Debt Delusions

There are more than 2,000 verses teaching about finances in the Bible. As my church gets ready to start Financial Peace University #9, I wanted to write my thoughts on finances you probably won’t like me much after you finish reading it though. Still needs to be said. This blog is especially written to those, like myself, who have been (or are) caught by the “Debt Delusions”.

Proverbs 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.”

Luke 14:28-30 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.”

How many of you have enjoyed playing the game MONOPOLY? You know how the game works. Players accumulate property, build houses and hotels, and then wait for the other players to land on their property so they have to pay up. Eventually you hope to bankrupt everyone else and have all the money and property. America at its best!

Regardless of who wins the game, when the game is finished, the board is folded up, all the game pieces are put away, and the lid goes on the box. It has only been a game.

Owning a Rolls Royce, an extravagant house, and living a “the Rich and Famous” life will yield no more joy for eternity than winning at MONOPOLY. When your life is over, the game pieces are put away, and the lid is closed on your coffin. It won’t really matter who owned the railroads or Boardwalk.

Earthly wealth doesn’t guarantee earthly happiness or heavenly treasure.

Something is obviously going seriously wrong in our country. More and more people are spending more than they make each month. if we are going to be set free from financial bondage we need to understand that debt is a symptom, not the root problem. Materialism is the problem. (1 Tim. 6:9-10, Luke 12:15)

When we take our children to buy a Happy Meal. You’re not just buying fries, McNuggets, and a dinosaur stamp; you’re buying happiness. Their advertisements have convinced our children that: "Our hearts are restless till we find our rest in a happy meal."

The problem with the Happy Meal is that the happy wears off, and they need a new fix. No child discovers lasting happiness in just one and say: "Remember that Happy Meal? What great joy I found there!"

Happy Meals bring happiness only to McDonalds. You ever wonder why Ronald McDonald wears that grin? Twenty billion Happy Meals, that’s why. When you get older, you don’t get any smarter; your happy meals just get more expensive.

There is a lie that Satan uses over and over again to lure people away from the life that God desires for them. It’s the “Happy Meal” lie. Buy this and you will be happy. Get rich and your problems will disappear. It is the lie that materialism will fill the empty place inside.

It doesn’t matter whether we earn a little or a lot, whether we spend everything or hoard it all. When we find ourselves in financial bondage we are preoccupied with money. We become anxious about meeting present obligations, and are driven to get more money and the things money can buy.

The good news for all of us here today is that God is concerned about our financial affairs. He is not only concerned, he can teach us the right way to handle our money and he will bless us in the process. God knows all too well that the love of money leads to all kinds of evil. He knows that materialism is a trap and that many people have fallen into it and have been plunged into ruin and destruction.

That is why God’s Word has so much to say about the proper perspective toward money and proper principles for handling it.

For those of you who haven’t taken Financial Peace with Dave Ramsey, here are a few tips that the bible says:

Financial freedom: we must work to earn a living-
1. The Bible teaches that we should strive to earn an honest living.
2. When God created Adam, he took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (Gen. 2:15)
3. 2 Thessalonians 3:12, 10 “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command and urge such people to settle down and earn the bread they eat” “We gave you this rule: If a man will not work, he shall not eat”
4. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you. So that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

BUT! There is a big difference between all of us and our abilities to make a living.
1. Some have many more abilities than others and many have worked very hard to make themselves more marketable by receiving years training and schooling. We are who we are, where we are, and we have to do the best we can for the glory of God.
2. The best way to advancement of any kind is to work hard in whatever situation we are in. Those people who sit back and “wait for their ship to come in”, must realize that ships don’t come in, we have to swim out to them.
3. Jesus taught in the Parable of the Minas that the servant who proved himself was rewarded with more opportunity. Jesus said, “Well done, my good servant…because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities” Luke 19:17.

Okay, so here is the “No Brainer” Tip, AVOID DEBT!

