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 By Dr. Andres G. Panasiuk, Director of the Hispanic Department of Crown Financial Concepts
Translated by Gloria Bishop
Some Christians live their lives as if by magic, they could take all “the toys” they have acquired on this earthly life with them to their celestial mansion. Big mistake! The Bible clearly teaches us that none of the things that are seen in this world today will survive the second coming of Jesus.
The apostle Saint Peter teaches us that when Jesus comes in all His glory “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and all the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and its entire works will be consumed”. He then ads an important warning: “Since all those things will disappear, how can we not live in a saint and pious manner of living!”
The Bible affirms that there are two types of things in our lives: The transcendental and the non-transcendental. The transcendental are those that will go beyond our own existence, such as: The Word of God, the love, the relationships with other people, the human beings, the salvation and the eternal life.
The rest of the material things are the non-transcendental: our homes, our cars, the fashions we wear, the electric appliances, and including the “status” symbols that we constantly strive to achieve. Even in our continent’s poorest places if one has a mud hut, he wants one made out of bricks; if one has a mule, he wants two. If a man has a bicycle, he dreams of owning a car, and if a person has one hundred dollars in the bank, he wants two hundred.
However, all the material goods are the non-transcendental things in our lives and as long as we do not understand and accept this concept, we will continue holding to them and away from God. The high value that we have assigned to those accumulated material things prevents us from listening the voice of God ordering us to be good stewards and share them with other people, church or ministry.
Until we realize the insignificant value that the digital television has, the radio, or the video recorder and all the “surplus” things that we have in our house, it will never occur to us that perhaps there is someone else that needs them more than we do.
For example, if all the Hispanics living in USA and Puerto Rico would look inside their garages and closets for all the things that have not been used in the last six month and would donate them to the work of God, we could start a mission in each one of the Latin countries of this continent and maintain it for the length of five years!
All the Latin Christians need to begin seeking less the symbols of this material world and seek more the Kingdom of God and its justice. If everyone would deeply understand the non-transcendental value of all the material goods, then the 20 percent of the congregations would not have to support 80 percent of the ministries, and we would return to the spirit of the Christian believers of the first century.
They considered themselves “strangers” and pilgrims without a home in this world and chose to invest their gold, silver, and precious stones, surrendering them to their “final dwelling”. That is why Theliard de Chardin would say: “We are not human beings with a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings with a human experience”.
Consequently, as Christians we must live our lives completely with no emotional attachments to any of the things that we have acquired in this world, remembering that at the end, when we come to the presence of Our Lord, we will not be able to bring them with us. That is one of the most important steps in the path to financial, personal and family health.
Our commitment at Financial Concepts is to guide and teach you the economical principles found in the Bible. We guarantee it would transform your life. We recommend reading the book: Your money: frustration and freedom, published by Financial Concepts. It would help you understand how God wants you to be faithful in your finances.
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