MoneyWalk 431 Economic Growth Beats Economic Collapse

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

For over 3000 years Proverbs 22:7 has been foretelling the economic collapse that comes upon people whose material possessions are obtained via borrowing. Also, for approximately 2000 years 1Timothy 6:10 tells us greed pierces people with many sorrows because it comes from the love of money which is the root of all evil, which always brings destruction. As Christian leaders, captains of industry, and/or Heaven’s citizens we should be listening to and living by scriptural truth regardless of how the society around us chooses to live.

Rebellion against the bible as truth and/or irresponsibility in living by its standards is the great catalyst behind most economic problems people face because they decide that a lifestyle of taking out loans is not as bad as the bible describes it, regardless of the fact that many institutions charge exorbitant interest rates that outweigh the growth they could get on average if the money was invested instead. Institutions and individuals have culpability with regard to the poor financial problems many people face.

Without institutions willingness to provide such loans and Wall Street’s willingness to package them as securities so some investor could hopefully make enormous sums of money, businesses and individuals could not have taken on such loans. The loans also could not have been engaged if individuals understood the financial bondage they would bring upon them and committed to avoiding them because they are not in line with the LORD’s plan for healthy finances. We must learn to be smarter and understand how the consequences of failing to live according to biblical principles will play out in our individual financial lives and in our national economy.

Capitalism is the best economic engine and at its best when it has limited regulation, and only those that work to eliminate incentives for greed and oppression of the masses while allowing for freedom to pursue many different forms of legitimate business opportunities that serve people and have the ability to bring in enormous revenue streams under low taxation. Unfortunately, some people think any regulation is akin to socialism and should be done away with. Yet, we must understand God Almighty gave the Law and it is our schoolmaster that by the grace of God helps us know right from wrong and helps guide us into being the best most productive good neighbors that we can be by allowing the Holy Spirit to help us avoid activities that bring destruction. In fact, per the Great Commandment, the bible shows you cannot really love God unless you also love your neighbor like yourself.

Income and assets will never be the same for everyone anywhere around the world and no one wants to give welfare to a truly lazy or irresponsible person. Yet, we must understand that the scriptures consider it to be an attribute of righteousness when one looks out for the welfare of neighbors and helps the poor, oppressed, and widows that have no means. So, while it’s important to keep taxes low and not over-regulate, each individual’s and nation’s first economic priority and the one that will set them up for future financial well-being must be to live by biblical principles that express our love for the LORD, His way, and other people.

Having your neighbor’s best interest at heart positively trickles down in blessing and prosperity within your community and nation. Yet, being greedy and seeking to manipulate numbers and markets to "get all you can and can all you get" only trickles down in pain and misfortune for everyone involved. The elimination of greed by helping individuals and businesses be financially responsible via steering clear of excessive debt and employing other good stewardship practices must be undertaken otherwise we are subject to great long-term misfortune down the road.

Please pray for this ministry and email me with any questions. May the LORD bless you richly as you follow His plan!

Matthew 25:37-46, Luke 10:27, Luke 12:42-48, Galatians 6:1-5

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

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

You can find many other MoneyWalk articles on Facebook by looking at the NOTES created by Randy Parlor at https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000444069041&sk=notes.

You can connect with Randy Parlor on Twitter and Linkedin

You can also view and/or listen to MoneyWalk articles at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnztOIesOKIrSd_H6c-8mQ

MoneyWalk 430 Your Worldly Life Must Die So You Can Produce Much Fruit

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Jesus used the illustration above to identify the principle that we must die to ourselves (our will and worldly pleasures) in order to produce much fruit. In other words, we cannot enjoy the eternal and earthly benefit of a relationship with God unless we are willing to forsake our will and abide wholeheartedly in His will. Most people probably never think of a seed planted as being dead. Much more they think how could something that is dead produce life at all not to mention many more of its kind. However, you must understand this principle through crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which was His willingness to die so He could be resurrected to provide everyone, indeed anyone, who would trust in Him everlasting salvation from Father God’s wrath against those who continue in rebellion through sinfulness against His will and way. He is the first born of the resurrected of which many believers would go on to do the works He does and even greater through the power of the Holy Spirit in them.

