MoneyWalk

MoneyWalk 132: Good Stewards Maintain A Budget

2012-02-12T22:34:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Worldly financial experts have said paying yourself first is the solution to all your financial woes. However, that method doesn't work, unless you know what your net income is and you spend less than your net income minus what you paid yourself first during each pay period. This is called budgeting. If you don't budget, you'll eventually stop paying yourself first and you'll spend all that you previously saved to obtain needed cash to meet your un-affordable living standard.

I certainly believe that you should pay yourself as close to first as legally possible. However, unless your employer pays you under the table (which is generally not godly and can land employers and employees in legal trouble and prison), other entities will receive a good chunk of money you earn (the IRS, social security and Medicare administrations, union dues, health care deductions, etc.) before you receive and are able to save some for yourself.

Even independent contractors and business owners have obligations that must be paid before they can legally put money away for their own savings and investment. For instance, if you don’t pay quarterly taxes due, then all that you’ve paid yourself and more could be required of you in taxes, interest, and penalties. Failure to pay the right amount over a prolonged period of time could be considered tax evasion and land you in prison.

Therefore, a budget is necessary because it helps you know how much you earn over given periods of time which in turn helps you understand amounts that you are obligated to pay in taxes and other requirements. Also, it helps define the amount of income that is disposable to spend on other desired products and services that are not needs. The greatest financial need everyone has is giving a proportionate amount of income to honor God to allow the biblical law of reciprocity to supernaturally grow their wealth.

Food and shelter are certainly earthly needs as well as transportation. Most other expenditures are for desires. A budget allows you to place all things in their proper priority. Regular planned giving to the church and to other people’s needs as God directs (alms) assures that God will provide your need according to His riches in glory. When He provides you must understand that giving a portion back to perpetuate the gospel and growing God’s kingdom in the hearts of men is the highest financial priority, then shelter, food, transportation, clothing, and other things in lesser priority.

Many times people don’t have a budget and also don’t prioritize in the right manner. They act as if they cannot get food and clothing free of charge from many different sources when in fact they can get these things when in need without spending any of their own money or not much at all. Also, many people try to hold onto houses with mortgages currently above their ability to bear because they make it look to other people like they have reached a coveted socio-economic status or they are living the life. Don’t let the American Dream become your American Nightmare.

Instead, look for and accept less costly alternatives over the short haul in order to make ends meet during tough financial times. You should consider staying with family and friends, buying only off clearance racks and only within a reasonable monthly shopping budget, or buying only from secondhand stores until your finances are in good shape and you have an ability to splurge a little.

Such options are available for everyone when their need over the short and long-haul is not based on perpetual irresponsibility. A number of suitable options that positively affect your financial situation appear when your need is based on an emergency or catastrophe you could not predict, foresee, or bypass (acute surgery, recent layoff, death of a bread winner, etc. Looking for, asking for, and utilizing these options when necessary, along with properly prioritizing and budgeting spending, help you weather the financial storm and grow wealth over the course of your life, so at some point you never have to be in a bad financial situation again.

When you succumb to it, the modern day system of obtaining loans and looking to credit, credit reports, and credit scores as the measure of financial strength hampers budgeting strategies. When you spend all you make and continually get loans to buy everything you want, the day will come when you'll have a mountain of bills you can't pay. Don't be fooled, whether you're considered rich or poor you can get into a habit of overspending your net income and can end up in financial ruin.

A budget helps measure all your expenses, so you know when you're living above your means. It will help you see which expenditures to eliminate or reduce to allow you live having joy and peace and the elimination of worry and its accompanying stress. When you mix budgeting with honoring God first through tithing, you have a potent combination that is supernaturally charged to prosper you to take care of your needs, other people’s needs, and plant and water gospel seeds in many people’s hearts.

Please email me with any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Psalm 37:23, Proverbs 30:24-25, Ecclesiastes 10:18-19, Habakkuk 2:2-4, Luke 16:9

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 131: What Is The State Of Your Finances?

2012-02-06T00:46:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You are committing financial harm to yourself when you do not regularly save a portion of each paycheck in order to build an emergency fund that can take care of financial needs when rainy days ultimately come in your life. The destructive poor stewardship tendency that leads most people to fail to save is caused and perpetuated by regularly taking on loans to purchase products and services you don’t have cash to pay cash for. Also, some portion of it is caused by failure to immediately subtract account withdrawals from your checkbook. In addition, when you don't reconcile your bank account(s) at the beginning of each month you compound the poor stewardship until it finally results in some financial destruction (unbearable debt, repossession, foreclosure, bankruptcy, divorce, homelessness, loss of belief and trust in Jesus Christ, etc.).

When you display poor stewardship tendencies, you're a financial kamikaze that will inevitably crash and burn. The problem is your irresponsibility will damage your own ship (your personal economy and thus relationship with your spouse, children, church family, friends, etc.). The bible instructs you to monitor the state of your income versus your expenditures, so you do not become a tool of satan while thinking you are justified in acting irresponsibly with your finances.

In order to let peace and joy overcome financial destruction, you must keep the amount of your expenses well below the amount of your income. For example, you must budget in such a way that you spend no more than 70% of your after tax income on necessities and desires. You should also establish a habit of regularly tithing ten percent of your income, so that you open the window of heaven over your life to receive tremendous blessing to carry out your purpose and help others. If you don't like to hear the word "budget," would you rather hear the phrase "trapped in debt, relationships ruined, god-given purposes averted?"

When you don't budget, you inevitably overspend your income and get trapped in debt. Financial and spiritual ruin silently overtake most people who fail to budget; just like carbon monoxide silently and without odor takes the life of people trapped in closed buildings. Sometimes, other people do not know the state you’re in until they see you limp and lifeless.

This destruction happens because you were convinced by the enemy of your soul, satan, that you are wiser than God and thus could forsake God’s instructions without consequence. However, just like Adam and Eve you lose far more than you imagine when you take the satan’s word and manage money according to his instructions; destruction will come and it doesn’t matter who reaches out to help you, you’ll continue to be in a place of natural, financial, and possibly eternal torment.

This is not the future God planned for you! If you want to grow financially healthy, wealthy, and wise, you must keep your expenses below your income by staying out of debt. Also, you must do the other things that allow you to stay focused on God’s will and His instructions: get saved, worship Christ daily, pray daily, read the scriptures daily, join a local church, fellowship with believers every week, and be committed on a long-term basis to a ministry sanctioned by your church.

This pattern will serve you in the natural, financial, and eternal arenas of your life. The road to prosperity is not hard to navigate, but it requires setting your face like flint to obey biblical instruction and disciplining yourself to heed the words of our Lord Jesus, who asked what man would attempt to erect a building without first counting the cost. You can only build His building, one that glorifies Him, when you follow His instructions. For if the Lord does not build the house (through you following His guidance), you (the workman) labor in vain!

Please email me with any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Psalm 127:1, Proverbs 27:23-24, Habakkuk 2:2-3, Luke 14:28-30

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 130: Doing Things The Right Way

2012-01-29T14:45:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You must be wise at managing your money if you want to turn your negative financial condition around. True wisdom comes only from God and the bible tells us how to find it. It contains the only instructions that can truly prosper you in an eternal and earthly fashion.

Commit your ways to Christ and He'll direct you to bible verses that will give you knowledge to make positive financial changes in your life. In addition, He imparts the Holy Spirit to every believer. The Holy Spirit enlightens your heart to want what God wants to come to pass for your life and the lives of others. He also enlightens your mind to understand principles that were previously hidden to human thinking and action. In other words, He imparts wisdom that you couldn’t receive from any other source to enable you to serve others, your family, and yourself in the way that is absolutely best for you.

Knowledge usually precedes understanding. Understanding usually precedes wisdom. Wisdom is the principle thing you need because it is doing the right things the right way. It leads you to make wise financial decisions. Knowledge is receiving information about something. Understanding is recognizing / grasping the meaning of the information so you can see how to appropriately take care of situations. Wisdom is acting on such understanding in a way that is within God's moral boundaries. In an absolute sense, doing whatever the Holy Spirit tells you to do is wisdom because His instruction will always correspond with biblical principles and will never lead you astray of God’s will. Your obedience brings spiritual and financial prosperity into your life.

Normally, knowledge fuels understanding and understanding fuels wisdom and wisdom takes the right action and then leads to seeking greater knowledge and understanding and so on and so on. However, the Holy Spirit can give direct revelation on how you should respond to a situation without you ever having obtained information from which to get an understanding. Again, His guidance will never conflict with biblical principles.

Using instructions from other sources that do not conform to biblical principles ultimately brings grief, hardship, and destruction in this life and/or eternity. So, search the bible to find God’s general will and the financial principles you must employ to carry it out His will. Then ask the Holy Spirit for guidance on how to employ what you now know and understand. Only then will you alleviate current problems and side-step future ones. You’ll always do it right when you follow God's instruction because that is wisdom and it brings peace, joy, righteousness, and the riches of Heaven into your life.

Please email me with any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 15:33, 16:9, Luke 16:11, Ephesians 5:15, 6:14-15

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 129: Escaping Financial Bondage

2012-01-22T14:49:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

When you're a prisoner of debt and lack, it seems no one cares. However, Jesus cares and provides a way for you to escape the bondage. Starting a relationship with Him begins the process that helps you take the shackles off your feet. He's the only person who can show you how to solve your problems.

You must declare that He's your Savior and LORD and discipline yourself to read the bible daily, pray daily, and attend a bible believing local church where you'll receive godly instruction that can help you prosper in every area of your life. These disciplines help you get to know Him better, teach you His ways, encourage you to follow His ways, connect you with people who have godly wisdom you desperately need, and help you get out of the spiritual and financial trouble that has entrapped you.

Your alternative is to keep doing what you've been doing and continue your downward spiritual and financial spiral. People who rebel at God's word eventually suffer destructive, chaotic, and joyless situations. Such rebellion normally focuses on people who are unsaved, however there are believers who haven't been diligent in applying the disciplines of regularly reading scripture, praying, fellowshipping with believers, and utilizing biblical money management principles.

The believer’s confession and heart-felt faith in Christ caused them to inherit a home in Heaven, but on earth they are suffering spiritual and financial hardships because they fail to mature in obedience to scriptural principles. Certainly, this is heads and shoulders above the unbeliever because each unbeliever will suffer damnation and torment throughout eternity simply due to the fact that he / she has chosen not to make the confession of faith in Jesus Christ that would have saved him / her from such never ending pain.

Yet, the earthly and eternal inheritance God holds in trust for believers should lead them to renew their commitment to Christ-likeness by repenting of following worldly instruction and examples. In this way, they can become as fruitful as possible on earth by investing money and resources in heavenly endeavors that truly serve people’s needs and help populate the Kingdom of God. With such renewed commitment, believers are able to understand biblical instruction, receive guidance from the Holy Spirit, and surround themselves with a group of mature believers who serve as examples and inspiration for living in a biblically productive manner.

The great thing about this pattern is that it works for unbelievers as well. As soon as they make the commitment to Jesus Christ, not only do they bypass eternal damnation, they are also able to incorporate true and lasting prosperity into every area of their lives. Their hearts and minds become open to a level of understanding, revelation, and discernment that helps them walk in godly wisdom. Such enlightenment brings devotion to the LORD, His people, and His mission and produces eternally prosperous fruit in their lives. This is the way by which one truly escapes financial bondage.

Please email me with any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Psalms 1:1-6, 68:6, Proverbs 15:22, Matthew 6:9-12, Hebrews 10:23-27

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 128: Mission, Planning, Vision, & Goals

2012-01-15T14:42:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You need a mission in life otherwise you will be unfulfilled, useless to other people, and a negative drain on your family, friends, and society. People without a godly mission tend to display negativity, depression, needy personalities, and slothfulness. Other people who have taken on missions that have not been given and guided by Almighty God pursue things and experience earthly success and praise from man but on Judgment Day God will not recognize them as successful until they accept Him as Savior. They have the wrong mission because they do not first seek God’s glory in what they do and the skill they display and the people they help. Upon turning to Him the Holy Spirit will change their hearts and progressively change the priorities and actions.

God wants us to understand that the Great Commission is the right mission and in pursuing it we must follow the great commandment as a united body of believers by preaching the gospel to every person using an abundant portion of our voices, lives, money, time, and other resources. You should ask God to show you His long-range vision and short-term goals that you can employ in order to fulfill His mission: specifically your part of it.

It will take continual planning to reach your goals, achieve your vision, and fulfill your mission. If you don't write your plan out on a medium that you can frequently re-read and periodically adjust (such as a computer), specific components will be lost to your memory overtime and you will fail to do all that you should do in leading other people to Jesus Christ and giving Him glory.

Research has shown that people who keep their vision and goals before them on paper achieve much more than those who plan only in their heads and way more than those who don't plan at all. If you don't currently know what your specific vision and goals should be, start or keep developing a daily praise, worship, and prayer relationship with the Lord, keep serving in your local church, and keep learning and disciplining yourself to manage money properly. In this way, you will please the heart of God by drawing closer to Him and you can support God’s church and build His kingdom in the hearts of men, women, and children by funding the gospel through tithes and offerings and physically helping other believers minister to the huddled masses.

Satan is continually trying to blind and lead sinners and Christians down into the pit of Hell, so he and the fallen angels won’t be so lonely there. However, as you get busy working on the mission identified in the bible through someone else’s vision and goals (your local church pastor), in due time God will show you and other church leaders specifically what He has called you to do. Then, He will help you plan and set goals to pursue what is important to His heart and your posterity and prosperity.

Please email me with any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Habakkuk 2:1-4, Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 19:21-22, Acts 26:12-20

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 127: The People Perish for Lack of Knowledge

2012-01-08T23:30:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Most people fail to rid themselves of the lifestyles and habits that are destructive to them. This rings true for their finances as well as other areas of their lives. We can identify such people in three groups.

The first group contains people who go through life unsaved and on their way to hell while at the same time experiencing financial defeat and its pressure and stress except for the few handouts good neighbors give them from time to time that never seem to help better their situation. Many people in this group at some point in life usually make a move toward Jesus Christ because their situation dictates that they try something to pull themselves out of despair. They must be careful to truly accept Him as Savior and LORD in their hearts instead of simply accepting Him in confession only with an aim to turn their situation around and then walk out on Him after they get the goods.

The second group contains people who are unsaved and monetarily do well or very well on earth. Though they do well financially and may even be super rich, they are in poverty because they have failed to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and LORD. They are eternally doomed no matter how much money, fame, or power they have in this life. In fact, many people that make it into this group never escape from eternal death to eternal life because their position of ease and great blessing in this world blinds them to the need of having a personal relationship with Christ.

They tend to be self-centered and success oriented at all costs with an attitude that they are self-sufficient and need no one, especially a God they cannot see with their natural eyes. They generally feel that they have made it on their own and that they can always manipulate, oppress, and abuse other people, if necessary to get what they want on this earth. They have great skill and platforms that could be used to spread the gospel and build the kingdom of God in the hearts of men, but for the reasons noted above they consider their highest priority to be amassing great wealth so they can live by their own rules.

The third group contains people who accepted Christ as Savior and are on their way to heaven, yet they are financially defeated and depressed except for the few times when someone brought them a crumb here or a dollar there to momentarily ease their state of poverty on earth. While I'd rather be in the third group than in the first two groups, I can do much better in this life than just being saved and on my way to heaven while living defeated on earth.

In this short existence on earth, I want to help fund the gospel in my community and around the world and serve as an intentional ambassador for Christ to tens of thousands of people. God planned a level of wealth for every believer! I desire to follow the Holy Spirit in putting myself in a position, through good stewardship of the money and possessions He entrusts to me, to obtain the wealth He planned for me for the glory of God and benefit of His kingdom. People in this third group must be careful not to allow their seemingly endless woes to move them to give up their confession of faith in and heartfelt belief in Christ. They should seek to know Him better in order to better steward his possessions and receive the rewards thereof.

Due to the earthly and/or eternal calamity awaiting people in the first three groups who are unrepentant of their sin and/or ignorant of their need for Christ’s power in their lives, I have chosen to be part of a fourth group: those who accept Christ and position themselves to receive heavenly treasures for the up-building of His kingdom.

There is also a danger to people in this group. They must not let the deceitfulness of riches, power, fame, and position captivate them so much that they throw away humility toward God and man and begin to seek wealth at any cost or fail to use it according to God’s will. Otherwise they may wind up like Demas, who followed the Apostle Paul for many years, but then left that great ministry because he loved the things of the world much more. Oh, what great position would he have had in eternity had he not turned his back on the LORD and His people!

In scripture, God laid out principle after principle concerning how you must handle money to be truly blessed. However, you must study His word and then show yourself approved by using biblical principles in order to better yourself and your finances. Otherwise, you will perish! Either on earth or in eternity and dependent upon the grouping you’re in you may suffer in both realms. So quickly commit to an ongoing personal relationship with Jesus Christ and seek to move into the fourth group, so that God may use you in ever greater ways to bring His will to pass.

Psalms 2:11-12, Proverbs 29:18, Matthew 8:25, 1Corinthians 8:10-13, 2Peter 3:9

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 126: The Silent Killer

2012-01-01T15:29:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Over 50% of marriages are ending in divorce with most divorcees saying that financial problems caused their marriages to end. People's indebtedness to business establishments continues to rise at a horrendous rate and many say bankruptcies and business failures were the result of not being able to pay the large loans they took on to purchase buildings, equipment, and other desires.

Many children are more selfish and disrespectful to parents and elders than they've ever been. Children continue to set their parent’s teeth on edge even though they provide them with the finest homes, cars, and clothes that debt can buy. The savings rate continues to plunge. More people than ever before are having cars repossessed, homes foreclosed on, and filing for bankruptcy.

These devastating situations are only symptoms of the underlying problem that most people perpetuate: failure to use biblical money management principles. They thought purchasing expensive houses, cars, and other items would make them happy, show people that they are blessed, and be the answer to their problems. However, real peace and joy can be imparted only by the Lord through relationship with Him.

Debt is nothing but a silent killer that eventually leads the masses into poverty, despair, hopelessness, and life beneath the prosperous privilege God desires for you. Not realizing this many people continue to make the same mistake over and over thinking that more income and more material things will take care of the void they feel inside and the problems they see on the outside. Sometimes, they think these things will bring them the respect they want from other people and will eliminate the insecurity they feel deep down.

Now, we shouldn’t focus much on the past failures that are behind us, rather we should look to the One whose blood and principles can change our lives forever starting on earth. Let our past be an indication that I need the One who is wiser than I. While I may be endowed with some great gifts and abilities, I am not Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent and thus I need a deep abiding relationship with the one who is all these things.

The silent killer is our lack of knowledge and understanding of biblical principles for living and managing money and failure to obey the commands and principles of scripture. However, Jesus Christ offers you a way to turn this situation around and make your life purposeful and truly worthwhile. He is the only way, the truth, and the life.

No man can do anything eternally worthwhile except it come from the empowerment of a relationship with Him. So, freely offer yourself to Him today and never turn back on that commitment. Seek to know Him better throughout your life and know His principles and He is sure to lead you to a non-indebted, fruitful, purposeful life where you are able to complete the work He gave you to do.

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

Deuteronomy 15:9-11, Proverbs 11:24-26, Matthew 6:19-21, John 4:34, 1Timothy 6:17-21

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 125: How Would You Feel If...?

2011-12-25T21:40:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MoneyWalk 124: Preparing for Crisis

2011-12-18T22:49:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

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

1) Trusting the LORD completely

2) Understanding emergencies will occur

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

4) Identifying your present financial condition

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

6) Diligently paying off debts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MoneyWalk 123: Emergency Preparations

2011-12-11T14:31:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MoneyWalk 122: Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God

2011-12-04T23:21:00.001-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MoneyWalk 121: Do Not Compromise With Debt

2011-11-13T22:08:00.001-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

God desires that you be debt-free. He wants this for your personal life and business ownership. Many have ignored God's instructions and warnings about debt and others have compromised His standards not believing that it is possible to be debt-free. While a few people wind up appearing better off because they leveraged consumer debt, the vast majority of people are destroying peace and joy in their lives by taking on excessive debt.

A legitimate reason for taking on debt is when parents have no way to provide food and/or shelter during a period of poverty in which severe hardship has overtaken the family. It may also be acceptable to use debt instruments whenever you have fixed assets of an amount that covers the total loan plus interests and costs and enough stable income or cash flow to cover the monthly payments. This scenario describes many real estate purchases whether for a family’s primary home, rental property, flipping, or commercial property.

The latter type of indebtedness (real estate purchase) is considered shrewd by some people because the asset may increase in value to be far greater than the outstanding amount of the loan and because renting the property may create enough cash flow (income) to more than cover the monthly loan payment and any other expenses resulting from ownership of the assets. In such situations, you earn more on your money than you pay out in interest on the loan. Some call it using the world’s money to make a fortune for the kingdom.

Yet, you must be very careful when walking this path because many people with good intentions were not able to produce enough cash flow to cover the loan payments and/or the value of the asset dropped due to market conditions. In many such situations, people (even Christians) were forced to file bankruptcy or had the properties foreclosed on and wound up with huge amounts of debt still being pursued by bill collectors and in some cases the government.

When people compromise by taking on debt instruments without the net worth to cover the entire amount of indebtedness, they usually shortchange the kingdom of God and the church and bring financial hardship upon their families. Unfortunately, one bad choice is never enough for them, so they enter into such situations with many creditors for mortgages, car notes, visas, charge cards, etc. This eliminates disposable income that could be used to invest and grow wealth and puts them in a position where they choose to pay creditors instead of paying tithes to their local church to help lead people to Jesus Christ and teach them how to walk in His ways.

While most people want blessings and rewards from God they unfortunately make financial pacts with the devil and give his methods more allegiance than they give God's principles. Your vision should be focused on the fact that God is able to prosper you and grow great wealth for your family without you getting into debt. He wants to bring you out of debt, not further encumber your life with debt. Debt freedom is truly the best position to work yourself into. It’s wonderful to know that we have a God whose vision for you is that large and who is powerful enough to help you make it happen!

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

Deuteronomy 28:12-13, Psalms 37:21-22, Proverbs 22:6-7, 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 120: Mission Focused Money Management

2011-11-07T01:45:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

If all God wanted was for you to have everything that appeals to your natural no matter what the cost mind (big houses, fine cars, expensive clothes, and fine jewelry), then you'd be on the right road by spending all your net income and using credit to get such things and more of them all the time. However, the bible reveals that we should seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (the life that is according to His standards) and everything we need for life, godliness, and ministry will be given to us. This includes provision for the ministry of cultivating family, friend, church, business, employment, and financial relationships, etc. in a manner that glorifies God.

