Money... Is It the Root Of All Evil?

In these volatile economic times, I hear/see the news on TV and remember a crucial line from an old song I heard a lot in the '70's. Name of the song was "Wish We'd All Been Ready..." The line I remember is, "...a piece of bread would buy a bag of gold."

Gold... Money... Markets falling... Crime... Riots... Rumors... Run-away inflation...

Scary, isn't it?

Floods... Fires... Famines... Horrible images of the starving babies...

I'm crying.

Some say money is at the root of all evil? Look closer at the scripture being misquoted here.
It is in Paul's first letter to Timothy...

1 Timothy 6 (Quoting from The Message)

• ^2-5These are the things I want you to teach and preach. If you have leaders there who teach otherwise, who refuse the solid words of our Master Jesus and this godly instruction, tag them for what they are: ignorant windbags who infect the air with germs of envy, controversy, bad-mouthing, suspicious rumors. Eventually there's an epidemic of backstabbing, and truth is but a distant memory. They think religion is a way to make a fast buck.

   ^6-8A devout life does bring wealth, but it's the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that's enough.

   ^9-10But if it's only money these leaders are after, they'll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble.  Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after. 
   [In the Good Old Book that I grew up reading, the King James Version, it says: For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.]
   
  So that tells me money itself is neither evil nor the root of evil. It's just when humans start loving money more than anything else that money becomes evil. 
   
  In these troubled times, I hope my children and grandchildren use wisdom with money and possessions, but put their trust in the God of the universe instead of in what their dollars will buy.