Here we are introduced to what Jesus would later call "the greatest commandment": to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. As we will see, it is a much higher calling than simply being religious and avoiding major sin! This text also provides key instruction on training our children, not putting God
In His teaching and parables, Jesus had much to say about wealth: exposing its deception, limitations, and how His followers should understand and use it. But these were not new teachings! In Psalm 49, the psalmist cries out with a riddle regarding wealth. This psalm's wisdom and vivid imagery exposes wealth's folly, helping us use
In this second lesson from the Wisdom of Sirach, we take a deep dive into the topic of money. Specifically, Sirach has much to say about the danger of putting our trust in wealth, rather than in God -- and how foolish this is. We look at both good and bad examples of reliance of
Jesus had important things to say about how we use our money. In this lesson we look at the Parable of the Unjust Steward, a parable Jesus told to the Pharisees who "were lovers of money". With the help of a sermon given by John Wesley in the 1700s and insights from early Christian writers,
Thus far it seems we have seen in the Israelite nation nothing but faithlessness and sins, including disobedience, idolatry, revelry, ingratitude and complaining. Happily, in the current passage we finally see the people doing something praiseworthy! When Moses issues a request, the people contribute freely and generously toward the construction of the tabernacle. We use