Christians should not live their lives pursuing material blessing, rather we should pursue Father God and His will for our lives whatever careers, business endeavors, and ministry that entails. We must know that Daddy God will bestow greater blessing upon on us as we seek to do His will and follow the directions He gives us: in His Word (logos) and by His Spirit speaking in us what He wants us to do (rhema).

No sorrow will be added to the blessing when wealth is provided by God and brought about by through intimacy with Christ. Many people experience lack of peace, joy, and fulfillment even though they amassing riches: All because they refused to adhere to God’s lifestyle and financial standards. Many look good on the outside having plenty of stuff their flesh (carnal soul-led nature) craves, but they are full of decay and destruction internally and eternally, not able to maintain marriages and moral behavior in a way that truly serve them, spouses, children, and other people.

Unsaved people try to obtain the best by avoiding relationship with Jesus Christ and trying to do everything on their own to get such things including constantly taking out more loans to get it and looking at most situations from a “what can I get out of it” perspective. The pressure of this lifestyle brings sorrow, anxiety, and fear. But, it is not so for those whose relationship and pursuit is found in Jesus Christ because the bible declares that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The person in pursuit of Christ thinks “what does the Father want me to do” and “how can I use this job, business, career, or resource to bring the glorious light of the gospel into more people’s lives.”

Unfortunately, through misinformation and self-serving interpretations of bible passages many believers use the world system to try and bring blessing upon themselves. They wind up with sorrows instead, at least while on earth. Hopefully, they will soon recognize that they should first seek relationship with God and the Holy Spirit’s guidance in every area of life including their finances. His scriptures identify a financial plan (principles that help you manage money in a way that is pleasing to Him and truly helpful to others). He wants you to know that you’ll be a slave to satan and selfish thinking when you follow any other plan.

He created you to support ministry with a great portion of your money. Your stewardship of money should be mission driven based on the fact that you, like God, don't want anyone to perish but all to repent for their sins, accept Christ as Lord, inherit eternal life, and be truly fruitful while on earth. True fruitfulness can only happen when you:

1) Seek the Lord’s will for your life through daily reading scripture, praying, praising, and worshipping Him.

2) Fellowship weekly with local church believers.

3) Work in legitimate endeavors in order to have seed to sow and bread to eat.

4) Consistently tithe and give offerings.

5) Live on less than your net income (take home pay).

6) Eliminate debt on depreciating assets.

7) Refuse to use loans to obtain depreciating assets.

8) Forsake co-signing for other people.

9) Establish suitable savings for emergencies and unusual expenses.

10) Invest in assets that show a history of appreciation (real estate, stocks, bonds, etc.).

11) Employ deferred gratification until you’re able to buy with cash things you desire. Trust God to provide things you need through your income or the goodwill of other people.

This pattern fits the Great Commission, lifestyle, and stewardship that scripture directs us to employ. Through it, godly wealth accumulation will be the order of your life.

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

Deuteronomy 8:18-20, Psalms 2:8, Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 26:15-18, 2Timothy 1:7-11

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 119: You Need Rest!

2011-10-30T22:02:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

The world's system for prospering can wear you out and disappoint you, because it is based on mimicking the Jones' whether or not you have or ever will have their level of income. You’re constantly pushed by other people and by your own mind to show your status through the home you live in, the cars you drive, and the clothes and jewelry you wear. Satan and his demonic cohorts also push temptations through your thought life that attempt to increase your desire to frequently get bigger homes, cars, clothes, jewelry, and other material things that make it look like you're continually prospering.

In addition, satan continually tempts you to have the herd mentality like the masses; seeking to make your life so busy that it becomes hectic and of little value to those people to whom it should have the greatest value: your spouse, children, family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. In some instances, he and his minions convince you to be a respecter of persons who stops fellowshipping with everyone you perceive as unsuccessful and insignificant; those that don't look or act like they are successful or that don't have a business, position, or title that represents the upward mobility he wants you to seek above all else. He wants you to believe success is possible and best using only extreme human effort and that it does not require a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Such attitudes and actions cause peace and joy to evaporate from your life because they are relationship busters. They are subtly rooted in the mindset that success occurs only when you spend all your time networking with so-called successful people. While it is important that you find godly men and women role models who are successful in business and ministry, you'll wreck your life and God's purpose for you when trying to be successful by forsaking relationships with other people whose income, wealth, and social status in the eyes of men is less than yours.

Allow Jesus to help you rest by learning from Him to forsake the world's ways by condescending to men of low estate, faithfully attending a local bible believing church fellowship, giving abundantly to ministry endeavors in order to honor Him, living beneath your current level of income, planning and taking action to become debt-free, saving and investing, diversifying your assets, refusing to let your life be guided by competition with the Joneses, and refusing to be a respecter of persons.

Remember, Jesus entered into relationship with a group of men (the disciples) who by the world’s standards were considered uneducated bottom feeders. Yet, He developed relationship with them over the course of three and a half years and then utilized them to spread the gospel to the ends of the known world, deliver millions from satanic bondage, and bring healing to millions who were sick and afflicted.

The bible helps you understand that being rich with great social status on earth is not a measure that God uses to judge a person’s heavenly eternal status. Neither should we. Some people who have held high earthly positions will not be esteemed when they stand in front of God on Judgment Day. God desires to prosper every one of His children so we can have greater resources to build His kingdom on earth. However, the failure of some people (rich, middle class, and poor) to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and their resulting attitudes and actions make them eternally poor.

All that you are and ever hope to be must come from your relationship with Him and will include relationships and associations with people who are less fortunate on earth than you are. You must do as Jesus did and be around people of various cultures, incomes, and levels of wealth according to where God plants you. This is necessary in order to win many people to Jesus Christ.

By the power of the Holy Spirit you must developing relationships with unbelievers in marketplace and neighborhood venues while also refusing to mimic ungodly activities in their lives. You must remain unspotted by the world because God desires that you teach them His will and ways. Constantly maturing in Christ-likeness (including utilizing God’s biblical financial plan) is one of the greatest teaching methods you can employ in reaching the people groups God has placed you among.

So enter into the rest that Father God made possible for you through trusting Christ, taking His path, and allowing Him to make you successful in a way that please the Father and honors your spouse, children, and other people. This lifestyle will bring and maintain peace and joy in your life.

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

Psalms 116:6-8, Jeremiah 6:16, Matthew 11:28-30, Hebrews 4:1-3

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 118: Don’t Give The Devil The Opportunity To Destroy You

2011-10-23T20:00:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You could be giving the devil an opportunity to use you as a bad example for other people to see. He goes around like a roaring lion seeking to steal from, kill, or destroy whoever let's him. His ultimate desire is to devour you and have you forever reside in Hell with him and his demonic buddies.

He gave up his estate in heaven and the glory that God bestowed on him for all to see because he desired to take God’s throne. Pride and greed corrupted him and led to his great fall. Unfortunately one third of the other angels followed his example and now they all know and are afraid of the eternal judgment that awaits them. Their aim under the leadership of satan is to convince as many people as possible that they should forsake a relationship with Jesus Christ and should pay no attention to his moral laws. They figure they are going to hell to suffer forever at God’s appointed time, so why not take as many humans as possible with them.

Satan has deceived many rich people to believe that they are the cream of the crop who are imminently right with God and who have earned every material blessing they have received in this life. Some people surmise that they otherwise could not have amassed great wealth. Thus, leading rich people with such mindsets to oppress and/or despise the poor and middle class in order to obtain more power and greater material wealth.

Likewise, Satan also leads the poor and middle class to despise those who are rich, wanting them to believe that great amounts of wealth are inherently evil and thus one must have been a crook in order to amass wealth. Some people surmise that having a poverty mentality and lifestyle on earth makes one right with God and gives them the right to dislike those who have wealth.

Sometimes it seems that neither the rich nor poor understand that Satan wants to destroy all humans and has thus deceived many with half-truths and outright lies. Remember, satan and the demons appear as though they are angels of light. Unfortunately, those who don’t know the voice of the Lord and His ways as described in the bible put themselves in a position to be deceived by satan’s tactics and thus to believe his lies.

But you have a way out and the bible calls it bringing yourself into obedience so that all disobedience against you, caused by man and satanic beings, will be revenged. If you'll commit your heart to Jesus Christ as Savior and LORD and commit to using His principles to govern your life, then He'll give you new life that lasts eternally and he'll show you more and more of His ways as you walk on His straight and narrow path that leads to abundance and fulfillment of purpose. Don't worry; He knew you couldn't do this on your own so He committed the Holy Spirit to walk inside you and beside you to guide you into this Heavenly promise.

The Lord loves and cares for you, that's why He shed His blood for you on the cross and gave you power over all the power of the enemy. He doesn't want the great opportunities He prepared for you on earth or in Heaven to be destroyed by satan and his demonic cohorts. So, He made a way, in Christ, for you to be and achieve all that He intended for you. Now, it’s time to do your part by repenting of sin and accepting Him as Savior and Lord. This will lead you to live more and more by His principles and will naturally and eternally bless you in every arena of life.

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

2Corinthians 10:1-6, Ephesians 4:27, Philippians 4:19, 1Thessalonians 5:22

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 117: Principles That Lead To Abundance

2011-10-09T16:39:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You should use God's Financial System to bring forth abundance in your life, regardless of how successful you think you’ve been thus far. With Almighty God on your side, you can only move further into the plan He created you for and avoid having your life and true purpose derailed.

Most people are disappointed with the results they’ve achieved so far, even though a few have amassed great riches, all because no one can truly be fulfilled on any path other than the one God planned for you. When you’re not on His path, you can act like you’re fulfilled and probably fool some men, but you cannot fool God.

Even though they don’t know it, some of the financial principles people learned during the time they had no salvation relationship with Jesus Christ line up with biblical instruction. This is because God set the foundation of the world and the operation of all things therein. Satan has attempted to distort these things by tempting man with sin (turning away from God’s plan) and causing man to believe that his distorted view is the best way. He tries this in every area of your life. Attacking you financially is vital to his attempts to derail God’s plan because money and resources touch every area of your life.

Satan has not been able to distort the entire financial system because he is not all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-present. These traits exist only in the Lord God. God’s foundation cannot be moved, by satan or anyone else, and the operations can only be distorted in the life of the particular man that follows the perverted principles the enemy offers. The process God established can never be removed or eliminated, it is only suspended and the benefits thereof for the person who fails to use it until he/she realizes the truth and begins to operate God’s way.

Everyone who faithfully uses biblical principles through a relationship with Jesus Christ obtains an abundant life. Yet, Satan's plan to distort and pervert God’s principles causes bondage such as greed, debt, and insatiable desires regardless of how much money and resources you receive. Your relationship with Christ and following His principles breaks these bondages in your life giving you peace, joy, and fulfillment. Commit to the following principles for life and you'll see real change.

First, give ten percent of your gross income to your local church. It is natural for people who faithfully tithe to also give free-will offerings, but not the other way around.

Second, save ten percent of your income. Put this away before you pay others and keep it for emergencies and investments, so you won’t have to go back in debt when things happen.

Third, pay down debt you owe other people and businesses. This may mean working available overtime or holding a second job to earn money to eliminate debt.

Fourth, spend less than your remaining income. This means adhering to the above principles and delaying purchases that you really want to make until you have saved enough to pay for them with cash.

Fifth, when your savings reach three months of living expenses, invest the rest of the money in instruments that will compound over the years (no load stock, bond, and real estate investment trust mutual funds, etc).

When left untouched for twenty or thirty years, which is available to all who believe due to the design of God’s stewardship plan and the power He placed inside you to do His will, the investment instruments will provide huge monetary returns that can be used in retirement to meet future household expenses, support ministry work at home and abroad, and fulfill godly desires.

Even when you’re already a senior, following these principles has great benefits because they put you in a place where you can live off the income provided and put the extra money you’ll find to use in building God’s kingdom in the hearts of men. This lifestyle of utilizing God’s principles presents your body as a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to Him.

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

Psalms 1:1-3, Proverbs 3:5-10, Matthew 22:36-40, Romans 12:1-3, 1Timothy 6:3-11

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 116: And Now, The Rest Of The Story

2011-10-03T00:49:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

If your church has an average gross household income of $50,000 it should receive a total annual tithe equal to the following based on membership numbers expressed below:
* 100 families giving $500,000
* 500 families giving $2,500,000
*1000 families giving $5,000,000
*3000 families giving $15,000,000

No doubt some congregations in some areas have lower or higher average income levels than that expressed above. However, most church congregations don’t give at the tithing level because most members do not give a tithe. Granted there are many things going on in people’s lives and some are in better financial positions on earth than are other people. However, in some respects, the ground that scriptural instruction is being sown into (the hearts of the people listening) is not currently good ground as described in the Parable of the Sower. Up to three-fourths of it may never become good ground.

It’s amazing that this parable indicates that 75 percent of people that receive a gospel witness are not good ground because they only let the Word penetrate their hearts:
* Enough to hear it and then immediately disavow it or
* For a very short time until it tribulation comes (then they turn back to their old beliefs and ways) or
* For a while until the cares of this world (direct pursuit of riches and worldly pleasure instead of pursuit of the goals of Jesus Christ) crowd out the Word they previously accepted.

In each case, the person couldn't be built up in the Christian faith because they chose to forsake the Word and to forsake regular fellowship with believers in a local bible-believing church that truly seek the Lord's will. So, the devil ultimately devours them. As you know, he goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Each of the people meeting the description above allow satan, his plan, and his enticements to turn them away from God's will.

In the parable, only 25 percent of the seed (Word) was identified as being sown in good ground (hearts prepared for growth by fully accepting the Lord with no reservations who show it by progressively employing Christ-like discipline). I hope you fall into this category, not just for salvation and eternal life sake, but so you can be fruitful on earth bringing forth 30, 60, and 100 fold returns for Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God, and the sake of lost souls who need Him.

If you are not currently in this category, then move into it. It’s an exercise of your will motivated by your love for Jesus Christ that allows His work of reconciliation to take place in your life. You then become useful in helping others be reconciled to Him.

I don’t believe that this 75% to 25% relationship is necessarily set in stone. I believe it identifies as a whole the condition of men’s hearts and the devastating consequences that will be felt by the many and each individual that has chosen not to receive Christ as Savior and Lord.

It presents the body of Christ and its leaders with a great challenge. However, we can overcome it by regularly feeding the congregation biblical principles (including financial) and showing them how to forsake worldly principles. Such regular monthly teaching will provide believers with the knowledge they need to help overcome hardness of heart, tribulation, and the pursuit of riches and worldly pleasure (the love of money) that brought them to the place of spiritual bankruptcy and poverty. Their un-Christ-like beliefs led them to forsake tithing and other godly principles because they are a part of the relationship that God wanted to engage in them.

Leaders that want to help members undo financial bondage, prosper, and greatly increase church revenues for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission must employ trustworthy teachers to teach their members the complete array of godly lifestyle and financial principles contained in the Word.

These disciplines or principles include:
* Spending time in God’s presence through thanksgiving, praise, worship, and daily prayer
* Engaging weekly or more often fellowship with a bible-believing local church
* Volunteering to serve with other believers in weekly ministry at the local church
* Engaging in outreach to unbelievers and disciple-making of believers
* Tithing, free-will offering, and giving in other ways as God speaks specific amounts to you personally
* Having a proper biblical outlook about work and obeying godly authority in the home, church, workplace, and society
* Paying taxes, saving / investing, diversifying your assets, staying out of and eliminating debt, and spending less than you make.

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

Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Matthew 13:3-8, John 8:32, Romans 10:17, 2Timothy 2:2, 3:16-17

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 115: A Principle That Prospers You

2011-09-25T22:25:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Once, I was asked to give one financial principle that was more important than all others in helping people prosper. I believe many would have expected to hear me say:

*Give all you can because you cannot out give God because He will then give more back to you than you could ever give Him or

*Tithe to the church treasury and financial problems will forever cease or

*Another seemingly brilliant statement.

Frankly, I could not share one biblical principle that’s more important than all others because all biblical principles hold equal importance in helping you prosper. They are all designed to help complete the work God designed you to do. Each of them is founded in God’s desire that you love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and thereby love your neighbor as yourself.

Our failure to regularly teach the full array of biblical financial principles that emanate from this love has lead to a drastic downward spiral in giving where far less than 20% of all Christians pay tithes and where total giving to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and teach His body has dipped to approximately 2% of household income. This has also lead to massive church-hopping because people are too focused on what they think they’re not getting versus understanding that they are planted in local churches in order to serve and help meet the needs of others. Ask not what your church can do for you; ask what you can do for your church.

This is pretty sad commentary when the bible shows that a person who really loves God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength gives an abundant, proportionate amount of his income to fund ministry work in order that everyone has an opportunity to hear the gospel, accept Jesus Christ as Savior, have needs met, and prosper to carry out his/her mission in this life.

Preachers should teach biblical financial principles to their congregations often, letting them know that the acceptance of poverty is a curse in the same manner as trust in wealth is a curse. Your failure to obey biblical guidance in order to eliminate from your life a poverty mentality or a trust in accumulated wealth mentality will only help decrease tithing, offering, and the spread of the gospel. Also, it will result in you lacking or misappropriating resources God intended you to pull from Heaven to fulfill the work He called you to do. In addition, it will result in you and your family living beneath the privilege He intends for you.

Don’t mistake a poverty mentality with making a small income or not accumulating great assets and don’t mistake a trust in wealth mentality with being rich or wealthy, having a successful business, or accumulating more than a small amount of assets. Rather, understand both of these mindsets to have a foundation in improperly managing the gifts, talents, and abilities God has given you, in violation of biblical instruction and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Wouldn’t it be great to see 100% of each congregation faithfully tithing and offering each week and people’s lives getting better; spiritually and financially? We have an opportunity to bring this to pass if we love God enough to preach, teach, and example biblical financial principles in our lives no matter our current station. Surely, as others see the fruitfulness of your life, more and more of them will want to hear your testimony. As a result, many will begin to understand Jesus Christ eternally has their best interest at heart and they will seek to intimately know Him.

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

Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Psalms 1:1-3, Proverbs 3:5-10, Matthew 22:36-40, 2Timothy 3:16-17

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 114: God's Wisdom Confounds The World

2011-09-18T22:32:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Many people seek the same thing: to become rich in this life so they can have luxury, happiness, and the praise of men. Some are convinced that having riches and the business savvy it takes to obtain wealth pleases God. To others, it doesn’t matter whether He’s pleased with their pursuits because in their mind He doesn’t exist. Many have become arrogant in their knowledge and abilities and disrespectful to those they believe are not as great as they are.

They will use any means to get rich including deceit, oppression of the poor, and other immoral behavior. When men praise their success and the methods they use to obtain wealth and status they oppress other people even more in order to maintain and increase their position in the eyes of men. Such worship becomes their aphrodisiac and they feel like they must get more of it regardless of the cost. They disregard people, sometimes their own family members, considering everyone to be lazy free-loaders who are not worthy of help when they are beneath their level of income, power, or fame unless they have goals and take action to get to their level.

In case you currently think this way in any area of your life, beware that worldly knowledge puffs your head up when it is not accompanied by godly understanding and wisdom. Such knowledge doesn’t allow you to see that you aren't worthy to be in God's presence regardless of the millions you amass and industries you control. You have no goodness or deed that you can do to make you acceptable to Him.

He clothed Himself in flesh on earth and shed His blood for your redemption despite all your shortcomings. This same truth applies to those people you have been disparaging. He’s appointed you to be a child of God, a son of the Kingdom, and one of His heirs but you must accept this powerful and eternal relationship and position by repenting of your sin and accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior.

God has no problem with you having riches. He wants to show you the way to obtain them and how to use them to honor Him, spread His gospel, help many other people, and store treasures in Heaven for the eternal life He’s able to provide you. Please beware that your continued failure to accept the deep personal relationship He offers will increase your pride, arrogance, and lack of giving to spread the gospel. Such a lifestyle may bring negative consequences upon you in this life. If not here, surely judgment will be decreed against you when you sit at the Great White Throne Judgment, if you do not repent and turn to Christ before you die. It will be a judgment of your own choosing.

The world’s wisdom overlooks this truth, but God’s wisdom confounds the world by truly prospering you after you make His will your priority and use only moral methods to build relationships and wealth that honors God and that He blesses.

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

Job 28:28, 32:9, Proverbs 3:7, Daniel 12:3, Romans 1:22, 1Cor. 3:18-23, 2 Tim. 3:14-17

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 113: Insulation Against Economic Upheaval

2011-09-11T21:29:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Many people get laid off, receive less pay, and have their overall assets reduced during times of stock market correction, recession, and depression. One has only to review the history of the U.S. and world economies to recognize that these times will come. Yet, by failing to save, invest, and live in accordance with biblical principles many people act as if they’re oblivious to the fact that these economic situations will arise at some point.

Unfortunately, most people engage in personal money management practices that will land them in financial turmoil at some point in their lives, especially when several of the major markets are down, such as stock and real estate. Turmoil occurs because they continue to do things the world’s way like taking on ever increasing debt to purchase material things beyond the reach of their current income and assets. Many also fail to honor God by giving him a tithe for the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the work of the ministry. At the same time, others spend all their resources on get- rich-quick business ventures and supposed high-earning investment schemes marketed by people whose promises turn out to be untrustworthy.

They fail to realize that you cannot listen to anyone who tells you a specific investment method or type of business is successful for everyone who uses it. The only time you want to listen and obey such advice is when the bible says that all believers should following specific principles or methods such as diligently performing a god-pleasing type of work, tithing, spending far less than 89% of your gross pay, saving, investing, eliminating current debt, and refusing to take on future debt, etc.

Otherwise, the heavy concentration you make in one investment or industry will usually turn into a financial downfall for you, especially when you do not become an expert in how that market operates in hopes of avoiding downturns or accumulating enough income and assets to weather storms. When you engage in such risky get-rich-quick endeavors you will suffer foreclosure, bankruptcy, unrecoverable losses, and/or great discomfort for a lengthy time in order to get back to the place where God wanted you to be all along.

God has done preventative maintenance by putting investment principles in the bible that help us overcome the severe effects of economic downturn. This doesn’t mean that you’ll never be touched by storms or that you should take no business or investment risks. Every person will face obstacles and catastrophes in life and every investment carries the risk that it may not grow and that the investor might lose principal. However, you always have a better chance of maintaining your lifestyle, giving, saving, investing, and recovering losses when you consistently make two actions part of your financial plan:

1) Diligently work to get out and stay out of debt by regularly paying down and ultimately paying off everything from credit card debt to car loans to home mortgages.

2) Diversify assets by buying seven or eight different types of investments.

