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Ezekiel 27:16
" 'Aram did business with you because of your many products; they exchanged turquoise, purple fabric, embroidered work, fine linen, coral and rubies for your merchandise.
1. Matthew 22:5
"But they paid no attention and went off?one to his field, another to his business
"Biblon will begin its series on the Bible and Business . Biblon has a number of corporate sponsors. E mail simon harding at harding@chronosconsulting.com for more information"
Many feel that the Bible
and modern day business practices are irreconcilable but nothing could be
further from the truth. These notes are based the Bible, the succinct teachings
of Pastor Bayless Conley and my own business experience. In the first of this
series we will explore 6 aspects of business and money in the Bible:
1) God's Provision
2) Prosperity in Business
3) Success in Business
4) Covetousness
5) Tithing
6) Giving
1) God's Provision.
This is the starting
point as we realise that everything we have in one way or another is a result
of God's Provision.
In
Luke
12:31-32 Jesus tells us,
?But
seek the kingdom of God?.? (In Matthew 6:33, He said, ?Seek first
the kingdom of God?and all these things
shall be added to you.?) ?Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father?s
good pleasure to give you the kingdom.?
According to
Pastor Bayless Conley
"The secret to receiving God?s
provision is to put God?s Kingdom first, then everything else will be added
to you. That includes all the things you worry about and strive after. God
promises He will add them to you.....First things first. Jesus said, ?Do not
worry. Just get your priorities in line, and God will take care of you.?
Naturally this is
difficult for a lot of people, including me, as this is seen as a naive view
or being very simplistic but we shouldn't underestimate the power of obedience
to God. We need to get our priorities in line right at the start in business.
If we put God's kingdom before our own personal wants and desires it can
release blessings in business as well as every aspect of life. Bayless Conley
goes on to give the example of JL Kraft, the founder of Kraft Foods, who
initially struggled with his business until he put God's kingdom first. Other
very famous Christian business founders include HG Heinz, Sam Walton, JC Penny
in the USA and the Reckitts, Rowntrees, Terrys, Cadburys, Frys and Darbys in
England. These Christian business people founded some of the largest
enterprises in the world.
2) Prosperity in Business
Luke
12:13-15,
Then
one from the crowd said to Him, ?Teacher, tell my brother to divide the
inheritance with me.? But He said to him, ?Man, who made Me a judge or an
arbitrator over you?? And He said to them, ?Take heed and beware of
covetousness, for one?s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he
possesses.?
It would seem from this
that God is against prosperity but this is not the case. If we look at Genesis
we can see originally man was given an abundance of everything. There is
nothing wrong in itself with building a prosperous business but if it is in
accordance with God's will. As long as you get the focus correct as shown in
the notes on God's provision above there is no problem with building
prosperity. According to Bayless Conley:
"So
what is abundance? Abundance, or prosperity, is having all that you need to
meet any circumstance, with enough left over to give wherever God might direct
you. Jesus certainly is not against prosperity. In fact, prosperity is what I
believe is God?s will for all of His children. I don?t think God wants any of
His kids to be in poverty. Poverty is not a virtue unless you choose it for
some reason."
There is therefore
nothing wrong in a prosperous business unless it leads to the problems that
success itself can bring or the sin of covetousness. We will consider each of
these two issues in turn.
3) Success in Business
Luke 12:31,
?But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to
you.?
Success in business
life can in fact be very dangerous. We have to put God's Kingdom first if we
want to realise God's prosperity. Try to make sure that as we build our
businesses we are not putting our own hopes and aspirations first - more money,
more power, better cars, more possessions. According to Pastor Bayless Conley
"I really think this is an issue of the heart. God is not prospering them
because they may not be mature enough spiritually to handle the degree of
prosperity they are seeking. It might do them harm....I think success has
ruined more people than failure. It has been said that money is the most
dangerous thing God can put into your trust. Seek after God. And when He
prospers you, keep seeking after Him! "
The press is full of
examples of successful business people who have gone off the rails when their
business boomed but putting God first gets everything back on track. Is your
business helping to fulfill God's plan on Earth ? What realignments can you
make ? How will you handle the success ? Before we discuss what your business
can give back lets take a look at another issue that arises in relation to
business, and in fact life in general.
4) Covetousness
Luke 12:15 says,
And He
said to them, ?Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one?s life does not
consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.?
