Today we continued with SAVINGS and completed Chapter 5 of Solving the Money Puzzle.
Custom budget book tab sets were available for those who wanted them and the spreadsheet version is available. Send me an email and I will forward you the budget spreadsheet with instructions. I am also available to meet and discuss your personal budget.
The main purpose for the BUDGET is to protect SAVINGS. The 5-Step plan tells you how to distribute the dollars you save and in what order.
I asked the question today, "How much is enough? How much does one need to save before they can say, I have enough?" Is $500,000 enough? How about $1,000,000? Perhaps you would feel better if you had $5,000,000? More?
Jesus addressed this same question when he was once approached by a man who asked him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus answered the man with a strong warning. "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." Then, like he loved to do, Jesus told a parable:
“The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, 'You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.' But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:13-21 (NIV)
Another example that helps us see how much we should be saving and for how long our savings should last is found in the story of Joseph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams. Read Genesis 41 to find the answers.
The class is too young to remember the sitcom from the early '60s, "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", so I showed a clip. The purpose for this clip was the statue of "The Thinker" created by Auguste Rodin. Rodin crafted the statue and placed it in an elaborate doorway that depicted a scene from "The Inferno" (the first section of Dante's Divine Comedy). In Dante's poem, he depicts Hell as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. Interestingly, the 4th circle is GREED.
Dante's allegory tells the story of the journey of his soul to find God. In doing so, he must suffer with 9 very real test that describe Hell--the 4th being GREED. I found this to be a sobering reminder of what having a wrong relationship with money is like: Hell.
Remember Jesus' warning to the rich man: "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed."
The slides from today's lesson are below.
Next week, we look at Chapter 6: "Releasing the Blessing".
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