These principles help you overcome the downturns that affect every investment market. Historically, down markets do not affect every industry or investment at the same time, so using these two principles allows you to be in a place where you’re not negatively affected or moved by current economic winds. You can spend whatever income you receive to meet your needs without having bill collectors chasing you to pay debts you cannot afford. Also, you have a much greater possibility of annual asset growth when only a few markets are down at the same time because the growth of investments you have in markets that are up have an opportunity to outweigh the losses you will experience in markets that are down.

As you can see, God has provided insulation against economic upheaval, but you must do your part to employ His plan so you are always in a position where you can come out ahead no matter what economic / financial obstacles come your way.

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

Deuteronomy 28:12-14, Ecclesiastes 11:1-2, Acts 6:3, 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 112: Building Wealth God’s Way

2011-09-04T21:17:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Learn how to present your Christian testimony in everyday conversation with unbelievers so you can tell them about the wonderful life changing experience you've had since accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and LORD. While studying the bible continually, you'll notice that men and women who accepted God’s sovereignty didn't seek wealth; they sought the rich relationship with God produced by honoring Him and utilizing biblical principles while walking out this earthly life. For this commitment, God greatly prospered them throughout their lives to fulfill His calling and the earthly mission He gave them.

You are assured of building godly riches when you submit your desires to God’s will through praise, worship, thanksgiving, and obedience. Let Him direct your life and identify your goals. Work diligently in service to others in your employment, church, and other endeavors. Faithfully honor God by paying a tenth of your gross income each pay period to the church for the up-building of His people that will help spread the gospel throughout the earth. Also, give free-will offerings to fund missions, help the poor, and perform other worthwhile service to God and man.

Make sure you budget spending so you don't spend more than 80% of your net income on pleasures and household needs. Refuse to take on debts to obtain the material things you need and want. Be willing to sacrifice by not worrying about or trying to purchase items you cannot pay for at the current time even though you believe you need or desire them. This displays trust in God and allows Him to provide for you and your family when you cannot. You will find that many things you consider a need are not really a need and that you can wait on desires until you are able to purchase them without the burden of debt and the consequences that follow it.

Save six months of take home pay in vehicles that pay the highest compound interest in the most frequent intervals. After this emergency fund is established, invest at least another 10 percent of your take home pay in seven or eight reliable equity investment vehicles that are easy to understand, contain broad diversification, and historically have netted higher reliable long-term returns (stock mutual funds, REITS, etc.). Also, let a professional help you draft a will and necessary trusts to plan how your accumulated assets will provide for immediate family members and church ministry after you go home to be with the Lord.

God’s people experience death, persecution, ridicule, and much opposition in this life; however these light afflictions cannot be compared with the wealth of the glory of God that will only be revealed once we leave this earthly body. So let’s do all we can while on earth to build wealth using methods that conform to biblical principles and use it to be a blessing to others in accordance with God’s will. Then, we will show His glory and bring as many people as we can under the richness of His eternal protection.

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

Luke 6:38, 12:15-21, 14:28-30, Romans 13:8, Ephesians 4:28, 2Thessalonians 3:6-12, 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 111: Rich People's Responsibility

2011-08-28T22:09:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

When prosperity is preached many peoples’ eyes get real big and their hearts start racing, similar to what happens when they read an article about someone who has made millions. For many, the reason they want riches is to spend it upon their own lusts believing the greatest priority is to live in ease with the finest material trappings. Others simply don't know what God’s purpose is for them and thus what they should love and pursue.

Scripture tells us not to love money or have our eyes set on the pleasures of this earth as the highest priority. Yet, it lets us know through many stories and instructions that money, bartering, and resources are necessary mediums of exchange that everyone will deal with to some extent, great or small and that faithful followers should make efforts to increase our resources for furtherance of the gospel in the earth. In fact, the bible clearly shows that, even in the midst of persecution, God blessed many believers with great material riches and they were able to live in some level of comfort while partnering with Him to minister in the earth.

Though most people want the lifestyle that comes with riches, many don’t want the responsibility of doing what God requires and don’t want to hear about good stewardship because they might be convicted by not doing what God instructed in this area of life. Yet, in order for your riches to have meaning and benefit beyond this temporal life on earth, you must do the things that make your life fruitful regardless of whether riches have yet come your way. Walking in such principles while you have little allows the Heaven’s windows to be opened to you so God’s treasures can be poured out upon you and continuing to walk in biblical financial principles after you become wealthy keeps the windows continually open and heavenly treasures poured upon you, so you always have an abundance for every good work.

Biblically speaking, rich men are supposed to honor God, give abundantly to spread the gospel and do good works in proportion to the riches with which they've been blessed. So, if you truly dream of being rich understand your responsibilities in Christ and begin to perform them now without excuse because it is very unlikely that you would otherwise perform them if at once you come into riches. Begin your wealth-building plan by consistently giving one tenth of your gross income plus an offering to your local church and continue throughout your life by giving as abundantly to ministry as you desire to lavish upon yourself.

No matter what your current status in life, true fulfillment comes only from relationship with God and the best financial growth comes only by employing His system of managing money and resources. Remember only what you do for Christ will produce rewards that last throughout eternity!

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

Luke 12:15-21, 2Corinthians 9:6-13, 1Timothy 6:17-19, James 5:1-11

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 110: Prosperous in Persecution #2

2011-08-21T16:09:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Managing money by employing biblical principles makes you a better person by enabling you to grow wealth to bless your family, church, and other people while leading them to God. Yet, you will suffer persecution when you commit to managing money the way God commanded. Many people will think and some will say your beliefs and actions are silly and illogical because they won't let you enjoy life. Many will say taking out loans to obtain things when you cannot afford to pay cash for them is the only reasonable way to live, especially when the loan would be obtained for education, real estate, and cars. Still others will say refusing to purchase stock in companies with sinful products and services will seriously hamper your ability to accumulate enough money to live on comfortably in the future when you need it the most.

When this type of persecution (ridicule) comes because you decide to follow godly principles for managing money, you must remember that God’s glory is what you seek and His ways are higher than your ways and always lead to the blessing He has in store for you that you cannot see right now. That’s what faith is all about! You will be better off in the end managing money God’s way than managing it your way or any other person’s way because the Lord gives a blessing to people who use His way and no sorrow is added to the blessing.

Patiently plowing and sowing seeds of biblical principles causes blessings, peace, and joy to fill your life, even in the midst of persecution. More importantly, you'll build treasures in heaven for your arrival there after this life is over. This will replace the great sorrow you would have endured for following the path of disobedience the world is on.

Many people will wonder how you became wealthy while letting Christ live in you when you refused to follow conventional worldly wisdom. Your life will become an example for all to follow in placing God’s priorities and ways of doing things above their own. Through your actions, many will see it’s not about money; rather it’s about glorifying God with the money and resources He entrusts to them. They will desire a loving and saving relationship with Jesus Christ and will lead others to Him because that is what they see in your life and the methods by which you manage money.

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

Matthew 10:29-40, 1Corinthians 4:10-16, 1Thessalonians 2:14-20, 2Timothy 3:10-17

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 109: Prosperous in Persecution

2011-08-15T23:43:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

We all suffer various forms of persecution as we walk the way that God wants us to financially and otherwise. In some Middle Eastern, African, and Asian countries some suffer imprisonment, torture, and death as a result of choosing to follow Jesus. Some are forced into indoctrination camps of other religions so leaders of these countries can attempt to brainwash gospel truth out of their minds. Laws in some of these nations consider Christianity criminal and some governments attempt to establish non-scriptural doctrine within Christian churches by requiring that they register and hold meetings when, where, and how the government desires.

It does not bode well for people’s future that some governments have drafted laws and judges have issued court decisions that restrict peoples’ ability to teach what the bible says, evangelize the lost, and build people up in the most holy faith. This activity is contrary to God’s will and it erodes the country’s moral base and ultimately will result in greater societal chaos and anarchy in the future, unless corrected. I pray that the Holy Spirit would move the heart of leaders around the world to eliminate laws that attempt to restrict people’s freedom to live Christ-like and thus be productive and prosperous.

While we realize there are negative situations that Christians must live and minister through, we must also remember the positive result of Christ in our lives: that we are prosperous in persecution. Just like diamonds are made from many years of extreme pressure and dross on gold and silver are eliminated via seemingly unbearable fire, so God allows us to be pressed, crushed, ridiculed, and persecuted in order that we may display His character through it and be fashioned into blessed vessels useful to His kingdom and to those around us.

Christian solder, let the peace of God that surpasses all understanding guide your heart and mind, so that even though you will suffer persecution, you are certain that God will abundantly supply all your need so you can do every good work for which He has called you.

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

Matthew 5:11-12, 1Corinthians 4:10-14, 1Thessalonians 2:14-20, 2Timothy 3:10-17

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 108: Good Seed Produces Good Fruit Produces Good Seed

2011-08-07T23:19:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

According to biblical instruction, you manage money properly when you give, save, and spend reasonable portions of it to take care of all the present and future responsibilities God gave you. Such stewardship is a display of the gospel seed being planted in your life that produces the fruit of the Spirit in your life that produces good seed that leads and blesses other people by the spread of the gospel.

Satan and his demonic messengers will continue to attack you with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Never let your stewardship be guided by greed, covetousness, waste and other evil reasons taught by satan and pursued by the world. God punishes the prideful and uplifts the humble. Better to let Him punish satan and destroy his former works in you while He builds you up and promotes you than to put yourself in a position where God’s justice must punish you along with satan and the demons.

Anytime you operate outside of God's plan for your life and do things opposite the way in which He directed, you're operating out of pride because you're saying that you know better than God does how to be successful and fulfilled in life. Also, you're fulfilling lusts because you're putting receipt of material things and short-lived pleasures ahead of your relationship with God. You're not seeking the Kingdom of God first and His righteousness trusting that He will provide you all other things necessary for life and godliness while you walk out this life.

Walking in the spirit is very important in managing your money properly because when you walk in the spirit you'll not fulfill ungodly lusts. You’ll spend money on products or services with an eye on God receiving glory. The fruit of the Spirit that guides your lifestyle will also guide how you steward possessions God has entrusted to you. In so doing, the Good Seed (Jesus Christ) will produce good fruit in you that will produce good seed that continually reproduce good fruit (character and works that magnify the Lord) in you and those you touch throughout life. Then, you’re truly a living example of Christ-likeness who helps those around you who need the eternal, loving, saving, protecting relationship with Christ.

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

1Corinthians 13:13, Galatians 5:16-26, Colossians 3:1-6, Titus 1:5-11

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 107: Try Advice Received From Others To See If It Is Of God

2011-07-31T23:12:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You’ve encountered so many different voices in the world. You've heard numerous messages putting different twists on money management, evangelism, marriage, childrearing, tithing and offering and other important areas of the Christian life. In addition to sermons from your local church pastor, you are hearing messages by television evangelists, visiting preachers, and other Christians. These messages contain instructions on how each speaker believes you should or should not engage these activities.

You may be confused by the different twists coming from each of these speakers. You're wondering how to know which message is biblically based, so you can utilize it in your life. God has a simple plan to help:

1) You must study the bible to show yourself an approved workman who learns how to rightly divide the word of truth and who isn't ashamed to do so.
2) You must ask the Holy Spirit for the ability to understand and apply biblical instruction and messages received from others.
3) You must hide the Word in your heart so the chances are much greater that you won't sin against God.
4) You must be a doer of the word and not a hearer (reader) only.

Let understanding be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses or by the braiding of a three-fold cord. Study all the scriptures that speak about a specific subject to identify whether they all point to only one method to carry out the principle, several methods that could be used, or if they point to caveats or traps you should be aware of as you live out the principle. Instruction, guidance, and/or advice that is contrary to the whole counsel of God in the bible should not be acted upon.

While messages from people can conflict with scripture or simply not give us the entire picture that we need, scriptures are not in conflict. With the help of the Holy Spirit we can rightly divide them to understand how God is instructing us to walk in His will. Many times there are different methods for carrying out God's plan that fit within the principles He has given. Unless He tells you to use a specific method for a specific initiative, He is pleased with any method that fits within the boundaries of scriptural principles.

A model to remember as you consider how to live out biblical principles is:

• Methods are many, principles are few, methods often change, principles never do.

Only the bible can confirm that the guidance you're hearing fits within the moral boundary given by God. This is the means for testing opinions and advice to see if it is of God. When it is, you can safely utilize it and receive the blessings thereof (financial, marital, family, church, work, business, etc.).

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

Matthew 24:11-14, 1Timothy 4:1-2, 2Timothy 4:3-4, 2Peter 2:1-3, 1John 4:1-3

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 106: Essential Elements Of Enduring Prosperity

2011-07-24T23:27:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Due to the power of the gospel (including biblical instruction on stewardship and the law of sowing and reaping), the following pattern of money management will work to prosper every individual who uses it and the countries whose leaders use it to guide government affairs.

This is not to say that on earth a person could not prosper by deviating there from, by adding other criteria, developing greater investment skill, inheriting great wealth, and/or complicating the pattern in some other way. However, the simple methods identified below are the only ones you need to experience the blessing God has in store for you.

Keys to prospering on earth and throughout eternity are:

1. Accept Jesus Christ as Savior and LORD
2. Shun occupations, entrepreneurial endeavors, and methods that do not glorify God
3. Be diligent at your work over a 30 to 40 year work span and at everything you do in ministry throughout your life
4. Give a tithe and offering to ministries that please God by spreading the gospel in the earth
5. Spend less than 80 percent of your after tax income on needs and desires
6. Trust God and allow Him to supernaturally provide needs and desires you do not currently have money to purchase
7. Diligent plan and take action to eliminate current debt to live debt-free in the future
8. Save at least 10 percent of your income throughout your work years in investment vehicles that compound growth and interest.

This pattern of adhering to biblical principles helps you appropriately maintain and grow resources God has entrusted to you for building His kingdom and caring for your family. It also helps you do your God-given part to overcome financial problems that arise and moves God to make a way in areas that are beyond your ability to overcome.

Failure to use this pattern shows a lack of focus on and pursuit toward what God created you to do in the earth. Ultimately, such failure will cause you to be unfulfilled deep down in your soul. You might otherwise accumulate great sums of money, but you won't have everlasting peace, joy, and righteousness in the Holy Spirit because you fail to give God glory by employing biblical principles.

At the end of your life, you'll recognize that all the money in this world is not worth forsaking an intimate relationship with Christ that would have lasted throughout eternity, nor will it be worth the destruction your attitude and activities cause to you and many other people.

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

Proverbs 6:6-8, 10:4, Malachi 3:8-12, Luke 14:28-30, 19:1-10, James 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 105: Truly Successful Money Management

2011-07-17T16:30:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

God has made each believer a new creation (peculiar to those still in the world) with a spiritual appetite that by faith looks for and engages opportunities that bring the gospel message to unbelievers and equips people to serve in ways that glorify God.

Each person who confesses that Jesus Christ is Savior and LORD, believing in the atoning power of His godly blood and the eternal victory obtained by His resurrection, is already a king and priest with power and authority from Christ over all satanic beings and evil strategies seeking to oppose God’s will. God has given every believer the heavenly plan, tools, and treasures necessary to fulfill his or her:

1) Part of the church’s mission
2) Specific godly calling
3) Earthly responsibilities to family, church, and community.

You can say that you live in faith toward God and are a good manager of His treasures. However, your faith is only evident by the godly works that it produces. Such fruit is the material evidence of your true desire. It displays that Jesus Christ is your foundation. It also attests to the fact that you have, by the power of the Holy Spirit, crucified your sinful fleshly nature (the ways of the world) and the lust thereof to overcome bondage formerly imposed on you by satan and his demonic forces.

Do not let carnal lusts direct your life or money management strategy, otherwise if un-repented, destruction will result (eternal and earthly) due to the constant effort and use of any means possible to obtain material things. Rather, be lead by the Holy Spirit to use biblical principles because they help you build treasures in heaven and reap fulfilling rewards on earth.

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

Psalms 37:1-6, 21-26 Proverbs 3:5-10, Matthew 6:31-33, 1John 2:15-17, Jude 1:11-13

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 104: The Self-Controlled Money Manager

2011-07-10T21:15:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Satan employs a major strategy of introducing you to ideas that put the greatest priority in life on earning great amounts of money, seeking success among men, and pursuing pleasures that it seems a lot of money could buy. His demonic cohorts constantly bombard you with such ideas through media articles, infomercials, internet spam, person to person communication, and some pulpits.

They know the love of money is the root of all evil and that covetousness and idolatry is able to eternally destroy your life. They also know you will have little to no time to learn truth by fellowshipping with God in prayer and bible study, if they can convince you that it’s better to spend your time trying to get rich.

Their age old strategy includes trying to convince you that God is okay with any activity or business endeavor that makes lots of money. They try to convince you that the Lord rejoices when you spend all your time working to obtain more money and situations that might bring you power, fame, and notoriety on earth. These mistaken beliefs have caused many divorces, neglected children, oppression in the workforce, and people to be eternally separated from God. This is not God’s best for you.

Faithfully maintaining daily devotions with God, fellowship with believers, and managing your activities and finances according to biblical principles eliminates such problems and produces everything you need for life and godliness on earth and throughout eternity. It also produces an abundance of resources in your life that is far beyond most people’s wildest dreams and it shows the priority upon which your heart is focused: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

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

1Corinthians 9:24-27, Galatians 5:16-24, 1Timothy 6:6-10, James 5:1-7
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 103: The joy of proper money management

2011-07-03T20:20:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

There are two ways to manage money:

1) You can follow the world's way of managing money which appeals to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life by presenting you with a seemingly quick way outside of the will of God for obtaining high income, many assets, and opulent material things (homes, cars, boats, jewelry, etc.)

2) You can utilize God's instructions for managing money which puts seeking Him first in fellowship and service as the number one priority in your life with an understanding that He will grow you and show you when and how to gain income and material blessings in a way that allows your joy to be full at all times and your purpose to be fulfilled.

The world's way of managing money leaves you unfulfilled because it is destructive and does not lead to joy and peace. It makes you a slave to material things, retailers, and/or creditors and often leads you to lose inordinate amounts of money on get rich quick schemes and can lead to prison when you get caught up in money making schemes that are ungodly and illegal.

Retailers and lenders continually advertise that you deserve the best and should spend and borrow as much as necessary to get it. However, the Lord Jesus wants you to recognize that if you make Him the desire of your heart then He will provide the desires of your heart.

You should recognize that the investment advisors, CEO’s, crime bosses, drug dealers, etc. that have been sent to prison would not have been convicted had they operated their lives based on the principle What Would Jesus Do? We have often idolized them and sought to be like them in our pursuits because of their position, power, fame, notoriety, wealth, and material trappings and have thus bound ourselves up in lifestyle and financial struggles trying to live like them on a smaller scale in hope of that scale getting bigger by engaging the methods that made them wealthy.

Yet, the only way to obtain lasting joy, peace, fulfillment, and meaningful treasure throughout your life is to seek Jesus Christ first and let the things of this world be strangely dim to the point where you pursue His will and only make purchases that will not cause you to become a debtor. The bible shows that debt-based living is not the way of life God desires for Christians.

Being debt-free is entirely possible and many more Christians are now open to the fact that it is God’s stated desire in scripture that they live debt-free. Blessings obtained by living out biblical principles, financial and otherwise, truly make you rich and no sorrow comes with it; only an abundance of joy.

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

Zephaniah 3:17-20, Matthew 25:14-30, John 15:9-11, Luke 19:11-27

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 102: Are You A Second Class Citizen?

2011-06-26T23:29:00.002-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Satan spreads lies to move you off God’s path. It’s the same tactic he used against Adam. Ignorant people become tools that spread his message. Sometimes the messages are appealing because of the person’s fame, wealth, business success, family connection, smiling face, etc. But, you must remember that Satan and his messengers are wolves who walk around in sheep's clothing appearing to be good people.

To get you or keep you on their side, they'll say many things your flesh wants to hear. When that doesn't work, they'll hit you with a bunch of opinions aimed at guilt-tripping you into their way of doing things. Since everyone wants to be a first-class citizen and be accepted by others around them and even looked up to by many people, they believe you'll come over to the dark side (which they call the right side) if they can convince you their way of obtaining positions, notoriety, fame, large incomes, and material things is better than your way and if they can convince you that you’re currently living like a second-class citizen.

Their way might be better than your way, but it is not better than God’s way. It doesn’t even come close. The only way you'll know God’s way (the right path) is by daily bible reading to determine whether you're doing things important to God and necessary for success that is eternally and temporally meaningful, such as:

1) Loving God and neighbor enough to tell them about Christ

2) Attending a local church

3) Praying daily

4) Living holy

5) Tithing to your church

6) Giving to other ministries and worthwhile charities.

7) Managing income in a way that is God-pleasing

Don’t believe the hype of the demonic messengers who try to make you feel like you’re a second class citizen. If you are truly in Christ because you have repented of sin and accepted Him as Lord and Savior and continue to want to live in a way that is pleasing to Him while reading His word and talking with Him in prayer to find out more and more how to do that, then you are a first class citizen in the Kingdom of Heaven no matter what your stature, position, notoriety, or income is on earth.

Now, rest in God’s promise that what you need and many things you desire will be provided to you in God’s perfect timing as you continue to seek His will by faith and corresponding action.

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

Matthew 6:33, Galatians 1:6-10, James 4:4-10, 1Peter 5:8-11

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 101: Rightly Divide The Word Of Truth

2011-06-20T00:42:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Advisors that offer financial guidance opposite biblical principles have ensnared many people in destructive practices that at the time seemed like they would be prosperous and fruitful to employ. Some advisors have told people that they should never pay off a mortgage because of the tax break they receive and the return they can earn on investments using money that would have gone toward paying off the mortgage. Scripture points out that it is always better to be out of debt than in debt and we should be ever working to get to and maintain a debt-free lifestyle. Do you believe God or do you believe man?

There have been millions of instances of people going bankrupt and experiencing home / property foreclosures, vehicle repossessions, and incessant bill collector calls that show us that God knows better than us the ills of carrying debt especially over the long term. These situations did not have to happen, however they are caused by carrying debt. People who get to the point of managing their income to live well beneath their means and that have gotten to the point of living debt-free no longer experience these results because they owe no man anything but love.

Another thing that is often not shared with those being advised is that the vast majority of people will never develop the steely long-term attitude, emotions, and investment know-how to be able to out earn the interest rate they pay on their mortgages. In fact, most of those dishing out such advice will never be able to do this either. Unfortunately, most people start buying equity shares when prices are high based on the emotion that anybody can make money owning them and then they sell them off at a lower price because they experience a market decline that they cannot emotionally and mentally handle.

