Over the last several years there is one book that I continue to read again and again.  It is Tim Keller's  Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters.  As it pertains to discerning our real issues with money, he calls us to consider more deeply what we genuinely are valuing above God. ----------- Grace and Deep Idols ...There are “deep idols” within the heart beneath the more concrete and visible “surface idols” that we serve. Sin in our hearts affects our basic motivational drives so they become idolatrous, “deep idols.” Some people are strongly motivated by a desire for influence and power, while others are more excited by approval and appreciation. Some want emotional and physical comfort more than anything else, while still others want security, the control of their environment. People with the deep idol of power do not mind being unpopular in order to gain influence. People who are most motivated by appro...

Romans 1 v 8 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. This is a faith that God himself brought into being and not something that welled up unaided in the heart of mere human beings. This is why Paul begins by thanking God for these Christians and not by praising them for their commitment. If faith were a human achievement, then Paul should have praised the Roman Christians. He should have said, “First, I thank you for believing in Jesus Christ” or “I praise you for your faith.” But Paul does not do this. Faith is worked in us by God as a result of the new birth. Therefore, Paul praises God, not man, for the Roman Christians. Robert Haldane wrote that in thanking God for the faith of those to whom he is writing “Paul … thus acknowledges God as the author of the Gospel, not only on account of his causing it to be preached to them, but because he had actually given them grace to believe.” Calvin s...