MoneyWalk 176: Principles For Prospering

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

No matter what anyone tells you, there are only three fundamental steps to financial freedom and the start with the belief in first Giving to glorify the Lord, second Saving a reasonable portion of your income second, and third establishing a Spending that is only allows you to spend no more than approximately 70% of your gross pay after taxes, tithing, offering, and saving have been accounted for.

Some say you have to earn a certain amount of income, own a business, or invest in specific things to become wealthy and bypass poverty. Such pursuits could work, however scripture doesn’t say and reality doesn’t show that income levels, entrepreneurial endeavors, and specific investments always lead to financial freedom for everyone or for most people.

Yet, the bible does say and show that in order to build treasures in Heaven and gain financial freedom on earth, you must consistently tithe and give free-will offering for ministry work, live well beneath your pay (income), and save a reasonable portion of your income in diversified investment vehicles.

When His will takes priority over your fleshly desires your faith and obedience helps you build wealth to support ministry and family responsibilities. Thus, you will no longer need or seek loans where you have to pay an ungodly middle-man (banks, financial institutions, retailers, etc.) a high amount of interest with your payments.

Instead you will be able to earn and save enough cash for purchases you want to make. When you no longer have to pay high interest bills and you are operating on a debt-free basis the money you formerly doled out to the banks, etc. can be used to further God’s kingdom. Twenty to thirty years down the road, through compound interest and growth on your accumulated surplus, you will likely have a larger annual income from your investments than you earned while working.

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

Genesis 14:20, Habakkuk 2:2-4, Proverbs 12:11, 13:23-25, 2Corinthians 8:9-12

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 175: Paying Off Loans Always Makes Sense

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

A lifestyle that moves you to eliminating all debt, including mortgages, always betters your long-term financial condition because it positions you to always be able to honor God with your tithes and offerings so the windows of Heaven are opened to you for the pouring down of greater future rewards.

Some financial advisors tell people it is not good to pay off a current mortgage because you can make more money by investing in the stock market or by leveraging your money to obtain more loans to get investment real estate and the monthly rental payments they believe will come from it. However, this is tricky at best because even with investment advice most people are not good enough investors to be able to get greater annual investment return than the interest charged on their mortgage(s).

Financial advisors have their place and reputable ones should be consulted to help educate you to be a responsible manager of the money entrusted to you and to help you maintain emotional composure and reasonable investment allocation / diversification when the economic environment looks good, bad, or indifferent over short and long periods of time. But, you should not use them because you believe they have the ability to pick the greatest investments and guarantee gains on investments. For good reason the SEC requires investment firms to put the following type of statement on their investment literature, “Past investment returns are no guarantee of future investment results.”

In addition, most people are simply not good landlords and managers of rental property business or good at fixing up and flipping properties and so they lose money on these investment choices and find that over the years they are not in a better financial position than if they had simply paid off their mortgage and saved and reasonably invested over the course of the years of their lives. The problem is exacerbated when the properties are not within close proximity to where they live.

Another thing that people are often told by financial advisors, accountants, and tax preparers is that they should keep their mortgages because of the tax reduction that the interest payments afford them each year. However, they usually make a flawed analysis of this situation in that the amount of interest you pay needs to be greater than the standard deduction on your federal tax return in order for you to itemize deductions to be able to get a tax reduction.

For this and other reasons, many people with mortgages do not itemize their federal tax returns. In addition, even if you could get a tax reduction, you should consider whether it is smart to pay out $1,000 when you do not need to in order to get 15 to 25% of it back through a tax reduction ($150 to $250), especially when you cannot get a guaranteed return on the investment that you would supposedly engage. Let’s be honest, most people will never make or maintain an investment when they don’t employ rapid mortgage debt reduction plans. They usually spend the extra money on frivolous stuff that they cannot remember a few years down the road. Yet, rapidly paying off your mortgage will build the right kind of discipline and always be remembered and cherished.

I understand that part of the benefit you may get from a mortgage is the ability to get a house that you want right now with the price locked in because you do not currently have the assets to immediately pay the full asking price. However, that does not make it smart to continue paying mortgage interest when you could in fact pay off the mortgage.

You will lift a great debt burden off your shoulders and will feel extreme freedom and will have removed the possibility that you could one day be in a situation where a financial institution is foreclosing on the home(s) that you have made monthly payments on for so long. You can at the point of mortgage payoff begin saving what was your monthly mortgage payment and then not have to worry about whether or not you can actually earn more than the mortgage interest amount.

You are also free to take extra investment risk with a portion of the money if you choose to do so without running into the possibility that you may one day owe financial institutions money that you cannot pay them. This type of financial freedom relieves stress and pressure and puts you in a position where God can entrust you with far more money and resources because you have proven to be a good steward whose eyes and actions are on Him and His way rather than the way of the world.

If this situation is best for mortgages, it is even better for other type of loans (car notes, revolving charge cards, student loans, etc.) because they generally offer none of the tax reduction options that home mortgages provide and have much higher finance charges.

That is why I implore you to save a one month emergency fund, then pay off all non-home mortgage debt (car loans, credit cards, etc.), then save at least six months of emergency funds or at least twelve months if you are self employed or have uneven / uncertain monthly income, and finally to pay off your mortgage as fast as you can by making extra principle payments on it.

Eliminating debt and being debt-free for ten, twenty, or more years will usually afford you with hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of dollars more of assets that you get the gains from and use of in order to properly care for your family, fund the gospel, pursue your God-given purpose, and enjoy good things without being stressed out and pressed out. Therefore, paying off loans always makes sense, so that you are not ensnared by the awful consequences of debt that can so quickly overtake you when you least expect it.

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

Deuteronomy 28:12, Proverbs 22:7, Romans 13:8, 1Peter 5:8

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 174: Let The Truth Be Told

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Home ownership is usually touted as the foundation for and means for all Americans to build wealth. However, irresponsible people, those misinformed about the costs of home ownership above the monthly payment, and those who move to higher cost homes every 5 to 10 years generally have not become wealthier than the average renter. Many are as debt laden as many renters having purchased more home than they can truly afford for many years to come. Not to mention, many of their mortgages are severely under water owing far more to the financial institutions that hold them than the homes are worth.

It is not automatically true that owning a home makes you wealthier or will do so in the future. Believing this lie and acting upon it without first counting the true cost of home ownership and debt freedom will cost you dearly as it has many millions of people in the past. Believing the lie will move you to do anything to get a house like accepting predatory lending terms with high interest rates and costs. It will also lead you to believe you can afford what the banks say you can afford rather than you making an honest assessment of your finances to know what you can truly afford while building and maintaining a large emergency fund cushion to handle unforeseen home ownership costs and other emergency life situations requiring large outlays of cash.

Home ownership can be great when you truly can afford the home you are going to purchase. It can bring peace from apartment neighbors making noise bouncing off the walls and it could provide more space to entertain friends. Yet, for many millions of people it is not as financially fantastic as the pundits make it seem.

The 10-35% federal income tax deduction that one may be able to use with regard to mortgage interest / property tax payments is only useful to the extent that your itemized deductions are greater than the standard deduction for your filing status. Also, you must remember that every year throughout your ownership of the house you will pay thousands of dollars in property taxes to your local governments for which you may only get a fraction of a discount via federal taxes or homestead credits. In addition, all the maintenance, repairs, and renovations will not bring greater return for most people given the amount of principle and interest they will pay on the loans they acquire to do these things.

You would say “NO” if I offered you the great deal of giving me $10,000, so I can hold onto it and then give you only $1,000 to $3,500 back next year? You should think of home ownership in the same way, so that you are totally sober and realistic regarding your financial situation being currently able to handle homeownership. It is always best to have absolutely no debt and the cash needed to purchase a home outright. This alone would help people be much more reasonable about the home they would seek to purchase.

However, if you believe home ownership is worth obtaining a loan to make it a reality then you should follow a few simple rules:

1. Pay off all other debt, build at least six months of income as an emergency reserve and also put away enough money in savings to make a 20% down payment at closing.

2. Inventory your work / business picture to ensure that you are not subject to bouts of unemployment or wild swings to lower monthly income within the few years leading up to and after a house purchase. Remember, approximately 100% of foreclosures are a result of the purchasers’ inability to continue paying the mortgages or property taxes.

3. Look to buy a house in an area where the history of home ownership shows steady price appreciation over the last 10 to 20 years, unless the Holy Spirit has spoken that you should move to a particular area He has selected for you for ministry purposes, etc.

