MONEY

MONEY

MONEY DANGERS

What does the Bible say concerning money?

BIBLE READING: Ecclesiastes 10:1-20

KEY BIBLE VERSE: A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything. (Ecclesiastes 10:19, niv)

Money does not solve problems. Government leaders, businesses, families, even churches get trapped into thinking money is the answer to every problem. We throw money at our problems. But just as the thrill of wine is only temporary, the soothing effect of the last purchase soon wears off, and we have to buy more. Scripture recognizes that money is necessary for survival, but it warns against the love of money (see Matthew 6:24; 1 Timothy 6:10; Hebrews 13:5). Money is dangerous because it deceives us into thinking that wealth is the easiest way to get everything we want. The love of money is sinful because we trust money, rather than God, to solve our problems. Those who pursue its empty promises will one day discover that they have nothing because they are spiritually bankrupt.

BIBLE READING: Mark 10:17-31

KEY BIBLE VERSE: Jesus watched him go, then turned around and said to his disciples, “It’s almost impossible for the rich to get into the Kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23, tlb)

The love of money is a barrier between us and God. This young man wanted to be sure he would get eternal life, so he asked what he could do. He said he had never once broken any of the laws Jesus mentioned (10:19), and perhaps he had even kept the Pharisees’ loophole-filled version of them. But Jesus lovingly broke through the young man’s pride with a challenge that brought out his true motives: “Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor.” This challenge exposed the barrier that could keep this young man out of the kingdom: his love of money. Money represented his pride of accomplishment and self-effort. Ironically, his attitude made him unable to keep the first commandment, to let nothing be more important than God (Exodus 20:3). He could not meet the one requirement Jesus gave—to turn his whole heart and life over to God. The man came to Jesus wondering what he could do; he left seeing what he was unable to do. What barriers are keeping you from turning your life over to Christ?

Our handling of money can be a way of service. What does your money mean to you? Although Jesus wanted this man to sell everything and give his money to the poor, this does not mean that all believers should sell all their possessions. Most of his followers did not sell everything, although they used their possessions to serve others. Instead, this story shows us that we must not let anything we have or desire keep us from following Jesus. We must remove all barriers to serving him fully. If Jesus asked you to, could you give up your house? your car? your level of income? your position on the ladder of promotion? Your reaction may show your attitude toward money—whether it is your servant or your master.

The love of money leads to a destructive self-reliance. Jesus said it was very difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. This is true because the rich, with most of their basic physical needs met, often become self-reliant. When they feel empty, they can buy something new to dull the pain that was meant to drive them toward God. Their abundance and self-sufficiency become their deficiency. The person who has everything on earth can still lack what is most important—eternal life.

Money is not a measurement of our standing with God. The disciples were amazed. Was not wealth a blessing from God, a reward for being good? This misconception is still common today. Although many believers enjoy material prosperity, many others live in hardship. Wealth is not a sign of faith or of partiality on God’s part.

MONEY MANAGEMENT

What guidelines does the Bible give us for managing money?

BIBLE READING: Matthew 19:16-30

KEY BIBLE VERSE: Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Matthew 19:21, niv)

God has given us all that we have. Should all believers sell everything they own? No. We are responsible to care for our own needs and the needs of our family so as not to be a burden on others. We should, however, be willing to give up anything if God asks us to do so. This kind of attitude allows nothing to come between us and God and keeps us from using our God-given wealth selfishly. If you are comforted by the fact that Christ did not tell all his followers to sell all their possessions, then you may be too attached to what you have.

We must use money in accordance with the love of God. We cannot love God with all our heart and yet keep our money to ourselves. Loving him totally means using our money in ways that please him.

BIBLE READING: Luke 16:1-15

KEY BIBLE VERSE: For neither you nor anyone else can serve two masters. You will hate one and show loyalty to the other, or else the other way around—you will be enthusiastic about one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Luke 16:13, tlb)

Our obedience to Christ is tested by how we use money. Here are some conclusions we can draw from this passage in Luke. (1) Let us use our resources wisely, because they belong to God and not to us. (2) Money can be used for good or evil; let us use ours for good. (3) Money has a lot of power, so we must use it carefully and thoughtfully. (4) We must use our material goods in a way that will foster faith and obedience (see 12:33-34).

Money can be a tool for helping others. We are to make wise use of our finances, spending our money to help those in need and to spread the gospel. In this way, our earthly investment will bring eternal benefit. When we obey God’s will, the unselfish use of possessions will follow.