Add to that the fact that there is always a small percentage of advisors who only want to make money off of people and thus will motivate clients to frequently move from one commission paying investment to another (churning accounts) in order to make as much money as possible, all while making the client feel that such moves are in the client’s best interest.

In some instances, harmful financial advice comes from advisors that are famous, rich, powerful, and/or successful in the eyes of their clients. It can also come from advisors with professional designations behind their names and those with long and influential track records who rub elbows with the investing elite (remember Madoff). It can also be dished out by people who are spiritually influential (pastors, preachers, televangelists, etc.).

People continue to be coerced into poor financial decisions by messages that point out all the material things they do not have and are made to feel like second-class citizens when they don’t keep up with the Jones’. Many are made to feel that they cannot be happy if they do not obtain the same things and the same types of positions as those that society considers successful. The result of believing and following worldly advice and operating with the wrong motives produces extremely negative results. No wonder many people suffer more than they have to when economic downturn cycles come and no wonder societies create economic downturns that never had to take place.

You should never follow a course of action, financial or otherwise, without studying the bible to see if it is aligned with God’s will and thus is pleasing to Him. You should also consider whether the guidance, at any point in time, would cause you to engage in activities that keep you from regular fellowship with God and His people (the church). Otherwise, you will fail to plant and water the gospel in other people’s lives, build them up in the faith, and be the good example that God wants you to be.

Most people who dish out or follow ungodly advice lack peace, joy, and fulfillment in this life no matter what it seems like to other people and no matter the testimonial they give to others. Remember, the devil would have you believe he is living a better life than the one God originally had planned for him. However, when you follow the devil’s guidance you reap the consequences meant for him. This has unfortunately lead millions of people into godless and unwise pursuit of material things which resulted in bankruptcies, foreclosures, and sometimes even suicide.

On the other hand, some people seem to gain opulent material things and prominence among men in this life, but they will be insignificant and unsuccessful in God’s eyes and will suffer a devastating eternal fate because they do not adhere to His will by asking for His wisdom, living within His commands, and employing His lifestyle and financial principles. So, rightly divide the Word of Truth so that you can experience the blessing of God and also help others receive it.

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

Psalm 1:1-3, John 14:15-17, 2Timothy 2:15, 1John 4:1-6

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 100: What Drives You?

2011-06-20T00:41:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You should discover what part of your current character drives you to desire success and riches on earth. Is it expensive homes, fancy cars, and toys you can have while on earth? Is it notoriety, fame, or power? When you hear stories about people owning businesses and making millions of dollars does your heart stir within you to do the same kind of thing? It is godly for a heart to be stirred to be productive, take care of family, and provide for others (i.e., church, charity, and employees).

Again, the vast majority of material things you could purchase are not immoral neither is moving into or being selected for positions and platforms that come with notoriety, fame, and power. Sometime, people denigrate such things as though they are automatically ungodly or look at the person who has them as one who must have done something ungodly to get them.

It is true that people sometimes pursue these things for ungodly reasons because their motives for getting them and maintaining them are wrong. They may want them in order to feel more important or powerful than others around them. Yet, this does not mean that the things obtained are ungodly. It only means the person’s motives are not correct and needs to be addressed to understand that these things do not make him in God’s eyes more important or special than anyone.

You can stay focused on what's truly important (loving and serving God and other people) while pursuing business and moneymaking opportunities by making the following declarations in your prayer times:

LORD, my pursuit of dreams and goals will be according to Your will, so that I remain Christ-like. You give me knowledge, understanding, and discipline to successfully market my gift to produce great profit that enables me and the church to serve millions. Your word affirms that You will prosper people who help me prosper, both investors and workers. I will be a godly example to all those in my sphere of influence. I will glorify You on every platform on which I stand.

Now, go forward and multiply using the gifts and abilities God has given you, serving God and other people, putting yourself and others in a position to greatly prosper, and enjoying the fruits of your labor that God has so richly provided.

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

Deuteronomy 8:18, Psalm 72, Jeremiah 27:5, Matthew 6:33, James 4:3, 1Peter 5:1-5

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

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

MoneyWalk 99: When to purchase what you desire

2011-06-20T00:39:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Many products and services are amoral, having no good or bad qualities. The way people use them will determine whether they serve a good purpose or an immoral one. However, some products and the push to sell them are satanically conceived because the inventors and sales people would have you partake of immorality such as pornography, impure thoughts, life without Christ, etc.

Fulfilling desires can destroy your financial well being more than anything else can. If not properly budgeted and carefully planned your push to have everything that seems good to your eyes, flesh, and pride will put you in debt bondage. It will obstruct your ability to honor God, fulfill your calling, and responsibly provide for your family and church.

Our desires rage because we are fallen humans, yet we are also pushed these days via millions of advertisements to buy or rent thousands of products and services we really don’t need. They tend to show us only the glamorous side of having them but not the burden of being debt-ridden trying to obtain it all. Nor do they show us the fallacy of thinking that these things make you special or a gift from God to other people. You are special because God created you, never because of material things you’ve obtained.

It’s good that we have so many options and that companies can prosper in selling their products and services. However, before they make a purchase, many people don’t measure their ability to truly afford desires and the cost that constant indebtedness will have on them and their families. Also, they don’t measure if the purchase is wholesome in God’s eyes in a way that will help propel the gospel or truly take care of a responsibility important to God (such as caring for family, serving others, etc.).

Therefore, you should use godly measures by asking the following question in order to know whether to fulfill each desire that comes to mind. First, is the desire, product, and/or service moral according to the bible? Second, can I continue to provide for the needs of my family and will the product or service augment godly relationships? Third, can I continue to pay my tithe each time I’m paid if I purchase the desire? Fourth, can I purchase it without taking on debt? Fifth, after the purchase will I still have a large savings and investment cushion? Purchasing only after “yes” answers to these questions will help you maintain good stewardship.

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

Ecclesiastes 6:1-2, 7:18, Matthew 6:19-21, 2Corinthians 9:6-15, Colossians 3:1-11

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 98: Do not be a stumbling block!

2011-06-20T00:36:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

When managing money, just as in managing life, you must periodically evaluate whether you are a good example to others. Evaluation helps you see when you are operating prudently and thus helping others see the light. On the other hand, it will help you see when you are being a stumbling block to people via a financial focus and desire that is materialistic, greedy, or irresponsible with regard to managing possessions God entrusted to you.

When you manage money and obtain wealth outside of biblical principles, you're leading others onto the broad path that leads to destruction on earth and, if not repented of, throughout eternity. You can avoid being a stumbling block by learning and consistently using biblical principles such as:

1. Refusing to speak negatively about your current financial situation and possessions

2. Believing that God will bring you into a wealthy place to fulfill the ministry for which He made you

3. Writing down the vision and goals that will help you pursue His plan

4. Writing a monthly budget to designate where income will go instead of continuing to spend spontaneously on things that keep you broke

5. Giving abundantly to at least your local church

Jesus pronounced great wrath toward anyone who causes other people to sin and scriptures clearly tell you not to be a stumbling block that keeps others away from the fullness of relationship and fellowship that can be had with Almighty God through Jesus Christ.

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

John 11:9, Romans 14:20-21, 2Peter 2:7-8, 1John 2:10-11

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 465: Business with no debt

2011-05-22T18:34:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Rest assured that your business can be debt-free, when that is the vision and goal that you pursue. In fact, it is best to start a business using the debt-free principle and grow the business in employees, location, and equipment as God opens the windows of heaven upon your business and it brings a greater number of customers and sales.

The debt-free / debt-elimination principle that one should employ for his personal finances also applies to the way that God desires us to run businesses. Just like you shouldn’t make personal lifestyle decisions and purchases based on what the Joneses purchase, you also should not make business decisions just because the Business Joneses operate that way. Otherwise, you will fail to have the vision of God for your business and its growth and you will accrue a mountain of debt.

Certainly, you could point to a very small number of businesses that started and appear to be thriving even though the founders borrowed to the hilt from their credit cards and families. Yet, do not think that this one or two percent of the businesses set the standard for how you should start business and fund it along the way. After all, the businesses that go bankrupt and have properties foreclosed on (and it happens to some everyday) are those that have debt that they cannot pay.

You should recognize the manner in which the bible identifies business owners starting and operating business and that God owns everything including the business you manage and that He is able to make all grace abound to you so that you will have all sufficiency in all things in Christ to allow your business to be everything that He wants it to be without you going into debt to make it happen.

One thing is certain, when you use methods outside of the principles of God to start or maintain anything, including your business, you will be faced with consequences at some point in the future that will bring problems into your life and family, which normally include a separation from Him, destruction of the family unit, debt-bondage, and stress.

Businesses that operate without debt have a much better opportunity to stay out of bankruptcy, foreclosure, and stress inducing situations even when on a cyclical basis the economy goes south. So don’t pattern yourself after this world system and believe the lie that you need to get all the loans you can in order to make your business work and grow.

When you follow the world, you are bound to come crashing down and lose everything or have significant financial problems just like the many people who pursued ever larger homes and mortgage loans. They believed that the bubble would never burst. Well, Murphy is waiting at your door for you to make imprudent decisions so he can mess you up good. Don’t be fooled by the enemies design for your life and your business. Stick with God’s plan and way of doing things and you’ll find that He will provide for you according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Business with no debt is certainly available to you when you keep your eyes on the author and perfecter of your faith.

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

Deuteronomy 28:12, Psalm 37:4,5,21, Proverbs 22:7, Luke 14:28, 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 464: God blesses entrepreneurial endeavors

2011-05-17T00:54:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Everyone is designed to work and many people are fashioned and skilled to work for others, yet some people are gifted with a vision that thrusts them into entrepreneurial endeavors. Work in any of these forms God created and good for allowing people to exercise their mental, physical, and spiritual well-being and take dominion over the earth and everything that God created in it.

Each person should realize that he is no more special than any other person regardless of the role that he plays in the work environment: that of a business-owner / CEO or secretary / worker bee. We simply play different roles and each one is ordained by God and honored by Him as long as the type of work falls within the bounds of biblical morality.

Many of those truly gifted, called, and trained as business-owners and corporate executives generally have a different level of vision that allows them to see the end goal that seems impossible to achieve at the moment. They are also able to formulate a plan of attack that will allow them to realize the goal or obtain something very close to it using, in the beginning, resources that seem too meager to get them where they want to be.

In order to grasp the fact that God will bless people who pursue entrepreneurial endeavors and even more so when they present them as a sacrifice to Him, one only needs to read and ask the Holy Spirit for understanding concerning the entrepreneurial endeavors of Abraham, Jacob, Job, Boaz, Jesse-father of King David, Joseph of Arimathea, Lydia-seller of purple, and many others contained in scripture. He is delighted when people use the gifts He has given them in order to serve other people in a positive manner by providing employment, products, and services that can help them live a better and more fulfilling life.

Now, everyone cannot at the same time become entrepreneurs otherwise those truly called to such endeavors would not be able to meet staffing needs to bring forth the vision God has given them. Thus, those called to business should honor and treat well those that are employees recognizing that they are partners in the grand plan that God is using to make products and provide services for the betterment of mankind.

Unfortunately, some people on both sides of the ledger (business-owner / CEO and employee / worker bee) do not realize the unique place that God positioned the other and sometimes this causes them to have a respecter-of-persons attitude that distrusts, belittles, and considers those at the other end of the spectrum unworthy of God’s greater blessing and reward.

You can be delivered from this type of attitude by understanding that each work role is vital and honorable before God and is to be done with all your might and skill as unto the Lord. Also, you will overcome haughty and high-minded mentalities by understanding that an entrepreneur will often go through years of training as an employee before coming into His own. He should desire respect from other people and display the same respect to others no matter what their employment positions.

If he has been mistreated and looked down on by those at the top levels of former employers, this should be a lesson to him to not mimic that same mistreatment to those that will eventually work for him. Rather, he should treat them with the utmost respect and allow this consideration to help him and his board of advisors set workplace rules, safety procedures, employee compensation, benefits packages, etc. in accordance with the scriptural command to love his neighbors as he loves himself.

If you truly want to be fulfilled and know that God is pleased with your endeavors, make sure that the type of work is not immoral or illegal and make a habit of frequently announcing to yourself, and others when necessary, that God is the true owner of the business and you are the manager of His affairs for this endeavor. Frequently, invite Him to speak to you and your board of advisors about the vision, goals, organization, workflow, and witty ideas and ways to fulfill the calling that He has given you via the entrepreneurial endeavor.

He is able to keep you from falling and point you in the right direction concerning business needs and pursuits. He will strengthen you to overcome the trials, obstacles, and hardships that you will face in this arena. Ultimately, He will let you know or let situations tell you when, for how long, and for what purpose you are to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors. For some this lasts a lifetime and spans many generations and for others it may be a much shorter time period. Trust Him and look to Him and He will ensure that you will reach the finish line He destined for you!

A couple of other tips to keep in mind, many of the same practices that make for successful stewardship of personal finances also make for successful stewardship of entrepreneurial endeavors:

Plan and budget income and expenses, eliminate / pay off debt, work to operate on a debt-free basis, refuse to cosign, establish a six-month to one year emergency fund, invest profits, and diversify investments and asset. Using these tools as part of the spiritual moral foundation outlined above will greatly prosper your endeavors.

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

Psalm 90:17, 128:1-2, Proverbs 12:11, Acts 20:24, James 2:26, 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 97: Your testimony is powerful

2011-05-17T00:52:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

People are trying to measure whether or not your testimony is significant or not. Some want to measure it simply because they desire to continue in unbelief, so that their chosen beliefs and lifestyles are not challenged by the truth of God’s word declared in the bible. Thus, they will ridicule anything that is based on that truth. Others want to measure it because they feel a need for change in their lives and are wondering if your testimony will lead them to the person or path they need to take to obtain the changes they need.

What you must remember is that your testimony should lead them to Jesus Christ, his earthly life, death on the cross, shedding of blood, and resurrection life for evermore regardless of the measurement people would put on it. You must become immune to the attacks and the praise that others would heap upon you because it is not about you. It’s about Jesus and what He has done and can do for those who will hear your testimony.

When you have accepted Jesus Christ, salvation and eternal life are yours. Rest assured that you have a powerful testimony no matter what others think. Your testimony will dovetail with the gospel and be used by the Holy Spirit as a means to lead many people to Christ. You only have to believe it and be unafraid to share it in whatever relationships and forums you have available to you (family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, social groups, etc.).

People who are or would be spiritual-minded understand the great value your testimony represents concerning the progressive removal of worldly impurities that engulfed your life. While the greater treasure awaits you when you are resurrected to dwell with Christ in your heavenly home, the renewal of your life begins immediately upon accepting Christ in that:

1. You actively desire and seek to become more like Jesus Christ and live in intimacy with Him each day.

2. You actively utilize biblical principles in every area of life and learn to live a truly fulfilling life on this temporary home called earth by doing what God’s word says is good to do and staying away from what His word says is wicked and sinful.

3. You give a tithe and offering of your income to further what's truly important to the Lord: bringing other people closer to Christ and help train them in His way of living and serving others.

Temptations, trials, hurt, and loss challenge every person. The fact that you go through such situations is not a sign of weakness! Your strength is shown by responding to these situations in faith with obedience to scriptural principles and with an eye toward sharing your testimony to serve others by leading them to the One who can change their lives for the better. When you patiently apply biblical principles through every situation that you go through, Christ promises you true significance, fulfillment, victory, success, and prosperity on this earth and throughout eternity.

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

Revelation 12:11, Proverbs 3:1-4, Ephesians 6:10-18, James 1:2-12, 1Peter 5:8-11

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 95: Tell the truth in love

2011-05-17T00:49:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Jesus Christ’s will and way is for His Church to love all people even though we may not like their attitudes or what they do. Heck, sometimes you shouldn’t love your own attitudes and actions but He still loves you and you should still love you. How much more then should you extend His mercy and grace to other people? The answer is always.

Thus, by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith we work to spread the gospel in our families, communities, and around the world using words and deeds. The bible tells us that the foolishness of preaching the gospel one-on-one or to a congregation brings people of every race, creed, or nationality to Jesus Christ. It also lets us know that our nature was created in Christ to do good works. Our stewardship of money plays an important role in helping expand our reach. Over time, it helps enlarge our efforts in building relationships with many people because it adds great force and effect to our words and deeds.

One important area of your witness of God’s glory is your desire and discipline in properly managing the money He entrusts to you. Everything you have comes from Him and your position in life would not be possible without His intervention and favor in your life.

People want to know that Jesus Christ made a tremendous difference in your financial life as a witness of His power because this is one of the foremost areas in which they are suffering. Conversations that help them eliminate financial bondage in their lives will be a road that leads them to Christ. While you don't have the power to make them choose salvation and produce good fruit in their lives, you do have the ability to tell the truth in love about:

1) Eternal consequence of not accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord;

2) Ignorance of and rebellion against biblical instruction that causes people to dwell in a dry land;

3) Financial habits and mismanagement that is destroying their earthly purpose;

4) God’s faithfulness in this life and throughout eternity in bringing His people victory over every temptation, trial, and obstacle they face.

Answer the call. In humility, seasoned by God’s grace, extending mercy, tell others the truth in love and do not forget that your management of money plays a tremendous role in your effectiveness and reach. You can make a tremendous difference for good in many other people’s lives.

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

Matthew 5:14-16, Matthew 6:21, Luke 16:11, Ephesians 4:15-16, 2Peter 3:11-15

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.

MoneyWalk 96: This Is Interesting

2011-05-02T00:53:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

It’s interesting that most people give away far more money in interest and fees to financial institutions than they do to honor God. It's also interesting that people on average give less than 2% of their income to the church and promote the argument that God doesn't require anyone to tithe as their basis for giving whatever their will decides to give or feels they can afford to give.

It's interesting that the employer or customers you get income from couldn't give it to you, helping you derive income and accumulate wealth, without God having long ago created the world with all the natural resources and human gifting / skill necessary for you to make products and provide services that they are willing to purchase with the income and assets He provided them.

It's interesting that He’s the One who loves you and allows you to obtain 100% of your income and all of the money you will ever receive. Giving Him a tithe and having 90% left over is a great help to your financial plan and family well being, because He’s promised to give more to manage to each good steward who abundantly gives through His church to spread the gospel.

The Old Testament and The New Testament clearly show that tithing is a faith principle that blesses those who do not shut their mind and hands to it. It is a practice that helps improve our spiritual and natural well-being so that we can show ourselves that we love God more than anything on this earth including the money that He provides. It also helps us discipline ourselves to live within our means and organize our stewardship of the resources God provides so that we can build the structure of our lives and ministry in the marketplace according to His principles and not the rudiments of the world.

As the old saying goes, when your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall. Many people do not realize how much the failure to display the principle of tithing has led to their failure to properly discipline themselves financially. This has led to dishonoring the Maker /Giver of all things good and the financial troubles that many experience.

Alas, many oppose this insight because they cannot see an earthly link between the two, many oppose it because they say they cannot afford to tithe, and many claim that they oppose it because they do not interpret scripture to show that it is something God calls His people to do in New Testament times, many oppose it because they believe it is works based and therefore not to be regarded in this dispensation of grace, and many oppose it because they see some people on earth have great resources at their disposal even though they have never tithed.

What they fail to see is that no man will force them to tithe, but it would be a great blessing to them and their families if they do it by faith as the Holy Spirit leads believers to do. For it is better to be in the will of God, helping to spread His kingdom, and being a part of bringing other people into it, than to have the resources of any other man (no matter how rich) at your disposal.

What man would say that the following would be works that by grace he should not believe in, commit to, and do?

1) Saying the Lord’s name only in ways that will honor and respect it.
2) Worshipping the Lord only and not worship idols in any respect.
3) Honoring a Sabbath and keeping it holy.
4) Honoring his spouse and everyone else by not commit adultery.
5) Honoring his father and mother.
6) Speaking only truth and not witnessing falsely against another person.
7) Being content with what the Lord provides him and not coveting the resources in the care of other people.
8) Working with his hands to provide that which is good instead of stealing.

Even though these are instructions given in the Old Testament law, they emanate from the command to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself, which can only be done by faith in God while knowing that the above things are pleasing or displeasing to Him. In like manner tithing is done by faith knowing what pleases God, with a desire to be obedient to His will. Thus, it is not works based but faith based before the law was given to Moses and spoken to the people of Israel and even today faith without good works is dead.

Unfortunately, many people have more faith in the worldly way of doing things, impressing people, and fulfilling their own desires than they do in truly pleasing God and following His instruction. Many complain and blame God for their tight financial situation although He is not the one who bought houses, cars, clothing, boats, campers, and other products and services that are too expensive for their current income. It's interesting that, if only they would honor God with the tithe and wait on His timing, He would give them the real desire of their heart without the financial turmoil and hardships that accompany indebtedness and poor stewardship.

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

Psalm 24:1, 37:4, Proverbs 22:7, Luke 12:20-21, 1Corinthians 10:26, Hebrews 7:8

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

MoneyWalk 94: The two extremes

2011-04-17T18:00:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Scripture tells us that Christians should be lead by the Holy Spirit who lives in them. He will lead us to Jesus Christ, His will, and His way of being and doing things. In other words, in Christ your life will have the balance that is ordered for you to accomplish the things you need in accordance with scriptural principles.

Christ’s balance will look unbalanced to some people and they may express negative comments about His way of doing things. However, when you are not balanced according to His calling, your life is ripe for destruction initiated by satan and brought about by ungodly morals and the actions produced by them. People who get off God's narrow path usually fall into one of two financial extremes:

1) Stinginess, which is displayed by failing to faithfully support gospel work in the earth through their local church, evangelistic, and discipleship ministries.

2) Materialism, which is displayed by not adequately preparing for a rainy season in proportion to the money that has been entrusted to them.

They wrongly think that money provides the protection and security they need. Also, they think they will miss something in life if they don't spend all their income and credit getting material things to appease their flesh and impress others. These mindsets are unproductive for your future and allow problems to overtake you at some point in your life. In addition, they fail to display the kind of trust you need to have in God’s grace to help you be and do everything you are called to do.

Only God in Christ can provide truly valuable eternal and earthly blessings. Failing to use godly stewardship to manage the money entrusted to you, which includes saving and investing, will put you in an uncomfortable position because catastrophic and emergency situations will arise throughout your life. These situations will require money and resources to alleviate.

Don’t succumb to the two extremes that result from falling off of God’s path for you. Instead, allow the Lord to instill in your life the proper balance in life and money management. From this pathway, you will do the things that will help you proceed and succeed throughout your life such as faithfully tithing, give offerings, caring for your family, and filling your life with fellowship and ministry with God and His people.