4. Only obtain a low interest 15-year fixed rate mortgage and seek to have enough in extra disposable income that you can pay it off much sooner than 15 years.

5. Do not purchase any house where the monthly payment of principle, interest, property tax, and insurance would require more than 28% of your monthly gross income.

If you will act prudently to do these things you will likely find that home ownership will be very kind and good for you and eventually lead to paying lower housing costs than being a long-term renter and it will not stand in the way of the wealth building that the Lord wants you to engage in.

Remember, home ownership is not the key and being a renter is not a disadvantage. Wealth building is accomplished by honoring God, by continually keeping your monthly expenses well under your monthly net income, by becoming debt-free, and by saving / investing your excess cash over long periods of time (5, 10, 20 years, etc.).

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

Matthew 25:26-29, Luke 14:28-30, 16:8-14, Romans 13:8, Hebrew 7:8

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 173: Avoid Predatory Lending

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You should search the bible to find out the tactics of the enemy. Also, you should ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand all the ways in which these tactics will come against you or be presented to you as though they are good.

Be aware that upon Jesus beginning His earthly ministry, satan presented instructions to Jesus taken from Old Testament scriptural descriptions:

• Turn these stones to bread to relieve you hunger

• Throw yourself down from the pinnacle to show you are great by angels catching you

• Fall down and worship me and I’ll make you king and give you earthly riches (you’ll gain the world)

To many people, these instructions would have appeared acceptable to the human mind (the flesh, the eyes, and human intellectual capacity), especially given the natural situation that Christ was experiencing (hunger, thirst, weakness, desire for safety, etc.) and the desires that rage in humans (wanting pleasure, notoriety, power, etc.). However, they were off the mark for Christ because the attempted to lead His heart away from trusting the Father to complete the work of the gospel.

Following such instruction was not the heart of the Father, especially when spoken by the evil one (the father of lies). It would have turned Jesus to toward satisfying selfish desires instead of trusting the Father and hearing His voice to know how to move forward. Worse yet, there would have been no way for us to be redeemed from the eternal death brought about by sin.

Like Jesus, we should also refuse to follow satan’s instructions, no matter what way it is given (through worldly counselors, the Joneses lifestyle, or our ungodly thoughts). When you are not ignorant of satan’s tactics, you have the information you need to stay away from being satan’s prey. You can avoid the hurt he would otherwise bring into your life.

One tactic to be aware of is predatory lending. Lenders who employ such techniques generally get you hooked into closing loans that charge very high interest rates and closing costs. They ethically defraud you by offering loans that are too much for your income to handle in the future.

They’re not interested in truly serving you for your good by helping you get out of debt and stay out of debt. They intend to place you and many other people in a position that keeps you locked into a continual series of loans or payments with very high interest payments. When you can no longer sustain the payments, they will repossess the material things you’ve become so accustomed to and attempt to gain further profit from them.

Many people feel trapped by these lenders because they do not apply godly wisdom to their stewardship of resources the Father entrusts to them. They fail to:

• Refuse high interest loan offers

• Budget to know exactly what amount of payment they can afford

• Crucify their lusts by refusing to love their homes, cars, etc. so much that they won’t part with them even when they can no longer afford them.

Don’t be a victim of these schemes and those who perpetrate them, be more than a conqueror that uses godly wisdom to walk in victory by refusing such predatory loans and the poor money management and lifestyle practices that precede and follow obtaining them. Remember, the borrower is slave to the lender: no son or daughter becomes entangled in pursuits conflicting with the Father's instruction when his / her aim is to satisfy the one that enlisted him / her.

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

Deuteronomy 28:12, Proverbs 22:7, 2Corinthians 11:13-15, 1Peter 5:8-9

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 172: The Lord Makes A Way Out Of No Way

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

It is the nature of God the Father to open seas and tear down mountains for those who love Him when their enemies and the toils and snares of life seem to entrap them with no way out. Many times He helps them be victorious when they don't have nearly the men of war and resources that the enemy has. This is God's way of showing that He truly loves those who put their trust in Him.

Worldly wisdom pronounces that people cannot live on less than a certain amount of yearly income. Yet, people are not dropping dead all around us when they live on much less income than other segments of society. Meager income does not negate the power of God. He provides so richly through bargains, sales, gifts, and transference of resources from those who have much to those who have little.

He moves mightily to care for the needs of those considered income poor in this world that have honored Him with their lives and meager resources. They live better and with more peace and joy than many others who have substantially higher incomes and who dishonor the Lord. In addition, He does not limit future prosperity to those with the highest incomes, best jobs, and greater education.

His plan is open to everyone at every income level and when employed it is guaranteed to produce everything you need to accomplish your purpose on earth. No matter your current income level He will help you prosper even more when you buckle down and consistently employ biblical money management principles. He truly makes a way out of no way for you. What is barren becomes fruitful and healthy and what is already fruitful will bring forth greater fruit!

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

Luke 21:34-36, Romans 2:2-8, 1Corinthians 10:11-13, 1Thessalonians 5:1-6

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 171: God Is A Rewarder Of Those Who Diligently Seek Him

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

With regard to managing the money the Lord entrusts to you, there are two options. One is to use worldly financial principles. This option will not work toward the eternal purpose that God desires your life to pursue and may lead you to deceive, cheat, and abuse people to make your life better and achieve your selfish goals.

The wages of sin is death, so you can expect that you will lack peace and joy in life and suffer negative eternal consequences when you don’t repent and change your actions to follow God’s plan using His principles. Your income and financial situation could get better on earth; this occurs for less than 1% of those that use worldly methods. However, the other 99% of those that employ the world’s financial principles never make it anywhere near the level they envision for themselves and along the way they lose their souls (by refusing relationship with Jesus and eternal life) and cause many other people to stumble.

The second option is guaranteed to have an eternal purpose and earthly rewards; it is using biblical money management principles. You will be helping support the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the whole earth. Also, you will be bettering your financial situation at the same time.

You will mature so that you are not moved by the economic ups and downs our nation and some individuals experience. In your heart you will know without a doubt that God will make a way even when your natural eyes see uncertainty. As you put your complete trust in the Lord and diligently seek Him through prayer and the action of utilizing His principles, the supernatural power of God will greatly prosper you and relieve worries and anxieties that would otherwise engulf your life.

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

Deuteronomy 1:32-33, John 3:16-21, Philippians 3:7-9, Hebrews 11:6

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 170: Learn From Others But Walk Your Path

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

The Lord made you with unique gifts and talents, gave you the capacity to enhance them and learn other skills, and designed you to use all of them in service to other people in the arenas of business, music, arts, entertainment, preaching, government service, politics, etc.

Some people will try to convince you that there is a higher calling or another area for you. They will present the fruit from what they've seeded and pressure you to follow their lead in network marketing, medical, legal, real estate, or another field that you may not be gifted and skilled for or meant to operate in.

Beware, lest you look upon their fruit and forsake the path that God intends for you to walk and serve along. When someone is rich or appears to be, the arena that person operates in and the method used to pursue riches has great appeal. Yet, you must remember that some fruit looks good to eat on the outside but inwardly it is full of worms and poison that will lead you down a path of destruction and death.

Even when their arena, methods, and fruit are good you must recognize that they are not necessarily the pathway you should take to fulfill your God-given service to others. You may be able to learn something from them, their books, tapes, and life but you should continually seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance to ensure that you stay on the path intended for your life. He will let you know how to use the good lessons and discard the bad examples from their lives and methods in order for you to prosper on the road ahead and possibly even enhance the path upon which they walked.

Never, ever look at anyone’s earthly riches and possessions as the measure of godliness, righteousness, or integrity. For a person can be rich, extremely rich, and be unrighteous and unsaved. The Lord wants you to choose to be both saved and a good steward of money He entrusts to you, so you can be a prime example to other people of how to live, serve, and prosper.

Remember, Lot chose the land containing the glittering cities of Sodom and Gomorrah whose fields looked better than those left to Abraham. However, Lot’s choice resulted in great future loss after appearing so promising in the beginning; he though he had chosen a lot, yet in reality it amounted to nothing at all. At the end of his time in Sodom, he lost everything and Abraham had to rescue him from the enemy. As the old saying goes, everything that glitters ain’t gold!