Our integrity often is tested in money matters. God calls us to be honest, even in small details we might think unimportant. Heaven’s riches are far more valuable than earthly wealth. But if we are not trustworthy with our money here (no matter how much or how little we have), we will be unfit to handle the vast riches of God’s kingdom. Guard your integrity in small matters, and it will not fail you in crucial decisions.

Money must be managed or it will manage. Money has the power to take God’s place in your life. It can become your master. How can you tell if you are a slave to money? (1) Do you think and worry about it frequently? (2) Do you give up doing what you should do or would like to do in order to make more money? (3) Do you spend a great deal of your time caring for your possessions? (4) Is it hard for you to give money away? (5) Are you in debt?

Money is a hard master and a deceptive one. Wealth promises power and control, but often it cannot deliver. Great fortunes can be made—and lost—overnight, and no amount of money can provide health, happiness, or eternal life. How much better it is to let God be your Master. His servants have peace of mind and security, both now and forever.

How to Market Yourself

How to Market Yourself

By ptm

Now that you know exactly what you have to sell to employers or clients and where you are going to sell it, we come to the final step in the process:

How are you going to sell it?

The sales cycle consists of two parts: marketing and selling. So before we go any further, let’s make sure that you understand the difference between them (most people don’t.) First of all, marketing precedes selling. It refers to a wide range of activities that have as their objective getting the attention of potential buyers of a product or service. These activities can be anything from a sophisticated, expensive television commercial or infomercial to someone walking around a busy shopping area with a sandwich board strapped to them that is promoting a product or service. Selling is what happens when you get the attention of a prospective buyer and they call you, walk into your store or visit your web site.

Many employment seekers don’t understand this and it is the main reason for their lack of success in selling themselves. No professional sales organization is going to let a sales representative get in front of a customer until they have proven that they know the product or service they’re selling inside out and how it can benefit customers. Employment seekers tend to jump straight into selling before they’re ready to sell, and when that doesn’t work assume that they’re not salespeople and never will be.

You need to spend the majority of your time in the marketing phase and only when you have mastered that can you begin the selling phase. To succeed in selling, you must first succeed in marketing. Parts One and Two were all about marketing and most of this section is about marketing. You’re not ready to sell yourself until you’ve done all the work required in these sections. Your success in selling yourself will be directly related to how hard you work at the marketing phase, how creative you are, and how willing you are to move out of your comfort zone. As you go through the marketing phase, your self-confidence and eagerness to sell yourself will steadily rise. You are going to be pleasantly surprised at how successful you can be at selling yourself now that you know how the process works.

Most employment seekers today use one marketing tool: a traditional resume or CV. It still has a place, if you’re applying for a job, but it’s the wrong tool for marketing yourself to employers or clients when you’re approaching them on speculation that they might benefit from the skills and experience you have to offer. Today’s tools can include a visume, a two-and-a-half-minute visual resume, a marketing letter, blog, web site, brochure and variations on the traditional resume or CV, which are marketing oriented. The generic, one-size-fits-all resume or CV, or any other such tool is a dinosaur.

You need to tweak your marketing tools to address the needs of the employer or client you’re targeting. You must clearly indicate that you know something about them and imply that the experience and skills you have to offer will benefit them. You must indicate in your marketing tool that you will promptly follow up with them and make sure you do that. Some employment seekers are reluctant to follow up and that is a major mistake. According to a February 2006 survey by Robert Half International, 86 per cent of Canadian executives said that employment seekers should follow up within a week of submitting an application.

There’s probably no other word that is used more frequently in relation to today’s workplace and that is more abused, misunderstood and overused than “networking.” That’s unfortunate, because if you understand what networking is really all about and you’re prepared to invest the time it takes to put an effective networking strategy together, it is probably the most powerful tool you can use to market yourself and find hidden work opportunities.

You first need to be clear about your motives for networking. Successful networkers are givers, not takers. If you only contact people when you need help, you’re not a networker, you’re a sponge. Successful networkers give generously of their time and expertise to their profession and their community. You will find them serving on the executive and committees of the professional associations they belong to and on the board of at least one non-profit or charitable association in their community.

Many so-called networking events are a waste of time. They attract employment seekers, recruiters who are looking for commission salespeople, personal coaches and the like. If an event is being marketed as a networking event, you probably should avoid it. It is highly unlikely that the people you need to connect with will be there. You need to determine what activities such as seminars, courses, trade shows and conferences are coming up in the next few months where the people you want to connect with are likely to attend and sign up for them.

