MoneyWalk 143: What A Bargain

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Finding merchandise and services at a price that is well below what other people normally pay is exciting. However, you will not be able to engage in this wealth building practice if you are a respecter of persons with the mindset, "give me Gucci or give me death." You must put on the mind of Christ to realize that quality merchandise and service can be found in places other than the upscale business, designer label, or name brand section that you usually select.

Do not waste money on upscale brand names without proving that the quality of the merchandise or service is better and is what you can afford for the financial situation you are in right now. Test businesses that you did not previously shop to see if they have merchandise or service at a lower price that is just as useful to you at a lower price. You are sure to find businesses, retailers, local vendors, web auctions, etc. that have upscale merchandise or service at a price that truly fits your budget and does not lead you into the poor house.

Though there can be differences in merchandise and services, in many instances the same materials and workmanship can be found in similar merchandise or service with different brand names. Being a good steward of the manifold blessings that God gives you requires that you test the waters and allow the Holy Spirit to direct your purchases by leading you to less expensive alternatives that contain the same quality as the high cost items. This allows more of your hard earned money to be given, saved, and invested for future growth that can be used to build God’s kingdom and care for you and your family in times when you really need it the most.

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

Exodus 12:35-36, Proverbs 8:17-21, Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 16:1-12

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

MoneyWalk 142: Living In Abundance

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

God's financial plan works much different than what your human mind normally comprehends. Without revelation from the Holy Spirit even believers are unable to understand the way that biblical instructions work to bring all things together for their good. Instead of realizing the all-encompassing wisdom of the Lord’s instructions and the good that comes from obeying them, you’ll think just like the world and say His instructions are crazy, do not produce successful results, take too long to produce results, and/or cannot result in good things and good times for you or your family.

Would you raise your stick to part a body of water expecting that you could walk across on dry land? Would you pour hundred of gallons of water on a sacrifice expecting that it would still catch on fire? Would you put flour in a pot of poisoned stew believing that it would then be safe for other people to eat? Would you tell wedding attendants to put water in barrels believing that it would turn into wine? If you heard the voice of the Lord giving those instructions I hope you would have, but most people probably wouldn’t have. Yet we need to have the level of faith displayed by Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and Jesus when it comes to the whole of our lives including the financial arena. Even though some of God’s instructions seem crazy like setting your heart to give abundantly no matter your current financial condition, when you obey by following His instruction they work peace, joy, and abundance in your life.

During the time when you desire to get out of debt, the concept of giving to your church and other worthwhile ministry endeavors seems even more outrageous. Yet, the bible contains verse after verse that instructs you to give abundantly with the promise that you’ll receive abundantly. Whether your financial situation is in shambles and you desperately need help or you think your financial situation is great right now, you should begin to use biblical money management principles, including giving, as a means to bring you out of financial bondage. Your bondage could either be poverty or worshipping the money that has been entrusted to your care. Relationship with God, which shows itself through living by His principles, eliminates both types of bondage and places the priority of your life, beliefs, and actions firmly on Him and His will.

As you show commitment to obeying His instructions, your good stewardship will mature and your life and ministry will be augmented and enhanced via supernatural provision from God. He can bring that provision in many different ways such as bargains, help from other people, raises, promotions, business opportunities, etc. Make sure that receiving (looking out only for yourself) is not the priority of your life, otherwise you will never be truly fulfilled or accomplish your purpose in life. Rather, be a giver by supporting godly ministry and engaging in a life of service to others. Then, God will fulfill you and abundantly reward you so you can continue to bring goodwill to others.

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

Proverbs 11:24-25, Proverbs 19:17, Luke 6:38, 2Corinthians 9:7-8

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

MoneyWalk 141: Stop Cosigning Loans For Other People

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Cosigning on a debt is verbally committing or signing a contract that says you will pay the amount of money another person has borrowed if he does not meet the obligation to make the contractually required payments. Another form of cosigning is using your credit accounts (visa, mastercard, etc.) to make purchases that someone else has agreed to pay you for if you will make the purchases for them. Agreeing to cosign for another person’s borrowing will cause you to lose money almost every time.

