This program will help you undo financial bondage.
When they carry the types of products and services we need, use, or enjoy, it's a good thing to patronize businesses that we know are owned by people who are faithful to Jesus Christ to model Christ likeness to those around them in word, deed, and giving to spread the gospel. The Great Commission identifies that the foremost mission we have among people is to evangelize and disciple them showing them the pathway to a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Our lifestyle of commitment to Him while we make many mistakes but are maturing to act more like Him will be one of the biggest tools in fulfilling our mission. This transformative process of a “sinner saved by grace” should become progressively evident in your family, neighborhood, community, and workplace as people around you notice that you do not act the way you used to nor engage in ungodly activities that you used to when you were an unbeliever.
You should also constantly ask God for, notice, and act upon opportunities to share the gospel with people who have or will have a heart to hear it. Don’t worry about your goodness being called into question. After all, it is the perfection and goodness of Jesus Christ that must be the focus of your proclamation, for only He can save and deliver from earthly and eternal bondage to sin and grant eternal life to replace the sentence of eternal damnation we would otherwise receive.
The business-owners spoken of above understand these truths and you can trust such faithful people to follow scriptural instructions and the Holy Spirit’s guidance. They make it a point to give a great portion of their profit as tithes and offerings toward worthwhile ministry and other benevolent endeavors in their communities, whereas non-Christian business-owners don't have a motivation to spread the good news because they have no allegiance to Christ.
In fact, many non-Christian businesses give to organizations with agendas that are destructive from a biblical perspective believing them to be liberating, enlightening, and politically correct (contrary to God’s word on the lifestyles and activities of those involved). Such endeavors lead people to bondage or help maintain it in their lives. Remember, satan told Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit so that her eyes could be opened, but her and Adam’s disobedience to God’s command not to eat of the fruit of that tree brought decay and destruction for themselves and all people after them including you and me.
So, as the scriptures direct, do first unto the household of faith by preferring to patronize businesses owned by faithful and giving Christians. In this way, you will take part with them in leading many other people to love and good works.
Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Genesis 3:1-7, Romans 12:10, Galatians 6:9-10, Hebrews 10:24-25
Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
MoneyWalk 463: Teach your children to be good money managers
This program will help you undo financial bondage.
Children do not learn through osmosis how to walk uprightly in life. They must see the right example from parents to whom they are closest and be encouraged and sometimes even made to walk out a process whereby they are going to have to make choices as to which path to take to obtain the result they desire. They are going to make mistakes because they are human, but through these mistakes and continual parental guidance they will learn which path is the best one to help reach their goals.
God has placed in each of us a knowledge of right (good) and wrong (evil) and we know that there are consequences that we’ll ultimately have to pay when we consistently choose wrong. God has also allowed each of us parameters where we live with an ability to make a number of different decisions without them being wrong. We walk in what is wrong when we choose to go outside the bounds of His specific commands that tell us not to do a particular wrong (covet, steal, etc.). Children need to be told this often and have it shared with them through scripture, so they understand God is speaking to them and not just Daddy, Mommy, teacher, or coach saying something.
You should speak and act under the authority of Jesus Christ and His moral authority. His example was (after a time of teaching and exampling how to serve people) to let His disciples go into surrounding communities without Him to serve the resident the Kingdom of God. This constituted sharing the gospel, teaching His commands and principles, and using the power of the Holy Spirit to meet physical needs (healing, delivering from bondage, giving to help the poor, being a Good Samaritan, etc.).
In order to establish a solid foundation for your children’s future, you should utilize when possible age appropriate allowances that allow children to manage a portion of the money that you plan to spend on them during each month. Your budget should be established first as an example to them and the allowance ought to be tied to optional tasks they can perform in order to have some of the treats they may desire to have (toys, food treats, outings, etc.). They should be taught that payment can only be expected for a task performed and completed well.
Allowance should not be tied to everything they are expected to do around the home or elsewhere. Some responsibilities are simply the privilege of being in the family and having their needs meet. Children should not be able to opt out of those responsibilities. Teach them this order of priority for managing money:
(1) God owns everything including what you have and the allowance you provide them. Therefore, they should look to His commands and principles for direction on how to spend their allowance and any other money they receive or earn.