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

Ecclesiastes 10:19, Psalms 17:4-5, Isaiah 55:10, Luke 12:20-21

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MoneyWalk 93: Always be ready to share the gospel

2011-04-10T23:30:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

As you walk on the road of good stewardship by using biblical money management principles, some people will ask how you came to have so much contentment, peace, joy, and blessing in your life. These are perfect opportunities to be a witness of the gospel concerning how Jesus Christ changes lives, so be prepared to share Him in overt and covert ways.

Your testimony of the salvation, eternal life, and service to others that God introduced you to and how He continues to work His will and ways in you will be a great blessing to others and will lead many to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and LORD at some point in their lives.

Even when you do not speak in Christian legalese, it's important that your answers be based on sound biblical doctrine, so the inquirers have a story (HIStory) they can research and confirm to help lead them to belief and faith. This also allows them to have a firm foundation to build their future Christian success upon.

You won’t need to quote scripture or be a theologian. You’ll only have to share the gospel along with biblical principles and/or methods you followed that have moved you forward to where you are now. For example, we always give glory to God in Christ first and foremost. Then, we explain that having a relationship with Jesus has been the most important thing in our lives because He saved us and gave us eternal life along with the ability to have peace and joy no matter the situations we face in this life.

Next, we serve faithfully in our local church and enjoy our relationship with Christ. We crucify the urge to be materialistic and show this by annually giving more in tithes, offerings, and charitable giving than we separately spend on pleasures or invest for the future. Also, we do not overwork ourselves to obtain more money or material things. But, we do plan to work a reasonable amount of time each week in order to be responsible and productive as well as good stewards of the gifts, talents, and skills God has so graciously given us.

Along the way, just like Jesus said that He would build His church and the Holy Spirit would give the increase, He also provides in our life great peace, joy, more opportunities to serve, fulfillment, and blessing. Finally, we let other people know that we await our heavenly home in the presence of God with everlasting peace, joy, and treasure that cannot be compared to anything that this world has to offer.

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

Colossians 4:5-6, 1Peter 3:15, 1Timothy 6:9-12, 2Corinthians 8:7-9

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MoneyWalk 92: Don't Argue Just Explain

2011-04-03T19:36:00.003-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage. My wife had an encounter with a person whose lifestyle didn't include saving because she believed that two siblings that died young missed out on expensive material things they could have purchased if it weren't for their saving habits. After hundreds of discussions with people with different lifestyles, we developed standards we use when discussing finances with other people.

1) We don't argue with anyone about money management. When given the chance, we explain that we use the biblical basis we understand for managing the resources God entrusts to us.

2) If given the opportunity, we back up our comment with scripture.

3) We explain that each person can choose to obey or disobey biblical instruction and thus reap the rewards of obedience or the consequences of disobedience. We choose to obey the LORD’s commands in order to bear fruit acceptable to God in order to partner in building His kingdom and our life on a firm foundation.

4) We direct them to resources that can shed more light on the stewardship areas they’re interested in. For instance, we will lead them to websites that provide Christian Financial Advice and other resources that can help them in a way that does not negate the word of God concerning good stewardship.

We understand that we cannot make people believe the way we do because they have the power of choice. They must hunger and thirst for righteousness in order for God’s wisdom and revelation to be understood and accepted. We know that unbelievers will find reasons to dispute and ridicule information that we provide them. People treated Jesus this way, so they'll do it to His servants! But that’s okay! We recognize that we’re planting and/or watering seeds that can take root at some point in their lives as they soften their hearts toward God and desire to be good stewards of the incomes and resources He entrusts to them.

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

Psalms 33:11, Proverbs 4:4-5, Matthew 5:6, 2Timothy 2:15, James 2:17

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MoneyWalk 91: Honor god with your purchases

2011-03-20T20:20:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

When they carry the types of products and services we need, use, or enjoy, it's a good thing to patronize businesses that we know are owned by people who are faithful to Jesus Christ to model Christ likeness to those around them in word, deed, and giving to spread the gospel. The Great Commission identifies that the foremost mission we have among people is to evangelize and disciple them showing them the pathway to a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Our lifestyle of commitment to Him while we make many mistakes but are maturing to act more like Him will be one of the biggest tools in fulfilling our mission. This transformative process of a “sinner saved by grace” should become progressively evident in your family, neighborhood, community, and workplace as people around you notice that you do not act the way you used to nor engage in ungodly activities that you used to when you were an unbeliever.

You should also constantly ask God for, notice, and act upon opportunities to share the gospel with people who have or will have a heart to hear it. Don’t worry about your goodness being called into question. After all, it is the perfection and goodness of Jesus Christ that must be the focus of your proclamation, for only He can save and deliver from earthly and eternal bondage to sin and grant eternal life to replace the sentence of eternal damnation we would otherwise receive.

The business-owners spoken of above understand these truths and you can trust such faithful people to follow scriptural instructions and the Holy Spirit’s guidance. They make it a point to give a great portion of their profit as tithes and offerings toward worthwhile ministry and other benevolent endeavors in their communities, whereas non-Christian business-owners don't have a motivation to spread the good news because they have no allegiance to Christ.

In fact, many non-Christian businesses give to organizations with agendas that are destructive from a biblical perspective believing them to be liberating, enlightening, and politically correct (contrary to God’s word on the lifestyles and activities of those involved). Such endeavors lead people to bondage or help maintain it in their lives. Remember, satan told Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit so that her eyes could be opened, but her and Adam’s disobedience to God’s command not to eat of the fruit of that tree brought decay and destruction for themselves and all people after them including you and me.

So, as the scriptures direct, do first unto the household of faith by preferring to patronize businesses owned by faithful and giving Christians. In this way, you will take part with them in leading many other people to love and good works.

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

Genesis 3:1-7, Romans 12:10, Galatians 6:9-10, Hebrews 10:24-25

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MoneyWalk 463: Teach your children to be good money managers

2011-03-13T21:02:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Children do not learn through osmosis how to walk uprightly in life. They must see the right example from parents to whom they are closest and be encouraged and sometimes even made to walk out a process whereby they are going to have to make choices as to which path to take to obtain the result they desire. They are going to make mistakes because they are human, but through these mistakes and continual parental guidance they will learn which path is the best one to help reach their goals.

God has placed in each of us a knowledge of right (good) and wrong (evil) and we know that there are consequences that we’ll ultimately have to pay when we consistently choose wrong. God has also allowed each of us parameters where we live with an ability to make a number of different decisions without them being wrong. We walk in what is wrong when we choose to go outside the bounds of His specific commands that tell us not to do a particular wrong (covet, steal, etc.). Children need to be told this often and have it shared with them through scripture, so they understand God is speaking to them and not just Daddy, Mommy, teacher, or coach saying something.

You should speak and act under the authority of Jesus Christ and His moral authority. His example was (after a time of teaching and exampling how to serve people) to let His disciples go into surrounding communities without Him to serve the resident the Kingdom of God. This constituted sharing the gospel, teaching His commands and principles, and using the power of the Holy Spirit to meet physical needs (healing, delivering from bondage, giving to help the poor, being a Good Samaritan, etc.).

In order to establish a solid foundation for your children’s future, you should utilize when possible age appropriate allowances that allow children to manage a portion of the money that you plan to spend on them during each month. Your budget should be established first as an example to them and the allowance ought to be tied to optional tasks they can perform in order to have some of the treats they may desire to have (toys, food treats, outings, etc.). They should be taught that payment can only be expected for a task performed and completed well.

Allowance should not be tied to everything they are expected to do around the home or elsewhere. Some responsibilities are simply the privilege of being in the family and having their needs meet. Children should not be able to opt out of those responsibilities. Teach them this order of priority for managing money:

(1) God owns everything including what you have and the allowance you provide them. Therefore, they should look to His commands and principles for direction on how to spend their allowance and any other money they receive or earn.

(2) Giving should be the first thing they do each time they receive money. Preferably, they should be taught through your communication and example to give a tithe and free-will offering to their local church and other worthwhile ministries / charities whose works would please the heart of God. You should explain the benefits that God said givers would receive, such as give and it will be given unto you full measure and running over.

(3) Saving should be the next thing they do. At least ten percent for long-term goals put toward an emergency fund that is built to one year worth of allowances. After this is built the ten percent should be aimed at investments such as solid stocks and mutual funds. In the meantime and in-between time, they should be exposed to people and books that can explain how the banking and investment system work in our country. You should explain the wisdom and blessing that God said savers have: a wise man maintains stores of treasure but a foolish man spends everything he gets.

(4) Spending is the final step in the children’s good stewardship process. They should be told to stay away from using debt to obtain anything (no loans from Dad, Mom, or others) and to stick to using their own cash for purchases they make. If they can’t afford something that they want, they should be guided to set a future purchase goal and then save the entire amount of money before they purchase the item. You should explain that spending is a process that God established to allow us to receive many of His blessings. Yet, He designed a pathway on which to spend that would allow us to be blessed by spending decisions. Walking off this pathway brings curses into your life that will eventually show up as credit problems, foreclosures, repossessions, and bankruptcy later in life.

This process requires that you help them establish a budget, maintain it, and over time help them take the major responsibility for updating it and following it. You should label three jars: one giving, one saving, and one spending and help them learn to put the correct portion of their allowance in each jar to be spent during the month or year for the particular thing for which it is labeled. As your children mature, their allowances will likely grow as your income grows. You will want to increase their responsibility for purchasing items they desire that are not needs (gadgets, certain clothes, camps, etc.) while you continue to provide their basic needs (a home, food, and necessary clothing).

Turning this responsibility over to them to a greater degree will help them learn to make appropriate choices within the money they have and will grow them into adulthood with responsibility and wisdom that will bless them throughout their lives.

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

Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Galatians 6:7, Ephesians 6:1-4, Colossians 3:20, 1Timothy 3:4-5

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MoneyWalk 90: You should act right now!

2011-03-07T00:19:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Sometimes you forget that God requires certain actions from you in order for His universal law of sowing and reaping to work situations out for your benefit. God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and sovereign and certainly can do what He wants whenever He wants. However, He has chosen to establish laws for our universe that will bring to pass positive or negative consequences for you depending upon whether or not you choose to follow lifestyle and action principles that conform to biblical instruction.

The bible identifies principles that God wants you to live by and even unbelievers follow some of them by virtue of the fact that God created each person and put in us knowledge of the law and the various principles through which we can conform to it. There is a whole in the soul of each of us that can only be filled and made whole by a relationship with Father God through Jesus Christ as guided by the Holy Spirit. Yet, the Father gave each of us free-will, so that we would not robotically follow Him but could choose on our own to love and trust Him via a personal relationship where we mature in obedience to His will which brings about the best possible results for us and others whose lives we touch.

While believers and unbelievers alike will suffer various negative situations on earth, it is God’s Word that the believer will inherit eternal life and a home in Heaven with Him where there will be no hurt, pain, suffering, destruction, nor any evil work. Only the love and light of God will exist in Heaven and thus surround all those who choose it as their home by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The Word also points out that those who use free-will to choose a path opposite of relationship with Christ and eternal life will continue to suffer negative consequences (Hell) far worse than those experienced on earth; all due to their own choosing. For God desired better for them and pointed out the way, the truth, and the life.

Biblical principles contain a benefit for everyone who obediently uses them and hold a negative consequence for those who disobediently reject the way God wants them to confess and live. Sometimes, the consequence is immediate. Many times, it takes awhile to manifest. More often than not on earth, we cannot tell whether suffering is caused by immorality or a specific immoral act because believers and unbelievers alike will face many of the same negative situations and have to deal with similar issues in life.

God can show mercy to anyone whenever He wants, but He's established one simple rule from which His Word shows He will not back down. Those who die without repenting of sin and accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and LORD are eternally damned because they have chosen this pathway. The Hell that they will live in for eternity is neither a pretty picture nor a home that anyone should desire. However, God is giving them exactly what they want based on the choice they made. Unfortunately, many are tricked into thinking there are no consequences to their choice for Christ and sometimes for other lifestyle behaviors on earth because their earthly existence seems to have been filled with the favor of the universe in power, prestige, great career position, higher education, money, resources, good relationships, etc. Sometimes, they experience such goodness on earth even more so than those who call themselves believers.

We must recognize that even though Satan is not all powerful, nor all knowing, nor all present (remember, God kicked Him out of Heaven when He coveted God’s position and throne and he fell to the earth like a flash of lightning!), God gave him the ability to entice earthly men by offering them the kingdoms and delicacies of this world if they would bow down to Him. As a human, Jesus resisted this temptation as an example to each of us that the Holy Spirit gives us power to also resist this offer and to do the will of our Heavenly Father while on earth and while looking to an eternal heavenly home.

The Father has given each person the ability to accept Him as Savior and LORD and to manage his / her affairs and resources, including money, in a way that pleases Him. Accept this love gift now and start living in the joy of a citizenship in an eternal Heavenly home not made by human hands but rather by the power and presence of the Living God.

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

Deuteronomy 28, Isaiah 14:12-15, Romans 6:23, Hebrews 11:6, Revelations 20:11-15

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MoneyWalk 89: God's Financial Principles

2011-02-27T21:02:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Jesus spoke in parables so that people would not be able to understand the truth and benefit of living by faith in Him when they had hard hearts and did not really want to believe in Him or know how to live and act righteously at the current time. Because He cultivated His relationship with Father God through prayer, fasting, and obedience He knew that many situations would take place in these people’s lives from which they might one day want to know the truth of salvation by Him and real life in Him and thus cease to be scorners and mockers.

At that time, the blinders would be removed from their eyes and their ears would be unstopped. It would seem that all of a sudden their spirits would be made alive and their minds would be able to receive the divine truth by the power of the Holy Spirit. God's instructions for managing life, money, and resources would no longer be hidden from them.

Yet, many around them would either have no godliness in what they do and how they do it or they would have a form of godliness, but deny the power of God in the stewardship of their lives and money. Let’s not forget that there are many people between these two extremes at various stages of the sanctification (maturation) process that are seeking the Lord and will eventually understand and apply biblical principles of stewardship.

Those who choose to deny bible principles are like the Pharisees who wore religious attire, sought titles, and appeared holy to men, yet refused to accept that Jesus is Savior and Lord, the only way to Heaven, and that His way of doing things should be the light of their lives. If such an attitude is not repented of by the end of their lives on earth, such people will suffer eternal doom of their own choosing.

Those who accept Jesus as the Christ will continually collectively communicate gospel truth to everyone on earth and build God’s kingdom in the hearts of men and bring forth fruit that remains. This attitude and action sets you up to be blessed throughout eternity and on earth with all the resources necessary to accomplish your individual calling and the churches collective commission.

Don't let men charge you for worldly advice when God long ago shared the only principles that will truly prosper you. Wisdom that comes from God will direct you to tithe and give faithfully to your local church, the poor, and worthwhile ministries, to spend less than you make, to save and invest, to diversify your savings and investments, to refuse to borrow unnecessarily, to refuse to cosign, and to leave an inheritance for your godly seed to perpetuate gospel ministry in the earth.

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

Proverbs 11:15, 22:6-7, Luke 15:11-12, Hebrews 7:8, 1Timothy 6:17-19

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MoneyWalk 88: Will My Gifts Help Me Financially?

2011-02-21T16:47:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Jesus Christ is the head (leader and brains) and heart of the church. His church is a spiritual organism and an earthly organization with some known members and other members who are not openly known. Each one that is a member has put their faith in Christ and are progressively maturing in obedience to Him for the spread of the gospel and the discipling of everyone who comes to Him.

Every born again believer is a part of the body of Christ, serving as hands, feet, mouths, organs, muscles, joints, and even more unseemly parts showing the connectivity of Christ’s body in both spiritual and physical ways. Our individual time spent with Christ, our corporate time together in church settings and other venues in devotion to Christ, and our work on His behalf led by the Holy Spirit are all ways in which we display the love, devotion, and unity that Christ desires.

His body always has room for more members and we go about living our lives and expressing our beliefs in a way that helps lead unbelievers to Christ, so they can hopefully choose to become believers. If you’re saved, you represent a certain portion of the body unique with your own gifts, abilities, and resources that supply exactly what is needed by other portions of the body and the world around us.

You’re similar to others in some ways and yet very different from others. God made you and carved out a place for you in Christ’s body to carry out His purpose for you in this world. Rest assured that you'll be blessed financially and in other ways as you put your gifts, abilities, and resources to use glorifying Jesus Christ by building God’s kingdom in and through your life and communication.

Allow your local church to organize your gifts to continue its ministries that reach out to the unsaved and teach and nurture the saved. In addition, be a faithful member in your local church who tithes and serve along-side other members. You definitely have some of the same gifts, abilities, and resources as other people and also some unique ones to give and serve in several areas of your church’s operations and in the world around you.

Don’t wait for perfect conditions to use what God planted in you. Serve wherever you can and watch God mature, prosper, and promote you as you use your gifts, abilities, and resources in the marketplace for Him.

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

Luke 6:38, Romans 12:4-8, 1Corinthians 12:7-25, Ephesians 4:16, 1Timothy 4:14-16

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MoneyWalk 87: Should I Save and Invest?

2011-02-21T16:36:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

The bible contains a pattern where people of God accumulated wealth from legitimate work and inheritances that would be used to carry out God’s will and take care of their families at the current time and into the future. Consider the faith of Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Boaz and Ruth, King David, Mordecai and Esther, Joseph of Arimathea, and Barnabas.

Undoubtedly, some of the patriarchs and matriarchs suffered trials, tribulations, and even poverty at certain points in their lives. We also know that some of them committed sin on occasion. Yet, the Father was faithful to restore them when they repented and continued to build trust in Him. The bible gives no indication whatsoever that the accumulation of wealth they experienced was sinful or in conflict with His will.

The instruction of scripture is that we make sure that our devotion to God through Jesus Christ is our number one priority. See His face and not His hand. For when you seek His face, He provides all that you need and more to fulfill His plan for your life and it happens without you taking on greedy, covetous, and selfish traits.

This accumulation of wealth from godliness is the result of God opening the windows of heaven and pouring out a blessing that you cannot contain and you managing it (giving, saving, and spending it) in accordance with biblical principles for good stewardship. It is clear in scripture that you should seek to save and invest a portion of the manifold blessings God provides you.

The bible doesn't identify a specific amount that you should save and invest, yet wisdom could lead you to set aside at least ten percent of your gross pay as a minimum aim since it equals the minimum amount He exhorts us to give for the spread of the gospel and the earthly maintenance of the church and ministry staff.

You can start this process by reducing your spending on needless material purchases, so you can save as much as possible until you have at least 6 months of emergency income in a savings account. After you’ve reached that goal, put additional savings in investments that provide diversity and won't put the funds in unreasonable financial jeopardy, such as reputable stock and bond mutual funds and money market accounts.

I hope that hard times never come upon you and I pray that God sustains the church in good and bad economic times, yet Proverbs 23:20 says that wise people save and foolish people spend all that they get and Ecclesiasts 11:2 exhorts you to invest a portion of your income with seven or eight sources because you don't know what bad times may come upon you.

Just remember, savings and investments are not your source. They’re only a resource that God the source allows you to set aside to provide help in time of need: maybe for yourself, maybe for others, probably for both. Never be worried about the amount of your accumulation. Simply work hard and be a good steward according to biblical instruction concerning giving, saving, and spending and you will find that the amounts that you accumulate over time will be immensely helpful in carrying out God’s will for your life.

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

Genesis 13:2, 1Chronicles 29:3-5, 27:57, Luke 10: 25-37, Acts 4:37

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MoneyWalk 86: Should I give to special projects?

2011-02-06T22:27:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

No doubt you have been faced with the question of whether or not you should give to specific ministry projects. Your thought about giving to a project might not be positive at the moment and you're wondering what you should do. Is it good to build a big edifice in the face of dying, hungry, and lost people surrounding you? Will the ministry really help lead people to Jesus? Will the missionary be a good steward of the money?

Initial thoughts like these may be rolling around in your head, but it's important to step back and consider whether or not the ministry leaders are guiding the ministry in the direction God wants it to go to do the things He wants it to do. A positive conclusion should lead you to ask the Holy Spirit what He would have you do in support of worthwhile ministry endeavors. The answer to these considerations will help you know what to do in support of such ministry.

There were special projects in the bible where leaders asked everyone to give money and resources to build the tabernacle, temple, city wall, and provide for the needs of a particular community. Those who were willing were led by the Holy Spirit to give in support of these initiatives. Your consistent tithing, offering, and prayer will directly and indirectly benefit the kingdom by ministering what is on God’s heart. So, by all means consider giving money, prayer, and/or service for every project that glorifies God, disciples His people, or leads the unsaved to Jesus Christ.

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

Exodus 35:4-5, 1Chronicles 29:1-5, Nehemiah 3, Acts 4:34-37, 2Corinthians 9:1-5

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MoneyWalk 85: Should I pledge?

2011-01-30T23:33:00.001-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You've been asked by various charities to make a pledge to help them do the work they were formed to do or ministries have asked you to pledge money over and above your tithe and regular offerings, yet your budget does not show that you could give any extra money. At this point, the pressure is on because you always want to bless ministry work with an abundant offering, you don’t want to be considered faithless, and you know there are always people you can help by spreading the gospel and meeting basic needs. So what should you do?

This scenario is good reason for you to focus on spending less than you make, for pursuing a debt-free life, and for amassing assets to help others meet future needs because this lifestyle will afford you future opportunities to be a blessing to many others without placing yourself in the position of a poor steward. Before you pledge to anyone or any organization you should consult the bible to find out what it has to say about pledging, swearing, surety, and making oaths and you should ask the Holy Spirit what you should do.

If you decide to pledge without setting qualifiers on it, remember it is an oath to God, so pay it off when due because you love Him and don't want to dishonor His name. It's not a good idea to pledge from emotions, because it can lead to guilty feelings, legal obligations, callousness toward paying the pledge, or sinful methods to obtain the money, and broken relationships when you don’t do what others expect you to.

The qualifier that you can set on sacrificial giving is to make it a “faith promise” in which you agree to give a certain amount of money when God releases to you that amount or greater that is over and above what your current income would provide. Make it clear in your heart that you will give it when received and ask God to open the windows of Heaven through various sources and to show you ways that you could reasonably generate money to give according to your desire to bless and help.

Whether or not God provides the pathway for the “faith promise” funds and I believe He will, it is always best to consistently tithe and give abundant offerings to your local church and selected ministries from your current income while prayerfully asking God to increase your resources so you can give even more in the future.