Most people who could not pay cash for what they wanted or who did not have the good credit history necessary to borrow money on their own to make the purchase have not had the responsible nature necessary to show that they are a good credit risk. Financial institutions have extremely trustworthy systems to measure payment risk and if they will not loan the person the money without a cosigner then we should take heed and not enter into this situation.

Many of the people asking you to cosign will continue to be financially irresponsible and impatient in pursuing desires and in other financial dealings. In the end, this means that they will stop making agreed upon payments or fail to pay you back and then you will be required to make the payments at some point in time, risk ruining your credit history, and put you in a bad financial situation.

Cosigning encourages people (family, friends, etc.) to remain financially irresponsible and untrustworthy. Refusing to cosign doesn’t mean that along your path of life you should not help people. Feed a man you meet who is hungry, give clothes to a person that has none, and help find shelter for one that is homeless. However, there are many resources already in your cupboards, closets, and community that you can use for this purpose.

If the person cannot afford to purchase a material thing he desires (product or service he does not truly need), then he should not have it at this time. He should learn and if necessary you should teach him to work to meet his own desires on the income he receives and to trust God to provide the means to meet needs without causing anyone to take on debt. Use only what you have available above what is necessary to meet your needs and required bill payments, so that by example you show others that this is the path they should walk.

If you don’t already have the money in savings or investments to pay the full amount that would be borrowed, then you are not in a position to help the person to that degree. Even when you do have the money, you should still measure the situation to ensure that you are not casting your pearls to swine. You should not waste resources that God entrusts to you on people who willfully disregard God’s instructions on good stewardship. Regardless, of what you do for them they will continuously and irresponsibly spend and make bad financial decisions that continue keep them in the position where they cannot purchase the things they truly need and desire.

Watch, pray, and observe people to find out how you should help or instruct people who solicit the use of your credit accounts and signature on loan contracts that benefit them. The devil is constantly searching for a way to encourage you to mismanage money so it is of no great use in helping fulfill the Great Commission via prudently providing for your family, giving to maintain and enhance your local church outreach and discipleship ministry, and giving to fund missions work through other people who are in places you cannot physically reach. Through failure to study and understand the bible, many people don’t realize they’re being used by the devil in this way. So, don’t condemn them, just don’t give in to the enemy’s plan for the money God has entrusted to you.

The best way to help others and ensure that you are not an infidel (irresponsible and untrustworthy) who doesn’t appropriately provide for your family and take care of your responsibilities is to use available cash or resources when a true need exists. Immediately discontinue cosigning and pray that those who approach you to cosign will allow the Holy Spirit to guide them in using biblical money management principles, so they can meet their god-given responsibilities.

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 5:15-16, 2 Thessalonians 3:12-15

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

MoneyWalk 140: Don’t Borrow To Purchase Desires

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Your creditors will not tell you about the grief that accompanies consumer debt. When you don’t have a mindset to eliminate debt and stay out of it in the future, it eventually renders you unable to pay your loans and for things you really need. Loans may not seem bad when you apply for them, but they become especially harmful to you and your family when you don’t do with them the good thing that is intended (finish college and get a high paying job, purchase a home that never declines in value, purchase an investment that always appreciates in value, etc.). They also become especially devastating when you’re thrust into a period of layoff, demotion, and /or failed business endeavors.

You are not to be fearful of what life may bring, but you are to be aware of the above possibilities so you can order your life in a way that aligns with being a good steward so you can properly love God and love people with tithing and offering and do your part to properly care for the needs of your family now and in the future. The latter responsibility certainly does not mean that you have to or should provide them with all the material things you or they want. It means you need to trust in the Lord and thus be wise, in accordance with scriptural instruction, about the proportion of your income that goes to giving, saving and spending and you need to be careful to stay out of debt.

