tasks.
You can't always choose your line of work—slaves surely couldn't—but you can choose
your attitude and choose whom you're really working for: "It is the Lord Christ you are
serving."
When you trust in Jesus, you start to see everything, including work, from God's
point of view. You start to do things the way you would do them if you were working for
God himself or if God himself were working in you—because that's exactly what is
happening. No matter what you're slaving away at, as long as it produces something
useful, it is God's work, and your attitude must be shaped by God's purpose, not by the
sinful world's attitude toward work.
Humble work may sometimes go unrecognized, but it may still be more important
than certain upper crust jobs. The guys who take the garbage from the curb in front of
my house are doing more important work than a hot shot executive in a company that
makes lipstick and eye shadow, and they are certainly doing better work than
millionaires who run tobacco and liquor companies. A gorgeous supermodel may get
more wealth and fame than most women, but what does she really accomplish? She
struts and poses to arouse envy in women and lust in men. That may help the company
which hired her to sell stuff, but it doesn't accomplish God's work. An ordinary
schoolteacher or a stay-at-home mom who gets far less money and fame is doing
something far more valuable than the model. When you trust Christ and work for him,
you see your work for what it's really worth, not just for what a distorted, sinful standard
says it's worth.
Whenever a person works at something worthwhile, God himself is working.
Trust Jesus as Lord and Savior. Believe in the Lord God as the Creator and Provider
who milks cows, fixes cars, cooks meals, hauls garbage, and does a million other things

6
through human workers. Then do your own work as a divine calling, and see it as your
daily opportunity to practice the presence of God.

Originally prepared by David Feddes for Back to God Ministries International. Used with permission.

7
Making  a  Nightmare  
Job  into  a  Dream  Job  

David Feddes
 Nightmare  job  
•  Boss treats you like a thing, not a person.
•  Pay is low; you’re always broke.
•  Promotions are not available to you.
•  Punishment is irrational and unfair.
•  Tasks are tiresome and useless.
•  Status is lower than anyone.
•  Stuck with no other job available.

You  feel  like  a  slave!  

 Dream  job  
•  Boss is perfect and loves you.
•  Pay leads toward a share of everything.
•  Promotions are unlimited.
•  Punishment is fact-based and fair.
•  Tasks are exciting and important.
•  Status is as high as anyone.
•  Security with no danger of losing position.

You  feel  like  royalty!  

 Your  nightmare  job  can  
become  your  dream  job.  
•  A new view of your work can turn a
nightmare job into a dream job.
•  This new view comes when you get a
new boss and a new you.
•  If your new boss is Jesus, work heartily
and look forward to His reward.
 Colossians 3:22 Slaves, obey in everything
those who are your earthly masters, not by way
of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with
sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever
you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for
men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will
receive the inheritance as your reward. You are
serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer
will be paid back for the wrong he has done,
and there is no partiality.
4:1 Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly,
knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly
masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere
heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of
eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as
servants of Christ, doing the will of God from
the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will
as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that
whatever good anyone does, this he will
receive back from the Lord, whether he is a
slave or free. 9 Masters, do the same to them,
and stop your threatening, knowing that he
who is both their Master and yours is in
heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
 Willing  workers  
•  Obey orders. Do what your boss says.
§  “obey in everything those who are your
earthly masters” (Col 3:22)
§  “obey your earthly masters” (Eph 6:5)
•  Self starter. Excellence is energized inwardly
when nobody is looking (not “eye-service”).
§  “sincerity of heart… work heartily” (Col 3)
§  “with a sincere heart… doing the will of
God from the heart, rendering service with
a good will” (Eph 6)
 The  new  you  
•  Set your minds on things above, not on
things that are on the earth… you died,
and your life is hidden with Christ (3:2)
•  new self… not slave or free, but Christ is
all and is in all… bearing with… forgiving…
love… peace of Christ (3:9-15)
•  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do
everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through
him. (3:17)
 Nightmare  job  
•  Boss treats you like a thing, not a person.
•  Pay is low; you’re always broke.
•  Promotions are not available to you.
•  Punishment is irrational and unfair.
•  Tasks are tiresome and useless.
•  Status is lower than anyone.
•  Stuck with no other job available.

You  feel  like  a  slave!  