1. Indebtedness is a crippling epidemic in our culture. Consumer debt sits like an invisible elephant in the center of far too many homes, including Christian homes.
2. What we sometimes fail to understand is the way debt works against us. When the credit card company sends their cards, they don’t attach an instruction sheet explaining how 27% (this can be larger) interest works for them and against us when we don’t pay off our bill.


Have you ever heard people say, “I just don’t know where my money goes?” The reason they don’t know where it goes is because they don’t look. And they don’t look because they don’t want to know (been there, done that). Bringing design to our money management requires that we assess how much we have, identify what is coming in, track what we spend it on, and estimate what we will have for the future.

One person described the function of a budget as “telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”
Another person said, “Money talks and mine always says – good-bye.”
Ever use fly paper? As a kid in New Jersey, I remember mom hanging it in our house…it was somewhat curly, and she would hang it from the ceiling…I thought it was Christmas or something! Well, fly paper has on its surface a sweet, honey-like substance, which is also very sticky. It’s a simple principle: the fly approaches saying, I want the honey, want the honey, and want the honey! He lands and begins to eat, saying, I got the honey, got the honey, got the honey…and he tries to leave.
Then the paper says, I got the fly, got the fly, got the fly!

We avoid budgeting because we want to spend impulsively, and a budget requires that we sort out the difference between needs and wants. If we really value financial freedom, then a budget is invaluable. Many people today run around saying, I want the money, want the money, want the money…and before they know it, the money has got them!

So, now here’s the biggest TIP!,

GIVE to GOD!!!

People who are financially free are in a position to be generous. Because they have been intentional with their finances, they are not strapped by debt and are in a position to respond generously for kingdom purposes and to the needs of others.

Giving to the Lord cannot wait until we have financial freedom! It must begin immediately, regardless of the situation we are in.

When we find ourselves financially strapped, the first thing to go out the window is usually our giving to the Lord. There are plenty of scriptures that support this. The best proof, ask anybody who is following this principle. They will have some testimony for you.
In Africa, there’s a certain monkey that’s considered a delicacy to eat (yummy, bring me a fork and knife!) They have a proven method for capturing these monkeys. The build a little box, put a whole in the side of the box, and fill the box w/ nuts and fruit. The hole is just big enough for the monkey to slide his hand thru, but once he grabs the food, making a fist, he can’t get it back out thru the hole! And he will stand there for hours, rather than to drop the food!
Matter of fact, he’s so greedy for the food, the natives can actually walk right up to him, and knock him in the head…he would rather commit monkey-cide than to drop that food.

Some are committing financial suicide, because they won’t let go of the tithe!

We obviously need to make money, avoid dept and most importantly tithe. It’s a decision, a habit and God’s principal. You do want to do God’s work…. Right?
(Stay tuned for my next blog. It will help you make the right decision about finances and life itself!)

Listening...

Listening...

A man asked his wife what she'd like for her birthday. 'I'd love to be eight again' she replied. On the morning of her birthday, he arose early and made her a bowl of Coco Pops and milk!

He took her to Busch Gardens and put her on every ride in the park.
Five hours later she staggered out of the theme park. Her head was
reeling and her stomach felt upside down.

Right away they journeyed to a McDonalds where her loving husband ordered her a Happy Meal with extra fries and a refreshing chocolate milk shake. Then it was off to the movies: the latest children’s three hour cartoon show, a hot dog, popcorn, all the Coke she could drink, her favorite lollipop and M&Ms. What a fabulous adventure!

Finally she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed onto the bed exhausted. He leaned over his precious wife with a big smile and
lovingly asked 'Well dear, what was it like being eight again?' Her eyes
slowly opened and her expression changed to one of total
realization...'I meant my dress size, silly!

The moral of this story:
Even when one is listening, we can still get it wrong

These past couple weeks the Pastor has been sharing on Parenting. Boy, did I need to hear this. It hurt so well! Sometimes, I think our Senior Pastor sends out these investigators to see what I need correction in. Of course this isn’t the truth, but he does have an inside connection… God!!!