(2) Giving should be the first thing they do each time they receive money. Preferably, they should be taught through your communication and example to give a tithe and free-will offering to their local church and other worthwhile ministries / charities whose works would please the heart of God. You should explain the benefits that God said givers would receive, such as give and it will be given unto you full measure and running over.
(3) Saving should be the next thing they do. At least ten percent for long-term goals put toward an emergency fund that is built to one year worth of allowances. After this is built the ten percent should be aimed at investments such as solid stocks and mutual funds. In the meantime and in-between time, they should be exposed to people and books that can explain how the banking and investment system work in our country. You should explain the wisdom and blessing that God said savers have: a wise man maintains stores of treasure but a foolish man spends everything he gets.
(4) Spending is the final step in the children’s good stewardship process. They should be told to stay away from using debt to obtain anything (no loans from Dad, Mom, or others) and to stick to using their own cash for purchases they make. If they can’t afford something that they want, they should be guided to set a future purchase goal and then save the entire amount of money before they purchase the item. You should explain that spending is a process that God established to allow us to receive many of His blessings. Yet, He designed a pathway on which to spend that would allow us to be blessed by spending decisions. Walking off this pathway brings curses into your life that will eventually show up as credit problems, foreclosures, repossessions, and bankruptcy later in life.
This process requires that you help them establish a budget, maintain it, and over time help them take the major responsibility for updating it and following it. You should label three jars: one giving, one saving, and one spending and help them learn to put the correct portion of their allowance in each jar to be spent during the month or year for the particular thing for which it is labeled. As your children mature, their allowances will likely grow as your income grows. You will want to increase their responsibility for purchasing items they desire that are not needs (gadgets, certain clothes, camps, etc.) while you continue to provide their basic needs (a home, food, and necessary clothing).
Turning this responsibility over to them to a greater degree will help them learn to make appropriate choices within the money they have and will grow them into adulthood with responsibility and wisdom that will bless them throughout their lives.
Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Galatians 6:7, Ephesians 6:1-4, Colossians 3:20, 1Timothy 3:4-5
Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!
Children do not learn through osmosis how to walk uprightly in life. They must see the right example from parents to whom they are closest and be encouraged and sometimes even made to walk out a process whereby they are going to have to make choices as to which path to take to obtain the result they desire. They are going to make mistakes because they are human, but through these mistakes and continual parental guidance they will learn which path is the best one to help reach their goals.
God has placed in each of us a knowledge of right (good) and wrong (evil) and we know that there are consequences that we’ll ultimately have to pay when we consistently choose wrong. God has also allowed each of us parameters where we live with an ability to make a number of different decisions without them being wrong. We walk in what is wrong when we choose to go outside the bounds of His specific commands that tell us not to do a particular wrong (covet, steal, etc.). Children need to be told this often and have it shared with them through scripture, so they understand God is speaking to them and not just Daddy, Mommy, teacher, or coach saying something.
You should speak and act under the authority of Jesus Christ and His moral authority. His example was (after a time of teaching and exampling how to serve people) to let His disciples go into surrounding communities without Him to serve the resident the Kingdom of God. This constituted sharing the gospel, teaching His commands and principles, and using the power of the Holy Spirit to meet physical needs (healing, delivering from bondage, giving to help the poor, being a Good Samaritan, etc.).
In order to establish a solid foundation for your children’s future, you should utilize when possible age appropriate allowances that allow children to manage a portion of the money that you plan to spend on them during each month. Your budget should be established first as an example to them and the allowance ought to be tied to optional tasks they can perform in order to have some of the treats they may desire to have (toys, food treats, outings, etc.). They should be taught that payment can only be expected for a task performed and completed well.
Allowance should not be tied to everything they are expected to do around the home or elsewhere. Some responsibilities are simply the privilege of being in the family and having their needs meet. Children should not be able to opt out of those responsibilities. Teach them this order of priority for managing money:
(1) God owns everything including what you have and the allowance you provide them. Therefore, they should look to His commands and principles for direction on how to spend their allowance and any other money they receive or earn.
(2) Giving should be the first thing they do each time they receive money. Preferably, they should be taught through your communication and example to give a tithe and free-will offering to their local church and other worthwhile ministries / charities whose works would please the heart of God. You should explain the benefits that God said givers would receive, such as give and it will be given unto you full measure and running over.
