MoneyWalk 125: How Would You Feel If...?

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Most people have at least three credit cards, six charge cards, several cars and a home with large monthly payments because they've been taught to want more expensive material things than their parents provided while they were growing up and more than they can truly afford at any given point in time. They haven't considered the spiritual implications of these financial decisions. Namely, the Christian borrower becomes servant to the worldly lender as a result of such loan transactions.

Normal taxation of our income leaves somewhere around 60% of our gross monthly income to fund the things we absolutely need (food, shelter, and clothing) and other things we desire. However, living in less expensive shelter and buying less expensive food and clothing seems like torture to most people even if they would only need to endure it for a short amount of time.

So, they borrow exorbitantly to get the things they desire. Not realizing that this will bring financial hardship into their marriages, families, and ministry with the possibility of dissolving these relationships. Many times the borrower becomes useless to God because he entertains the thought that he cannot spend his time attending to his spouse, children, and ministry otherwise he cannot do what he believes is necessary to make an income to pay the bills and build riches.

On the outside, people with this mindset often appear to have all the material trappings that other people should want. Yet, they really have very little that they own and some of what they have is about to be taken via foreclosure, repossession, and garnished wages. Behind smiling faces, they’re often living a tortured life because of the decisions they’ve made that go against biblical financial principles.

Throughout the existence of mankind, the Lord has instructed man on how to live trusting His fatherly character and grace to provide us with everything we need for life and godliness. He wants you to understand that anything needed that is beyond your level of current wealth to provide should rely on His non-torturous system of short-term delayed gratification. This mindset of being content and exhibiting self-control to restrain your purchases builds you into the humble, useful, and fruitful man or woman of God you are designed to be because it leads you to tithe to worthwhile church ministries in order to build the kingdom of God in the hearts of men through preaching and missionary works.

It also leads you to budget, have a plan to eliminate debt, save, invest, and diversify. This pattern brings supernatural blessing upon you that will remove the pressure of debt and allow all your income to be disposable for the work of ministry and fulfillment of your purpose. At a later stage in life, it allows you to afford more of the things you desire and to minister more within your community and around the world and to give more to help others come into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and to help meet needs they cannot provide at the current time. Many times the latter stage is only five to seven years after you purpose in your heart and take action to truly live out biblical financial principles.

How would you feel if this rich life applied to you? I'll tell you: you’d feel great about ever abounding in the work of the Lord and being a good example of Christian stewardship to everyone around you. So, get started today by committing to God’s way and changing those patterns in your life that are not in line with biblical instruction. And so shall you prosper!

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Deuteronomy 28:12-13, Psalms 37:21-22, Proverbs 22:6-7, Luke 14:28-30, Romans 13:8

Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!

You can find books authored by Randy and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com.

MoneyWalk 124: Preparing for Crisis

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

In order to reach your highest potential of blessing and usefulness to God as well as prepare for and make it through crisis times, you must employ a daily routine of reading scripture, praying, and regularly attending local church services. In addition, you must develop plans for dealing with emergency problems by:

1) Trusting the LORD completely

2) Understanding emergencies will occur

3) Recognizing you can overcome them by God’s grace and empowerment

4) Identifying your present financial condition

5) Exhibiting self-control in your spending in order to save at least six months of income to cover emergencies

6) Diligently paying off debts

7) Investing remaining disposable income in order to produce greater growth

When you trust the LORD, a loss of money and other possessions will not hamper your joy and peace. In most instances, if you remain a good steward of the possessions He entrusts to you then losses will likely be short-term. In addition, you’ll continue to glorify Him by leading the lost to Jesus Christ and by serving others. You greatly enhance your ability to weather the crisis storms and eliminate stress when you build wealth by saving for emergencies, eliminating debt, and maintaining a lifestyle of investing in diversified instruments. Such stewardship also helps you overcome temptations to obtain money in ways that displease God (deceit, oppression of others, illegal occupations, under-the-table payments, etc.).

When you live this way, losses will be temporary instead of permanent setbacks. The trials you endure will be situations that help you move into a much greater place of faith and abundance. You’ll live in Joseph’s experience. What the enemy means for bad for you, God will turn it for your good and bring you into the wealthy place. The pre-planning you employ for emergencies and the ability to first use resources you’ve saved may well determine whether and to what degree other people will come to your rescue. Sometimes, we think the neediest get the greatest amount of help. However, God’s word says, “to him who has the most will more be given.” Greater faith, greater devotion to God, and greater commitment to good stewardship usually bring greater avenues of help and resources in times of trouble.

Over time, the good steward usually finds that he doesn’t need help for what would an emergency at another point in time in his life because his continued godly stewardship has allowed him the ability to cover the costs of these situations. It’s a great feeling knowing that emergencies that would have crippled you financially a little while ago are now just blips on the screen. Don't miss your opportunity to exhibit trust in God, daily devotion to Him, and planning to protect and preserve your family. Not only will this bless you immensely, it will be a godly example for others to follow with regard to making it through crisis and avoiding the financial pain that they otherwise produce.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Genesis 41, 1Kings 17:9, Proverbs 16:9, Luke 14:28-32, 2Corinthians 9:1-5

Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!

You can find books authored by Randy and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com.