Which brings me to this weeks inside job, our inside connection. When I was first saved and water baptized in Christ, my thoughts were on my invincibility. Nothing seemed to faze me; nothing seemed to need correction; I not only read my bible everyday but many times a day. I prayed whenever I thought about my faith. I fervently researched the word and it’s truths.
2 Tim 2:15 (KJV) “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Yes, that was my theme verse, I wanted to be approved by researching the word of truth. I continued in this manner for a few years walking with my head held high thinking nothing could harm me. I should have studied Ephesians 6 a little closer, you think?
I was knocked down off my horse, and I saw it coming. At the time I was sharing a Townhouse with another Christian Man and great friend. Within our study group, there was a married lady, will call her Ann, attended regularly without her husband. It was a mixed group and we all had our specific prayer partners, mine being my roommate.
Not long after our group had left for the evening, Ann called and I had answered the phone. Seems her husband was taken to Jail for abusing her which she stated was the actual fact. She was in the hospital being taken care of and would be released soon. She was hoping her prayer partner hadn’t left the house yet since she couldn’t reach her on the phone.
To make a long story short, I got a hold of her partner and we both went and picked her up. My first mistake was allowing her to stay in my home for fear her husband would get out of jail quickly. I know… I didn’t think it through. Even still, everything went fine and she went to work the next day.
She worked as an Operator for a Live Phone Answering company and she worked the second shift. She stayed with us for a week when one night she called the house and said her car wouldn’t start, and could I give her a ride home. This is where the 2nd and biggest mistake began.
It’s often been stated that God may speak to us in a “still, small, voice”. God spoke to me concerning picking her up from work and it wasn’t a still small voice. He spoke loudly to me… not to go! If anybody else was in the house with me, anywhere in the house; they would have heard it too. I wouldn’t be surprised if the neighbors on the next block had heard it.
Did I listen… nope. Call it ignorance; selective hearing; I had a one track mind. I was determined to help my friend. I got into my car and it wouldn’t start, so I had the neighbor give me a jump start. Curious enough, I had never had a starting problem with this car before.
Upon getting to her employment place, I sat and waited for her outside. There are a couple things that may be helpful in understanding this situation. Where she works was a high security area, I wasn’t allowed inside the building. The building was positioned in the back of a Business Park which sat next to a wooded park.
As I sat in my car, I noticed movement to my right. That is just before he broke my driver side window. He had a coat hanger straightened out that he wrapped around my neck and attempted to pull me from the car, through the window. It was my quick reaction that I was able to insert my hand between the coat hanger and my throat.
When he realized he couldn’t pull me out, he took a stick that he had sharpened to a point and attempted to gouge my neck with it. Apparently the stick was to dry and broke in the process. This seemed to infuriate this person and he grabbed me by the shoulders and finally managed to pull me out the window.
Recognition finally came to me as I saw that it was Ann’s husband. Apparently he had finally been released and he came looking for her. This is also when I found out her husband was a trained Martial Artist. As he punched and kicked me repeatedly, besides attempting to defend myself, I prayed. (This is probably a good place to tell you that I wasn’t trained in martial arts. Where was Mr. Miyagi when you need him?)
God did answer my prayer, and 5 minutes before the Police arrived, he stopped beating on me. He picked me up off the ground, set me down on the curb, and then sat and talked to me. His wife had seen the commotion and called 911.
As the Police arrived, they took one look at me, called for an ambulance and arrested him. In the ambulance, the only thing I remember is the Medical person asked me what I did to warrant such a beating. I believe I said, “I didn’t listen to God!”
There is more to this God story but I think you get the picture. Even though God told me not to go, he was still there for me. I’m not sure what would have happened if I listened but I do know what happened when I didn’t.
(For the LORD thy God is a merciful God ;) he will not forsake thee, nor destroy thee…
Deut 4:31 (KJV)
All this happened 25 years ago and to say it didn’t change my life would be nothing more than exaggeration. I still have the same excitement/passion that I had back then but I also learned a very valuable lesson. I was thinking of myself during this time, trying to perfect my spirituality, like that could be achieved.