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

Numbers 30:2, Psalms 15:4, Matthew 5:33-37, James 4:13-17, 5:12

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MoneyWalk 84: Appreciating Your Spouse

2011-01-23T22:50:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Many Christian husbands and wives have failed to honor their spouses in that ways that they should. Thus, feelings of appreciation have evaporated affecting the family and church in many ways including financial. The most tragic consequence is elimination of unity. When this is lacking spouses will not forge a common path of vision for the family and divorce inevitably ensues. Most go through divorce proceedings and spend lots of money on lawyers’ fees, settling property and custody issues, and obtaining loans to pay one another off. It costs even more when the divorce gets messy and is dragged out a long time.

Sometimes this process of dishonor and disrespect starts when people are dating and continues into marriage. Yet, lots of people act like they cannot see it. It started with the verbal or physical abuse or the failure to open up to supposed serious dating partner about fears, focus, vision, and financial situation. It also can be seen by whether or not the person is trying to buy you with gifts instead of speaking and showing love in more meaningful ways. Sometimes, it can be seen by the dating partner spending money you discern they do not have in order to impress you so they can ultimately have their way with you. These and other situations are warning signs telling us to avoid this particular person as a date and/or spouse or telling us to see if they are willing to be molded by God to be the good steward He wants them to be and you will need as a spouse.

Couples can avoid this pitfall by respecting the person you're dating or married to by treating them honorably pursuant to God's word in every area of the relationship: sexually (no fornication or adultery allowed), physically (no abuse), emotionally (no verbal abuse or silent treatment, etc.), and financially (as an example to them giving regularly to the spread the gospel, praying daily and when you meet with them, attending church with them, reading scripture with them daily, budgeting your income, eliminating debt and staying out of debt, building savings for the future that can be put toward marital endeavors if that takes place after a fruitful dating period.

Giving honor and affection to them through your communication, actions, prayer, and example are foremost in the heart of God from one spouse to another. Frequently telling your spouse that you love him or her regardless of how your emotions might feel at the moment is a necessity. You can always say in truth, I love you with the love of the Lord, I love you with the love of the Lord, I can see in you the beauty of our King, yes I love you with the love of the Lord!

A part of this process of giving honor to your spouse is to present a gift on special days (birthday, valentine day, etc.) according to your ability without abandoning good financial stewardship that God calls you to. It would not be honorable to God, your spouse, your children, or yourself to give them a material gift that causes you to be a poor steward of the money that God has entrusted to you. However, most of us have the ability to purchase a gift, craft a gift, or write something lovely about our spouse with going outside of that which we can truly afford at the current time. You must remember that good financial stewardship over the years will increase your ability to honor them using more expensive material gifts (that are within your affordability at that time) as a token of the love that you have for them deep within your heart.

Even if you can’t afford to buy your partner what he/she wants, you can promote a healthy relationship that fosters respect, unity, financial growth, and success by planning to give him or her on special days an affordable gift you have budgeted for (greeting card, homemade with a poem, a special service you’ll provide, etc.). If you are doing the best you can while seeking to please the Lord and honor Him in how you do it, then a grateful spouse will realize that love is shown by the fact that you thought of him or her and gave what you were able.

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

Ephesians 5:25-30, Matthew 7:9-12, Romans 12:9-10, 1Peter 3:7

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MoneyWalk 83: Where do I start my turn-a-round?

2011-01-16T18:15:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Many people are not confident in their ability to be all that God wants them to be including managing money. For some, this insecurity comes from feeling that they're not worthy to be used by God or blessed by Him. Others feel they’re simply not good at math or planning. Still others believe they have not been elevated to an income level that really matters to God.

Unfortunately, many people have been socialized to believe that they are nobody unless they have a large income or a position title with importance, authority, or fame. Many people express this view of themselves in their words and actions and some don’t even recognize it. They say things about themselves or the position they are currently in that belittles them. Overtime, this produces great unconscious insecurity within them that will stop them from standing up, speaking out, or taking control in the ways that they really need to do throughout life.

The following and similar statements are signs of such insecurity, “I’m just a secretary” or “my opinion really doesn’t matter” or “I’ll never be anything good” or “I just can’t manage money.” The ideology behind such statements is satanically inspired because it is the opposite of what you should be saying, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me!”

Satan tries to blind the minds of all men to the truth, because he knows the truth will make you free. We can take the blinders off men by letting them know that they are wonderfully made by God with the power to do everything He commanded them to do when they allow the Holy Spirit to lead them. Then by scripture and example, we can encourage them to love others, perform good works, and properly manage money for the benefit of the Kingdom of God and their families.

There's nothing wrong with having an important title and large income when your life is sanctified for God's use. Yet everything is wrong with these things when the fruit thereof does not directly or indirectly honor God, lead others to Him, and build them up in the faith. Every believer can perform mission no matter his position because he is an offspring of the Most High God.

Those that desire God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done will be used mightily to do the work of the ministry. They will spend time daily with the LORD in prayer and bible reading. In addition, they will tithe, give offerings, and use their physical and intellectual gifts to serve inside and outside their local church. Honoring the Lord in these ways is where your turn-a-round starts and you trustworthiness is maintained.

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

Proverbs 3:9-10, Mark 8:36, Luke 16:10-13, John 8:32-36, James 2:1-7

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MoneyWalk 82: How to be ready for troubles that arise

2011-01-09T17:15:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You should begin a daily routine of reading scripture, praying, and regularly attending local church services. In addition, you should develop plans for dealing with the possible problems by seeking counsel from godly people concerning the future outlook by:

1) Placing your whole trust in the LORD so much that the loss of money and other possessions, if the LORD so allows, does not hamper your joy in glorifying Him, witnessing to the lost, and ministering to the saints.

2) Identifying your present financial condition and determining how you can best preserve stability and continue to grow over the long haul.

3) Writing down your strategy for dealing with the troubles that will come. This plan will be a guide to help you utilize your faith in God and His principles to overcome the inevitable storms and make them short-lived in your life.

Although you cannot avoid many troubles, you can do a number of things like giving tithes and offerings to honor God and build His kingdom, establishing a budget, pursuing debt-free living, saving for rainy days, and diversifying your investments, etc. Through this process, the Lord will help you have victory over every attack of the enemy and every trial.

Each person establishing a relationship with Jesus Christ and employing biblical principles makes a church that together allows us to weather the storms of life. Let us not miss this opportunity for planning to preserve ourselves and to minister to the massive number of people who are in need of salvation, sanctification, and help in times of trouble.

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

1Kings 17:9, Proverbs 16:9, Luke 14:28-32, Act 6, 2Corinthians 9:1-5

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MoneyWalk 81: Preparing for crisis in your life

2011-01-02T20:24:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You have probably heard the acronym Y2K. It was used to describe the scenario that many people thought would cripple the world in the year 2000 and bring about a catastrophe in world economic markets, recordkeeping arenas, etc. based on their expectation that the failure of computer programming would cause computer systems to fail.

Their belief stemmed from the fact that they computer programmers allowed only two digits of computer code in the field that allows computers to capture the current year and that this field would not recognize two zeros as a legitimate year. These two digits were to be the last two numbers of the current year within a century. This supposed failure of programming would make the situation very uncertain as to what would happen when the clock struck 12 AM to begin the year 2000 or when people would try to power up anything that ran by means of a computer operating system that used a date field on or after that time.

Everything from massive computer systems at big corporations to microwaves and TV’s were supposed to be negatively affected because the computerized operating systems wouldn't recognize the beginning of the new century. This prediction did not come to pass, yet it was a real enough belief and threat that many people planned what they would do in case it were to happen. And so they should have. A very good principle to live by is to prepare for rainy days because you know they will come at various periods throughout your life.

The fact that you don’t know when rainy days will come shouldn’t lead you to overlook the fact that they will come and do what is physically and monetarily reasonable to help you get through the rainy day with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. In this way, the Lord can help you conquer any negative effects of such crises because you planned as best you could how you would handle such situations according to scriptural principles.

When planning for such rainy days you should consider the story of Joseph in Egypt in the book of Genesis and how the early church handled crises, persecution, and needs of the body of Christ in the book of Acts. Then obey God's instructions to regularly fellowship with other believers and be a good steward of the money and resources He entrusts to you. Your relationship with God, obedience to biblical principles, and our unity as the body of Christ is the safe haven we each need. It is also a great opportunity to share the gospel with others through our example and our words.

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

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

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MoneyWalk 80: Believing and planning really work!

2010-12-27T01:10:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

The bible teaches us to plan activities and processes that we will engage in, so that we are aimed at a future blessed by God and worth living. We should not plan based on fear or greed. Rather, we should plan based on faith in the Lord that commits you to do what the bible directs you to do.

Such faith incorporates evangelism and discipleship in every sphere of life by communicating the gospel. It also includes living as an example to others by serving as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ on earth in a continual maturation process whereby you allow the Holy Spirit to change you from glory to glory to reflect the image of Christ more and more. Such a life will positively and profoundly affect others around you. No matter what it seems like now, you will find crevices, cracks, and wide-open pathways into peoples’ lives that can lead them to Jesus.

On many occasions, God told people to use seemingly futile methods to accomplish goals. He then responded to their obedience by providing miraculous conquests and great reward for them. Moses at the Red Sea, Joshua at the Jordan River, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, Paul and Silas released from jail due to worship, and Jesus death and resurrection are only a few examples of obedience that turned what the devil meant for bad into good for you and I.

Likewise, start using debt-free stewardship principles contained in the bible by utilizing a written plan to detail how you’ll earn, tithe, spend, save, and invest your income throughout the year and into the future. God will speak to your inner man and use others to provide insight that will help you tweak your plan to show you how to get the most out of your life and the money which has been entrusted to you. People who take action to become good stewards in this manner generally find that their financial condition greatly improves overtime because God rewards obedience in various ways.

He may help create godly relationships with people who provide things that you need or desire. He may increase your ability to cut expenses and be more skillful in meeting your needs and desires at a lower cost. He may increase your income thus allowing you to afford to give and spend far more that you otherwise could. He will likely help you increase in each of these areas and in so many more while helping you maintain a heart of humility and sacrifice for His kingdom and the sake of other people. This will allow you to be a much greater blessing to your local church, your community, and in missions work around the world.

We are living witnesses of the effects of engaging good stewardship as instructed in scripture. God is compounding our life and finances to be much more useful in ways that did not seem possible years ago. Though at times we’ve had to say no to ourselves and other people’s requests, we haven't lost any godly friends by believing in the Word, listening for His instructions, praying, and planning by setting reasonable Kingdom based goals (including financial). Neither will you!

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

Exodus 12:33-36, Daniel 1:8-16, Malachi 3:8-12, Luke 14:28-30, Acts 9:4-7

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MoneyWalk 79: What Should I Do About This Christmas?

2010-12-20T23:19:00.001-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You should identify a Christmas spending strategy so the failure to plan won’t load you with more debt. Don't let the emotions of the holiday season bamboozle you into a spending spree that you'll regret later. Yet, most people go into the season without planning how much they’re going to spend or how they're going to divvy it up among their family and friends. Decide in your heart and mind that the thought is what counts and spend only what you have available in cash after you’ve given tithes and offerings to your local church and other ministries, after you’ve set aside reasonable savings, and after all other bills are paid.

Make a Christmas budget that identifies available cash and identify how much you’ll spend on each person. When necessary to stay within the budget, shop at stores like half-off card shops and discount stores that sell nice cards and gifts that allow you to stay within your budget. If you’re not be able to give everyone or anyone a gift because you don’t have the money to do so, then give them a card that expresses the feelings you have concerning your relationship. When necessary, it can be homemade.

True friends and family that really love you understand that friendship is not all about gifts. They don't get mad because you didn’t give them a present or a card, nor do they accept or reject you based on how much you paid for something you give them. They will definitely understand when you take the time to let them know you’re working to get your finances into good shape and be a good steward of the money God has entrusted to you. Those who don’t understand are really not your true friends anyway or it will simply take you some time being a good steward and reaching out in friendship in other ways for them to understand what friendship really is about.

In the future, use the same type of budgeting process / spending plan for other special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc. As you focus on being a good steward of the manifold blessings the Lord has entrusted to you, you will begin to learn more of what He desires in this area and over time you will become a much better steward. You will also endear yourself to people that will be true friends who have their eyes on the things in life that really matter. Remember, poverty and disgrace are the reward of the person who does not follow God’s instruction but the person who heeds His instruction will be honored.

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

Proverbs 16:9, Luke 14:28-30, Romans 13:8

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MoneyWalk 78: Did I Miss Thanksgiving?

2010-12-12T22:39:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

It does not need to be a holiday called “Thanksgiving” in order for you to give thanks for the many blessings you receive in this life. You should thank God everyday because He's the almighty LORD who brings out of the darkness of sin into His marvelous light all those who claim Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. He has also provided for all their need according to His riches in glory and He has provided an eternally good hope and future.

Thank Him for the past, present, and future because He gives them a growing testimony throughout life that will heal the sick, deliver the imprisoned, and win many unbelievers to Christ through their words, deeds, and lifestyle. Continually thank Him for giving believers His name and a godly purpose that brings meaning to life as they deal with family, church, employers, schools, and recreational activities.

You can be a part of they and their spoken about above by recognizing the love of God and accepting it by declaring Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. No longer do you have to feel left out and unloved. When you let the Holy Spirit guide you, no area of your life is exempt from being used successfully by Christ to fulfill His purpose for mankind. This service also brings blessing upon you.

Thanksgiving takes many forms and includes thanking God with our money and resources. You thank Him with money each time you pay tithes and give offerings to your local church and other worthwhile ministries. You mature in thanking Him when you manage money according to biblical principles because it allows you to use it for purposes for which He intended (caring for family, spreading the gospel, and helping others as the Holy Spirit leads you). Such thanksgiving is a sweet smell in God’s nostrils and causes Him to elevate in His presence the person who continually offers it.

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

Daniel 6:10, Matthew 26:27, John 6:9-13, Ephesians 1:16-23

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MoneyWalk 77: Yes, You Must Pay Taxes

2010-12-05T18:43:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

God desires that you walk in accordance with His principles. He does not want your actions to be a deterrent to properly caring for yourself, your family, your local church, and other people He assigned to you. By following His principles you’ll be able to fulfill your purpose in the earth. One of the principles is to give to Caesar (the government) that which is Caesar’s while also giving to God that which is God’s. He wants you to understand that as you follow Him and apply His principles in your life He will make a way for you to pay your taxes as well as take care of every responsibility assigned to you.

You may claim you should only show allegiance to God and therefore should not pay tax to Caesar, however this is a faulty mindset that will keep you in bondage to satan and captive to his will. There will be people and rogue organizations who try to make you rebellious and keep you ignorant of biblical instruction and the blessings attached to it. They don’t want you to trust that God will provide all you need if you pay tax or tithe, or follow any biblical guidance on good stewardship. They would have you believe that taxes are an unlawful confiscation of money. However, if believed, the underlying problem is that you will idolize the money God provided and consider it more important than obeying Him. It is God who said that He set life up to be run by government, that those who resist governmental authorities resist Him and will incur judgment, and that we should pay taxes to whom taxes are due.

When you refuse to trust God by honoring His financial principles, including paying taxes that you rightfully owe, you negate His power that would help you fulfill your purpose and show others how men’s worst decisions (sometimes taxation levels, etc.) cannot overcome the blessing of God in a life that is obedient to His commands. The best answer to over-taxation by a government entity is praying for God to give legislators wisdom to enact the best laws and correct or eliminate current laws that are harmful to citizens. You should also periodically mail letters to legislators and sign petitions designed by reputable organizations that agree with biblical teaching about how legislators should govern.

Last but not least, remember that it is not ungodly to use all legally acceptable methods necessary to lower the amount of taxes you owe to the government. However, you should pay what is required in a timely manner just like Jesus had Peter obtain the money and pay the tax the ruling government determined that He owed.

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

Matthew 17:24-27, Luke 20:21-25, Romans 13:1-7, Philippians 4:15-19, 1Peter 2:13-20

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MoneyWalk 76: Is retirement an acceptable lifestyle?

2010-11-30T18:58:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Work is much more tedious to our decaying bodies because Adam forsook the abundance of God's favor and everlasting life in his physical body by eating of the forbidden fruit. Yet, God still looks upon work as an integral part man fulfilling the purpose for which he is created and designed to have dominion in the earth.

Work should be engaged to please Father God, to allow the Holy Spirit to guide and train us to use our gifts and build skill in our endeavors, and to be Jesus’ hands, feet, and mouthpiece in the earth. Through this attitude, we build treasures in heaven and when work flows from our faith in God, we'll find pleasure even in the toil and the things it allows us to obtain will be a blessing to us and others.

Solomon and the Apostle Paul confirmed the natural and spiritual repercussions of laziness and irresponsibility toward work. They identified that the diligent person shall live in a wealthy place and that a person who doesn't work will not have enough food and sustenance to properly care for his or her responsibilities. Proverbs 31 shows that a spiritual woman is one that works whether at home or outside the home doing things that are godly and which benefit her husband and children. Men should also be engaged in worthwhile, godly endeavors in and outside the home. In fact, they should set the example for others in the home to follow.

Abstaining from all forms of work is not healthy for your body or good in God's sight, yet that does not mean you cannot move to different stages of work life where you flow from working a great number of hours in one career field to reducing work hours and spreading your time in other fields such as ministry, consulting, entrepreneurial, and charitable non-profit efforts.

You are free to retire from your present line of work granted you understand that the Holy Spirit has already called you to another field of work where you will overtly and covertly build God’s kingdom through your communication, interaction, and resources. That’s right, when you retire from your present line of work; you still have much work to do as a member of and co-laborer in the body of Christ.

Even after retiring from your career path, God’s love in you and your love for Him should motivate you to work as unto the Lord inside and outside your local church to evangelize unbelievers and make disciples of men.

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

Genesis 1:28, 2:1-3, Proverbs 10:4, Romans 12:11-13, 2Thessalonians 3:10-13

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MoneyWalk 462: Seasons will change – No need to worry!

2010-11-13T22:49:00.001-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Do not be afraid of seasons and circumstances changing around you. Politicians come into office in a blaze and then are swept out just as quick. Laws get passed that change what we must comply with and sometimes laws get overturned or changed that we thought were best for our nation. Some business people operate in change mode out of godly vision and love for the people they serve while other business people bring about change based on immoral, oppressive, prideful, or greedy objectives. Not to mention that impure motivations we have had from time to time caused someone else to deal with change that wasn’t pleasing to them.

Because of the choices that God allows men to make and the interaction of them all, we cannot stop all change from occurring. What we can and must do are pray that activities that would cause negative change be stopped in their tracks and that activities that we, our leaders and others engage in would be pure as directed by the heart of God for the betterment of His kingdom and the people we are to affect in this world. You will free yourself from bondage to negativity that would otherwise immobilize you to many great opportunities that God wants to bless you with when you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ in this way to stop worrying about the ultimate outcome of the political race, economic situation, job market, or other change that may or does take place.

God is more than able to take care of your need according to His riches in glory and will do so when you delight yourself in Him more than anything else. This must be in everlasting covenant with and commitment to God instead of a short-term activity meant to get the goods from God then return to self-centered ways. Remember, God knows every heart and is the Judge of the motives and intent of every action. Unbelief will be found out and will ultimately destroy you if not repented of.

The key to peace and joy, financially and in other areas of life, is to recognize that God has not given us a spirit of fear. He has given us power, love, and a sound mind - The mind of Christ that, when listened to and obeyed, will lead us to follow scriptural principle in every area and every circumstance. He will also, by the Holy Spirit, teach us to avoid worldliness in our activities so that we may be fruitful in every good work.

Many are the methods that could be given to follow the few principles contained in the bible that describe how we should live and manage our money in order to be most fruitful. Yet, the most important thing for you is to seek the Lord with all your heart, asking Him what He specifically wants you to do to serve His kingdom and other people, then start doing it step by step while you also engage the main lifestyle principles He instructed every believer to be engaged in: daily prayer, daily bible reading, weekly fellowship with a family of believers (a local church), serving in the local church and workplace.

Now, mix these elements of a godly life with telling family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and others what Christ means to you and how He changed your life. As you draw closer to Christ doors of opportunity will begin to open for you for evangelism, making disciples of others, and engaging in the ministry for which you are gifted.

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

Psalm 145:14-15, Proverbs 3:5-12, Philippians 4:16-19, 2Timothy 1:7

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MoneyWalk 75: You need Jesus!

2010-11-07T20:28:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Eternal life and true righteousness, peace, and joy can come only from Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life and no man can really give his life to God and have a future home in heaven unless they accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord!

God showed his great love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more than that, we've been saved from eternal wrath by His blood shed at Calvary. No matter where you are, salvation by faith in Christ alone brings new life that can begin for you right now. The blood of Jesus will cleanse you upon asking Jesus with all your heart to be your Savior and Lord.

Jesus wants the best for you throughout eternity. However, you must start by putting your trust in Him and what He already accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection. He’s the one who made you with a godly purpose that' cannot be fully used without His guidance. He's calling you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Make a confession of faith wherever you are in acceptance of His calling and please let me know about your decision.

God will be pleased and the church of God will rejoice with the angels in heaven on your behalf because those who are saved are led by the Holy Spirit and empowered to take action that brings forth good fruit. They do so by learning biblical principles to govern their lives and financial affairs. The sooner you come to Christ, the sooner you can reap the benefit of this eternal and earthly inheritance.

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

Acts 4:10-12, 2Peter 3:9-13, John 14:5-15

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MoneyWalk 74: Riches Can Be Deceitful

2010-10-31T09:04:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

When obtaining money is their highest aim, people do many foolish things. Some commit murder while robbing people or to obtain life insurance payouts, some prostitute their bodies and some engage in drug deals. Others forsake their wives and children hoping to obtain prestige among movers and shakers in the corporate and political arenas. Still others spend more time pursuing higher incomes and accumulating wealth rather than establishing and developing a relationship with God in Christ.

When getting rich becomes the most important thing in your heart and mind, there’s usually a temptation to become haughty toward other people, considering them less because you think their level of income or wealth shows they aren’t ambitious. Some people pursue titles, positions, and material things in order to showcase their riches or fool people into thinking they are rich. When people honor them, some don't immediately give glory to God recognizing that God's favor and His use of many other people played the major role in the riches bestowed upon them whereas their work effort played a minor role.

Don't get caught in such arrogant attitude traps from hell because the end never justifies immoral means. When your methods are immoral and go against biblical instruction on how to honor God and treat your fellow man, the big payday and extravagant lifestyle you seek may turn into devastating problems on earth and bring eternal damnation if not repented of before you leave this earth.

Stay humble and utilize biblical principles and your financial wherewithal and ability to minister to others will definitely greatly increase as you diligently employ the methods of a good steward of the manifold blessings God bestows upon you.

