The Tower of Mammon is a memoir detailing the personal experience of an ex-staff of NAL Merchant Bank. NAL, as it was fondly called, was the premier merchant bank in Nigeria. It commenced operations in 1960, rose to prominence in the 1980s and began a massive decline in the late 1990s. By the middle of 2000s and, like a ship adrift, the Nigerian Acceptances Limited a.k.a NAL Merchant Bank PLC a.k.a NAL Bank Plc had sunk in the murky terrain of the Nigerian banking industry. The coup de grâce occurred in the aftermath of a re-capitalization exercise from which the bank never survived.XXX XXX XXX This book is filled with the names of almost everyone that ever worked in NAL between 1978 and 1995. It also contains samples of the drama and intrigues that were experienced or witnessed by the author within that same timeframe. There was the story of a bank's driver who tried to use diabolical means to obtain cash from the author. A former staff confessed to theft, four years after the deed. The arrest of some staff for threatening an MD & CEO. And there were other strange events, including a bout of food poisoning and assassination attempt on the life of the author.
The commercial revolution of the seventeenth century deeply changed English culture. In this ambitious book, Blair Hoxby explores what that economic transformation meant to the century’s greatest poet, John Milton, and to the broader literary tradition in which he worked. Hoxby places Milton’s work—as well as the writings of contemporary reformers like the Levellers, poets like John Dryden, and political economists like Sir William Petty—within the framework of England’s economic history between 1601 and 1724. Literary history swerved in this period, Hoxby demonstrates, as a burgeoning economic discourse pressed authors to reimagine ideas about self, community, and empire. Hoxby shows that, contrary to commonly held views, Milton was a sophisticated economic thinker. Close readings of Milton’s prose and verse reveal the importance of economic ideas in a wide range of his most famous writings, from Areopagitica to Samson Agonistes to Paradise Lost.
What would you do to achieve health and beauty? Would you sell your very soul? Plenty would say “No!” But what if the offer truly came to you? This is a tale of the consequences of such a transaction. A Priest is forced to call forth a demon from the depths of Hell to be captured and interrogated by the Vatican. But upon her summoning, the demoness appears far different than what is expected. This story follows the events from three different points of view. Father Edward Thomas is an exorcist and Priest who fights to find not just his own salvation, but is presented with the question of whether or not a demon can be redeemed. What forces does God have in place to fight demons on earth? Where are they, and why have they seemingly abandoned us? Sara Baker is trapped by a deal she made long ago: A once promising medical student who finds that an event she thought was a dream in her childhood was indeed a reality. Now she must do her best to survive the fires of Hell and keep what little humanity she can hold on to… But will those in Hell allow such a thing? Jason Miller never knew his mother. But when a stunning woman appears at his doorstep claiming to be his long lost mother, Sara Baker, his world begins to unravel around him. What are the consequences of selling one’s soul, even for the most innocuous of trades? Find out in three tales of woe in the first entry of The Guardian Temple Series.
Spirit of Mammon - Mike Connell (4 sermons) Finance Seminar - Shane Willard (2 sermons) Spirit of Mammon (1 of 4) The number of times Jesus talked about wealth and possessions, stewardship and accountability, far exceeded any discussion on any topic. In fact there's about 10 times the number of references to finances and stewardship and resources, than there are to faith and salvation, and yet all of these go together. Often the moment we start to talk about money, people freeze - and we will see why... Put God First (2 of 4) I've seen too many rich people who had miserable lives to believe that money can really make your life happy. It just can't. God can make you happy, money can't. Money is just a piece of paper. It's some numbers in the bank. It cannot make your life happy. What it does instead is it tends to create problems. Generosity (3 of 4) We have seen many people that have had much money and yet they didn't have what money seemed to promise, health and prosperity and every good thing. It seems like it still eludes them, so we looked at that and saw that Jesus taught very specifically about us placing God first. To be generous is to be liberal. It's an attitude of heart that shows up in every area of your life including finances. Generosity exposes selfishness! Generosity (4 of 4) There's something about generosity that creates a very sweet fragrance. When people give and there's nothing in it for themselves, they've just given unexpectedly to you, then there's something sweet about it. Generosity usually exposes greed. God is love and you can't love without giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving, so the greatest way we express the love of God to people is when we can be generous and kind to them with no agenda. That's when people see God, because that's what God is like. Shane Willard offers a unique Jewish/Hebraic perspective for Christians on Finance and Giving. Shane is mentored by a pastor with rabbinical training, and teaches the context of the Scriptures from a Hebraic perspective. This perspective helps people to see God's Word in a completely new way and leads them into a more intimate relationship with the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Finance (1 of 2) There's a great cure for poverty, it's called get a job, work hard. God never set himself up as the cure for laziness, or the cure for stupid. There is no supernatural, super-spiritual thing that over comes a lack of hard work or laziness. We've got to be wise, which means staying out of debt, not putting money in things going down in value, not trusting the government to do it for us, live on a budget, take charge of your finances, show self-control! To know God, is to take care of the poor and the afflicted. Tsedaqah (Hebrew) is introduced, equating Righteousness with Generosity/Charity Finance (2 of 2) We're called to live on a circle in a square. A circle inside of a square is 79%. The math from the commands matches the illustration from agriculture. 2.5% is put in the hands of the Priest; then a tenth is given to the church; and a tenth for yourself, in the form of savings, but one third of that is given to the poor. He doesn't want you just to go to heaven one day, he wants you to bring heaven to earth now. If your first fruits are in the right hands, your finances can't die. You sanctify everything else in your life by honouring the lord with your first fruits. James 1.26 If anyone considers himself religious and does yet not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that our God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress. The religion our father sees as pure is generosity.
Are you called to ministry? Are you tired of the same church routines week after week? Are you hungry for more of God? If you answered YES to any one of these questions, then this book is for you! This book will start your journey to greater fulfillment in Christ. There is a calling from God to enter into a place of maturity for this generation... a call to go higher and deeper in Him. We have characteristics that must be developed in order for God to trust us with what He has designated for the mature. On this journey to true perfection in Christ, you will discover the dominion and authority that will be given to you if your process is endured to the end. It's time for us to grow up and receive the fullness of our inheritance! The Father does not entrust His government to babes...
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST and a SYDNEY TAYLOR NOTABLE BOOK, now in paperback! A sweeping historical fantasy that follows two teens on a perilous journey through the Far Country, a Jewish land of spirits and demons. Perfect for readers of Neil Gaiman and Philip Pullman. For the Jews of Eastern Europe, demons are everywhere: dancing on the rooftops in the darkness of midnight, congregating in the trees, harrowing the dead, even reaching out to try and steal away the living. But the demons have a land of their own: a Far Country peopled with the souls of the transient dead, governed by demonic dukes, barons, and earls. When the Angel of Death comes strolling through the little shtetl of Tupik one night, two young people will be sent spinning off on a journey through the Far Country. There they will make pacts with ancient demons, declare war on Death himself, and maybe-- just maybe--find a way to make it back alive.