I would say the experience opened my eyes to listening to the Lord more effectively. There is no moral to the story, morals are man’s idea. I will say this though; God is with you always, even when we don’t listen. When we listen with full awareness in the moment, the quality of listening becomes a quality of loving. And when we listen to God, or more specifically, listen to God’s will for us, we can cultivate a more satisfying and loving experience of life.

Can you remember a time when God was there for you even when you didn’t listen?

Listening: Spiritual Discipline

My inside job question is, am I listening effectively to God? Since God is a person, who desires intimacy with those who he calls his friends, is it possible God talks to us?

Yes!!!

God wants us to listen to his voice - he created us for that very purpose. God is not human so we would expect that listening to God might be a bit different from listening to another person. Yet we are also spiritual beings, made in the image of God, and created for communion, and therefore communication, with him. God has built numerous ways into the creation by which we hear him speak.
There are a number of effective ways for people to develop their spiritual hearing and discernment. Human imagination is not only intended for us to make things up but a way for God to work within us, creatively. The human memory not only recalls information from our past, but it is crucial to our ability to imagine the future.
As Christians, it pretty much goes without saying that we love God and want to obey Him. The issue for many of us Christians is similar to the issues we all face today. God speaks, but often people do not listen. I know that as a parent, there many times when I am irritated with my son because I have asked him to do something, and then upon finding out that the task didn’t get done, he’d claim, well, “you never told me to do that.” What’s even more frustrating is when I remember, distinctly, telling them, to do that chore. I spoke; he heard me, but he didn’t listen.
God speaks, but that we sometimes do not listen. So let me ask you, when is the last time God spoke to you? Does He speak to you? And if so, do you hear him? Are you listening to Him?
What are the ways we as Christians can learn to listen to, and obey God? God wants us to do more than simply hear Him; He wants us to listen, and in listening, we have God on our side as we resist evil, and, moreover, turn our lives in the direction of God. So listening to God is far more than hearing. But hearing is the starting point of where we receive God’s word. In His love for us, he has given us many ways to hear His message and to listen to it; these ways are gifts from God or spiritual disciplines.
These spiritual disciplines are practices—they are putting into practice what we have learned. The Bible itself lists many of the spiritual disciplines that God has given us, as tools in growing closer to Him. One of the most important spiritual disciplines is God’s Holy Word. The Bible unfolds the Law of God to us and shows us how we have all broken it.
When we hear and listen to the written Word of God, we are literally hearing and listening to our own salvation.
Romans 10:17,
“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
We learn the ways and will of the Lord; we find how to live in a way that is pleasing to God in hearing God’s Word.
Luke 11:28,
“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
So the Bible is our first line of communication with God. We can study it, we can memorize it, we can read it as part of our daily devotion. These are all spiritual disciplines related to God’s Word.
“The largest radio receive on earth is in New Mexico. Its name is the Very Large Array, also know as the VLA. It is a series of huge satellite disks on thirty-eight miles of railways. Why is such a giant satellite needed? Because the radio waves, often emitted from sources millions of light years away, are very faint. The total energy of all radio waves ever recorded barely equals the force of a single snowflake hitting the ground. What great lengths people will go to searching for a faint message from space when God has already spoken so clearly through His Son and through His Word.
2 Peter 1:19
“We have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
God not only has spoken clearly and powerfully to us through Christ and through the Scripture, the Lord also has a V. L. E…
Very Large Ear continuously open to hearing us. God hears every prayer of His children, even when our prayers are weaker than a snowflake. Communication by prayer is second only to the God’s Holy Word in importance. Not only does God want to hear our prayer, but He expects us to pray to Him.
God commands us to pray.
Colossians 4:2 the
“devote yourselves to prayer.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-17,
“be joyful always; pray continuously; give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Martin Luther said, “As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.”

