Okay, so no one is complaiining at all about this so here is the new stuff. I haven't heard much on the blog so please sign in and share what you are thinking. I need to hear from all of you out there to help me and the others make some sense from what is here.
Happy reading WaynO

Counting on Providence
As two little girls counted their pennies, one said. "I have five. How many do you have9"
"Ten." the other answered.
"You don't! You just have five, the same as me." the first protested, pointing at the other girl's palm.
"No. 1 have five here, and my dad said he would give me five more when he gets home tonight." her friend said. "So that makes ten."
That little girl's answer summarizes in one sentence what Jesus said about the financial security of persons who maintain a strong prayer relationship with God. The poor woman Jesus observed giving the largest possible offering (all she had) at the temple did not expect to starve to death. She did not see herself as doing something rash. She gave generously because she knew there was more where that came from—God (Mark 12:41-44). Giving is not so much an act of generosity as it is an act of trust. We do not feel financially secure because we have: we feel secure because wre trust God to continue providing what we need.
Jesus at this point connected solidly with Old Testament faith: "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want" (Psalms 23:1). "I have been young and now am old. yet I 'nave not seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread" (Psalms 37:25). With Jesus, as with the Old Testament prophets, the bottom-line question of financial security was not. "How much money do I have?" but "Arc we or are we not alone in the universe? Is there just us. or is there something more? Are we or are we not alone in this room'.' Is there just what we can see with our eyes and hear with our ears? Or. is there something more—something invisible, yet powerful and knowable—something that the generations before us have called God?" If we believe what Jesus said, that God is here and that he loves us and will care for our needs like the best of good fathers, that those who relate to him in prayer and ask for his help will receive it. we can feel financially secure. Without that conviction and connection, no matter how big our bank account, we arc likely to feel the anxiety of financial insecurity.
A few years ago, a young Catholic boy had listened intently to one of Bishop Sheen's appeals on television. His family was of very modest circumstances, but they were so moved by Bishop
Sheen's appeal that they rounded up all the money in the house, a total of $5.35. When someone raised the question of whether they should give all of it to Bishop Sheen, the mother of the family said. "We are going to give it. It will come back to us many fold"—and they did. About a week later, the family won a hundred dollars in a drawing at the local supermarket. When the family discussed what to do with their winnings, the six-year-old promptly said. "Let's put it all back on Bishop Sheen." In most respects, this boy's idea is not very biblical (God is not a heavenly bookie). In other respects, it is intensely biblical. However we classify this little boy's idea, it does not fit with the usual rational thought patterns of Western civilization. It is rational, but it is more than rational; it is spiritual. As Jesus said. "... strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33).
The Feast of Booths was one of Israel's three great annual festivals. Commonly known as the Feast of Tabernacles (2 Chronicles 8:13). it was celebrated by the Hebrews with great joy in autumn, at the end of the agricultural year. The name—booths—comes from a verb meaning "to weave together." referring to plaited branches with which the booths are covered (Leviticus 23:34). Celebrants constructed a booth after collecting myrtle, willow, or palm twigs. They slept in and ate all the meals in these booths for seven days. This ritual reminded them of their years of living in tents while wandering in the wilderness, prior to securing their permanent homeland. But most of all. the booths reminded them that security is not in a house but in God. When Jesus said that we find our bottom-line security by looking up. he was telling the people of Palestine something they already knew but had forgotten, even though they celebrated the truth even fall.
In the 1980s movie Courage Mountain, a schoolteacher commiserates with a grandfather about the tragedy of war. The teacher says. "The world has gotten out of control."
The grandfather replies. "The world was never in our control." That is the whole point of the Feast of Booths and of Jesus's teaching about financial security. The world is not in our control. It is in God's control. By letting go of the illusion that we gain and maintain financial control through our own will and work, we take the first step into God's kingdom of emotional peace and financial security.
Theresa of Avila was a Christian leader 400 years ago. Although feeling called to build a convent, she had little money with which to do so. A practical friend warned her that she could not hope to build a convent with such a small sum. "That may be true." she replied. "But Theresa and a small sum and God can build a convent!"'" Theresa was speaking with a wisdom that includes but is not limited to rational thought. She was speaking with the wisdom of the spiritual kingdom that Jesus described.
Fail-Safe Security
The Greek word for closet is tame/on, meaning storehouse. Stewards (business managers) went into this room to count their money. The Greek word for treasurer is lamias, derived from tame/on13 People who visit their safety deposit box in the bank usually do not take a friend along. It is in just such a "closet" that Jesus tells us to go for prayer, not to the temple or to a church. Here, along with our money. Jesus says we should get in touch with God. Here, in the midst of the security we tend to count on the most. \\e are told to seek the only fail-safe security: "But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33).
A line of six greenhouses belonging to a commercial nursery clustered along a highway near Weatherford. Texas. A passing motorist noted that two of the greenhouses had been completely covered with black plastic. Blocking the sun surely served some functional purpose, but the motorist did not know what. Perhaps one could grow mushrooms in those conditions, he thought, but not flowers.
Green plants must connect with both soil and sun in order to grow, not just with soil. Financial security' comes not just from money but from God. If we completely block God out of our lives, we have only money on which to depend. Money, by itself, is an insufficient security blanket. When we "strive first for the kingdom" through daily prayer, we remove the black plastic that blocks us from feeling secure—and from being secure.
Discovery Questions for Group Study
7. Are there sections in this chapter with which you strongly disagree? Why?
8. Did one of the ideas in this chapter grab your attention as an important insight for you to consider in your own spiritual growth journey?
1. Matthew 6:24-33 (do not be anxious)
2. Matthew 7:7-11 (ask and you will receive)