Some athletes and entertainers receive astronomical salaries. I can understand why they would take all they can get, but I wonder about a culture that spends so much to be entertained when countless people in the world are homeless and hungry.

Our attitude toward money and how we use it is a barometer of our spiritual state. It reveals whether we are foolishly thinking only of the present or wisely looking to eternity.

Jesus told a story about a money manager who knew he would soon be fired because he had wasted his employer's funds. So he went to the debtors and issued a "paid in full" receipt for a partial payment. This put him in their good graces so that when he lost his job he could go to them for help and not have to beg. No doubt his employer was unhappy about not receiving all that was owed him, but he commended the man for his shrewdness.

That story illustrates the wisdom of spending money with eternity in view. We can use our money now to help spread the gospel, and the people who receive Christ will be our friends forever and will greet us when we enter heaven.

Money can't buy happiness or eternal life. But when invested in Christ's cause, it pays eternal dividends.  — Herbert Vander Lugt