You are not your neighbor and God didn't create you to be, so cease comparing yourself with them or trying to mimic their every move. Instead, seek to fulfill God's particular plan for your life and encourage other believers to fulfill God’s particular plans for their lives. Then, you make up a perfectly designed body with Christ as the brain and leader of the organism. With Christ as the head, you cannot lose. You are automatically a winner and eternally successful because all things work together for your good because you love God and are called according to His purpose.

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

Genesis 25:23-26, Romans 12:4-8, 1Corinthians 12:4-13, Ephesians 4:15-16

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 169: Your Place of Prosperity

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Prosperity is the will of God! He desires that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. Our souls need to be led and taught by the Holy Spirit to our spirit the will of God and the way He wants us to live and take action. The Lord does not want you to be broke, busted, and disgusted. That is the plan of the enemy. Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But, relationship with the Lord is available so that you may have life and have it more abundantly.

Except for each person utilizing biblical principles for living and managing money, it is a misconception that every person will be prosperous using the same industry, vehicle, or technique. Biblical principles are the only avenue that allows every possible legitimate means to work to prosper people, yet each individual will be guided by the Holy Spirit to the industry, vehicle, or technique that fits the purposes for which he is made and that God wants him to operate in based upon the part of the body of Christ they are meant to represent.

Not everyone will become prosperous creating computer apps or developing oil refineries or owning a restaurant or engaging in multi-level marketing, etc. In fact, it has been historically true that the vast majority of prosperous people never become prosperous via the same industry, vehicle, or technique though most every legitimate industry is directly or indirectly connected in some way in the economic systems used by the world; just as those in the body of Christ are different and unusual, yet interconnected and used by Jesus, the head, to fulfill his purpose in the earth.

Many people who are identified as successful leaders and examples for others to follow have pursued earthly riches and material things at all costs using the excuse that it's alright to do so because being prosperous is the will of God. They believe the desire to succeed and expectations of future profit gives them the moral high ground to divorce spouses, neglect their families, and deceive other people when necessary in order to have what they want to have.

People that don't pursue the same level of profit or high-living are called un-ambitious, even lazy, and declared to be operating outside of the will of God and of nature. Many of the so called "elite" cannot stand to be around people for very long when they don't consider them high achievers, high income, or in pursuit of such. Given this respecter of persons' attitude, they wind of following worldly advice instead of biblical principles and separate themselves from fellowship with men of low estate that they were intended to have relationship with. Common people serve only as stepping stones to use / abuse to get more of the earthly riches they seek.

Don't let the motivations, attitudes, and endeavors of the elite influence you, when they are operating via principles outside of biblical instruction. You were created to be successful using skills and abilities that God gives you. He does not intend that you mimic the lives of those who have gone astray, even when they are rich, famous, and considered to be wise by the world. Every person that men call successful is not successful in God's eyes.

Your prosperous place is unique and you can only please God in your pursuits when your attitude, action, and motivation lines up with biblical principles. The Word promises that you will come into your prosperous place when you pursue godliness, use biblical principles to guide your life and money management, treat all people well no matter their station in life, and seek to use your gifts and abilities in service to others.

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

Psalm 1:1-6, 139:13-18, Matthew 6:31-33, 25:14-15, Revelations 5:9-10

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 168: Tithing By Grace Through Faith

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

There are lots of forums in which people rail vehemently against tithing; believing it to be under the Old Testament law and done away by the New Testament. They do not believe tithing is a priority in a Christian’s life nor that is part of pleasing God and helping to expand His will in the lives of people in our communities and around the world.

I have seen vitriol that judge preachers to be non-Christian, heretics, money-grubbers, and Hell-bound when they teach tithing as a current practice. However, there are charlatan preachers that do not teach tithing. In fact, there are scam artists in every microcosm of life. We need to learn to avoid them all, yet teaching tithing is not a measurement. However, with all the vitriol it's no surprise that 80% of regular church attendees do not tithe, 37% do not give any more than a few dollars per year to the church they attend, and the average giving for all proclaimed Christians is at an all-time low of approximately 2.4% of annual income.

Even with giving at such an anemic level, most people expect an awful lot from the local church they attend and from the universal body of Christ (the Church) when they and others in the community have problems. They believe the church should be all things to all people in need and thus should be able to meet the needs of the members and communities when their personal or local economies are in turmoil.

The problem with this thinking is that they expect the church to do too much when they are unwilling to give a proportionate share of their income to the Church but are more than willing to consume upon their own lusts, spending the lion’s share of the money God entrusts to them on their desires. Wanting the church to be all things to all people, they should be more than willing to give the share instructed by faith toward spreading the gospel throughout the earth and toward disciplining believers to sharpen one another for the work of ministry.

Certainly, the Lord can move supernaturally to accomplish His will, yet He chose believers as His body that would bring forth His will in the earth by doing those things like tithing and giving and being involved in the church and in the marketplace in a way that accomplishes His purpose. In many instances, scripture points out that His super power is ushered in by our natural obedience to His principles for living and giving.

When a church has an overwhelming number of members who won’t tithe and give offerings then that local body will be limited in the endeavors and services that it can provide members and outsiders. And, it will generally be limited in ushering in God’s super-natural power to help accomplish the purpose He desires for it to pursue. The lack of His super-natural power in their endeavors is not a result of the amount of money that one gives or a Church collects, but rather their obedience to His principles in proper proportion to the income He entrusts to them.

By faith Abraham tithed and Jacob also. Do we really believe that the grace, faith, and spiritual freedom provided in New Testament time leads us to support the spread of the gospel with less than a faithful amount as shown by Abraham the father of our faith that he obviously imparted to His children’s children.

I understand that believers are not under the Old Testament law of tithing and thus are not responsible for giving the three types of tithes required by that law. And, I do believe that in the present age we have the ability to not prioritize the tithe into our lives and money management and we will not be instantly struck down by God or stoned by other believers for not doing so. Yet, these beliefs should not lead anyone to think that God desires that we do less in the New Testament time to spread His Word, knowing that the end of this present age is near and that our ministry will help determine whether men hear the gospel, come to Him, inherit eternal life, and bypass Hell.

That is why I believe that the scripture shares, in both Old and New Testament, the example of the father of our faith, Abraham, and his giving of the tithe to Melchizedek the high priest (a signification of Christ). In the New Testament it is specifically communicated that people give tithes to men on earth, yet “the One of whom it is witnessed that He lives” receives the tithe that we give. The concept that “He lives” is one for New Testament believers and indeed the Church to understand and gravitate toward in terms of honoring Christ by presenting back to Him a meaningful portion of what He entrusts to us. After all, Jesus Chris is the One of whom it is witnessed that He lives.

Tithing does not make you spiritual, nor does it necessarily show you are saved, nor can it or anything else you do ever earn you eternal life – that is a gift from Christ received by acceptance of Him as Savior. However, I believe that scripture is clear that there are commands given to us that live in the Age of Grace by faith (see Matthew 28:19-20 and Romans 8:2). Tithing is one of the commands that the Lord knows will help you eliminate the love of money and material things from our hearts and become disciplined to put a greater focus upon using your life and money in a way that glorifies Him and spreads His gospel throughout the earth.

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

Genesis 14:20, Genesis 28:22, Matthew 23:23, Hebrews 7:8

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 167: A Principality Encouraging Debt

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Satan has given a principality an assignment to lead our nation and its individual citizens into massive spending of borrowed money. He has been working over many decades to turn people’s hearts away from doing all they can to fund and carry out the Great Commission. He encourages them to seek pleasure at all costs. He motivates them to make their will their chief aim. And, he gives the illusion that “the person with the most toys / money is happiest and wins the game.”

This could not be farther from the truth. The bible declares that dwelling in the Kingdom of God provides the only righteousness, peace, and joy. This state of eternity, heart, and mind comes only when you are faithful with what God has given you and trust Him enough to honor Him first by giving back to gospel ministry in proportion to all that He entrusts to you. When you regard His will above your own pleasures, He is just as happy with you as He is with the widow that gave two mites into the temple treasury, regardless of whether you are rich or poor.

About two percent of the people make millions and can afford to have lots of things without borrowing to make it happen. The other ninety-eight percent try to live in that same mode but must borrow heavily in order to give the appearance that they have made it or to have the kinds of pleasures they have been convinced they should have.

Let’s be clear, these days there are many who have made millions and lost it because they too tried to leverage their way into much more by unreasonably using debt instruments. I could name numerous businessmen, entertainers, actors, and professional athletes that have thrown themselves into this category by ungodly stewardship of money that was entrusted to them by God. No doubt, many people that never made it to that level of wealth do the same thing every day. So this is not a rich man’s problem or a poor man’s problem. It is a bondage to satan problem.