You need to be patient and not expect immediate results from the networking events that you attend. If you’re on the executive or committees of the professional associations you belong to, if you are on the board of at least one non-profit or charitable association in your community and your motive for networking is not self-serving, you will have your share of success. Write some articles for the journals or newsletters of the professional associations you belong to, volunteer as a speaker at events where people can benefit from your expertise, or start up a new association or special interest group in your area and you will be on the radar screens of the people you need to connect with.

The art of chocolate

The art of chocolate

The artisan chocolates made by an Oregon company called Dagoba Organic Chocolate in exotic flavors such as lavender, lime and mint (with a breath of rosemary) have won several awards and become available nationwide. And a new variety, a chile-flavored dark chocolate called Xocolatl, is selling so well that the company "can't make it fast enough," says Frederick Schilling, 33, Dagoba's founder.

It's late September and Schilling is showing an appreciative crowd at Portland's Forest Discovery Center how to make chocolate. After roasting whole cacao beans in a toaster oven, Schilling separates the edible parts, or nibs, from the husklike hulls by running the beans through a hand mill made by an outfit called Crankenstein. He then passes the nibs through a sturdy juicer several times, each cycle making the mixture smoother. He uses a mixer to beat in sugar, and the chocolate is ready.

The audience is transfixed by the enticing aroma of the roasting beans and the alchemy of the process, and packs of people converge on the demo table to try the chocolate, still gritty but definitely the real thing. Schilling, whose title at Dagoba is "founding alchemist," is in his element, answering question after question from the audience, his hands covered with chocolate.

"Chocolate's very popular again," he tells the crowd enthusiastically. "Thank God."
The 3-year-old company's development, Schilling says, follows a Quaker proverb: "Go as the way opens." For him, the way opened into the way chocolate tastes. "I love flavor, I love flavors," says Schilling. "I just wanted to add some twists to chocolate."
In the mid-1990s, Schilling was working as a cook in a cafe in Boulder, Colo., where one of the specialties of the house was chai. He was captivated by the spicy combination of tea and flavorings including ginger, cardamom, cloves and black pepper. "I had this idea that chai chocolate would be so good."

A few years later, Schilling, who's been involved in culinary pursuits since he got a job with a catering company at age 13, was experimenting in his home kitchen with chocolate as he remembered his idea about chai. The marriage was a success. The friends who were the original tasters for his creation kept coming back for Schilling's milk chocolate laced with chai's tea and ginger essence. "That was the seed that was sowed years ago," Schilling says now, "that gave motion to Dagoba."

Schilling chose a name that conveyed the exotic and special nature of his product. A dagoba is a Buddhist shrine, and Schilling thought it was a fitting name: The first part of the Latin name for chocolate, Theobroma cacao, means "food of the gods."

He did some market research at the Whole Foods in Boulder, noting that "there wasn't a lot of creativity" in the chocolate of the day. Choices basically came down to milk and dark, with perhaps almonds or hazelnuts added.

"In terms of an accessible chocolate bar that had a little more diversity of flavors and whatnot -- it didn't exist at the time," he says. Why not, he thought, make chocolate more interesting? In the 1990s, specialty chocolate was blossoming. Companies such as Scharffen Berger in California, L.A. Burdick in New Hampshire and Portland's Moonstruck were producing superior chocolate using premium cacao beans. It became fashionable to list the percentage of chocolate contained in bittersweet dark chocolate. For example, Endangered Species, an organic chocolate company in Talent, makes a bar called Black Panther that is 88 percent cacao.

Like Endangered Species, Schilling contracted to buy organic beans from small growers, primarily in the Caribbean and South and Central America. In Oregon, Dagoba bars are available at specialty markets such as Pastaworks and Made in Oregon and at retailers such as Whole Foods, New Seasons, Daily Grind and Pharmaca that emphasize items with organic or natural ingredients.

As the company started to take shape, Schilling enlisted his father, whom he describes as "a sales/marketing guru" retired from IBM, for a few weeks of business training that turned into many months of instruction. His father, Jon, is now part of the company. So is his sister, and his mother is moving out from Minneapolis to join the company as well.
Two years ago, Schilling moved the operation to Southern Oregon, where about a dozen people work at Dagoba's plant in Central Point. "We are producing chocolate six days a week, double shifts," Schilling says, "and are still back-ordered a couple weeks."
The company is moving into a 14,000-square-foot facility in Ashland that's more than four times bigger than the Central Point shop. Meanwhile, Dagoba has racked up several awards, most recently being named best dark chocolate by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Schilling's favorite chocolate, and the company's best seller, is New Moon, a 74 percent bittersweet chocolate. Another celestially named product, Eclipse, is a very dark bittersweet that's 87 percent cacao.