Over the past three decades, men have turned national economies in the direction of operating in a manner that shows that employer loyalty to employees and vice-versa is a thing of the past for many people. A result of this societal attitude change toward caring for one another is massive layoffs by many businesses because it is considered the remedy for every situation where the business is not as profitable as Wall Street analysts want it to be and it is a play that is expected by Wall Street powerbrokers and it is what businesses are lead to believe is necessary for commercial banks to provide them future loans / lines of credit.

Another result of the shifting loyalty is employees moving from employer to employer in two to five year intervals (even when they could stay on a long-term basis) because they believe that this is necessary to achieve the good life (all the material things they’ve ever wanted).

The societal shift and the results are not necessarily bad. They are something that each business and individual has to consider and prepare for because it may be necessary for a particular business to downsize, lay off employees, cut pay in order to help it become profitable again with an ability to provide some jobs allowing individuals to have a reasonable income that can be used to care for themselves and their families.

Just like a portion of any large group of people, some individuals who run businesses might be making moves out of greed, oppression, non-caring attitudes, and/or ignorance. However, the thing that most often causes severe financial distress for individuals is the manner in which the person managed money long before layoffs and pay cuts ever occurred. This is true with few exceptions though many people don’t want to acknowledge it.

We simply don’t give, save, and then spend like we really believe negative situations could occur at some point in our lives. We do not plan for rainy days. Instead, we continually identify every desire we have as a need and borrow more and more money to make fulfilling these desires a regular part of our lifestyle.

Also, instead of using godly stewardship principles to manage the pay we receive, we spend our time focusing on what we believe our employer should be doing or what it is not doing. In this regard, we fail to recognize that we should not spend energy trying to force our employer to operate the way we think it should. We should instead make a conscious choice to change our habits to attain a better financial position.

Your financial house cleaning process starts with trusting God to provide all your need according to His riches in glory and then immediately moves to writing and following a budget ( a giving, saving, and spending plan) based on the biblically-based vision of debt freedom. This Holy Spirit lead endeavor will release you from the bondage brought on by the loans you irresponsibly accepted from your lenders.

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

Deuteronomy 28:12, Psalms 37:21, Proverbs 22:7, 27:23-24, Romans 13:8

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

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

MoneyWalk 139: Honor God Above All Else!

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Don't fail to honor God by giving tithes and offerings each time you receive income. A tithe is one tenth of your gross income. The bible shows that believers by faith give a tithe as representation that God provides them with all that they have received while also trusting that He will more than make up for the ten percent that they offer to Him as a sacrifice of praise and worship.

All or the bulk of each tithe is usually given to the local church that one attends because it is the fellowship from which one is spiritually nourished, trained, and sometimes materially helped when in need. Also, the person can trust his local fellowship to do the same for other people in the community.

Offerings are free-will in nature and should be given cheerfully as you purpose in your heart to your local church, other ministries, and the needy.

You allow future frustration, headaches, and heartaches, into your life when you make creditors, worldly pleasures, and living like the Joneses the priority pursuit of your life instead of following God’s instructions by giving in proportion to your income to help the Church accomplish His will on a much better and more global scale than you can by yourself.

For many people, robbing God of the honor due Him by failing to pay tithes results in many difficult financial situations, strained marital relationships, and undisciplined lives that are unfruitful in the work He called us to do. The Lord allows you to obtain whatever income is available to you at every stage of your life, so as He instructs return a portion the income for the work of spreading the gospel. When you do, He promised to open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing you won't have room enough to receive. You will have more than enough to take care of all your need, spread the gospel, and help others.

When you give as instructed, God also promised to rebuke the devourer of your money so he does not destroy your ability to do the good works of Him who sent you. Tithing and offering not only move God's hand to bless you with more riches, peace, and joy as you walk the road ahead but it also helps other people by leading unbelievers to Jesus Christ and providing tools for believers to know God more intimately and equip them to fulfill the godly purpose for their lives.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Give and it shall be given unto you; full measure and overflowing shall men give into your life. No good thing shall the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly before Him. When you make God and His will your priority, He will abundantly provide everything you need for life, godliness, and fulfillment of the destiny He planned for you.

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

Genesis 14:20, Malachi 3:8-10, 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.