Matthew 4:10
“As it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
Psalm 95:6
“let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”
Worshiping, together with the first two spiritual disciplines, works together in our spiritual life. In worship, we focus our attention on God. True worship of God is more than going to Church on Sunday though.
Matthew 15:8,
“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
True worship of God happens when we put God first in our lives; matters more than what others say; and when loving God, matters more than being loved. The heart of worship is to seek to know and love God in our own unique way.
There are many Spiritual Disciplines and we need to focus our lives on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Spiritual Disciplines that God has given us open us up to Him.
Here’s how I remember it:
W = worshiping God
O = opening myself to God
R = relinquishing the false self and idols of my heart
S = sharing my life with others
H = hearing the Word of God
I = incarnate Christ’s love for the world
P = pray to God.
This helps me to hear God.
God Bless!!!

Courage

What makes a King out of a slave?
What makes the flag on the mast to wave?
What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk?
Courage.
What makes the Sphinx the 7th Wonder?
What makes the dawn come up like THUNDER?!
What makes the Hottentot so hot?
What puts the "ape" in ape-ricot?
Whatta they got that I ain't got?
Courage!
As quoted by the Cowardly Lion in the “Wizard of Oz”.

Is this a good representation of courage? Probably from a materialistic or secular view it could well be. Some say courage is the discovery that you may not win and trying when you know you can lose.

An action is courageous if you attempt to achieve an end despite penalties, risks, costs, or difficulties that normally deter most people. Similarly a state such as joyfulness is courageous if it is maintained no matter what the difficulties may be. Courage is not the absence of fear, it’s an ability to feel the appropriate amount of fear.

My inside remodeling job this week has been courage. I have courage but not in the areas that I feel I need it most this week. It hurts to be interested in someone and not knowing if that they feel the same way. What even hurts more is to be interested in that person but never finding the courage to let them know how you feel.

I read this story the other day about an Eagle and some chickens. It seems this farmer found an eagle egg out near the edge of the pasture and the forest. He brought it back to the farm and placed it into the chicken coop with hopes that it would still hatch. The miracle is the chickens treated it as there own and it eventually did hatch.

As the eaglet was born the chickens taught him the way of the chicken. How to scratch at the ground and crack the corn; eat the worms; or bugs found there. As a matter of fact, that Eaglet was very good at finding food and became well fed.

About a year or so later the Eaglet turned into a beautiful Eagle. As the Eagle was outside the coop looking for food he gazed upwards, noticing how beautiful the birds in the sky soared through the air.

The Eagle said, “How great would it be to soar and fly like that one day”. The chickens quickly admonished the Eagle saying he couldn’t fly; would get caught in the chicken wire; or if by chance made it out, would die of starvation.

The Eagle believed the chickens and a few weeks later the farmer came to check on the Eagle. The Eagle didn’t seem to be outside the chicken coop so he looked inside the coop. Over in the corner was the Eagle, dead.

What’s this story have to do with courage? We sometimes get so used our lifestyle that we fear stepping out of the box, learning to fly so to speak. If the Eagle only tried, gained courage and didn’t listen to the chickens he would have flown the coop. Sometimes we believe what others say, a sense of familiarity if you will, that keeps us from being who we ought to be. Our prayers and dreams are attainable when we have courage and not when we listen to the chickens.

What/who are your chickens? Are you feeling like your stuck in the chicken coop?

So what does God think of courage???

Deut 31:6-8 (KJV)
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shall cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

Psalms 31:24 (KJV)
Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.

If God be for us who can be against.

"Christian courage is the willingness to say and do the right thing regardless of the earthly cost, because God promises to help you and save you on account of Christ."

God Bless