Many people get into financial trouble and then try to get out of the trouble the same way they got into it: by borrowing more money hoping something about their situation will change to allow them to pay what they owe their lenders.

I have seen such unwise stewardship lead to greater hardships for many people not very far down the road. Other people filed for bankruptcy in order to eliminate as much debt as possible, but shortly afterward went right back to borrowing to please their flesh by getting more stuff. In the process, they paid much higher finance charges on material purchases; as high as 30% on cars and 20% on mortgages. What they thought was a smart financial move was actually in conflict with scripture and within a short time they suffered greater financial hardship than before.

God desires that His people and Church be debt-free. If you want to see your financial position change you must change your money management habits by honoring Him with the first fruits of your income, getting yourself in position to save and invest, and curtailing your spending and borrowing through the use of budgeting. Don’t fall into satan’s trap. Draw close to God and learn God’s will for your well-being and pursue it. Then, you can be sure He will provide all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus as you take action to owe no person anything but love.

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

Deuteronomy 28:43-45, Proverbs 22:7, Romans 13:8, James 4:3-4

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

MoneyWalk 166: Do Not Be Deceived

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Don’t be deceived; whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap! A wealth-by-any-means attitude is a sign of moral decay that allows satan to ensnare you in his destructive plan. You may outwardly appear wealthy and successful in human society, but you will be judged bankrupt by God and unsuccessful in endeavors that really matter in eternity. If not repented of before you die, ungodly pursuits and sowing money into them will reap eternal damnation.

Money isn't evil nor is the possession of great wealth; however some people without godly moral values use money to encourage, support, start, and advance ungodly activities that negatively affect the lives of other people. Failing to use money and wealth in ways that glorify God and draw people to Jesus Christ wreaks havoc on the life of the person who is mismanaging these assets. It also helps wreck the lives of people who see the bad example and follow it.

Being entrusted with money and taking godly management and investment actions to grow its value will be a blessing when you use the assets to abundantly support worthwhile endeavors in addition to caring for your family’s needs. Father God does not want you to reap earthly destruction and eternal damnation nor lead others toward that path. He instructs you to use money and wealth to build a good foundation on earth and for your time in eternity. This will be a witness to God when your life is judged showing that your faith is not dead.

The Lord wants you to pursue His unique passion for your life. Gifts and abilities He planted in you are usually indicative of the major area of work and/or ministry He wants to ultimately move you into. However, proper management of money including tithing and abundant giving based on biblical principles is usually the catalyst that ignites the charge to blast open windows and doors of opportunity that lead you to God’s grand destiny for you on earth.

There are steps along the way that you must utilize that may not seem like His plan for your life or may not seem advantageous for where you think your life is going. They will aim you at serving in marketplace and ministry capacities and under the authority of particular people. Don’t be deceived by satan into thinking God will give you your own ministry or successful business without you have to serve under the work or ministry He entrusted another person to oversee.

All of us must pay our dues as apprentices and disciples molded by God through other people. When such service is rendered you are headed in the right direction and will reach the final rung of true success. Therefore, you should trust that God’s great favor will be shown to you because you desire to and actually do obey Christ’s commands from a heart filled with faith.

Most everyone desires enormous wealth, huge annual income, mansions, expensive cars, fine jewelry, and the latest clothing. However, it is more important that you seek God in daily prayer, scripture reading, holy living, ministry in the marketplace and in church, moral business pursuits, tithing, and debt elimination. Then life around you will become rich in the things that really matter - pleasing God’s heart, godly stewardship, fruitful relationships, peace, and joy.

What's more, you'll sidestep the otherwise negative consequences of forsaking God’s way and you are very likely to experience great earthly wealth with no sorrow added to it.

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

Luke 12:13-21, Galatians 6:7, 1Timothy 6:6-10, James 5:1-7, Revelation 3:17-21

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MoneyWalk 165: Mutual Funds For Beginning Investors

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You should regularly read or view financial articles authored by pundits in order to learn current market jargon inner and outer workings of saving and investment vehicles. Diligent study helps you find vehicles right for your financial portfolio and others to avoid because they are too complicated or do not have a consistently positive growth history that fits your risk-taking tolerance and short and long-term goals.

In many instances, no-load index mutual funds (total stock market, S&P 500, and similar mixes) with expense ratios less than one percent are best for beginning investors. They can provide the stock allocation of your overall portfolio that you need to supply greater long-term growth. This is better than trying to select individual stocks when you have no expertise in stock picking because the funds offer automatic diversification due to the large number of companies they invest in and will over time garner you the average returns of the stock market when held for twenty years or more, which have been substantial.

A no-load fund (one that lets you invest without paying a sales commission to a broker) with an expense ratio less than 1% is generally a better choice than choosing one that requires you to pay sales commission up-front or at the time you withdraw your money. Several reasons for this are:

1) You start out with the total amount of money you invested working for you instead of only the amount left after expenses have been subtracted. Many people wonder why their portfolios have not grown, yet they keep going to advisors that put money into investments where only 93 to 95% of the investment amount is actually invested after the advisor is paid commission. How would you like to lose $70 out of every $1,000 you invest and thus have only $930 working on your behalf?

2) You pay no surrender penalties to the fund operators for withdrawing funds. Of course, if you invested through a pre-tax retirement plan you might have to pay the federal government taxes for early withdrawal and penalty if you’re younger than 59½ when funds are withdrawn.

3) When you withdraw funds, you do not pay back-end sales commission to an advisor, saving you 5 to 7% of the value of your portfolio and you pay an expense ratio that is usually far less than you would pay on loaded funds.

Review the historical track record of no-load index funds compared to the market benchmark. Choose the funds that historically meet or exceed the industry annual growth average. Over a long investment horizon you come out far ahead of the amount of money you actually invested and well ahead of the returns of loaded, actively managed funds. Steady plodding will bring great success, while get rich quick schemes will bring penury.

One of the great deceptions of our day is that people will get-rich-quick by taking overly aggressive investment risk. Scripture warns against this mentality and less than 1% of those who try actually come into riches using such methods. It is simply not worth putting your family and your god-given purpose in jeopardy.

On another note, the vast majority of people never take actions necessary to grow the money entrusted to them in order to help further the gospel and fulfill their god-given purpose. Let investments in no-load mutual funds with low expense ratios help you in this regard while you study to find out and understand the other types of investments that may help you grow even more.

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

Proverbs 13:20, Proverbs 19:20-21, Proverbs 21:5, Matthew 25:13-27, Luke 14:28-30

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MoneyWalk 164: Invest A Portion With Seven Or Eight

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

The scripture instructs us to invest our assets in a variety of different sources because we do not know what types of hard times may come upon the earth and surround our lives. Therefore, you should study the ins and outs of real estate, stock, bond, as well as principle protected-interest bearing investments like money market accounts, certificates of deposits, and treasury bills, bonds, and notes. The return and/or stability of these types of investments can help cover short and long-term needs and help you make it through tough times when your nation, region, or life is facing economic trouble.

The stock market has earned more than corporate and government bonds in the vast majority of contiguous twenty-year periods. However, stocks are more risky than bonds over shorter periods of time because every day they fluctuate to a much greater degree between high and low values.

Bonds can fluctuate in price, usually to a much lower degree. This normally happens when you try to sell them to someone else prior to their reaching the maturity date when the corporation or government will give return your principle and pay you accrued interest. Bonds backed by the federal government are generally considered to have the ultimate in protection on principle and accrued interest when cashed in at maturity.

Corporate bonds on the other hand do not have the same level of protection because any guarantee is only as good as the ultimate financial condition of the company at the time of maturity of the bond. When you put your bonds for sale prior to that time, people in the market to purchase will take the condition into consideration when determining the amount they are willing to pay for the particular type and issue of bond.

Money market and certificate of deposit accounts usually have lower annual returns than corporate bond, stock, and real estate investments. These instruments are guaranteed by the federal government up to certain limits such as $100,000 per financial institution. Higher guarantee limits can be had on these instruments in some instances when you have joint, retirement, or a few separate accounts at one institution.

It’s important to study the FDIC.gov and NCUA.gov websites so you’ll know the guarantee limits. Then, with confidence you can place money in these accounts in a way that protects your principle and interest earned. The portion of your portfolio that you would definitely want to put in these types of savings accounts would be your emergency fund as well as any money that you may need to withdraw within five years due to anticipated replacement car purchase, home down-payment, etc.