He arose after three days was seen of about 500 witnesses and ushered in the Church age. This has resulted in multiple billions of people accepting Him as Savior and Lord to be of service to others in the earth and to receive the promise of resurrection from the dead when he quickens our bodies at the rapture. Because He was a seed that was planted in the ground and dead to Himself, He lives to the will of God the Father to produce the kind of enormous fruit we see in the Church throughout the past 2000 years.

While the greater application is one of dying to ourselves and living to God, so that we can win many more people into the kingdom of God, this principle also has practical application in the money management arena while we’re on earth. Unless we die to ourselves, we will not manage money in accordance with biblical instruction and God’s plan for our lives and resources He entrusts to us. Instead, we will usually operate from the world’s vantage point and value system. Although some of their perspectives and methods come from the bible, they tend not to know it or even want to, and many of them have been twisted to a point where they ultimately hurt people who continue to use them in the long run and often in the short run.

Here are a few cases in point. First, some business executives had the mentality that “greed is good” and so it seemed to be good for quite some time. They helped manipulate revenue and accounting data, sometimes fraudulently, to boost stock prices so that over two decades their salaries shot up over 2000% percent while the average worker’s salary increased approximately 60% over the same period. We now see that some of them were convicted of crimes and spent many years in prison and their formerly vast fortunes were drastically reduced. Second, many business people, speculators, and average individuals reached into the credit (loan) handbag in ways that pushed the housing market to steep appreciation for two decades. Using unwise underwriting standards and options that financial institutions offered such as balloon ARMs, interest only, and no doc loans. Many loans required no income and asset documentation and many loans greatly increased people’s debt to income ratios. Many speculators outright lied about income on their applications and other individuals simply didn’t refuse to take such loans. All of them refused to believe that God’s Word is alive and the only truth for today and always.

If God’s word on debt and surety had been applied by businesses, speculators, and individuals alike the cycles of housing, credit, and economic crises we face would not be as severe especially on the middle class and lower income sectors in society. You see, economic problems are exacerbated because a great number of citizens refuse to die to themselves and their will. This means they do not choose to live to God’s will. Instead, they focus on material things they can gain from the financial boom cycles that occur (promotions, bigger titles, big investment accounts, bigger investment accounts, house bigger, bigger houses, mansions, more expensive vehicles, ostentatious bling, etc.) instead of His greater purpose for their lives and money entrusted to them. They thought they could get away with using credit any way they wanted and could pull others into enormous creditor / debtor loan contracts without it really being “oppression” on the masses and “unwise” for the lenders. What we’ve found is the walls to that house eventually cave in on both sides.

Each person must kill the greed for filthy lucre within him/her and bury it in Christ, so he/she may live to benefit many others and allow heavenly blessings to be poured upon him/her in the right way. When you die to yourself you kill the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life to find you are able to truly help far more people via ministries like feeding the hungry, helping the homeless, caring for widows and orphans, and lifting the poor out of poverty than you would otherwise be able to do. All because the Holy Spirit’s is committed to using His power in a supernatural way with proof of results when evangelism and disciple-making are connected with good works. Then, it is truly charitable services because through the communication of the gospel in both word and deed it leads givers and receivers to the one who is LOVE.

You will also find the blessing of God piling up on you with no sorrow added to it. God will open doors for you to make inroads in ways you or I do not yet mentally and physically understand nor have experienced. That is what faith is all about – the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen! Dying to self is a continual process. So, you must inventory yourself everyday by letting the Lord know you’re ready to stop anything you’re currently doing and take another direction when He wants you to. You must be willing to eliminate or move out of any business or ministry because anything you hold onto after He directs you elsewhere is now operating on your will and ultimately will not glorify Him or work out for the best for you or for others or put either of you in position to break bondages that are on your lives.

Please pray for this ministry and email me with any questions. May the LORD bless you richly as you follow His plan!

Matthew 17:14-21, Mark 4:21-32, Luke 7:1-10, John 12:20-26, 2 Corinthians 4:12-15

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

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

You can find many other MoneyWalk articles on Facebook by looking at the NOTES created by Randy Parlor at https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000444069041&sk=notes.

