Money Autobiography

Money Autobiography? Ever heard of it? This is one of the topics discussed in one of my classes. I’ve been trained and worked in the financial field for many years, but I must admit this is the first time I come across money autobiography in my Learning Community class at Fuller.

I was responsible for a company I worked at to do financial planning and cash flow projection up to three years, but none of those could speak something so close to me. I mean who of us is not concerned with money at all? I take care of my financial matter carefully and I manage others prudently as well. This however does not mean I was born to be a good financial manager. It took time to learn and to grow as well.

Sadly, I’ve seen many people who have been living in financial difficulty not because they’ve not had enough but rather the opposite is mostly true. Many incidences in our life sometimes cause our otherwise peaceful and normal living go derail. If financial matter is one of them, then I’d like to ask you to spend a little time to find out what money autobiography is about. Even if you’re fine and financially sound, by catching a glimpse of what is it may turn you to even a better steward than just a ‘money’ manager.

As the name suggests, it is a personal reflection process on the role and influence of money and material possession in our lives. We want to find out in a very honest way about our past attitude, assumption, and value towards money. At the end of the reflection, we realize that it is the material things that posses us more than we posses them. Through this reflection, hopefully it can help us set some priorities and goals in our lives for the future.

You may want to begin by reflecting on your attitude towards money by pondering over few questions like these: What do you like best about money? What do you like least about money? What things in life are worth more than money? Which of the following words best communicate your attitudes and feelings about money? Why? E.g. Money is.....power….leasure.….freedom….security….hope….love….evil…fun….prestige….etc.

As time goes by our reflection questions may change from attitude or value questions to lifestyle or management questions. I find this kind of reflection questions great. It can really help us to see ourselves through a different perspective. I say this because I’ve done some personal reflective writing for this class as well, and it really helps me to examine what kind of a learner I am.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,

so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (NIV)

Psalm 84 - The joy of worhsip in the temple

How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house,
ever singing your praise.

Happy are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
the God of gods will be seen in Zion.

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob!
Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed.

For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than live in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
he bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does the Lord withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
happy is everyone who trusts in you.

In ancient time, the only place where Israelites could find God was to go to the tabernacle or temple. The temple is where the Lord dwells, particularly the holy of holies. No one can enter the holy of holies besides the high priest. This is the place where the deity makes His presence known to His people Israelites.

Pillar of cloud stood at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle were visible to the people.

How to maintain the presence of God in the tabernacle or temple is by sacrificing animal. All the animal sacrifice at burnt offering is not just for the atonement of Israel’s sins however. It is also for the purification of the tabernacle–the dwelling place of God. If the tabernacle was defiled, God would leave the people.

How nice it is that we can now have access to God and pray to him anytime and at anywhere through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Romans 8:31-32

³¹What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (NIV)

Today's food for thought - Genesis 3:1-4

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

My brothers and sisters, "Knowing good and evil is very different from being able to choose good and reject evil." (Andy Crouch)

For if we do not reject evil, there is no benefit of knowing good and evil. I believe it is God's intention for human to live in a world without evil rather than to know good from evil.

God actually says it in a firm but positive and pleasant manner to the man, ""You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (2:16-17). The serpent, however, turns it around and presents in a provocative and deceitful manner to the woman by playing on the words, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (3:1b) to lure her to focus on the one forbidden tree in the garden instead of all other fruit trees she was free to eat from.

Truly, there is no goodness come out of evil but deceitfulness and lies. Let's us fear God and shun evil always, and do not be wise in our own eyes. Amen.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 & 24

May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it. Amen. (NIV)

This is my Father's world

I truly rejoiced when our professor began his lecture today with this beautiful hymn.