Other staples include Mon Cherri, a 72 percent chocolate with berries and vanilla; Roseberry, 59 percent with dried raspberries and rose hips; and Lavender, 59 percent, infused with lavender essence and blueberries. The chile chocolate, Xocolatl, also includes chunky cocoa nibs (the edible part of the cacao bean), nutmeg and vanilla.
Other companies are also adding chiles to chocolate, moving chocolate back to its Aztec roots. Moonstruck, which developed a chile-infused truffle called Ocumarian four years ago, also sells a Dark Chocolate Chile Variado bar and serves a fiery Ocumarian hot chocolate in its retail shops.

Robert Hammond, Moonstruck's chocolatier, says chile chocolate is a natural convergence of two trends: a greater acceptance of chiles in all sorts of cooking from Mexican to Southeast Asian, and the rise in the availability of high-quality chocolate, especially dark chocolate, the kind that goes best with chile flavorings.

In the end, Dagoba's Schilling says, it all comes down to flavor. , "I like to think that we are a premium chocolate company that happens to use organically grown product - as opposed to an organic chocolate company."

RECIPES

Castilian Hot Chocolate

This is a classic Spanish hot cocoa recipe that will bring intrigue to any occasion. The consistency should resemble chocolate pudding that hasn't quite set.

1/4 cup Dagoba Organic Chocolate Cacao Powder or other unsweetened cocoa
1 cup turbinado (raw) sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water
4 cups milk or milk substitute of choice
Whipped cream (optional)

Mix cocoa and sugar together.

Dissolve the cornstarch in the water and combine with the cocoa-sugar mixture in a medium saucepan. Stir into a smooth paste.

Begin heating this mixture over medium heat, continuously stirring it with a whisk. Gradually pour in the milk, stirring as you bring it to a simmer.

Simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. The drink is ready when it thickens and is glossy and smooth.

A dollop of freshly whipped cream tops this drink off perfectly.

Dagoba Lavender Chocolate Flourless Torte

This is a nice twist on the classic rendition of the decadent chocolate flourless torte. It's a very simple recipe that will always make you the most-loved person at a potluck.


1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
4 2-ounce bars of Dagoba Organic Lavender chocolate
5 eggs
1/4 scant cup granulated sugar
Powdered sugar or fruit sauce (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan. Line outside of pan with aluminum foil so water cannot leak into pan. Pour about 1 inch of water in roasting pan to create a water bath. Place water bath in oven.

Stir butter and chocolate in double boiler over low heat until smooth and uniform. Set aside.

Using a whisk, gently beat eggs and sugar in large bowl until slightly thickened. Pour chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and fold together gently. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake until tip of knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack. Invert cake onto clean cutting board or large plate and cover. Refrigerate cake overnight. (Can be prepared 3 days ahead; cover and keep refrigerated.) Serve cold.

You can dust the cake with powdered sugar or drizzle with fruit sauce. -- From Frederick Schilling, Dagoba Organic Chocolate


Dagoba Xocolatl Chocolate Soft Brownies

These are the ultimate soft chocolate brownies. Xocolatl, chile-flavored chocolate, adds a hint of fire.

Dagoba's Xocolatl chocolate bars are made with cacao nibs, which adds a crunchy texture to the brownies.

Generous 1/3 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
21/2 bars of Dagoba Organic Xocolatl chocolate or 59% semisweet (5 ounces of chocolate, see note)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons Dagoba Organic Cacao Powder or other unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch square pan and line the base with baking parchment.

Place the butter, sugars and chocolate in a heavy pan and heat gently, stirring until the mixture is melted, well-blended and smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Beat together the eggs and vanilla. Whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture.

Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder and fold carefully into the egg and chocolate mixture using a metal spoon or spatula.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes until the top is crisp and the edges are beginning to shrink away from the pan. The center will still be soft to the touch.

Let cool completely in the pan, then cut into 2-inch squares and serve. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, if desired.

The uncut block of brownies can be well-wrapped and frozen for a month. Thaw at room temperature for about 2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Note: If you want the heat and spice of Dagoba Xocolatl chocolate but are unable to find it, add the following when you sift the dry ingredients together: 1/2 teaspoon ground aji Amarillo chile powder (cayenne will work as well), 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and a few pinches of freshly grated nutmeg. Then, add a couple drops of orange essential oil to the melted chocolate.