A Popery of Wealth Issues, June 25, 2025.

Introduction.

Many other aspects of proverbs teaching on finances remain, but time and space do not.

So a good conclusion for us will perhaps be found in an assorted discussion of some of the

more important remaining issues. Other than a common relationship to wealth and finances,

one sustained theme will not necessarily connect these topics together. Perhaps like some of your

weekly purchases, these topics will be all over the map. Don't be the wrong kind of fastidious. Wealth is messy and

wealth generation is messy. Put another way, there needs to be sawdust all over the shop floor.

It shouldn't be the same sawdust that was there last year, but there should be sawdust there.

There should always be new sawdust there. Where no oxenar, the crib is clean, but much increases

by the strength of the ox. Proverbs 14.4. Clutter, stress, and a reasonable mess are all part of

receiving increase from the Lord. A certain kind of student believes that the key to good grades is

notebook reorganization and sharpening pencils. And then when you have all the

dividers in and clean notepaper in and the pencils lined up in that little pouch, the best

way to keep it organized that way is by doing absolutely nothing. But better grades actually

come from the strength of the ox. And thinking about this, maintain a distinction in your mind

between a working space and a disheveled space.

There are shops and offices where nobody can find anything, and if you talk to someone about it,

they might say something like much increase comes from the strength of the ox,

to which you might reply that it sure looks like an ox used to live in here, but he's gone away now.

But then there's the other extreme,

the fastidious extreme. This is the extreme that the proverb is actually warning us

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