MoneyWalk 123: Emergency Preparations

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You're going to have an emergency at some point in your life that will, to resolve the situation, require an immediate expenditure of an abnormal amount of money. The emergency may be unemployment that lasts longer than normal, a long-term illness within your family, legal fees to protect against criminal or civil prosecution, a big hole in your roof, a furnace that stops working, friends and relatives who need help recovering from a catastrophic loss, or a sub-prime adjustable rate mortgage where your payment is about to go through the roof.

If you spend all that you make and borrow more to finance today's desires, then you're going to suffer greatly when an emergency rears its head. As a matter of fact, when you fail to plan how you're going to provide for yourself when emergencies occur you allow the emergency to have a bigger and more devastating impact in your life.

You can conquer negative effects of emergencies by pre-planning how you intend to come up with needed money when such situations occur. There’s a supernatural side to planning where God puts the supernatural blessing into motion to help take care of the emergency when you consistently take natural actions that the scriptures command you to take in order to be a good steward.

When you are faithful over the little that you currently have, then God makes you ruler over much more as you move into the future. This is the same God who made a two piece fish dinner into a meal for 5,000 men with multiple thousands of women and children. The little boy that brought the one person meal was able to take home twelve baskets of food left over after everyone ate because he was willing to give his meal to support the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you’re a child of God, you can trust God to provide for you when you put into action biblical principles He has instructed you to use.

You'll prosper greatly when you envision God as the Great I Am, the All-Sufficient One, and Everything you need and then truly trust Him to be all you need. This will lead you to study the bible (His basic-instructions-before-leaving-earth) to help you understand that one purpose for your life on earth is to reconcile as many people as possible to Jesus Christ. Also, it will lead you to obey important principles for your continued growth such as regular weekly fellowship with other believers and faithful involvement in ministry work at your local church. These practices build the kingdom of God by imparting the gospel into people in your local community and around the world.

Scripture will help you understand that you immensely help the Church (Jesus Christ’s body) complete the work God gave us to do by faithfully honoring Him by giving ten percent of your income and an offering to your local church. His Word confirms that a righteous man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. Thus, you’ll recognize that using temperance to control your spending will work you into debt freedom, saving, investing, and other entrepreneurial endeavors that will greatly bless you, other people, and your family through the totality of ministry and abilities God imparted to you.

Biblically-based good stewardship of your money, resources, and life based on scriptural instruction provides a safe haven for you against the inevitable emergencies that will occur. It also gives you a great opportunity to share the gospel with other people through your testimony and the examples of your life before, during, and after emergencies come into your life.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Genesis 41, Psalms 68:6, Matthew 28:20, Acts 4:12, 32-37, Hebrews 10:25

Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!

You can find books authored by Randy and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com.

MoneyWalk 122: Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Many people spend more time than necessary worrying about how they can better themselves financially, so they can move up to what they perceive as a higher more wealthy class in life. They pursue degrees, human networks, and political alliances to achieve this end and unfortunately some choose crime. They purchase worldly books and magazines and look at every financial program on TV without realizing that the world system and its economic models continues to result in the masses being impoverished while a few people benefit greatly, no matter which economic or social system is utilized.

All worldly models tempt low and middle-income earners to develop animosity toward those that have received great wealth while at the same time leading them to try and use worldly financial methods to increase their own income and wealth. The funny thing is if they are one of the few that make it to the land of wealth, they will be in the same position of which they accused other wealthy people.

These models also produce in many of the wealthy an aristocratic arrogance, haughtiness, and animosity toward low and middle-income earners supposing that they are lazy or just don’t have a high enough IQ to really prosper. To be sure these ungodly attitudes are not the sole domain of wealthy people. So, no matter what financial position you are in right now or may be in at a future period in time, avoid the trap of developing a bad attitude and communicating beliefs about other people's morality, ethics, work practices, etc. based on their current financial situation.

Now, it remains a truth as long as we live on earth that when an able-bodied man will not work he also should not eat freely of the produce of those who are responsible and disciplined at work. Yet, it also remains true that all those who produce and are blessed with wealth are commanded by God to give to help others who are poor and in need. This shows that God does not believe that everyone who is poor is or has been irresponsible and undisciplined.

If a person has not pleased the LORD in getting where they are (whether rich, poor, or middle class), the LORD will deal with him/her. First, He will instruct them so they know the right attitude and actions to have in living out this life and relating to other people. Second, He will give them a short time to eliminate the ungodly ways and progressively live out godly principles. At some point, on earth or in eternity He will judge those who simply choose to oppress, abuse, hurt, and falsely accuse other people or people groups.

By all means, stop using the world's financial methods because they will keep you in bondage. Begin using biblical financial principles because they work for everyone and lead to godly productivity, eternal treasure, and earthly blessing. Also, realize that some principles used by unbelievers can line up with scriptural guidance and produce blessing for them even if they don’t know it or know why; things like casting vision, setting goals, giving to charity, budgeting, saving, investing, etc.

In order to avoid future financial trouble and to avoid veering away from your relationship with the Lord and the consequences that it ultimately brings to your life, you must always measure guidance you receive (from believers and unbelievers alike) by the stewardship and lifestyle principles contained in the bible. Proper application of these principles always leads you to seek God first and His righteousness. Then, all the other things that you need for life and godliness will be added unto you!

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Deuteronomy 8:18-20, Psalms 37:4, Matthew 6:32-33, James 4:15-17

Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!

You can find books authored by Randy and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com.