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

Ecclesiastes 10:19, Luke 12:13-21, 1Timothy 6:6-12, Revelation 3:16-18

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MoneyWalk 73: Diversification Is Good

2010-10-25T22:39:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

The bible says there is safety in the multitude of counselors and that you should give a portion to seven or eight. This is sound instructions from the mind of God because He knows that the future on occasion will include economic downturns. He loves us so much that He guides us to live by the right principles that help us avoid upheaval or overcome it.

When you own stocks, bonds, and company issued investments, you risk the possible loss of the entire investment or having to wait behind other classes of investors in order to receive a small amount on the dollars you invested if a company behind the investment that you own goes bankrupt. This is not a usual happenstance and this happening to one investment doesn't mean that all investment vehicles of the same type are bad. However, the risk of this being extremely devastating for your life is multiplied immensely when all your savings and investments are in one account. Thus, no one should put all the money entrusted to him or her in one investment, one financial institution, or with one advisor.

You should diversify your assets among various investment vehicles based on your personal risk tolerance, the future date you intend to use the money, and positive long, medium, and short-term history of returns of different stock, bond, and fixed-income investment vehicles. Do not put money into any instrument that doesn't have a good long-term history of profits. Savings should generally be put in vehicles where the principle is safest and the account earns a competitive amount of periodic interest. Investments may be put into vehicles that carry some amount of risk of loss of principle that is offset by the possibility of earning higher long-term returns.

Your allocation of investment money should place more of it in vehicles that provide better protection for more of your principle as you get older because as you get older you cannot usually afford to lose great amounts of your money and you may not have time to let the markets work in order to re-grow your assets to adequate levels after a market decline.

One of your major investments should be to tithe and give an abundant offering to your local church and other ministries from the income God provides for the purpose of spreading the gospel in expectation of Jesus return for His saints. This is your greatest investment while on earth, which has an eternally positive effect for you and many others who come into the kingdom as a result of your giving. After all, any mental or physical ability that allows you to earn or receive income of any kind indeed originates from God and could not be obtained without Him endowing you with such intellect, skill, etc.

In your faith walk, you should take prudent risk which requires godly vision to help carry out your earthly purpose and diversification in the area of saving and investing. I recommend managing your lifestyle and money in a manner that allows you to save and invest a portion of your income equal to a tithe and offering. Such an amount when consistently invested over several decades in a diversified manner with the discipline to forego pulling it out except in extreme emergencies has been shown to provide the kind of wealth that people need to help weather economic storms and provide for them in their latter years.

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

Proverbs 11:14, Ecclesiastes 11:2, Luke 19:13, Acts 6:2-3

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MoneyWalk 72: The LORD Promotes

2010-10-18T22:46:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

A great promotion may be something other than a higher-level position with an employer. For example, knowing the state of your income versus expenses, refusing to enslave yourself in debt, living beneath your income, and faithfully saving money promote you in life far ahead of your peers regardless of whether you receive an employment promotion because most refuse to adhere to such principles and thus bring themselves and their families much heartache and financial strain in life no matter what employment promotions they attain.

When promotion seeking comes from the desire to meet man’s requirements, which are outside of what God wants for your life, discontent will usually appear. This pursuit of promotion encourages you to think negatively about your current position, income, and resources instead of continually thanking God for allowing you to be in the place that you are. Even though your position may be great among men you’ll develop an attitude where the current situation is never enough.

This brings about negative comments about your employer, supervisor, and position, which usually follow an initial bout of pride, haughtiness, and disregard for living Christ-like. Failing to realize that there is a character building reason why God has allowed you to be in your current position and thanking Him for the maturity He’s allowing you to develop as a result, leads to blessings in your life turning out to be curses to you because you will fail to manage in a godly manner your tongue, lifestyle, ministry to others, income, and material resources. You may continue to get promoted on earth but you will experience an empty void in your soul and relationships with God and man.

On the other hand, Godly promotions come through humility and meekness in fellowship with and allegiance to Christ. His elevation of your earthly status will usually grant you the things that matter most: eternal life, better relationships with family, strong and enduring friendships with reliable people, a worthy career, job, and ministry role with more than enough resources to fulfill your purpose, and respect in the eyes of your peers and superiors who have spiritual eyesight.

God guaranteed that using biblical principles will bring fruitfulness and promotion in your life regardless of whether man ever promotes you or not. When you’re humble before Him, He will raise you up in due time and will make room among influential men for the gift He’s given you.

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

Psalms 75:6-10, Proverbs 3:35, Daniel 4:30-35, 1Peter 5:6-11

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MoneyWalk 70: Choose Your Reward

2010-10-03T20:18:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Anything worth having will cost you directly or indirectly. For example, being saved requires that you die to your selfish, pride-filled heart and mind-set in order to accept in you the life of Jesus Christ. It also requires that you take up your cross and follow Him by desiring and seeking to do His will in every area of life.

Likewise, heavenly rewards and God’s blessing upon your life, money, and resources managed on earth require allegiance to Christ, obedience to His commands, and adherence to scriptural principles by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Proclaiming Jesus as Savior and seeking His kingdom and righteousness is the only doorway through which worthwhile rewards can be obtained.

When you’re truly intent on loving and following Christ, the scriptures come alive to tell you how to honor Him in general and to give you specific methods for doing so. For instance, faithfully paying tithes and giving offerings to your local church cause the Father to pour blessings upon you that you'll not have room enough to receive. Also, giving to people truly in need directly or through various ministries moves Him to inspire men to give to you full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over for the purposes of allowing you to be a continuous and greater blessing to His kingdom, other people, and your family.

People who have the mind of Christ recognize that money and material items aren't the principle things to be obtained by following these principles. Rather, pleasing God is the ultimate desire with a mind toward creating a place where the peace of God and joy in the Holy Ghost permeate your life in the natural and eternal realms.

Using biblical money management principles gives worthwhile purpose and meaning to your life and moves God to bless and navigate you to be a blessing. Failing to utilize His principles generally perpetuates earthly problems, physical or spiritual poverty, and eternal suffering no matter the level of money and resources you have on earth. The bottom line is: you choose your reward by the principles you follow.

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

Proverbs 3:9, Malachi 3:8-12, Matthew 6:31, Luke 6:38

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MoneyWalk 69: Start Budgeting

2010-09-26T13:59:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Godly stewardship requires that you consistently spend no more than 70% of your net monthly income. Net income is the income that you are left with and get to decide how to spend and save after federal, state, city, and payroll taxes are taken out of your gross income.

The 70% is less than the amount that most people regularly spend as noted by the anemic savings rate in the United States and the ever increasing amounts of debt being taken on via mortgages, home equity loans, car loans, student loans, and credit cards.

Making 70% of your net pay the maximum amount that you will spend level allows you to consistently tithe based on your gross income, give an offering each pay period, and save and invest a reasonable percentage of your net income to cover emergencies and retirement from your current profession as you move into re-fire-ment for the marketplace ministry that God desires you to use your gifts, talents, and skills to greatly impact.

When you plan to live like this and work your plan, you’ll have more peace and joy in your life and focus more on positively building the relationships need to have you’re your spouse, children, and friends. Limiting yourself to this spending pattern will help you stop the assault that debt brings into your life. It also helps you save and invest more and helps you avoid the negative consequences of bankruptcy, foreclosure, repossession, and low credit scores.

Write down your monthly after-tax income from all sources. As part of this process, talk with a friend, who understands budgeting, tax rates / returns, and biblical money management principles. This person can help you identify the correct amount of income to identify. He can help you understand the budgeting process. Also, if you allow him, he can keep you accountable to following biblical money management principles in the stewardship of your money.

Now, subtract your tithe and offering (ten plus % of your gross income). Offerings are free-will in nature and thus you get to choose the amount that you will give. Therefore, the plus % could be any amount more than 0% of your net monthly income. I’m confident that, as you consistently give to your local church that spreads the gospel through planting and watering the Word in people’s lives, your offerings will increase steadily because you will see and hear of the great returns of people at home and abroad having their lives positively changed from hopeless to hope-filled. All of this will be a result of your having stored your treasures in Heaven via your regularly planned tithe and offering.

Now subtract 10% for emergency savings. Put this amount in a high-yield savings, checking, or money-market account that does not charge monthly fees. You may need to establish an account with a credit union or internet bank covered by the FDIC or NCUA in order to get the best possible return on your money. This money should only be spent for emergencies and expenses planned well in advance with an eye toward making sure you build an amount equal to six months of your net monthly income and maintain at least that amount at all times thereafter.

Now subtract 10% for investment in your 401k or similar retirement or brokerage account, so that you will be able to build up a nest egg over the years that can help you be in a position to retire and re-fire at a reasonable time down the road without having money woes. If you have a load of debt with interest rates that are keeping you in hock, then you should take the next step before this one and use this 10% to pay off your debts and commit in your heart to stop taking on debt. Determine to start living debt-free.

Subtract the minimum monthly payment for each bill (home, car, student loan, visa, utilities, etc.). This leaves your disposable income, which is the amount that you should use to pay more money each month on the lowest balance debt with the highest interest rate and on personal expenses (groceries, gas, entertainment, personal grooming, clothing, etc.). After you have paid off the first account, then move to the next lowest account with the next highest interest rate. This is called using the debt snowball to more quickly reduce and eliminate your debts.

Repeat this process for each of the next six months and make sure your non-emergency spending stays within the allotted amount each month. An initial budget takes 4 - 5 hours to complete. Afterward, it takes about an hour every month to review your progress, revise bill payments / totals that differ from your estimates, and create a new budget for the 7th month and on into the future.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. 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

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MoneyWalk 68: Hope springs financial

2010-09-19T19:52:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

God desires that you live abundantly on earth, so that you are able to take care of all your god-given responsibilities. The reality that you can, after death, live with Jesus Christ in Heaven should move you to love Him and keep His commandments in order to live the abundant life He desires for you.

Your financial mindset must not come from the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life where you assume that God’s priority is to give you wealth so you can live in greater comfort and splendor. Rather, your mindset should be founded in the hope of everlasting life in Christ so that you use wealth to enormously support the Great Commission while also appropriately caring for your family and yourself. Any other mindset will lead you to a place that is eternally hot and filled with the horror of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Honoring God by tithing and offering is a primary way that we show whether or not we really believe in the blessed hope of eternal life that comes only through Jesus Christ. Many worldly people (even some that identify themselves as Christians) will advise you in a manner that makes your desires your highest priority. This is incompatible with the mind of Christ, biblical instruction, the leading of the Holy Spirit, and spiritual maturity because the will of almighty God is the highest priority for every true believer.

It requires that we preach, teach, and live the gospel to reconcile other people to the hope of salvation that we hold so dear. From such hope all other worthwhile dreams, aspirations, and endeavors spring forth into a life that is well-pleasing to God.

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

Psalm 71:5, Romans 5:2-5, Colossians 1:5, Hebrews 11:1, 1John 3:3

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MoneyWalk 67: Your checkbook needs balancing every month

2010-09-12T20:55:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

It is vital to your financial health, at the specific moment of each transaction, to subtract from your checkbook balance all ATM withdrawals, EFT withdrawals, debit card withdrawals, and checks written. Never ever throw away withdrawal, deposit, and check slips / receipts until you've balanced your checkbook for the month in which they occurred.

Every banking institution has an easy to use balancing method that it can provide you. If you feel you cannot understand the directions, make an appointment so a bank / credit union representative can show you how to use its suggested balancing method. Alternately, you could sit down with a friend who is used to balancing his / her checkbook so he / she can show you how it’s done.

Always balance the last month for each checking account at the beginning of the new month immediately after you receive your monthly statement from the financial institution or go on-line to obtain it. This process takes less than an hour each month and gets much easier as you build and maintain the checkbook balancing habit.

Carry your checkbook only when you're purchasing products and services planned in advance and agreed on by both husband and wife, otherwise wasteful spending will occur. Singles also should not get used to carrying their checkbook with them all the time. In addition, everyone should stay away from the use of debit cards for unplanned purchases. If you need help developing good financial and planned purchasing habits you can select a trustworthy accountability partner who is a good steward of the money that God has entrusted to him / her.

You can help yourself become a good money manager by watching this person’s example, understanding what he / she does that is founded upon biblical instruction, following examples in those areas, refusing to follow any example that is not in line with biblical instruction, asking your accountability partner a variety of questions over time that will help you manage better, and asking him / her to help by pointing out when he / she sees you engaging money management habits that are not fruitful and that are destructive.

Balancing your checkbook is a great way to know the true state of your finances so you can make sure that your monthly expenses do not exceed your monthly income. It is very difficult to accumulate wealth to support the proclamation of the gospel and ministry to which you are called when you don't know and keep track of the state of your flocks and herds.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. 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

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MoneyWalk 66: Managing With Love

2010-09-05T08:58:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Loving God requires that you talk with Him daily and read the scriptures to find out what He wants you to do while on earth. Do you know He desires for you to be a lender instead of a borrower? Do you know that true faith in His ability to provide your every need should be reflected in the tithe and free-will offering you give to spread the gospel throughout the earth and help church leaders equip believers for ministry service?

Do you know He requires you to pay taxes to your government without excuse when it is within your power to do so? Do you know He said you are an infidel if you do not take care of your family?

God’s love is so great that He doesn't want you and your family to suffer through life reaping the negative consequences that come from refusing to follow His principles. You cannot exhibit well-rounded love without continually learning and following His stewardship instructions for life and finances!

You should love God and other people so much that it motivates you to do what the bible instructs because this best serves all of your family, friends, co-workers, employees, etc. and allows you to provide necessary help to others without neglecting any of your godly responsibilities.

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

Deuteronomy 7:13, Proverbs 8:19-21, John 14:21, Romans 13:8

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MoneyWalk 65: What Is Your Net Worth

2010-08-29T23:19:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

On a sheet of paper, describe each individual asset you own (property, stocks, bonds, savings, etc.) and list its dollar value next to it under Asset column.

Then describe each debt that you owe (mortgages, car notes, credit cards, loans, etc.) and list the full amount owed next to it under Debt column.

Total the amount of all assets, and then total the amount of all debts.

Now subtract total debt from total assets.

The result is your net worth.

If your net worth is negative or low in comparison with income that has come your way over the years, you're not in a hopeless situation. I had a negative net worth and owed more than ten creditors when I first learned of God's money management plan. Now is the time to start managing your life and money differently in order to accumulate resources for rainy days, future expenses, and giving.

God’s money management instructions are designed for people of all ages, backgrounds, income levels, and occupations to help them prosper, take care of their families, and fund ministry at home and around the world.

Your true worth is not dependent on how much money you’ve accumulated at any one time, rather it's determined by your relationship to Jesus Christ. However, calculating your net worth annually can be an indication of how well you are following God’s principles for managing the earthly estate He entrusted to you.

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

Genesis 13:2, Job 42:12, Proverbs 27:23-27, Luke 19:2-10, James 5:1-5

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MoneyWalk 64: Obedience Is Essential

2010-08-23T22:46:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

God will guide you when you’re consistent in reading the bible, praying, fellowshipping with believers, and staying away from complainers and scorners. You’ll know it’s Him because what He communicates to you will never conflict with commands and principles in the bible.

Scripture gives parameters within which you can make decisions about managing money and your lifestyle and remain safe and secure in His arms while doing so. In some situations, the Holy Spirit tells you specifically what to do. It is always best to do what He directs even though your immediate reaction may be fear of unknown results or loss of comfort. What you feel you cannot do because of the weakness of your flesh, God gives you the power to do by the indwelling of His Spirit when it is in accordance with His will.

Rebellion against the LORD's biblical financial principles in an attempt to prosper by following the ways of the world and using its advice causes you to dwell in a dry land where you find pressure to perform, stress, distress, unhappiness, and eternal failure in God's eyes.

Obedience to His commands and principles concerning money management brings about manifold blessings in your life including peace, joy, an ability to overcome problems, natural comfort, and righteousness in the eyes of God through Jesus Christ. The love, hope, and faith God imparts as you walk in His ways allow you to obtain victory over every temptation and attack of the enemy.

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

Deuteronomy 11:26-28, 1Samuel 15:22, Matthew 28: 20, Acts 5:29

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MoneyWalk 461: Budgeting by giving first, then saving and spending

2010-08-16T22:57:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Some people teach that you should not budget any other way than to set aside the level of savings each pay period that you can afford and then be free to spend all the rest of the money that is at your disposal. They say that you can start with 2 to 3% of your pay and later save more when you can afford to. They believe that other types of budgeting do not work and are unnecessary even if they did work.

The problem with this view is that it puts a person’s focus on the importance of making sure you always have enough money available to spend to get more things that you want. This is not the proper priority of heart and mind that you should have. You should think and act upon GIVING first, SAVING next, and then upon SPENDING to care for responsibilities. Fulfilling the bulk of your desires through spending should come well after you are adhering to the first two principles of giving and saving that God wants you to be focused on.

The improper spending-based view of managing money makes it easy to condone taking on debt to keep up the lifestyle you want instead of shedding debt in order to be in good financial condition. In the spending-based form of budgeting (which people try to identify as saving based budgeting) the debt monster will eat you up and bring turmoil into your life. Because the focus is much too much on the spending side of the equation, you will have set aside only a little savings and later on have to deplete those savings to pay on debts you should not have incurred in the first place. Finally, not knowing what to do, you will inevitably stop saving altogether and continue to take on more debt to do your own thing until you are stressed and pressed with monthly debt payments and high interest charges as your payment history and FICO scores get worse and worse.

Satan always attacks us with thoughts to fulfill the lust of the flesh and eyes and to operate in the pride of life. He wants us to have our priorities in the wrong order and to keep them there. He knows that when he can keep you focused upon your material desires your ability to serve and be an example of Christ-likeness will remain hidden from view and may be entirely non-existent.

How you manage money that comes into your life is a very telling barometer of your spiritual condition because if you love Jesus Christ you will keep His commandments and where your treasure is there will your heart be also. The Word has given us specific instructions as to how true faith motivates us to good works through the acquiring of income and the giving, saving, and spending of it. No one can serve two masters. You will love one and hate the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Budgeting does not have to be complicated. If you will remember the priority that is in God’s heart and faithfully use it as you write down on paper / computer how you will manage the income God has blessed you with, then you will do well in the budgeting arena and thus bring blessing into your life.

GIVING to the work of Christ should be thought of first and accounted for first in your budget. Tithing and then a free-will offering of your choosing should be given to your local church and/or worthwhile gospel teaching / preaching / good works ministries.

Next, you should SAVE a reasonable portion of your income. Focus on an amount now that with compounding interest and future growth will be meaningful and worthwhile, such as 10%, because you will get older, have increased monetary needs in the future, and will want rainy day funds when the inevitable rainy days arise in your life.

Finally, you should focus on making sure that you SPEND without taking on debt. Spending should be primarily focused on taking care of the most important priorities such as reasonable housing, food, clothing, and transportation. Fulfilling desires can and will come in the future once you have put yourself on good financial footing and find that you have much greater disposable income.

You may simply be unable to afford some things you want or have right now and it would be wise to forego purchasing them or to sell them to ease the payment and maintenance costs you are incurring each month. Getting in God’s financial flow will please Him and allow you to afford some of these things in the future while you are also able to avoid irresponsible money management behavior that leads to foreclosure, bankruptcy, and the inability to properly care for your family and personal responsibilities.

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

Luke 6:38, 12:29-34, John 14:15, 1Timothy 6:5-19, 2Corinthians 9:6

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MoneyWalk 63: Hope Begets Faith

2010-08-08T22:40:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

If you're born again by Jesus Christ, you'll one day see God face-to-face and have a heavenly home in His presence. It is your hope to live, move, and have your being in Him. Now, faith to do what He commands by His Word and spirit comes from this hope because you innately and intuitively know you're much better off eternally and on earth when you do His will. You must believe this truth when it comes to managing your money as well as other areas of your life.

Many people don't want to believe that God has biblical principles related to managing money and some don’t want to follow them because the world's way of handling money and possessions appears more lucrative and require less of them. It seems they can obtain highly valuable things much quicker than the biblically correct way without having to measure the methods based on godly principles. This attitude represents a lack of faith in God's Word and His promises in both the short and long run it and ultimately leads to:

1) Missing blessings God had in store for you.

2) Spiritual and financial bondage.

3) Eternal consequences.

Take the path that will truly help you eternally and naturally. Let God’s love and plan for your life bring hope that causes you to take action by faith to bring forth that currently unseen substance that God desires for you to receive and achieve to fulfill His plan for your life. Begin to look for the money management principles contained in the bible and faithfully use them. You'll find that God is a rewarder of people who diligently seek Him. Let an unshakeable hope in God produce faith that will lead you to Him and the treasures He has available for you.

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

Habakkuk 2:4, Luke 17:6, Romans 4:19-25, 1Corinthians 13:13, Hebrews 11:1-6

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MoneyWalk 460: A work plan for the unemployed

2010-08-01T09:14:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Many people have complained that no one is hiring and that as hard as they’ve tried they cannot find a job. I’m very empathetic toward them because I understand that we have a national unemployment rate of roughly 9% and that people need to be able to provide for themselves and their families. However, I also know that God can make a way out of no way.

Most of those I talk to share with me how they’ve applied at a few places and haven’t received return calls offering them jobs. A few tell me that they’ve sent out a few resumes and have not received any responses from employers. However, when I get down to the nitty-gritty with most of them I find that they have not followed a few important principles and methods for creating income in their lives.

First, they speak very negatively about their situations, past employers, and the economy much too often. Thus, they tend to eat bad from the fruit of the lips. Complaining and speaking negatively about the availability of jobs and opportunities will not get your situation back on track if you happen to be in a poor personal economic cycle right now.

Second, they do not recognize the gifts, talents, skills, and abilities they are endowed with. Some gifs and talents they’ve used in the past and should know they have and some are latent and haven’t been used yet.

Third, they fail to look for a job like it’s a job. Many fail to also stop the flow of spending they had when they were employed and have not set priorities for funds they do have access to. Also, some still engage in habits like smoking, drinking, gambling, etc. that take away money necessary for them to make it more comfortably through the period of unemployment they are experiencing.

Fourth, they fail to recognize that blessings often come in small packages. Thus, they should not despise the day of small beginnings even when the new beginning comes after you were on a large stage previously and you would have liked to continue in that stature.

You must remember that your actual worth and stature is not based on the position, notoriety, fame, or income you have or had in the past. It is based on you being a creation of God almighty and should be augmented by your born again relationship with Jesus Christ.

I often implore those I speak with to write out a plan in which:

1) The first four hours of their working day even while unemployed is spent going from business to business in a two to three mile radius. Choose a radius that you can walk from business to business if possible so you can save on gas or in case you don’t have a car. In such commercially rich districts you will normally find 50+ employers to reach out to.

