Financial advice found in Bible

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By Jennifer Garza SACRAMENTO BEE

Before David and Maura Reza hand out the $5 weekly allowance to their children, Mr. Reza reads a Scripture from the Bible about money.

This is a shift for the family, which has retreated from what Mrs. Reza calls years of "selfish spending." Now they have turned to a higher power for managing their budget, the world of biblical financial planning.

The five children - Brandon, Parker, Chandler, Lauryn and Aaron - squeeze around the dining room table in their spacious home to listen to their dad. They light up when mom walks in with the cash.

"The important thing to remember is that all of this," says Mr. Reza, opening his arms wide gesturing to everything in their house, "belongs to God."

It may not belong to the Rezas much longer. The family is in danger of losing their five-bedroom, 2,900-square-foot home. Even if they do, they believe their faith will help them with their finances.

The Rezas have turned to their church to help them climb out of debt. Courses on biblical financial planning - which emphasize paying off debt, saving and tithing - are now offered at more than a dozen churches in the Sacramento, Calif., region. More classes start in the fall.

"How we manage our money says a lot about how we feel about God," says Mark Eshoff, executive minister at Fremont Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, which has offered financial courses for several years. "When you are worried about money, you can't be free."

A half-dozen church leaders a week are asking about classes, more than twice as many as last year, says Pamela Christensen of Crown Financial Ministries.

"Their people are in a crisis situation, they don't know what to do," Ms. Christensen says. "They hear about what the Bible said about debt and it makes a lot of sense."

Ms. Christensen says money is mentioned more than 2,300 times in the Bible, more than any other topic, including the oft-cited Proverbs 22:7: "The rich rule over the poor and the borrower becomes the lender's slave."