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GOD MEANS BUSINESS: If you
assumed that there is no correlation between wealth creation and God,
you may need to think again. Reviewer Dennis D. Muhumuza writes that Hillary Turyagenda’s book shows you how.
Life is tough business and unless we learn God’s way of doing things and toe his line, like good apprentices, we shall continue to maunder about unable to maximise our potential. That sums up the content of Hillary Turyagyenda’s latest book, God’s Economics. The book, set to be launched this evening (yesterday) at Amagara Restaurant, is divided into four chapters: The Art of Receiving, The Joy of Seeking, Heaven is not Silent and Being Rich Toward God.
The author draws from the Bible and life to argue his case out. He contends that everyone who is rich regardless of being a believer or not has been blessed by God who “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” So there is no such thing as “self-made” millionaires; they are all God-made!
Quoting Matthew 21:22 that whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive, he says we just have to ask God unreservedly, in faith, and all the desires of our hearts shall be granted. That a person who has learned to receive from God cannot remain the same no matter what condition you might be in.
Turyagyenda writes: “What needs to be borne in mind is that the poor person is changed after contact with God. He does not remain in his state. If it meant one was poor in physical terms as a general thing, the result is to become rich because Jesus became poor for us to be rich.”
The author says the reason people don’t enjoy the power of the Word of God is because they “just let it wash over them like water off a duck’s back.” That is, they don’t take time to understand and examine it.
The first point of understanding and enjoying God’s economics, writes Turyagyenda, is to believe: “Once we are saved three things happen to us: we come under the Lord’s protection, provision and supervision.”
He says heavens and the earth vividly declare the abundance and wealth of the God who set it all up, and that the fact that he gave planet earth to man shows how big-hearted and wealthy God is. To corroborate the freewill largess of the Creator, the author quotes Psalm 145: 16, “Thou openest thine hand, and satisfies the desire of every living thing.”
Turyagyenda also presents the definitive definitions of true wealth, which has nothing to do with possessions. He particularly criticises the modern-day pastor’s obsession with material possessions: “Preachers ought to be well off financially but I do not think every preacher should try to top what all the wealthy people in town are doing…” The main point of the second chapter is that knowledge is power, and that to access this knowledge, the source of it who is God must be sought with the passion of a treasure hunter, or of a man chasing a woman he loves.
“To seek him means seeking what he is giving out; putting premium on what he puts premium on,” writes Turyagyenda, the point being that seeking the things of God first aligns us to God’s economic system that is not susceptible to theft or inflation, but instead brings greater rewards.
He cites the early church believers who shared everything: money, food and possessions to meet the needs of everybody but led more fulfilled lives, unlike today’s avarice and individualism that have spoiled things.
He argues that money is the starting point in learning about God’s economics; that those who use it to support the needy and advance the business of the Kingdom of God generally have grasped God’s economics. The author reminds those scampering after riches that a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things, which he possesses. He, however, clarifies that God is not necessarily against riches in the same way he is not pleased with poverty, but that if you follow him, you will wind up better off materially and in every other way.
God’s Economics is a content-driven spiritual book, written simply, with a convincing interpretation of the principles of the Bible. It also contains some hard truths that might rub the greedy modern-day man of God in the wrong spot. This is a book about success the God way that you might want on your bookshelf.
--Saturday Monitor, April 6, 2013