Generally speaking, when you’re younger than 50 your portfolio should contain more than 50% in low expense diversified no-load stock mutual fund investments when you’re younger than 50 and contain less than 50% in diversified corporate and/or government guaranteed saving instruments.

When you reach 50 years of age you should take an assessment of your risk tolerance and adjust your portfolio weightings so that bonds and government guaranteed savings are used to a greater degree when you find that you will need the money within five years or you simply don’t have many years to recover from a large stock market downturn or when you just don’t have the stomach to take inevitable stock market downturns in your retirement years.

Through it all, craft your investment plan to invest in seven or eight different vehicles and re-evaluate it annually and don't worry about day-to-day stock market swings and economic cycles since you're generally invested in stocks for the long haul. This roadmap will help you be a good steward who prospers immensely.

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

Proverbs 11:14, Ecclesiastes 11:2, Luke 19:13, 2Timothy 2:2

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MoneyWalk 163: Investing For Greater Return

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Saving is generally considered money put away in vehicles that preserve the principle amount. Usually, the money earns a lower percentage of interest on a regular periodic basis. Also, it can be accessed quickly when needed. Usually, it focuses on seen and unforeseen expenses that might occur in the short-term (a period less than five years) for things like roof repairs, furnace repairs, hospital emergencies, etc.

Investing is often thought of for the long-term horizon (five years or more). It would normally be used for things like building retirement savings, funding a business or ministry dream that will take years to finally engage, saving for a child’s college tuition, etc.

The person who invests should understand that he will not earn periodic interest and that the value of the investment at any given time (whether increased or decreased from the time he bought it) is subject to supply and demand for that investment. Also, he may lose principle and should be willing to take that risk hoping that he will instead experience greater growth in value during the time he holds the investment.

Investing should usually be done after you have been disciplined to use good money management practices like consistently earning an income, adhering to a budget that keeps your monthly expenses below 70% of your take home pay, consistently giving money for ministry that leads people to Jesus Christ, saving at least six months worth of take home pay as an emergency reserve account, eliminating all debts, and committing to never co-signing for anyone else’s loans/debts.

Because most of us are not market experts and stock picking gurus, we should utilize a process called dollar cost averaging whereby we automatically buy on a periodic basis (weekly or monthly) a certain dollar amount of diversified investments with solid historical track records from a brokerage house like Vanguard or through our employer’s deferred compensation plan (401k, 457, 403b, etc.). This helps us exercise the buy low, sell high principle that leads to investment success and wealth building. Those who do otherwise are trying to time the market and are usually doing so without proper investment education. The vast majority suffer extreme losses over time and never wind up building the wealth they envisioned and hastily went after.

No matter the style, with investments past results are no guarantee of future returns. However, you should have greater comfort being invested after your financial stewardship is in order. Down the road (after 5 or more years of holding good investments), they will put you in a much better financial position and help you overcome inflationary pressures that might otherwise diminish the purchasing power of money in savings accounts.

Here are a few helpful guidelines you can use when the time comes for you to add investing to your good stewardship repertoire:

1. Review the prospectus for each investment to see what its one-year, five-year, and ten-year investment returns. Make sure they meet or exceed benchmark returns for that type of investment.

2. Identify its expense ratio. Stay away from any investment where it is not well under one percent of the assets under management.

3. Make sure no more than 10% of your investment dollars are put into any one investment. Proper diversification and asset allocation are generally best for everyone.

4. Start with no-load mutual funds until you are very knowledgeable about and skilled in capturing growth in the value of other types of investments (individual stocks, real estate, futures, oil & gas leases, etc.).

Many of the mutual funds you choose to purchase will have an electronic funds transfer provision that will allow you to immediately start investing in them by giving the brokerage house authorization to electronically transfer as little as $50 per month out of your savings or checking account that it will use to purchase shares of the mutual fund(s) you want.

The electronic funds transfer option allows you to avoid the minimum start-up investment (normally $1,000 or more) that many funds require for people who send checks to the investment firm. If you can't or don't wish to use an electronic funds transfer option, then it's worth your while to save the amount of money needed to meet the required minimum investment for the investment vehicle you want to invest in.

Investing is a great wealth building tool that can enhance your life and ministry. It also helps you better capture increased monetary value that can be used to abundantly give in the future in a way that enhances the lives of many others.

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

Proverbs 6:6-11, Ecclesiastes 11:1-6, Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 19:12-27, 1Timothy 6:17-19

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

Save & Invest According to God’s Plan

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Most people never reap reasonable growth because they never invest. Others never reap because they invest money only when the market is at a high point. They never feel comfortable investing when values have hit a low point. The feeling of not wanting to suffer loss makes them try to out think conventional investment wisdom which is to buy low and sell high. Instead, they put money in the market to buy an investment with a high current value.

They think they’re investing wisely but they only got in the market after the media spread the news that the current value is very high. Unfortunately, most of them pull their money out of the investment after the investment value tanks and thus suffer a loss. They will not make up the loss in the future because the experience has made them afraid to put money back into the market.

The bottom line is you should put and keep yourself in a position where you can regularly save a substantially amount of your monthly income so that you can eventually invest the lions share for the long-term. Learn to utilize the historical long-term growth pattern of the stock market to your advantage because this would be a blessing to you, your family, your friends, and other people that God wants you to help throughout your lifetime.

Investing should be done with money that is not needed within five years. Money you may need within five years should not be put in risky investments that do not protect the principle amount invested. This money should be put in savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposits, or the like because they protect your principle.

The Lord would like to help you maximize the resources He gives you just like the two servants in the Parable of the Talents and the Parable of the Minas. Reasonable investing will reap great returns that can be plowed back into taking care of family responsibilities, evangelizing the lost, discipling believers, and helping the poor.

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

Job 1:3, 42:12, Proverbs 11:24-25, Ecclesiastes 11:1-6, Luke 19:13-27

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MoneyWalk 161: Diversifying For Safety And Reasonable Growth

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

When you put all your money in one investment account you take the great risk of losing all of it if the investment loses all its value, or the holder thereof goes bankrupt and did not put your money in a segmented account, or if you unknowingly invest with a scam artist running a ponzi scheme.

These types of things do happen from time to time and they happen in good and bad economic cycles. The principle of diversifying your assets helps protect your asset base from massive and total loss when such things occur. Even though your assets might not earn as much as one particular investment could have earned during a certain period of time, the upside is that you don’t have to worry about one bad apple spoiling the whole bunch nor all eggs being broken if you happen to drop the basket.

It has been noted that reasonable asset allocation and diversification have overtime reduced the risk of loss on investment portfolios while at the same time allowing very good growth during long-term investment horizons (five consecutive years or more). Therefore, you should seriously consider spreading your assets commensurately among different types of investments (no load stock and bond index mutual funds, real estate investment trusts, stable value funds, investment real estate, etc.) in order to obtain both benefits.

Once you save six months of gross pay in an emergency account, seven different investment accounts is a good scriptural number of different accounts you want to have for financial safety and stability throughout the various economic cycles you will encounter in life. Such investment accounts should be with licensed brokers and brokerage houses (Vanguard, Fidelity, T-Rowe Price, TIAA-CREF, etc.) that are in good standing with state and federal securities regulatory agencies.

You may want to fund each instrument equally or divide your investment up so you put in stock mutual funds or equity based investments a percentage that represents your age minus 100. You would then put a percentage representing your age in bond mutual funds or non-equity based investments.

No matter your age, if you are in a position in which you are uneducated about investment vehicles or you need to immediately live off all the money you have saved or you cannot mentally tolerate the risk of losing any portion of the amount you would invest then you should put the vast majority of your money in federal government guaranteed fixed income investments or retirement plan stable value investments.

Do this until you educate yourself about the different types of investments and you are comfortable that you can invest your money with a long-term investment horizon without buying investments at high prices when economic times are good and selling them at lower prices when times are bad. You invite scam artists and irresponsible investment behavior into your life and finances when you try to get high rates of return while not understanding the things you investment in and not knowing how to pick reputable brokers and financial advisors to help manage your money.

Again, the principle of diversification provides greater safety from total loss while rewarding you over the long term with a very reasonable opportunity for meaningful growth of your investments.

