The billionaire? \u2013 He inherited a company from his father and he married money. They have a condo in the Bahamas and a penthouse in Manhattan. They fly first class and mix with the top set. Mr White has set up a charitable foundation and uses his contacts to raise money to help fund worthy causes. He contributes millions to the foundation himself and gives to many other charities. The millions he donates amount to .2% of his income. Is Mr White rich?<\/p>\n
4. Mr Brown is unemployed. He lives with his mother who is disabled. They are on food stamps and benefits. They both attend their local Baptist church where Mr Brown mows the lawn and does odd jobs and gets paid $200.00 a week in cash by the pastor. Mr Brown teaches the fifth grade Sunday School class and every Sunday he puts $20.00 in the collection because his Daddy taught him to tithe 10% to the Lord. Is Mr Brown rich?<\/p>\n
\u00a0I could go on. It is impossible to judge anyone according to the amount of money they have. The question is not the amount you have, but what you do with it. Are you being a good steward? Are you helping those less fortunate than yourself? It is also a question of the heart. Are you satisfied with what you have and generous with what you have? Are you working hard and doing the best you can? The sooner you decide you have enough the sooner you will have enough.<\/div>\n
I make a distinction between \u201crich\u201d and \u201cprosperous\u201d. A \u201crich\u201d person focuses on wealth and power, prestige and privilege and it is all about him. Therefore it is hard for a rich person to enter into heaven. A \u201cprosperous\u201d person focuses on others, considers what wealth he has to be an abundant blessing from God and is generous with the wealth he has because he knows he can\u2019t keep it anyway. \u00a0The prosperous person can therefore be wealthy financially but also \u201cpoor in spirit\u201d. Remember money is not the root of all evil, it is the love<\/em> of money which is the root of all evil.<\/p>\nWhile not judging the rich, we should also not judge the poor\u2013neither despising them nor glorifying them. There is nothing glorious or noble about poverty. We should get over this Catholic worship of poverty. Poverty is not a virtue. Some religious take a vow of poverty in order to be an example to all of us about the proper attitude to wealth, but poverty for its own sake is not a good thing, neither are poor people virtuous just because they are poor. \u00a0Poor people can be greedy, dishonest, bitter and envious. It is the poor in spirit<\/em> who are blessed.<\/p>\nWe all have the tendency to judge others according to their wealth or lack of it. We should forget about it and mind our own business because, unless we are their accountant we don\u2019t really know how much they have and what they do with it. \u00a0We should work quietly, honestly and hard then follow Charles Wesley\u2019s advice on money management: \u201cEarn as much as you can, save as much as you can, give as much as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oh, and on St Matthew\u2019s feast day we should remember what he did with his wealth. He gave it all up and became an apostle and ended up a martyr. If have any further questions, refer to St Matthew\u2026<\/p>\n
To Share Return to First Page<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The billionaire? \u2013 He inherited a company from his father and he married money. They have a condo in the Bahamas and a penthouse in Manhattan. They fly first class and mix with the top set. Mr White has set up a charitable foundation and uses his contacts to raise money to help fund worthy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-22959","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n
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