“I will not love a world that crucified Him,

neither cherish nor endure the sin that put Him to grief,

nor suffer Him to be wounded by others”

(Valley of Vision, p. 115).

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money,

nor he who loves wealth with his income“ (Ecclesiastes 5:10)

Money will not satisfy and pursuit of “more stuff” derails your pursuit of Christ (1 Tim. 6:10). So what is real gain? How about “godliness with contentment” (1 Tim. 6:6)? Once again it’s about looking beyond the temporal (1 Tim. 6:7) toward what counts for eternity (1 Tim. 6:12).

Instead of loving money and pursuing wealth, let’s love Christ and pursue Christlikeness (1 Tim. 6:11)!

I found this inscription on the inside cover of a book I cracked open today, presumably for the first time in seven years, from the pastor of the church where I first heard the gospel and where I was baptized, and where Jason and I were members the first year we were married. (Zachary was born seven years later, and that was seven years ago.)

“bring up” = ”Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

“children are a gift” = “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Psalm 127:3).

Truly the favorite thing God has given me to take care of are not things at all, but three precious children who bring more joy and more chaos to my life than I could’ve imagined! I love them!!! Yet I love the Giver oh so much more than the gift, and He is the one who supplies the love ~ and patience ~ and wisdom ~ to make this role so so fun and rewarding.

So Jason and I happened to catch a show on TLC a couple months ago about people who make entering sweepstakes their full time job. Even though I can’t see it as being a God-honoring way to make a living (so many proverbs about the proper way to earn money come to mind), I was curious enough to enter a few contests I could find online that night, for fun. I spent no more than an hour searching and entering (with a new e-mail address set up just for this – not interested in the spam that could result) and thought maybe I’d do more of that every now and then, y’know in my spare time. Turns out I really don’t have spare time (I guess I already knew that) and I don’t think I’ll be bumping contest-entering above what’s currently at the top of the list for each day. However, I discovered just last week that I won the 3rd place prize in the Red Cross Racing sweepstakes (I was going for the car…) and was mailed a T-shirt and hat.

Now it’s no car, but a fun prize that made me wonder if this could work to sporadically get stuff to use and share with others ~ if only I didn’t have to use up time to do it. Stewardship is all-encompassing: finding the balance between taking the best care possible of all the resources God lends us (time, money, energy, etc etc etc) is a task bigger than we are and requires much prayer and wisdom from Him. Not sure where this “hobby” would fit in for me! Thoughts?

“Time is so short, and the work which we have to do in it is so great, that we have none of it to spare. The work which we have to do to prepare for eternity, must be done in time, or it never can be done; and it is found to be a work of great difficulty and labor, and therefore that for which time is the more requisite” (Jonathan Edwards).

Well, here’s a cheater post if I ever wrote one! The above quote is a a snippet of a longer quote from a blogpost referencing another work! So it’s like a third-hand sentiment but I read it on the Cripplegate page last week, and have been thinking about it since.  So if you have 2 minutes, redeem the time and read the original post (Time Management in Light of Eternity). And if you have 30 minutes, consider it a time investment to read the sermon (The Preciousness of Time and the Importance of Redeeming It)!