 Change  your  outlook  even  if  
you  can’t  change  your  job.  
20 Each one should remain in the condition
in which he was called. 21 Were you a
slave when called? Do not be concerned
about it. (But if you can gain your freedom,
avail yourself of the opportunity.) 22 For he
who was called in the Lord as a slave is a
freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was
free when called is a slave of Christ. 23 You
were bought with a price; do not become
slaves of men. (1 Cor 7:20-23)
 Dream  job  
•  Boss is perfect and loves you.
•  Pay leads toward a share of everything.
•  Promotions are unlimited.
•  Punishment is fact-based and fair.
•  Tasks are exciting and important.
•  Status is as high as anyone.
•  Security with no danger of losing position.

You  feel  like  royalty!  

 Boss  is  perfect  and  loves  you.  
•  … fearing the Lord… as for the Lord and
not for men… You are serving the Lord
Christ. (Col 3:22-24)
•  … as you would Christ … as servants of
Christ, doing the will of God from the
heart, rendering service with a good will
as to the Lord and not to man. (Eph 6:6-7)
•  No longer do I call you servants… but I
have called you friends. (John 15:15)
 Pay:  a  share  of  everything  
•  … from the Lord you will receive the
inheritance as your reward (Col 3:24)
•  whatever good anyone does, this he will
receive back from the Lord, whether he is
a slave or free (Eph 6:8)
•  Well done, good and faithful servant. You
have been faithful over a little; I will set
you over much. Enter into the joy of your
master. (Matt 25:21)
 Promotions:  unlimited  
•  Well done, good servant! Because you have
been faithful in a very little, you shall have
authority over ten cities. (Luke 19:17)
•  The one who overcomes, I will grant him to
sit with me on my throne. (Rev 3:21)
•  They will reign forever and ever. (Rev 22:5)
Punishment:  fact-­‐based  and  fair  
For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the
wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
(Col 3:25)
Masters, do the same to them, and stop your
threatening, knowing that he who is both
their Master and yours is in heaven, and that
there is no partiality with him. (Eph 6:9)
God disciplines us for our good, that we may
share his holiness. (Hebrews 12:10)
 Task:  walk  in  Jesus’  steps  
18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all
respect, not only to the good and gentle but also
to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing,
when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows
while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if,
when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?
But if when you do good and suffer for it you
endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of
God. 21 For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you
an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
(1 Peter 2:18-21)
 Task:  win  others  to  Christ  
•  If you are a Christian working for a non-
Christian boss, pity your boss, not yourself.
Eternal hell is worse than years of slaving.
•  Slaves are to be submissive to their own
masters in everything; they are to be well-
pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering,
but showing all good faith, so that in
everything they may adorn the doctrine of
God our Savior. (Titus 2:9-10)
•  Your job: make Christian truth attractive to
unbelieving boss and fellow workers.
 Task:  benefit  others  
Let all who are under a yoke as slaves
regard their own masters as worthy of all
honor, so that the name of God and the
teaching may not be reviled. Those who have
believing masters must not be disrespectful
on the ground that they are brothers; rather
they must serve all the better since those
who benefit by their good service are
believers and beloved. (1 Timothy 6:1-2)
 Status:  as  high  as  anyone  
•  “You have only one Master and you are all
brothers.” (Jesus in Matthew 23:8).
•  Here there is not slave or free; but Christ
is all, and in all. (Col 3:11)
•  There is … neither slave nor free… for you
are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:28)
•  Philemon should take Onesimus back “no
longer as a slave, but better than a slave,
as a dear brother.” (Philemon 16)
 Security:  no  danger  of  
losing  position  
•  Blessed is that servant whom his master
will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I
say to you, he will set him over all his
possessions. (Matthew 24:46-47)
•  Therefore, my beloved brothers, be
steadfast, immovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, knowing that in the
Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Cor 15:58)
 Dream  job  
•  Boss is perfect and loves you.
•  Pay leads toward a share of everything.
•  Promotions are unlimited.
•  Punishment is fact-based and fair.
•  Tasks are exciting and important.
•  Status is as high as anyone.
•  Security with no danger of losing position.

You  feel  like  royalty!  

 E P I S O D E 7

T h e

AGE OF NON-REASON
I. Optimism Of Older Humanist Philosophers:
The unity and true knowledge of reality defined as starting from Man alone.

II. Shift in Modern Philosophy

A. Eighteenth century as the vital watershed.
B. Rousseau: ideas and influence.
1. Rousseau and autonomous freedom.
2. Personal freedom and social necessity clash in Rousseau.
3. Rousseau’s influence.
a) Robespierre and the ideology of the Terror.
b) Gauguin, natural freedom, and disillusionment.
C. DeSade: If nature is the absolute, cruelty equals non-cruelty.
D. Impossible tension between autonomous freedom and autonomous reasons conclusion that the
universe and people are a part of the total cosmic machine.
E. Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard and their followers sought for a unity but they did not solve the problem.
1. After these men and their followers, there came an absolute break between the area of
meaning and values, and the area of reason.
2. Now humanistic philosophy sees reason as always leading to pessimism; any hope of
optimism lies in non-reason.

