“Get rid of the idea that God wants you to sacrifice yourself for others,and that you can secure his favor by doing so; God requires nothing of the kind from you. What He wants is that you should make the most of yourself, for yourself, and for others; and you can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way.”

— Wallace D. Wattles

M. Scott Peck MD wrote that “Love is the willingness to improve ones self for the benefit of another.”

Many Christians have the idea that “money is bad” and that poverty is next to holiness, pointing to Jesus’ apparent lack of wealth.  My friend and mentor Raymond Aaron, who is a Jew, pointed out to me that of Jesus’ twelve disciples, Judas Iscariot was the treasurer.  Now, how many broke people do you know that have a treasurer?

John Wesley, the English cleric and unintending founder of Methodism, said “Earn all you can, give all you can, save all you can.”

You can serve the world much better from a position of wealth than you can from a position of poverty.