You can connect with Randy Parlor on Twitter and Linkedin

You can also view and/or listen to MoneyWalk articles at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnztOIesOKIrSd_H6c-8mQ

MoneyWalk 429 Additional Debt Will Not Undue Debt Bondage

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Many people try to outsmart biblical instruction from the LORD by using debt as leverage to get themselves into continually better social and financial positions. However, before long the vast majority get themselves into horrible financial trouble. They fail to understand that unsuspecting, irresponsible, foolish people are pulled into the financial abyss by highly leveraging debt to get material things and business success they want. There is a small percentage of people who seem to get away with it and this leads many others into a place of bondage when they try to copy those they see doing it.

The psalmist said thoughts of envy almost caused his foot to slip after he saw the prosperity of the wicked. He thought about doing things their way, but then it dawned on him that their way was not pleasing nor glorifying to the LORD because it was not in accordance with His instruction and thus would not last the test of time. While a few might experience vast material surplus on earth, their reckless indifference to prospering using His pattern would result in many of them slowly moving away from intimacy with Him and causing others to do the same. Thus, forgetting they should first and foremost do what they do in a way that identifies them as citizens of a heavenly kingdom who justly gain and utilize money to serve His purposes as opposed to serving Mammon by gaining and utilizing it primarily for pleasure and notoriety.

Sometimes, Congress and the president are also culpable in that they have through legislation encouraged businesses to offer unreasonable levels of credit to people who are not trustworthy or who simply don’t really have the income to handle long-term payments. The 2008 market meltdown was a result of bad government regulation and business decision-making many years earlier with regard to debt.

The unreasonable credit offerings pushed so much money in the market that it had the effect of making it look like everything was booming for a long time. It pushed the value of homes and merchandise to levels that were really unreasonable for many to pursue. For years some bad actors considered the situation a win that would result in huge economic growth rates and great profits. They believed they could not lose because the appreciation of the properties and merchandise would continue to increase enormously year after year. In order to get far more out of customers they offered loans that caused payments to rise every few years. Also, they provided no documentation loans in which they trusted the person's indication of his/her income and financial condition instead of getting proof the person indeed made enough income to faithfully make long-term payments. These efforts to reap additional profits without developing products that would not make the borrower a slave to the lender led some financial institutions and many people into financial bondage, foreclosure, repossession, bankruptcy, and despair.

If all sides (individuals, businesses, and the government) really put their trust in God, in accordance with the principle written across our currency, they would understand reliance on debt creates a toxic situation for those who unreasonably and excessively engage it. Unfortunately, many people think (1) the bible is to be quoted but not followed, (2) humans’ way of managing money trumps employing biblical principles, (3) even unreasonable consumer spending is the grease that oils the economic engine, and (4) a nation can take care of problems and bondage caused by over-utilization of debt by providing more loans and doing all they can to have the government infuse more loan inducing regulations and appropriations into business markets.

Many make pursuit of greater sales numbers each year their priority, instead of focusing people on God’s will and purpose and making sure their business pursuits do the same. They encourage people to excessively seek the American Dream of having more, bigger, and better no matter the current cost. This leads people to take on more debt to achieve the dream, which they can never really achieve or be satisfied with because there is always bigger and better to go after. Feelings of discontentment swell within them and many fail to be thankful for what they have because they always believe they should have more right now.

Ultimately, the vast majority of people get humbled and suffer consequences of not employing biblical principles in their lives. If we’ll learn our lesson by understanding the insidious nature of debt, then by faith with action we’ll avoid it and encourage others to do the same. We’ll protect one another by proclaiming the truth concerning debt and the bondage it puts a person in.

It’s time we learned that more debt will not undo current debt bondage. It may seem to relieve it for a moment, but eventually we find the monkey is not off our back and the problem has only gotten worse. Where there is a will, each entity can be built around debt freedom and work hard to eliminate debt and get on sound financial footing. Yes, it produces short-term pain because of the huge appetite for meaningless things we have built within ourselves over many years. Yet, in the long run debt freedom is the best financial situation any entity could be in.