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

Genesis 13:2, Job 42:12, Proverbs 15:22, Proverbs 24:6, Ecclesiastes 11:1-2

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Surround Yourself With Wise Counselors

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Seeking counsel from many others who are trustworthy and more knowledgeable than you in the financial arena results in the greatest financial protection possible. This diversification including asset allocation is a powerful tool to help you attain and maintain wealth. It gives you the ability, with longevity, to provide well for your family and give abundantly with longevity to your church and other ministries to spread the gospel and help meet the needs of others.

Diversification encourages you to use a variety of different advisors (brokerages, banks, investment advisors, brokers, CPA, etc.) and investment vehicles (stock and bond mutual funds, real estate, etc.). This provides greater protection from loss when a particular investment in your portfolio suffers a great loss in value. God forbid that this happens, but history has shown that it does occur frequently among investments that have great equity risk.

Diversification enhances the possibility that other investments will increase to remove the possibility of a fatal blow to your asset when the market value of one of your investments decreases because the different types of investments tend to have ups and downs during different periods of time.

The bible says give a portion to seven or eight because you don't know what evil may come upon the earth. The old saying “don't put all your eggs in one basket” is in line with this biblical instruction. Following this principle of diversification will protect your savings and investments in the sense that if the investment market drops one basket of eggs you will still have at least six other baskets of eggs that have not been dropped. It is very likely that these will investments will not have suffered a loss of value but instead have continued to grow in value.

Another component of the “many counselors principle” that you should employ along with diversification is asset allocation. It encourages you to buy different types of investments in percentages that are reasonable for your age, risk tolerance, and life situation. For example, a 20 year old might keep 80% of his investments in large cap and small cap no load index mutual funds and 20% in no load mid-term bond index funds whereas a 70 year old might keep 30% of his investments in total market no-load index funds and 70% in no load short-term bond index mutual funds and guaranteed fixed-income investments.

History has shown that the greater large and small cap equity investment provides the opportunity for the younger investor, who has time to overcome market losses, to potentially grow the investment to a much greater degree during the next 30 to 50 years even though he will endure various market losses in the interim. For the older investor who does not have time to make up for market losses, the larger bond and fixed income investments provide greater protection against losing principal.

Age appropriate diversification and asset allocation enhances the possibility that other investments will increase to remove the possibility of a fatal blow to your asset when the market value of one of your investments decreases because the different types of investments tend to have ups and downs during different periods of time.

There are a plethora of brokers, advisors, and some scam artists willing and ready to convince you to give them your money. You should educate yourself to any type of investment you think you want to put money in before you do so to ensure that you are comfortable with risk associated with that investment. Always thoroughly check the licensing status and complaint background of brokerage houses, brokers and advisors using information on file with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), your state securities regulator, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), etc.

Identify the 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year investment return for each investment and compare it to the market benchmark for that type of investment to ensure that the growth average annual growth you seek has been gained by the investment in the past. Educating yourself in these areas will provide you with information you need to make good choices about your risk tolerance, the suitability of the investment given your income and net worth, and the integrity of the brokerage, broker, and investment advisors.

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

Proverbs 11:14, Ecclesiastes 11:2, Luke 19:13, Acts 6:2-4

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From Highest Interest to Lowest

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

This debt reduction method reduces the amount of finance charges you pay to the lowest possible level using credit accounts that you already have at your disposal. Consolidate debt using your current low interest credit cards’ unused credit amount to pay off your credit account with the highest interest charge. This process will help you obtain debt-freedom in the not-so-distant future.

The highest interest revolving charge accounts are normally those issued by retail establishments because most of them charge you around 25% interest for every dollar that is put on the account when it is not paid off in total when the bill is due. This means the financial institution is charging you 25 cents on each dollar that you let revolve (rollover) from month to month. That’s why it normally takes so long to pay these credit cards off when you make only minimum payments. Nowadays, you also have to be aware that many financial institutions that provide revolving charge cards will charge you much more than the original interest percentage when they believe you have become a poor financial risk. Some are charging upwards of 30% interest, which is 30 cents on every dollar that revolves from month to month.

It is not good for your financial health to have years of interest payments, especially high interest. This is why you should quickly get your financial affairs in order to pay off credit balances and develop a mindset to refrain from using them, unless you have the money saved to pay off your entire charge when the bill comes due. People that have been undisciplined in using credit cards in the past should cut the cards up and close the accounts no matter what others say about it ruining their credit score. If they don’t cut them up, the debt demon will continue to guide them into overspending and their credit score will wind up being terrible anyway as their debts grow larger, hampering their ability to pay their bills on time each month.

When you don't have enough available credit on a low interest credit card to pay off all your high interest credit accounts, then apply for a low interest consolidation loan at your financial institution. Consolidation loans are normally closed-ended, which means whatever is paid off is not re-usable. This is good when your past has shown reckless undisciplined spending. Do not consolidate any of your accounts that have an interest percentage that is less than the consolidation loan's interest charge unless overall the consolidation loan interest is substantially lower than the average interest rate you are paying on all your current accounts that would be consolidated.

Before using this approach, it's best to call retailers to close revolving accounts and cut up the cards so you won't be tempted to use them again. Besides, retailers’ accounts do not normally allow you to balance transfer outstanding balances of other accounts onto their accounts. They are issued to engage you in buying more of their products without regard for what will truly be financially best for you and your family.

Do not listen to advisors who encourage you to keep credit cards when past history shows you will remain steeped in debt. As you faithfully begin to pay your bills when due your credit score will rise over the next few years enabling you to obtain a low-interest mortgage and great home and auto insurance rates. In fact, you won’t really need the good credit score because the provision that comes from using biblical financial principles will bring you all the resources that are best for you and your family.

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

Deuteronomy 28:12, Proverbs 22:7, Luke 16:8-12, Romans 13:8

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The Promotion You Want

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Be committed to God's money management principles, don't be envious of other people's promotions, and keep doing what the bible shows will glorify God and serve other people and God will bring many promotions to bless you and your family throughout your life. Some will ultimately come through other people, yet many will come simply as positive consequences (rewards and blessings) of following biblical principles.

You’re right to think your employer should appreciate your hard work. However, you can't make your employer respond with appreciation and unfortunately many will not respond in the way you want them to or the way they should. At most, you can influence your employer by godly actions and responses while relying on the LORD to promote you at the proper time.

He can move on your employer’s heart at the appropriate time. Therefore, you should trust Him and exhibit patience by allowing Him to work in your supervisors’ hearts without you trying to force the issue. Simply continue to do the great work that you do, show proper respect for their workplace authority, and show continued initiative and creativity toward enhancing products and services. In due time, your employer will see your true value to the organization.

Sometimes, you fail to see the promotion you have received because you’re only considering what you believe man should have done for you or you think you should've received a larger raise or should have been give a certain prestigious title or a corner office. Remember that promotions come in many different forms and are sometimes not so easy to see.

I know many people whom God showed how to manage their incomes according to biblical principles long before their supervisors began to promote them at work. In a few short years they eliminated all debts including their home mortgages and were well on their way to becoming wealthy way beyond what they could naturally envision a few years earlier. Some moved on to start successful businesses. During this time, those they thought should have been instrumental in promoting them didn’t do anything special for them. They were in reality promoted by the Lord due to their willingness to properly manage the money and relationships He entrusted to them.

The Lord’s promotion process stores treasures in Heaven that you have access to when you need them or when He desires to give them to you. Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to! God has the master plan for your life and He's more pleased and you have more peace and joy when you follow His plan. You can only obtain the greatest treasure by working as unto the LORD in your current position, using biblical money management principles, and being patient as the Lord makes room in the marketplace for your gifts.

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

Psalms 75:6-10, Proverbs 3:35, Daniel 4:30-35, 1Peter 5:6-7

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MoneyWalk 157: The Most Rewarding Lifestyle

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Honor God by living according to biblical principles, if you want a financially peaceful, joyous, and blessed life with treasure in Heaven awaiting you.

1) Understand that everything is owned by God and you are only a manager and heir of His great estate.

2) Show contentment with what God has provided you to manage by being humble and grateful and by refusing to get involved with get rich quick schemes and attempts to get rich through immoral behavior or at any cost.

3) Show self-control by making God’s will the priority in your life and management of money.

4) Sacrifice your own desires to pleasing the One for whom you manage and faithfully endure hardship when needed to bring about His will in the earth. 5) Fellowship with a local church at least weekly and be faithful to God through interaction with that body.

6) Work diligently at every earthly job or career that you engage, so that a great witness and disciple-making ability is available to you when others ask the reason for your hope.