(3) Saving should be the next thing they do. At least ten percent for long-term goals put toward an emergency fund that is built to one year worth of allowances. After this is built the ten percent should be aimed at investments such as solid stocks and mutual funds. In the meantime and in-between time, they should be exposed to people and books that can explain how the banking and investment system work in our country. You should explain the wisdom and blessing that God said savers have: a wise man maintains stores of treasure but a foolish man spends everything he gets.
(4) Spending is the final step in the children’s good stewardship process. They should be told to stay away from using debt to obtain anything (no loans from Dad, Mom, or others) and to stick to using their own cash for purchases they make. If they can’t afford something that they want, they should be guided to set a future purchase goal and then save the entire amount of money before they purchase the item. You should explain that spending is a process that God established to allow us to receive many of His blessings. Yet, He designed a pathway on which to spend that would allow us to be blessed by spending decisions. Walking off this pathway brings curses into your life that will eventually show up as credit problems, foreclosures, repossessions, and bankruptcy later in life.
This process requires that you help them establish a budget, maintain it, and over time help them take the major responsibility for updating it and following it. You should label three jars: one giving, one saving, and one spending and help them learn to put the correct portion of their allowance in each jar to be spent during the month or year for the particular thing for which it is labeled. As your children mature, their allowances will likely grow as your income grows. You will want to increase their responsibility for purchasing items they desire that are not needs (gadgets, certain clothes, camps, etc.) while you continue to provide their basic needs (a home, food, and necessary clothing).
Turning this responsibility over to them to a greater degree will help them learn to make appropriate choices within the money they have and will grow them into adulthood with responsibility and wisdom that will bless them throughout their lives.
Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Galatians 6:7, Ephesians 6:1-4, Colossians 3:20, 1Timothy 3:4-5
Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!
Monday, March 7, 2011
MoneyWalk 90: You should act right now!
This program will help you undo financial bondage.
Sometimes you forget that God requires certain actions from you in order for His universal law of sowing and reaping to work situations out for your benefit. God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and sovereign and certainly can do what He wants whenever He wants. However, He has chosen to establish laws for our universe that will bring to pass positive or negative consequences for you depending upon whether or not you choose to follow lifestyle and action principles that conform to biblical instruction.
The bible identifies principles that God wants you to live by and even unbelievers follow some of them by virtue of the fact that God created each person and put in us knowledge of the law and the various principles through which we can conform to it. There is a whole in the soul of each of us that can only be filled and made whole by a relationship with Father God through Jesus Christ as guided by the Holy Spirit. Yet, the Father gave each of us free-will, so that we would not robotically follow Him but could choose on our own to love and trust Him via a personal relationship where we mature in obedience to His will which brings about the best possible results for us and others whose lives we touch.
While believers and unbelievers alike will suffer various negative situations on earth, it is God’s Word that the believer will inherit eternal life and a home in Heaven with Him where there will be no hurt, pain, suffering, destruction, nor any evil work. Only the love and light of God will exist in Heaven and thus surround all those who choose it as their home by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The Word also points out that those who use free-will to choose a path opposite of relationship with Christ and eternal life will continue to suffer negative consequences (Hell) far worse than those experienced on earth; all due to their own choosing. For God desired better for them and pointed out the way, the truth, and the life.
Biblical principles contain a benefit for everyone who obediently uses them and hold a negative consequence for those who disobediently reject the way God wants them to confess and live. Sometimes, the consequence is immediate. Many times, it takes awhile to manifest. More often than not on earth, we cannot tell whether suffering is caused by immorality or a specific immoral act because believers and unbelievers alike will face many of the same negative situations and have to deal with similar issues in life.
God can show mercy to anyone whenever He wants, but He's established one simple rule from which His Word shows He will not back down. Those who die without repenting of sin and accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and LORD are eternally damned because they have chosen this pathway. The Hell that they will live in for eternity is neither a pretty picture nor a home that anyone should desire. However, God is giving them exactly what they want based on the choice they made. Unfortunately, many are tricked into thinking there are no consequences to their choice for Christ and sometimes for other lifestyle behaviors on earth because their earthly existence seems to have been filled with the favor of the universe in power, prestige, great career position, higher education, money, resources, good relationships, etc. Sometimes, they experience such goodness on earth even more so than those who call themselves believers.