I pray the LORD blesses our nation, yet one cannot be blessed in the great manner it otherwise could be if its citizens, and leaders they select, think they’re smarter than Almighty God and continue to habitually violate biblical principles. Ultimately, the consequences of choosing the wrong path negatively affects the makers of bad decisions causing great hardship. The bible says let God’s word be true and every man a lie. He desires that we seek Him through Jesus Christ and learn to obey His commands so we can be redeemed, blessed, and rewarded forevermore.

Please pray for this ministry and email me with any questions. May the LORD bless you richly as you follow His plan!

Deuteronomy 28:12, 44, Proverbs 13:18, 22:6-7, 26, Romans 13:8

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

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

You can find many other MoneyWalk articles on Facebook by looking at the NOTES created by Randy Parlor at https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000444069041&sk=notes.

You can connect with Randy Parlor on Twitter and Linkedin

You can also view and/or listen to MoneyWalk articles at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnztOIesOKIrSd_H6c-8mQ

MoneyWalk 428 The Greatest Financial Testimony

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Being a good steward of the manifold blessings of God demands that you start right where you are in your relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior & Lord of your life. Understand that presenting your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, and being transformed by the renewing of your mind means you must follow biblical principles as soon as you learn them because they serve as the gateway to truly doing His will. Your intimate relationship with the true and living God and where you truly stand in readiness to do His will are verified when you adhere to principles such as worshipping the LORD via thanksgiving, praise, prayer, daily bible study, weekly fellowship with believers, and making godly declarations / proclamations of your fruitfulness & prosperity. Likewise, your godly example is magnified when you employ the few principles aimed primarily at the financial area of your life: tithing, offering, planning including budgeting, debt elimination, refusing to cosign, saving & investing, and diversifying your investments.

You need to start employing these biblical principles now, by the power of the Holy Spirit living in you, because lollygagging in this area of life reflects that you are undisciplined concerning the will of God in many other areas of your life. It is truly meaningful that many of Jesus teachings used examples of financial stewardship as a basis for pointing believers to the right path of attitude and action they should employ. The scripture also says the love of money is the root of all evil. Consistently employing a biblically based money management plan is an external indicator of your internal spiritual condition. It should be based on: (1) a first financial priority to tithe & give abundantly to the Church for godly ministry; (2) a secondary priority to save and invest a reasonable proportion for family care, rainy days, and ministry and business endeavors; and (3) a third / lesser priority to spend on unnecessary material things until your financial condition and management is such that your outgo will not exceed your income, so your upkeep will not be your downfall.

You must understand the thermometer by which you should be measuring your condition and the thermostat that allows you to turn up the temperature on the right way to manage money, so you eliminate the coldness brought on by managing money using ungodly principles of the enemy and this world. From time to time you probably watch television shows that display lifestyles of the rich and famous. Usually, the shows focus on letting you know just how much the rich person has accumulated and displays the opulence of his/her homes, cars, and material purchases. To be clear, everyone does not have to live at the same material level and there is no specific level at which a particular person should forego material purchases or wealth accumulation. However, recognizing there are two spiritual forces at play in the world (Almighty God versus the god of this world (Satan)) and both would lead you to do things that will bring riches into your life, albeit in different ways and for different reasons.

Satan is not equal to Almighty God in any sense, but is allowed by Him to tempt man with a rebellious plan for income and wealth pursuit that puts him/her on the path to destruction, especially eternal. Yet many also experience financial destruction on earth from using this rebellious plan. Whereas, Almighty God’s plan is on the path to eternal life and causes you to be truly fruitful and prosperous while on earth. By it, you spread the gospel and do good works that lead people to repentance, better lives, and to be better examples for others to follow. You need to use the free will the LORD gave you to choose His righteous path so you and other people get all the eternal and earthly benefits He prepared and desires for your life.

Please pray for this ministry and email me with any questions. May the LORD bless you richly as you follow His plan!

Luke 16:13-15, Acts 4:36-5:11, 1Timothy 6:17-19, James 5:1-8

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

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

You can find many other MoneyWalk articles on Facebook by looking at the NOTES created by Randy Parlor at https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000444069041&sk=notes.

You can connect with Randy Parlor on Twitter and Linkedin

You can also view and/or listen to MoneyWalk articles at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnztOIesOKIrSd_H6c-8mQ