7) Tithe and give abundant offerings.

8) Budget your spending so it is less than your income and to prioritize needs versus wants.

9) Stay out of debt and eliminate the debt you have.

10) Refuse to cosign for other people’s debts: even family.

11) Save a reasonable portion of your income each pay period in a way that attempts to protect the principle amount up to six months worth of income.

12) Invest your excess savings in a way that takes greater but reasonable risk, in which you might lose some principle over short-term periods but will have great expectation of much higher growth of the money than you could obtain through your saving accounts; by measuring historical data of various types of investments that verify the probable long term growth pattern.

13) Diversifying your money by dispersing your savings and investments with several different FDIC or NCUA insured banks and credible brokerage houses that you confirm with state and federal finance and securities regulators as duly licensed with no notable fraudulent or troubling pattern of investment or customer service behavior. Also, make sure that agents, investment advisors working for them have the same credible licensing and behavior.

The bible shows that worthwhile blessing and reward are only obtained by faithfully keeping God's commandments. Such blessing and reward are available to every person who asks Jesus to be Savior and LORD and who honors God by letting good works be the result of his faith.

From the foundation of the world, God planned the pathway for people to be abundantly blessed and rewarded in a way that every need and many desires would be met. This comes when you give God respect by living in a way that is pleasing to Him. The bible makes it emphatically clear that ‘blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD!’ The same is just as true in your own life in that ‘blessed are you when God is your LORD!’

Don’t treat material things, passions, and the pursuit of privilege and honor like they're gods by giving them the importance and attention you should give to almighty God. Such things, passions, and pursuits cannot truly fulfill you or provide what is best for your life and family. For your eternal and earthly sake, it is best to rely on God's principles to secure blessing and reward.

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

Proverbs 3:5-10, Malachi 3:6-12, Matthew 6:25-34, Luke 6:38

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 156: Give Abundantly In Order To Receive Abundantly

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Weekly giving a tithe and offering to your local church is the way to make the Lord’s desire a priority in your life. In order for this to be ignited in you, the first thing you must do is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is your Savior and Lord. Then, giving abundantly in order to help get the gospel message to other people show that your priority is the Lord’s will.

Jesus was a giver in every way and He taught that people should have all the other righteous qualities such as justice, mercy, and faith and not use those qualities as an excuse for failing to give as instructed. So, if you really want to be like Him you must apply His teaching to your life. Not in words, but in deeds.

Let’s be perfectly clear, you ought to give your life to Christ and you ought to trust Him to provide in every situation. He is sure to give you everything that you truly need for life and godliness. As you fix your hand to give abundantly, you begin to see the result of such giving. It begins to produce for you an abundant and continual receiving. You did not have to pray for it, search for a prophecy to get it, or pursue it through hook and crook. His word simply states the result of abundant giving is abundant provision.

You see your posture must be to give the tithe and offering in Christ-likeness and humility and be content with what you currently have. When you do, His posture shows up in your life through the operation of the giving/receiving principle He laid down. You will receive abundantly. You can expect that He is always faithful to fulfill His Word! You should never be demanding of Him or have a greedy, envious, or covetous heart when approaching other people. If He truly is your Lord, and you give like He is, then He will take care of all your need.

I am a living witness and I know countless others who tell the same story. I searched the bible for answers to financial problems that hampered me throughout my twenties and the Holy Spirit led me to passages which confirmed that God uses methods that seem foolish. Then He amazes onlookers with the results.

I know a man who was raised in the hood, without a silver spoon in his mouth, whose parent did not teach him to build wealth. He forsook the will of God for a decade and got himself into $135,000 of debt. He realized he was lost eternally and accepted Christ into His life, yet was still burdened with great debt. He searched for financial solutions in the world and they did not work for him. He came across biblical money management principles via a financial seminar held by His church.

In his late twenties, he began utilizing the principles one by one once he confirmed that they were biblical instruction. The results in his life have been astounding for this man of low estate. Sixteen years after making God’s financial plan his financial priority, he gives over 25% of his gross income to the church and he lives totally debt free in comfort on 35% of his gross family income, paid his home mortgage off in thirteen years, has a net worth approaching a million dollars, is legally paying an extremely low amount of taxes due to legal charitable giving deductions, and he is able to give to those in need in ways and amounts he never could have given in the past.

As you commit to consistently give the tithe and offerings, the discipline it builds will produce abundance in your life and you will wind up continually reaping the harvest of the seeds you have sown. Remember, this principle works in the opposite direction also. If you don’t abundantly give to fulfill His purposes, then you cannot expect to abundantly receive from God!

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

Proverbs 3:9-10, 11:24-26, 19:17, Matthew 23:23, Luke 6:38, 2Corinthians 9:6-8

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 155: To Co-Sign Or Not To Co-Sign, That Is The Question

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

When you’re approached by family and friends about co-signing, tell them “NO” and continue to pray for strength to be wise according to God’s Word and that they will see and act upon God's money management principles in the future so they can receive the great benefits produced by following them.

If you've already cosigned on a loan for someone by using your credit card or by signing a note that says you'll pay the loan amount if he or she is unable to, then you need to run to the lending institution and work on a way to get out of that arrangement as quickly as possible. If you can't get off the loan, pray real hard that the person makes all the required payments on time and pays the debt off early. If he doesn't, you're on the hook! So, realize that you will have to take over the monthly loan payments the moment he or she stops paying them.

If you don't currently have enough savings stashed away to cover the loan amount, revise your budget to eliminate unnecessary spending so you can save as much as possible in case this unfortunate but highly likely scenario occurs. In the future, refuse to co-sign for anyone. Learn to say “no” to such requests and really mean it! If there is a legitimate need that cannot be fulfilled in some other way, then give the family member or friend what you have in available cash (savings) that is not targeted at meeting an obligation that you have to meet and that you willingly want to give.

Many times people that ask you to co-sign could take initiative to resolve their situation without asking you to take on their debt. However, they don’t see the picture clearly or they simply want to use a way that appears easier for them. For example, the person could get up earlier to catch the bus to work instead of asking you to co-sign for a car note. Or, the person could purchase a less expensive engagement ring for their fiancé instead of asking you to co-sign for a more expensive ring. Or, the person could rent, pay off debts, and begin to save for a 20% down payment on a home instead of asking you to co-sign on a home loan.

This lesson is not to discourage from giving to meet true needs. Christians should be givers and lend themselves to abundantly funding gospel ministry and helping the poor. Pursuant to biblical instruction, I am instructing you to stay away from promising to cover debts taken by other people when you don’t currently have far more than enough money to cover the entire debt because the history shows that most of them, at some point not too long after you cosign, will ultimately refuse or be unable to complete their promise and commitment to paying the debt. Co-signing will set you up for a financial fall that you could have and should have avoided.

Stop cosigning for family and friends to get things they can't afford to pay cash for. The best way to help most people and ensure your long-term financial health is to give them available cash when a true and verified need arises in their lives. Then encourage them to use biblical principles to manage their money and desires, so their needs can be met.

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

Proverbs 11:15, 17:18, 20:16, Romans 13:8, Ephesians 5:15-17

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.

MoneyWalk 154: A Budget Is Essential

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Many people think budgeting is unnecessary, however the vast majority of people who do not budget tend to be in poor financial condition and the other few will likely come into a bad financial condition at some point in their lives because they fail to currently employ this principle. Some financial advisors proclaim that budgeting is unnecessary, but we find they actually teach budgeting when we look deeper into their instructions.

They often call it by another name such as spending plan, income / expense plan, etc. For example, one financial advisor said he doesn’t budget rather when he receives his income, he immediately sets aside a percentage to pay expected taxes, puts ten percent into a savings account and ten percent into an investment account. Then, he spends no more than what is left and repeats the process when he next receives income.

Well, that is budgeting. It’s a principle for which there are various methods to carry it out. It can be intricate or simple. Generally, the more creditors you have the more intricate it will have to be to navigate the maze and this is what causes many to ultimately slip and fall into financial turbulence and ruin. That is why you want to engage debt-freedom, so you can have a simple budget that helps you keep life in perspective and weather every storm that will eventually come your way.

Scripturally speaking, the underlying parameter is the same no matter which method is used. You should have a written plan to spend far less than your income and identify necessary alterations to your lifestyle and spending habits to eliminate all your debts.

In the end analysis, any good business or personal financial situation relies on budgeting in order to get on, stay on, and grow on a secure foundation. The method that we employ and encourage entails the following.