For many people, not
just business people by the way, a major part of their life is involved in the
acquisition of things. More money, a bigger house, a larger business. There is
nothing wrong in trying to grow your business but check your motives because one
of the main problems with covetousness is that it only increases. Pastor
Bayless Conley states "If you find your life driven by the need for more
things, if you are consumed with stuff, if you define your success by what you
have (or do not have), then you have been seduced by covetousness, and you will
never find the happiness you are looking for."
The main passion of
our life should not be tied to our business but in seeking God's Kingdom. Do we
have the right priorities ? So far we have considered some of the negatives of
business but lets move on to some of the fruit that can result from building a
great business. We will look at two main areas which are closely related -
tithing and giving.
5) Tithing
Many see this as a
very old fashioned concept but this is not in fact the case.
In Matthew 23:23, Jesus speaks about the issue of
tithing in this way,
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you
pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier
matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have
done, without leaving the others undone."
It is therefore absolutely clear that Jesus says we should
tithe - "these you ought to have done"
We should tithe. The first ten percent of our income, or the
first ten percent of the increase that God brings to us, is called a tithe.
This seems difficult at first with all our taxes and expenses The Bible says
in the last chapter of Leviticus that the tithe is holy, and it belongs to
the Lord. So when we build our business and it produces we should act on
this. I realise this is a very difficult concept for many in business and I
admit I struggle with this too but lets look at what others say. Here is
Pastor Bayless again:
"So you should tithe. That is very important. In fact, I
believe it is the first step in getting God involved in your finances, and an
important step in you getting control of your finances."
Here is another quotation from Scripture to
help us consider this
In Malachi 3:10-11, God says:
"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that
there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this," says the LORD of
hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out
for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I
will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the
fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the
field," says the LORD of hosts.
You can see how clearly God puts this
concept. These are amazing promises from God - massive blessings and
protection from the devourer. This was written in a society that was mainly
agricultural but it can apply to our business world today just as well. All I
can say is we should all try it out. When I have genuinely tithed blessings
have followed. There is also a warning here which we will discuss in the next
section.
John Wesley-
An Apostle of England
Article by Dr. Hem Sagar Rasaily
Director "Logos Study Centre"
John Wesley is known as the Apostle of England and
Father of Methodists. When Lord Baldwin was the Prime Minister of England, he
said about John Wesley, "I am supposed to be a busy man, but by the side of
Wesley, I join the ranks of the unemployed." Imagine,
what kind of man he was?
John Wesley was born on June 17, 1703 and went to be with
the Lord on March 2, 1791. Everyone should study his life and learn to face
hardship, toil and be a humble minister of God.
Every Christian and every denomination should have
great honor for John Wesley, whether they are a Roman Catholic, a Baptist, a
Pentecostal, a Charismatic, or belonging to any faith. And why not to honor
this man great man of God? Can you imagine, he traveled 250,000 miles in
his lifetime to preach the Gospel- a distance equal to traveling nine times round the globe. I?m amazed at this because in those days there was
no fast mode of transportation like the airplane, or faster ships like today.
John Wesley became the most traveled individual in history.
When
he turned 81, he spoke of himself as, "My sight is considerably better
now and my nerves firmer that they were 40 years ago." This shows that
John Wesley was in perfect health even in his old age. He used to get up early
in the morning at 4am. He used to start preaching at 5am in the morning and he called that most healthy exercise in the world. And every year he traveled
by land or sea not less than 5 hundred miles. This should be a great
inspiration for the men and women of God, at least for me.
He
believed in simple living, but maintaining a high standard of faith and
holiness. He gave a wealth of wonderful knowledge and living literatures to the
Christian world. His great "A Plain Account of Christian Perfection"
containing 38 Questions and Answers is advised to be read by every believer
today.
Some
of his quotations I liked the most are:
"Make all you can, save all
you can, give all you can."
"Do all the good you can, By all the mean you
can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the time you
can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can."
"Once in seven years I burn all my sermons;
for it is a shame if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years
ago."
"My ground is the Bible. Yea, I am a
Bible-bigot. I follow it in all things, both great and small."
"The best of all is, god is with us"
"I look upon all the world as my parish"
The life of John Wesley has inspired and challenged me a
great deal. He was a gift to mankind. He did the things that money cannot do.
His prayer always was, "Lord
let me never rust out, let me burn out and let me never live to be useless." On March 2, 1791, around 10 O?clock John Wesley
whispered his final, "farewell."
This
man of God shaped Christian history. The life of John Wesley has inspired me to
be like him. He was a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