III. Existentialism and Non-Reason

A. French existentialism.
1. Total separation of reason and will: Sartre.
2. Not possible to live consistently with this position.
B. German existentialism.
1. Jaspers and the “final experience.”
2. Heidegger and angst.
C. Influence of existentialism.

— P A G E 24 —
 1. As a formal philosophy it is declining.
2. As a generalized attitude it dominates modern thought.

IV. Forms of Popularization of Nonrational Experience

A. Drug experience.
1. Aldous Huxley and “truth inside one’s head.”
2. Influence of rock groups in spreading the drug culture; psychedelic rock.
B. Eastern religious experience: from the drug trip to the Eastern religious trip.
C. The occult as a basis for “hope” in the area of non-reason.

V. Theological Liberalism and Existentialism

A. Preparation for theological existentialism.
1. Renaissance’s attempt to “synthesize” Greek philosophers and Christianity; religious liberals’
attempt to “synthesize” Enlightenment and Christianity.
2. Religious liberals denied supernatural but accepted reason.
3. Schweitzer’s demolition of liberal aim to separate the natural from the supernatural in the
New Testament.
B. Theological existentialism.
1. Intellectual failure of rationalist theology opened door to theological existentialism.
2. Barth brought the existential methodology into theology.
a) Barth’s teaching led to theologians who said that the Bible is not true in the areas of
science and history, but they nevertheless look for a religious experience from it.
b) For many adherents of this theology, the Bible does not give absolutes in regard to what is
right or wrong in human behavior.
3. Theological existentialism as a cul-de-sac.
a) If Bible is divorced from its teaching concerning the cosmos and history, its values can’t
be applied to a historic situation in either morals or law; theological pronouncements
about morals or law are arbitrary.
b) No way to explain evil or distinguish good from evil. Therefore, these theologians are in same
position as Hindu philosophers (as illustrated by Kali).
c) Tillich, prayer as reflection, and the deadness of “god.”
d) Religious words used for manipulation of society.

— P A G E 25 —
VI. Conclusion
With what Christ and the Bible teach, Man can have life instead of death—in having knowledge that is
more than finite Man can have from himself.

Questions
1. What is the difference between theologians and philosophers of the rationalist tradition and those
of the existentialist tradition?
2. “If the early church had embraced an existentialist theology, it would have been absorbed into the
Roman pantheon.” It didn’t. Why not?
3. “It is true that existentialist theology is foreign to biblical religion. But biblical religion was the
product of a particular culture and, though useful for societies in the same cultural stream, it is no
longer suitable for an age in which an entire range of world cultures requires a common religious
denominator. Religious existentialism provides that, without losing the universal instinct for the
holy.” Study this statement carefully. What assumptions are betrayed by it?
4. Can you isolate attitudes and tendencies in yourself, your church, and your community which reflect
the “existentialist methodology” described by Dr. Schaeffer?

Key Events and Persons

Rousseau: 1712-1778
Kant: 1724-1804
Marquis de Sade: 1740-1814
The Social Contract: 1762
Hegel: 1770-1831
Kierkegaard: 1813-1855
Paul Gauguin: 1848-1903
Whence, What Whither?: 1897-1898
Albert Schweitzer: 1875-1965
Quest for the Historical Jesus: 1906
Karl Jaspers: 1883-1969
Paul Tillich: 1886-1965
Karl Barth: 1886-1968
Martin Heidegger: 1889-1976
Aldous Huxley: 1894-1963
J.P. Sartre: 1905-1980
Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper: 1967

— P A G E 26 —
Further Study
Unless already familiar with them, take time to listen to the Beatles’ records, as well as to discs put out
by other groups at the time.

Albert Camus, The Stranger (1942).

Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (1954).
Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762).
J.P. Sartre, Nausea (1938).
Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be (1952).

Following Rousseau, the exaggeration of the delights and the pathos of nature and experience which
marks Romanticism may be sampled in, for example, Wordsworth’s poems, Casper David Friedrich’s
paintings, and Schubert’s songs.

J.G. Fichte, Addresses to the German Nation (1968).

J.W. von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1962).
Erich Heller, The Disinherited Mind (1952).

— P A G E 27 —