We must recognize that even though Satan is not all powerful, nor all knowing, nor all present (remember, God kicked Him out of Heaven when He coveted God’s position and throne and he fell to the earth like a flash of lightning!), God gave him the ability to entice earthly men by offering them the kingdoms and delicacies of this world if they would bow down to Him. As a human, Jesus resisted this temptation as an example to each of us that the Holy Spirit gives us power to also resist this offer and to do the will of our Heavenly Father while on earth and while looking to an eternal heavenly home.
The Father has given each person the ability to accept Him as Savior and LORD and to manage his / her affairs and resources, including money, in a way that pleases Him. Accept this love gift now and start living in the joy of a citizenship in an eternal Heavenly home not made by human hands but rather by the power and presence of the Living God.
Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Deuteronomy 28, Isaiah 14:12-15, Romans 6:23, Hebrews 11:6, Revelations 20:11-15
Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!
Sometimes you forget that God requires certain actions from you in order for His universal law of sowing and reaping to work situations out for your benefit. God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and sovereign and certainly can do what He wants whenever He wants. However, He has chosen to establish laws for our universe that will bring to pass positive or negative consequences for you depending upon whether or not you choose to follow lifestyle and action principles that conform to biblical instruction.
The bible identifies principles that God wants you to live by and even unbelievers follow some of them by virtue of the fact that God created each person and put in us knowledge of the law and the various principles through which we can conform to it. There is a whole in the soul of each of us that can only be filled and made whole by a relationship with Father God through Jesus Christ as guided by the Holy Spirit. Yet, the Father gave each of us free-will, so that we would not robotically follow Him but could choose on our own to love and trust Him via a personal relationship where we mature in obedience to His will which brings about the best possible results for us and others whose lives we touch.
While believers and unbelievers alike will suffer various negative situations on earth, it is God’s Word that the believer will inherit eternal life and a home in Heaven with Him where there will be no hurt, pain, suffering, destruction, nor any evil work. Only the love and light of God will exist in Heaven and thus surround all those who choose it as their home by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The Word also points out that those who use free-will to choose a path opposite of relationship with Christ and eternal life will continue to suffer negative consequences (Hell) far worse than those experienced on earth; all due to their own choosing. For God desired better for them and pointed out the way, the truth, and the life.
Biblical principles contain a benefit for everyone who obediently uses them and hold a negative consequence for those who disobediently reject the way God wants them to confess and live. Sometimes, the consequence is immediate. Many times, it takes awhile to manifest. More often than not on earth, we cannot tell whether suffering is caused by immorality or a specific immoral act because believers and unbelievers alike will face many of the same negative situations and have to deal with similar issues in life.
God can show mercy to anyone whenever He wants, but He's established one simple rule from which His Word shows He will not back down. Those who die without repenting of sin and accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and LORD are eternally damned because they have chosen this pathway. The Hell that they will live in for eternity is neither a pretty picture nor a home that anyone should desire. However, God is giving them exactly what they want based on the choice they made. Unfortunately, many are tricked into thinking there are no consequences to their choice for Christ and sometimes for other lifestyle behaviors on earth because their earthly existence seems to have been filled with the favor of the universe in power, prestige, great career position, higher education, money, resources, good relationships, etc. Sometimes, they experience such goodness on earth even more so than those who call themselves believers.
We must recognize that even though Satan is not all powerful, nor all knowing, nor all present (remember, God kicked Him out of Heaven when He coveted God’s position and throne and he fell to the earth like a flash of lightning!), God gave him the ability to entice earthly men by offering them the kingdoms and delicacies of this world if they would bow down to Him. As a human, Jesus resisted this temptation as an example to each of us that the Holy Spirit gives us power to also resist this offer and to do the will of our Heavenly Father while on earth and while looking to an eternal heavenly home.
The Father has given each person the ability to accept Him as Savior and LORD and to manage his / her affairs and resources, including money, in a way that pleases Him. Accept this love gift now and start living in the joy of a citizenship in an eternal Heavenly home not made by human hands but rather by the power and presence of the Living God.
Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Deuteronomy 28, Isaiah 14:12-15, Romans 6:23, Hebrews 11:6, Revelations 20:11-15
Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!
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