The Ikthus Blog

2010
03.16

Money Pakyaw

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Money Pakyaw

Studying the life of Jesus will give us an idea on how He handles money. Once, He was admonishing the crowd to pursue lasting treasures than what the ambassador of money – Mammon – offers (Mat. 6:19-24). He had several meal dates with money-hoarding tax collectors – Matthew and Zaccheus; and even made one the hero in His parable against a religious elite. He once asked a rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. He did not hate money; in fact He honored giving to Caesar, and even commissioned his disciples to fish in order to pay for taxes. He compared the Richie Rich king Solomon, to puny lilies (Mat. 6:28-29) just to bullseye His sermon: don’t worry over money issues.

Jesus never saw money as taboo, as somewhat devilish or as highly dangerous. He simply knew where it stands. He knew that in front of God, money is but a dust in the treasury of heaven. You can never bring money, no matter how much you work for it, to heaven. In one of his parables, Jesus tells of a rich man who was thinking of nothing else but maximizes his profits and possessions, but no thoughts of God. Jesus puts a twist to the story – the man fed his life with money, food and merriment. Then, death came. No matter how one puts gold and diamond studs on his coffin, death will still remind us that money can never buy life.

Jesus talked about money more than any other topics and reminds us that it’s never worth it. He compares the two kingdoms: first, the kingdom of Mammon – the world system of today. It’s currency is greed and operates via love of money. Its slogan would be: without “money”, life would be very empty. The other kingdom is God’s. And it adheres to the fact that God’s love makes the world go round, not money. It gives a rather opposite view: money expires, but God’s love doesn’t. The former gives us the crunch to acquire more stuff, pakyaw a lot of wealth and ensure good living; while the latter assures everlasting joy and contentment because its King has already paid it all.

These are the two kingdoms: that of Money’s, and of God’s. The citizenship

money bible

that we choose would change our entire perspective in life. Wherever our kingdom is, or whoever our ‘king’ will be, becomes the very definition of our lives. Jesus warned us that we can not be dual citizens: we only choose one.

What would it be?

2010
03.08

The Owner of What We Call Our Own

Category: Blogs / Tag: financial perspectives, ikthus, Jesus, The Owner of What We Call Our Own / Comments Off

The Owner of What We Call Our Own

We are tempted to claim that what we have is ours. Practically it appears that we own what we have. We thought that the product of our labor and sweat is ours. You may logically ask, how could my sweat be somebody’s sweat? How can my exertion be somebody’s or how could my money be somebody’s?

It is obvious that it is God who gave us the power to produce what we have (1 Chron.29:12). It is He who gave us the skills, wisdom and creativity to perform what we need in a given situation. He is the source of what we have. It’s just that we have not noticed that He was already at work developing necessary skills when we were yet young.

In Psalm 24:1 it says, ?The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. This is a blatant confirmation that not only does He own one man’s possession but He owns what the whole earth has.

Granting that we believe that what we have belongs to God, it is discouraging to know that this is only theoretical to some people but in actuality, it is not. It would be easy to actualize that Jesus is God than to actualize that their wealth is owned by God. This is true when we are challenged to give what belongs to God. It is indeed hard to absorb when you are confronted of this truth.

We might not find it hard to believe that our wealth is God’s wealth. But the depth of our belief is measured when we are challenged to do the design of that perspective. The design is for us to be a blessing to others of what we thought is ours. The true test of absorbing what was taught is actualizing the intention of that concept.

This means that even if we have the right concept and yet fails to make it into reality, we never absorbed it actually. We fail to meet what God expects of us and that is, to live out what we absorbed as right.

But why do people give generously even if they do not have the right perspective? One reason is because they knew they can have something in return. Another reason is because the recipients are his loved ones and relatives. He accepts them as his responsibility.

But to give to someone you do not know well without expecting something in return demands a deep understanding of this truth: that God is the owner of everything and we are His managers.

Pastor Andrew Capiral

2010
03.04