I am an accountant by profession, having graduated from the local university in 1991. I have been in the workforce for 16 years: the first 6 years in external and internal auditing, the next 3 years in consulting and the last 7 years in accounting.
Over the next couple of days, I will be blogging about 2 topics that I am very familiar with, having worked in those areas for 13 years in total, that is accounting and auditing.
Let's start with the topic of accounting.
A company needs to keep a set of accounts, so that any point in time, management has a record of income and expenses (what is known as the profit and loss statement) and a snapshot of its assets and liabilities (what is known as the balance sheet).
Because the company is considered a separate legal entity, it needs to be accountable to its stakeholders.
If we zoom into the balance sheet, we will see assets known as debtors and liabilities known as creditors. Debtors and creditors are the accounting terminology for customers and suppliers.
In order to be competitive, most companies do not require their customers to make payment upon delivery. Instead they allow their customers to pay them 30 days or 60 days later (which is what we call "credit or payment terms"). What results from this arrangement is that the customer owes the company an amount of money known as a debt, and hence the customer becomes the company's debtor.
Similarly, companies would also seek out suppliers who are able to grant them credit. What results from this arrangement is that the supplier is owed an amount by the company, and that supplier becomes the company's creditor.
Big organisations have a separate financial function known as treasury operations, which main task is to manage the cashflows. One of their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is to collect as much from their customers (ie. keep short accounts with their customers), yet stretch as much credit from their suppliers (ie. keep long accounts with their suppliers).
Somehow or other, this concept of "keeping short accounts with God" seems to have infiltrated the church. I did a BibleGateway search and could not find this term in the bible. If any of you readers out there can, please let me know so that I can learn. What I suspect that this term was coined by a church forefather. If so, we have to be careful not to embrace it blindly because that is exactly what happened to the Israelites and the early Catholic church! The Pharisees and Catholic priests were adding their own sets of rules, and thus putting heavy yokes on God's people.
While doing a Google search on this term, I came across a blog where the author said, "If you're always trying to keep short accounts with God, I suggest you get a new accountant! I have just one account … and it says “Paid In Full”! "
And that view, my friends, IS biblical. Christ's sacrifice for sin was once and for all (Heb 7:27). By His finished work on the cross, He paid the full price of all our sins -- past, present and future.Our account with God was cleared the moment we were born again, and it now says PAID IN FULL.
Paul says in 1 Cor 13:5 that "love keeps no record of wrongs". If God is love personified, then it follows that He also keeps no record of wrongs!
So if you hear any teaching telling you to keep short accounts with God, reject and rebuke it in Jesus' mighty name. It warrants as much credit as the verse that says that "He's making a list and checking it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty or nice..."
No comments:
Post a Comment