The irony of it all! This Monday, in our part of the world, Tax Day and Patriot's Day coincide. Patriot's Day is celebrated today, April 15th, on the Monday closest to April 19th, the anniversary of the first forceful resistance by the New England colonists to the Loyalist troops. The protest centered on taxes on imported tea. Some 220 years later Americans celebrate this event by paying taxes on everything (property, income, and both domestic and foreign purchases)! Today our state and federal taxes are due.

We Americans have a saying, "When it comes to making money. You've really got to hand it to the IRS."

The self-appointed Bible critics, known as the Jesus Seminar, whose revisionist conjectures about the historic Jesus are so extreme they can only be motivated to dissuade people from faith, have axed most of what Jesus said, except "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." Do you think they intended this assertion to endear Him to the common man?

But the Jesus of the Bible went on to say, "Render unto God, the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:21). God owns everything. He has entrusted His economy to us. The only way to be free from serving money and things, is to be actively serving God with the gifts, money, relationships and time He has given us.

A survey indicates that the more money people earn, the less they give proportionately to help others. Those people with incomes under 10,000 dollars a year give 3 times more proportionately to charities than those with incomes of 50 to 100,000 dollars a year. People with incomes below 50,000 a year give almost twice as much proportionately as people in the 100 to 200 thousand dollars a year bracket. The more money one possesses, the more likely it is that they will be possessed by money.

An eagle swept down to grasp an ice-crusted limb floating down the river toward a waterfall. At any moment the eagle could have loosened its hold from that icy branch and flown into the sky. But it did not. Instead its talons froze to the branch and it could not let go. At first it had the limb, now the limb had the eagle and it perished.

In seeking to have a better life it is easy to lose sight of the subtle power of greed. We think that we are gaining possession of money and things. Yet money and things are gaining possession of us. Remember that life is a stewardship.

Today thousands are running the 100th Boston Marathon. Let us also remember that we too are in a race where every moment, every relationship, every natural talent, every acquired skill, spiritual gift, and dollar we are entrusted with, can make a difference in bringing glory and honor to God (2Timothy 4:8-9).

We need to be careful that our fingers don't stick to that which will bring us to our downfall. Let us press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us (Philippians 3:12).

In His Service,