1. List all your net monthly income. This is gross income minus taxes paid and owed to governments and other costs that will be payroll deducted by your employer and which you do not have access to spend (health care, union dues, etc.).

2. Subtract the tithe and offering.

3. List all your monthly bills. Bills due more often and less often than monthly should be re-calculated to an amount equal to a monthly payment.

4. Now, subtract all monthly payments from your net monthly income.

The remaining balance shows whether you expect to have a surplus or deficit. If money remains (a surplus) then you can divvy it up to spend on household needs, personal items, savings, and investments. When money is lacking to pay all of your current monthly payments (a deficit), then you must look at every option possible for immediately reducing monthly expenses to get you to a financial situation where all your needs can be provided. Otherwise, you will continue to create greater financial problems in your life.

A deficit points you to one or more options to help eliminate it. First and foremost and always necessary is seeking God’s will in praise, worship, and prayer so the supernatural power of God will provide where human effort cannot. Second is making expense and spending reductions. This includes calling creditors to work out debt-forgiveness and better payment arrangements. Third is finding work (overtime, a new job, a second job, or a no cost or very low cost entrepreneurial endeavor) that increases your income to a point well beyond your expenses in order to more quickly get out of debt and begin the wealth building process.

When things are so tight you cannot pay all of your debts it is important to properly prioritize. Honor the Lord in your giving and only make monthly payments for mortgage / rent and necessary transportation to and from work. Money left over should be saved to build up a six-month emergency fund from which you can take care of emergencies that arise and later negotiate debt payoffs. In some instance you may have to trade in the expensive home and car for something more reasonable for your current situation in order to right your ship. Food and clothing are important however most people have more than enough to make it through a rough financial period or can obtain it free form local food banks, thrift stores, churches, friends, and family.

Short-term and long-term planning of anticipated income and expenses is vital to your financial well-being because it lets you know what you can reasonably purchase now and months into the future. A deficit lets you know there is a financial problem that needs correction and a surplus lets you know there is money left over that must be managed correctly in order to engage and complete the commission He assigned to the body of Christ and to you.

Budgeting is equivalent with knowing the state of your flocks and herds so your wealth can endure beyond your generation. Diligence in mapping out your financial future month-to-month and year-to-year is what it takes to repair damaged finances and maintain good financial health.

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

Proverbs 27:23-27, Habakkuk 2:2-4, Luke 14:28-32, Philippians 4:11-13

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 152: The Blessing of Balance

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Good money managers organize their lives to know when bills are due and how much is owed and they pay their bills on time. They also immediately record checking deposits and withdrawals and balance their checkbooks every month to ensure that they are able to pay future bills and that money is not illegally taken from them by financial institutions and thieves. Godly stewards also listen to the voice of the Lord to understand how He would have them give, save, and spend within the boundaries of what the bible in general says about the focus that Christians should have and maintain throughout their lives.

In order to have a healthy financial life, you must organize your life to know the state of your income and expenses. The quickest way to do this is to keep your checkbook balanced each month. Also, you must develop a budget (an income giving, spending, and saving plan). In addition, you must do the best you possibly can to ensure that your expenses do not exceed your income in any given month and that you have assets to cover shortfalls in the few months that this might be the case due to unexpected periods of unemployment.

You should not purchase any products or services using credit when you do not already have more than enough money to pay off the account immediately. If you don’t have cash on hand right now to buy it, then you should forego the purchase and allow God to supernaturally bring it to you free of charge (if you really need it) or in a way that will not lead to possible financial bondage if your income producing projections don’t work out like you envisioned.

The first entry in your monthly budget should be to set aside at least ten percent of your income (the tithe) and give it to your local church where you receive your spiritual food, fellowship, and discipleship. If you don’t have a church, you need to find a bible believing church and allow the Holy Spirit to plant you in that local representation of Christ’s body. When you forsake the regular assembly of believers you cannot be truly fulfilled and prosperous no matter how much money you make or assets you have.

Your God-given purpose is intertwined with fellowship and discipleship within a local expression of the body of Christ. Thus, interacting with leaders and members within your local church and other believers, you are called to make ministry service (evangelism and discipleship of others) the priority in your life that guides every other endeavor you pursue (career, friendships, recreation, education, business, etc.).

Next, your month to month budget and checkbook should display that you firmly resolve not to spend more than your gross income minus your tithe, taxes, and reasonable savings. If necessary, you must resolve to work extra for a short time or create a no or low cost income producing opportunity in order to eliminate current debts, create no further debt, and to put away an emergency fund of at least one month of income as soon as possible.

Then, after you have paid of all non-mortgage debt using the debt snowball or top down highest interest, lowest balance payment method you should seek to save at least six months of income. The emergency savings strategy will help you avoid situations where you would otherwise put more charges on credit accounts in order to cover what you perceive as emergency situations. This strategy will help you stop reverting back to the old undisciplined financial pattern that left you broke, disgusted, and not to be trusted!

Finally, after you have eliminated all your debt and built your emergency savings fund you should begin to put monthly savings that would take you over the six month income level into no-load investments (no sales charges – front or back end) in your 401k, 403b, 457, Roth IRA, or in an investment account with a major brokerage such as Vanguard, Fidelity, etc (hopefully, in tax deferred accounts as much as possible). It is best to put this on automatic pilot by having the contribution taken directly out of your paycheck or checking / savings account each month so that you don’t fail to write a check to deposit the amount and so you won’t be tempted to spend the money on a material item that will be forgotten or unused after it is purchased.

Once you’ve followed the above described financial path, you’ll begin to accumulate assets at an astounding rate and the power of compounding interest over the next 10, 20, and 30 years will exponentially expand your investments. You will begin to live the biblical instruction, “be fruitful and multiply…and have dominion over the Earth!” The biblically-based organization that you follow and the increased income and assets that God entrusts to you will allow you take dominion in every area of life, such as properly caring for your family, tithing to your local church, funding missions in your community and around the world, funding ministries that you are directly and physically involved in, helping the poor, widows, and oppressed, etc.

This wealth building scenario will not likely happen for you if you are not committed to living out God’s debt-free plan. You must forsake the temptation to create monthly bills that add up to an amount that is greater than 50% of your gross income. Setting your spending bar at this level will save you more financial trouble than you can imagine and allow you to carry out your abundant giving and wealth building financial plan.

Again, allow God to bless you with products and services you need that you can't pay cash for right now. If God doesn't bless you with them, then you don’t really need them. Continue to have patience with God’s financial plan and you’ll soon find that you can get not only what you need but many of your desires because you have delighted yourself in Him spiritually and financially. When your life is balanced in this way, abundant blessings cannot help but be poured out on you in due time.

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

Proverbs 27:23-24, Isaiah 55:10-11, Luke 14:28-32, 2Corinthians 9:10-12

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 153: Prosperity Is Here: Grab It!

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

When you engage a relationship with Jesus Christ you prosper eternally by receiving salvation from God’s judgment that would otherwise bring punishment against unrepentant sin. Increasingly, your life will also prosper on earth as your heart, mind, and actions are progressively centered on following biblical instructions.

You cannot escape the flames of Hell by being rich, middle class, poor, having good works, great character, or displaying integrity on earth. The only thing that saves you is having faith in Jesus Christ, which covers and fills you with His righteousness. You have no righteousness of your own that can be worked up or attained through human effort. Your rightness is as filthy rags. Jesus Christ is the only person who is sinless that can stand as atonement for your sin. He is resurrected unto eternal life that you might be made the righteousness of God in Him when you verbally and in your heart accept Him as your Savior and Lord.

He also holds all the resources in His hands to resolve your problems (financial and otherwise). As a child of the King, you have access to His treasures when you need them. Salvation secures you for eternity and sanctification cleans you up for positive things to happen while you’re on earth.

When you put your life in Jesus' hands, satan cannot have victory over you. Satan was created by God and only has power given to him by God. Do not mistakenly believe that he and God are equals battling it out for control over Heaven and Earth. It is not so!

The bible shows that satan has no power to destroy you and lead you to his final resting place (Hell), unless you let him by refusing to give your life to Jesus. Having a relationship with Jesus Christ and living according to His instruction is the plan God created for man, so that man could escape the eternal danger that having a free-will presents. So, choose Jesus and thus choose life! Abundant blessing and reward accompany that relationship.

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

Psalm 37:9, Psalm 71:5, Colossians 1:3-14, 1Peter 5:8-10

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.