The Shadow of the Galilean - Part II

Andreas’ second mission from Pilate is to check on Jesus’ activities in the region to ascertain his initiated religious movement - the coming of God’s kingdom - would become a “security risk’ or post any imminent danger to the existing tension experienced in Jerusalem. Andreas (as expected being a fictional character) never actually has a chance to meet with Jesus except the one last view he has from a distance when Jesus was crucified at Calvary with two other Zealots. We can’t tell how much Andreas is being influenced by Jesus’ teaching through the testimonials and accounts he heard from various groups of people who said about Jesus. He seems to incline towards Jesus’ religious movement more than agreeing with the Zealots who believe that they must engage violence to liberate their people from Romans’ oppression. They believe that God’s would deliver them only when somebody is doing something. An extreme between Zealots’ vengeance and Jesus’ advocate of loving your enemy truly stands out to arrest one’s attention.

Pilate was fearful of another riot occurred during the Passover feast of unleavened bread with multitude of pilgrims streamed into the city of Jerusalem from different parts of the regions. He manipulated Andreas’ idea of granting amnesty to Barabbas and other Zealots who were either imprisoned or took sheltered in the caves, and also to Jesus who was arrested by the authority. Pilate’s sole interest was to reconcile with the crowds by releasing a prisoner to their request to avoid a possible riot, and at the same time to test out where the real political threat actually come from: the Zealots or Jesus’ passive political reformation. Having discovered Pilate’s motive, Andreas felt he was indirectly involved in Pilate’s decision. He struggled with the issue of who is the culprit and who is guilty. Was it the Zealots, without them in the background, without that tension, Jesus would not in any way be viewed as security risk? Has not the Roman anxiety over the messianic unrest, Jesus may have not been arrested.

Though this is a novel with a predictable ending of Jesus’ execution on the cross by the Romans authority as well as a major part of the storyline is somewhat familiar from the biblical narrative, the author didn’t fail in keeping up his readers’ eagerness to follow through the story. Certain parts of the scene like blackmailing and kidnapping are thrilling, and the debate and conflict of healing on Sabbath is exciting and at times suspenseful. It is brilliant to begin the story with Andreas in the jail; this has absolutely caught the attention of the readers who eagerly want to know what would happen to his fate.

Book Review - The Shadow of the Galilean (Part I)

I am not a novel enthusiast. In my entire life, I read no more than ten novels. But this one, The Shadow of the Galilean, attracted me first because of the title. It is a novel that constructs its plot based on a familiar biblical account. I was curious to find out how the author, a German theologian, uses his imagination and biblical knowledge to makeup his story. The second reason I read the book was because I need to do a review as one of my course assignments.

Let me post it here to give you a summary of what it is. I truly enjoy reading this book; a rare experience out of my many book review assignments.

The narrative story of the book is told by Andreas from Sepphoris, a city in Galilee. Andreas is a grain merchant whose family has business dealings with Herold Antipas. The story began with a riot in Jerusalem as a result of Pontius Pilate’s intention of making use of the Jewish temple treasury for the construction of the aqueduct. Andreas, anxious to greet an old friend Barabbas among the demonstration crowd, was falsely arrested by the Roman authority. He was taken to prison with one of his two slaves. Because of his good education and competency in Greek and as a rich young merchant who travels round the land of the Palestine at that time, Pilate blackmails Andreas to work as a spy under the supervision of his officer Metilius. First he was asked to collect and gather information about the Essenes who live in the wilderness.

Pilate’s government was anxious to know the secret of the Essene community. They were afraid the community might have other hidden agenda, and living in the wilderness perhaps might just be one way of hiding a secret crime. Pilate worried that the Essenes might favor Antipas should there be any kind of further tension and conflicts developed between the two rivals.

Seeing that he really has no other options, Andreas accepts the task and ventures immediately into the journey as he was conducting business along the regions of Galilee and Judaea. He began to collect information from his targeted group of people. First he met a rejected Essene by the name Baruch, who was excommunicated from the community after he had uncovered the community’s secret of hidden treasure, which probably never existed. Andreas saved Baruch in the wilderness, and accepted him into the family as a hired assistance in his trade. He gained substantial amount of valuable information to satisfy the Romans authority about the belief and objective of Essenes who chose to live in the dessert through Baruch.

Essenes are a group of cult believers who disagree with the temple worship and most of its festivals celebrated. They find themselves more peaceful and can better observe God’s commandments in the wilderness than participating in the Jerusalem temple’s worship. They hold to the belief that God in his right time will liberate them from the oppression.