They should complete applications over and over as necessary until they saturate these employers with the knowledge that they are unlike all the other people who complete an application and then sit at home or do other non-work related stuff while waiting for their phone to ring.

They should show each possible employer that they have patience and perseverance by continuing to come back over and over and over completing more applications and asking to speak with owners and managers of the business.

There could come a time 3 to 4 months later where you may choose another commercially rich location to augment your search, but if you approach this situation like a job and do it day in and day out Monday thru Friday and maybe Saturday you will often find that employment is offered to you because of the passion and hard work ethic you display even while currently unemployed.

2) Next, the last four hours of the day should be spent going door to door in residential areas with business cards or flyers offering to provide some type of personal service that you are able to perform. We underestimate in this current society the mass numbers of people who need or want personal services performed for them and their families.

I’ve known people who have provided at the homes of others hair braiding, animal watching and walking, handyman services, lawn maintenance, snow removal, painting, mural painting in bedrooms, babysitting, home health aide, cleaning, cooking, etc. All of these things have been done without the help of employers.
In essence, the people who accomplished these tasks created their own businesses that either grew to very gainful incomes or helped tide them over until an employer hired them at a higher income.

It is not a bad thing to let the people on whose doors you knock know that you are out of work and would appreciate them giving you an opportunity to work hard performing a service that is helpful to them.

3) They should take a short break mid-morning and mid afternoon and a short lunch time. They should especially spend time fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit in worship, praise, and prayer presenting their petitions to Him so that His heart is moved to help them find a suitable income producing situation for them. Also, they should not forsake the assembly with other believers in order that they receive encouragement, uplift, and help in the time of need. They can return the favor to others later on when they are gainfully employed. Praise be to God who always causes us to triumph.

4) They augment the physical search with the mailing of resumes to businesses that they can get to if a job was offered and at which they may desire to work because of gifting, talent, skill, etc. They should shortly and often follow up with phone calls asking to speak with managers who would hire prospective employees and who would be willing to share more about the employer.

Additional resume mailing and phone calls should be made every few weeks in order that these prospective employers see your perseverance and understand your passion for working with them and working hard when they employ you.

5) They should further augment their continuous hard work and effort looking for a job like it’s a job by listing all of the family, friends, and associates in the area they are located in or they might choose to relocate to and let them know they are out of work and looking for employment.

Ask them to put in a kind word for you with their employers or any other business they may have associations with. Also, ask if they have any insight into job openings or opportunities that you could take advantage of. One of the best ways to find employment is networking with the many friends you have associated with over the years.

Again, the contacts with these friends, etc. should be made over and over every few weeks until employment is found because you want to keep it foremost in their minds that you are still searching for employment to provide income to help you care for yourself and family.

6) They should also look for opportunities to volunteer at churches and charities as many times these stints help you network into employment and friendships that can tide you over until a better ship comes in.

7) Certainly, if you are able to get some free or low cost education and training during this time that can help you get on the path to gainful employment, then by all means do so. You may also be able to obtain some needed free education and tools to help you at your local library. Usually though, the thing that most unemployed people need is some amount of income to help pay the priority bills and get them through to a better economic time.

I’ve had numerous people tell me they weren’t going to work for the little bit that people might pay them for personal services. My response has been, so is it better to sit around doing nothing most of the day than to make the few dollars that you can make doing something worthwhile with your time and talent. Inevitably, I continue to see many of them stay in the poor economic situation they were in when I spoke with them. However, all those who have taken the position that it is better to earn something and spend their time expediently have been blessed and have moved on to better economic times. This is my hope for every currently unemployed person.

If you’ll take reasonable steps daily to find gainful employment and income producing opportunities God will provide helps and tools to get you to your destiny. The determination of how long and how much other people will lend themselves to help you will often come down to the effort they see you putting into making your situation better. So give them absolutely nothing to look negatively on and remember if a man will not work (even when he is so called “unemployed,”) he also shall not eat.

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

Genesis3:17-19, Proverbs 19:24, Ecclesiastes 11:4-6, Matthew 25:20-21, Luke 19:16-17, Romans 12:6-13

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MoneyWalk 62: A Second Dose of Contentment

2010-07-12T20:11:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Learn to properly manage what God has already given you in order to get the most out of it and to be found faithful to receive more to manage on His behalf. Instead of doing everything humanly possible to get more money, fame, or power, pursue your passion to serve the Lord and use the gifts He’s given and skills you’ve developed in the marketplace to be the best manager you can be.

Such contentment will allow you to seek and be led by the Holy Spirit. A prayerful intimacy and action will move Him to supernaturally promote you to worthwhile positions and endeavors that immensely prosper you to achieve your life’s purpose on earth as a result of your natural and humble work ethic. The truth of the scriptures show that a person who is faithful over little will be faithful over much and the Father loves to reward such faith-filled stewards.

Living by such faith is better than seeking the world’s ideals of success and using its pathways based solely on human endeavor. Worldly methods are usually greed or poverty inspired temptations that seek to move you outside of God’s will to pursue things you feel are necessary to satisfy your fleshly longings or mindset instead of listening for the Holy Spirit to direct you to the things that please Him in order to fulfill your spiritual longings, true needs, and the needs of other people.

Such discontentment always leads to greater heartaches and headaches because your desire to be fulfilled can never be satisfied by worldly status, material things, or a poverty mindset. When the worldly, humanistic path is chosen the power of God will not work to give you spiritual, eternal victory over troubles and obstacles that you will inevitably face. So, allow God according to His plan for your life, create supernatural fulfillment and great success through contentment.

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

Luke 3:14, Philippians 4:11-13, 1Timothy 6:6-10, Hebrews 13:5

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MoneyWalk 459: Working unto the Lord is most profitable

2010-07-07T01:19:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Sometimes, a job or business venture is the means by which satan and his demonic forces try to draw you away from the fundamentals of Christianity and the natural and eternal blessings that extend from it. He will try to convince you in your mind and through other people that you should not mix business with the pleasure of witnessing to or discipling people in your workplace or entrepreneurial endeavor. Not even remotely does He want you to be an example of a believer or ever speak about your trust in the Lord and how He’s making you and your life better by guiding you to the purpose for which He created you.

Rightfully, your supervisors should expect that you will spend your working time making the widgets or providing the service that you have been hired to do. It is a command of the Lord to work as unto Him as you go about serving under the delegated authorities in your workplace. He desires that you do the best you can to make widgets and provide service that will please your employer and help make its enterprise profitable.

So, the problem isn’t that your managers don’t want you witnessing on company time. They have a right to expect you to perform your duties. And, the problem is not generally with what the employer asks or orders you to do. Most often the problem is with you because you don’t recognize that simply living a life committed to Jesus Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide your life and efforts, including work, will be a great witness and discipleship tool to others in your workplace.

Also, you often don’t realize that there are opportunities God provides during some lunch and break times that can be used to communicate the gospel with those who may ask about your life or share circumstances in their lives where your experiences may be helpful to them. In addition, a portion of the income God provides you from widget making should be used to help the church spread the gospel in and out of the marketplace so that people can come into the knowledge of God’s plan that leads to salvation and eternal life.

Being a Christian does not mean that you’ll do everything right, be perfect, or be liked by everyone or by your supervisors and other delegated authorities. In fact, there will be times when you may not be well-liked by certain people and they won’t agree with your lifestyle or won’t like your work. Jesus Christ is your perfection and you should seek His wisdom and be teachable in relationship with your supervisor and other associates so you can learn if it’s because you have a character flaw or work defect that you can correct.

If you or your work habits are disliked and there is nothing that you can change within moral boundaries to please your supervisors, then just continue to work as unto the Lord while believing and praying that God will help them see that you are doing your best and that your methods are profitable for the organization. If you do this God will have your back, He will move the heart of your supervisor and others as necessary to fulfill the purpose He has for you, and if necessary He will judge your supervisor and delegated authorities and bring about the consequence in their lives that is best served to meet His will.

You won’t be perfect and you may make mistakes, sometimes glaring ones, but even the toughest critics will be able to see your growth as shown by your elevated respect for your supervisors, leaders, co-workers, and workplace. They will see the increasing honesty, integrity, and faithfulness to complete your work well. They will also see that you take accountability and repent for misdeeds and correct your actions in order to be profitable to God and the employer He allows you to work for. This lifestyle of working as unto the Lord by respecting your supervisors and delegated authorities, building bridges to other associates, not compromising your morals, and doing what is necessary to be teachable so you can grow in Christ-likeness will help other people see their need for Jesus Christ and be drawn to Him.

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

Romans 13:1-8, Ephesians 6:5-9, Colossians 3:22-25, 4:1, 1Peter 2:12-20

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MoneyWalk 61: Be Content

2010-06-29T20:31:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Being content is an attitude of heart and mind that will help you be a good steward of the resources and money that God entrusts to you throughout the stages of your life.
It is necessary in order for you to truly understand and act upon the belief that God owns everything and that you’re just a steward of what He owns who should be committed to managing it in the way that pleases Him.

Contentment is necessary for you to recognize that tithing and giving offerings should be the first and foremost financial commitment that you budget (include in your spending plan) because God commands His people to worship and serve Him in this manner. Contentment is necessary in order for you to not try to buy everything that your eyes, flesh, and pride desire and for you not to take out loans to get even more.

It is an attitude of heart and mind, developed by the Holy Spirit, that does not leave you lacking. Rather, it leads you to the Rock that is higher than you, what you have, and what you can do. It helps you see the importance of developing an intimate relationship with Him that will help you engage any of the activities you need to undertake to fulfill His purpose for you in His great plan for His people. This direct pursuit of Jesus Christ leads indirectly to the prosperity He designed for your life and family.

By delighting yourself in God, you draw closer to Him in fellowship and bypass the natural and eternal destruction brought about by succumbing to satanic temptation to gravitate to ungodly things that seem to glitter. As your fellowship with God increases, the work you’re ultimately called to on earth becomes more evident. You'll be motivated to use talents, spiritual gifts, and learned skills to bring about Christ’s rule in the hearts of men.

You’ll have a firm resolve to bypass the great amounts of money, fame, and power that you might possibly obtain by going down a path opposed to God’s will, because you understand that all your future needs and desires He has for you will be met as you pursue your calling to glorify Jesus Christ, evangelize unbelievers, and equip believers.

As you find contentment in what’s important to God instead of what’s important to you or other people, He will allow your career and ministry to others to take on much greater proportions than you thought possible. This humble and contrite attitude of heart and mind helps you properly manage money and resources and creates enormous future opportunities for you.

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

Luke 3:14, Philippians 4:11-13, 1Timothy 6:6-10, Hebrews 13:5-6

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MoneyWalk 60: Get Someone Else To Do It

2010-06-20T08:26:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

There's nothing wrong with recognizing when someone else can perform a task better than you. Hiring him/her to complete a task for you may be God's perfect timing for you to be a financial blessing to him/her. Besides, through friendly conversation you might win him/her to Jesus Christ or plant a gospel seed for an eventual harvest. Also, generous discounts and very friendly service will likely accompany your patronage down the road.

When you are in a tough financial position where goods and services don’t seem affordable and even when you are not, God is able to make all grace to abound to you so that you have all sufficiency in all things in order that you may give to every good work. He will help you find someone to do the job you need for a price you can pay.

When searching for someone to do the work get references from friends whose opinions you respect, obtain cost estimates from at least three different providers, and call appropriate agencies (state regulators, better business bureau, state attorney general complaint division, etc.) to ensure that the person/firm you are thinking of choosing is appropriately licensed and does not have an unreasonable history of unresolved complaints.

If person/firm has an unreliable or negative history move to the next choice on your list and so on until you find one that is reputable and seems to understand what it is you really need or want. Choose the person/firm with the best combination of quality and customer satisfaction that fits within your budget. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you in research and determining who can best meet your need. The alternative is for you to do less than appealing work that becomes a greater expense to fix in the long run. That is certainly not profitable for you.

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

Exodus 31:1-11, 1Corinthians 12:18, Ephesians 4:7-11, James 3:1

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MoneyWalk 458: Decreeing then acting prospers you

2010-06-13T21:37:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You have heard the phrases “Name it and claim it” and “Blab it and grab it.” These phrases are usually spoken of in an irreverent way against preachers who seem to espouse that believers can declare the ultimate possession of something and shortly receive it.

Throughout much of life, many people’s experiences seem to them to indicate that resources they ultimately obtain didn’t come to them through the above process. So they ridicule these preachers and claim they are focusing people on satan’s kingdom, leading people straight to Hell, taking advantage of people’s emotions in order to steal their money, etc. I’m sure you can think of many more things you’ve heard people say about such preachers.

In some cases this belief is true. Wheat and tare (weeds that some might mistake for wheat) grow together in the world and in the church. Thus, you are going to have some who confess the name of Jesus Christ whose hearts are actually aligned with the enemy and intent on taking advantage of others. Anyone can call himself a Christian and we may not immediately know that he is not, yet that does not make the truth of God’s word null and void. The Lord let us know that when the time for harvesting His people from the earth comes, He will command the reapers to separate the wheat from the tare and cast the tare into the fire.

There is truth in “Name it and claim it” as shown by the whole counsel of God in scripture. The key to obtaining it in the name of God and the thing being as valuable as you think is determined by whether or not you moved in faith upon what God by His Word identified as being available to you and whether or not you really intend to utilize your life, gifts, time, skills, money, and resources overall to benefit the spread of the gospel message in your family, community, and the world.

Mere mortals, who are not believers, name, claim, and obtain things that in many instances have much greater earthly value than things that believers name, claim, or obtain, such as businesses, inventions, jobs, houses, cars, jewelry, etc. So, obtaining things is not really the sign that you have sought God’s will, done His will, or received His blessing.

In order for it to surely be part of a sign of God’s will and blessing it would be accompanied by a lifestyle of steps ordered by God, His Word, and Holy Spirit that show up over time in a fruitful display of actions devoted to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and helping others share it more and more as the time of His return nears.

It is not always true that men will recognize your fruit. Many believers will, but those who don’t believe may see your words and actions as intolerant or a violation of their doctrine of separation of church and state, not scientifically proven, or nonsense. In this regard, we should not compare the value of what we obtain with that of other people or the world nor boast of it to the church or to men. Rather, we make our boast in the Lord and thank Him continually for using us and giving us much bounty that we can use to better serve Him, pursue our calling, take care of every responsibility He made us for, and serve others.

You do well to name and claim that which God has truly shown you to be your calling or the resources to fulfill it, when He shows you that it is time to declare it for His glory. You do better to put your faith in action and bring forth good works using the bulk of your resources to glorify His name as every believer in Christ is pre-ordained to do. Then, His light will truly shine upon your ways.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Job 22:28, Matthew 7:7-11, Romans 4:17, James 2:20-24, 4:1-4, 1John 1:1-3
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MoneyWalk 59: Other People Can Help You Greatly

2010-06-07T22:35:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You probably have friends who know how to find quality merchandise and service that is normally expensive for rock bottom prices or who know how to do things well that you need and will do it at a price that fits within your budget and doesn’t put you in debt. While other people pay top dollar just because they’ve believed commercial hype, these bargain shoppers know when paying a higher price really makes a valuable difference in product performance, style, or service.

You will do well to take note of people with such skill and consult them frequently prior to purchasing expensive products and services. I've noted people with such money saving skills in areas like home renovations, purchasing cars, decorating, cooking, cleaning, financial planning, etc.

Good counsel and service from these individuals will require you to get off any high horses of belief that thinks products and services are worthwhile only when you pay someone top dollar for them. While that is sometimes true, it is not always the case. Many times there are low cost and high cost options and sometimes the difference in quality, durability, comfort, styling, etc. is not worth paying the higher price.

In the end, these bargain shoppers and bargain providers will have you walking down the road to financial freedom by allowing you to pay off current debts with money you used to spend buying high-priced merchandise and services. Peter, Paul, David, Moses, Abraham, and other great leaders allowed other people's skills, spiritual gifts, and prophetic insights to direct them to success in their lives. So, instead of hanging out with people who encourage and help you spend money you don’t have, allow those friends who represent Jesus, John Mark, Nathan, Eliezer, Bezalel, and Oholiab in your life to help you reach another level spiritually and financially by squeezing out unnecessary fat from your spending.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Exodus 36:1-2, Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 5:4-7, 19:12-13, 2Timothy 4:11
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MoneyWalk 58: Bargain Shopping Helps You

2010-05-31T21:21:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

I worked in a meat packing plant and saw that many different brands of meat with essentially the same ingredients were packaged by that plant using the same machinery. It might add different ingredients for some of the different brands, but basically it produced much the same types of meats for each brand.

This process works the same way for many different types of merchandise. Thus, what you’ve been buying may not be any better quality that what’s sold by others at a cheaper price. In order to be a better steward of your money you should research purchasing items from reputable discount retailers whenever possible. And when you use other retailers, you should consider whether or not items on sale or on clearance actually fit the quality and design that you are looking for. You might just find that what you were getting ready to pay full price for is also on a clearance rack at a sharply reduced price.

For most of your wardrobe and things often used, you should purchase conservative apparel and other belongings that maintain their utility and remain in style for long periods of time instead of choosing faddish things that will quickly be out of style and unusable. Finally, negotiate discounts or simply find out what discounts are available on homes, cars, furniture, appliances, other products, and services because most sellers provide them if you ask.

When used with the strategy of eliminating unnecessary spending, these methods can save you thousands of dollars per year that you would otherwise pay out by purchasing items at higher prices because you didn’t research less expensive alternatives that met the same style and quality standards. If you follow this strategy in tough times, you'll build habits that will pull you out of the pit of financial despair and put you in a future position to comfortably splurge on merchandise that you desire without bills eating you up and unpaid creditors constantly calling you up.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Exodus 12:35-36, Nehemiah 2:4-8, Proverbs 8:19-21, Matthew 21:1-3, Mark 14:13-16
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MoneyWalk 57: We're born again to be givers

2010-05-25T21:45:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Prior to accepting Jesus as Savior, I thought I was financially savvy. However, I was so ignorant of the truth that I mired my family in debt while thing I was smart enough to know how to manage money without anyone’s help. When I accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, I finally recognized the truth of my incompetence. It was then that I asked the Holy Spirit to show me how to manage the money He entrusts to me so that I could do His will and be successful in sharing His Word with other people.

He showed me financial principles in my bible reading times that I could employ like honoring God through my lifestyle, fellowship, and giving. These activities borne of a heart for Him keeps His blessing flowing down on us. We were challenged by the Lord to begin tithing at a time when we did not see that we had enough money to give to God and pay all our bills. At the same time, the satan tempted me with the thought of giving only small offerings in church until all our bills were paid off. However, I didn't succumb to this temptation and the result is that we've been immensely blessed to see our debts totally eliminated, giving increasing, and assets accumulating for the greater part of the past decade.

I encourage you to faithfully tithe and give offerings to your local church along with budgeting, saving, and investing as the foundation for getting out of debt in order to prosper in life and be in a position to do God’s will to the degree He desires. Before long, you'll receive income increases, promotions, bargains, and gifts that allow you to retain greater amounts of income to pay off your bills and accumulate wealth much faster that you can imagine. Your results will totally confound the many that follow the world’s financial principles and never prosper.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Proverbs 11:24-25, 19:17, Malachi 3:8-12, Luke 6:38, 2Corinthians 9:7-9
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MoneyWalk 457: Focused Steps to Good Stewardship

2010-05-16T05:45:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Do not live with your eye on this world, rather live with your eye on the world to come. If you hope to become the good steward God instructs you to be and intends for you to be, then you are going to have to develop a deeper fellowship with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit that motivates you to follow the pathway the bible lays out for your life and financial health, wealth, and well-being.

Just like Jesus focused all His energies on obtaining the goal of the Father’s will for all mankind to have hope of salvation and a heavenly home, you too must focus and take the steps necessary to achieve the Father’s goal for you. Your focus should be on these steps through which you climb the ladder of spiritual financial success one step at a time. Do not attempt to move to the next step until you are firmly established in accomplishing the task on the step you are on.

1) Understand it is all God’s. Through daily worship, praise, prayer, and bible reading / studying tell God that all the income and assets you have and will ever have access to are His and that as His steward you are now willing to following His instructions and do what He directs with His money and resources.

2) Show contentment. Continue or start tithing to your local church or a worthwhile ministry each time you receive income. Choose delayed gratification instead of instant gratification. Do not buy that bigger house, more expensive car, new furniture, new jewelry, etc. until you have reached the priority goal of being a faithful tithing member of a local church and totally debt-free. Stuff to buy will still be there at prices you can afford to pay after you reach your goal.

3) Tell your income what to do. Draft a 3 to 6 month plan that shows:

a) Your after tax income each pay period

b) The tithe and offering to be subtracted from take home pay

c) Each minimum bill payment that must be paid from that pay period’s income (mortgage, rent, credit cards, car note, etc.)

d) Other miscellaneous amounts that must be taken from the income (groceries, personal money, gas for car, monthly amount of annual property tax payment, monthly amount of annual home and car insurance premium, monthly amount of annual life insurance payment, 2 or 3 low cost weekend vacations each year, low cost monthly entertainment, etc.), and

e) Any amount left over. If there is nothing left over then you will need to work with your spouse and a close friend who is good at managing his or her money or a budget counselor to determine ways in which you can cut current expenses, determine which bills receive priority for payment at the current time, or find other jobs that can help increase your income for awhile to get you out of the rut you are in.

4) Build a one-month emergency fund. Use any amount left over and other assets to build or establish, in a government guaranteed savings or money management account (MMA), an emergency fund equal to one month of all your expenses identified in items 3.c. and 3.d. above. This will help you stop turning to credit cards and loans to take care of problems and emergencies. You will get on the right path to using cash instead of burdening your future with debt.

5) Pay off all non-mortgage loans that charge interest. Chances are that these credit cards, car loans, personal loans, etc charge interest that is well above what you can earn in savings or MMAs. Thus, after you have built the one-month emergency fund, you should use the amount left over during each pay period to pay off your smallest debt. Then, move to the next smallest debt and so on until you have finally paid off all your debts. The only time you break this cycle is if you have an emergency that needs immediate attention and you must use money in your one-month emergency reserve. Then, you would take the amount left over each pay period to build it back up and afterward resume paying down your debt with it.

6) Build a six-month emergency fund. After all non-housing loans are paid off use the amount left over each pay period (which now should be much larger) to build your emergency fund to six-months of all your expenses identified in items 3.c. and 3.d. above.

7) Start funding retirement vehicles that match the amount you invest. If your employer offers a 401k, 457, 403b, etc. that matches your investment up to a certain amount start investing the amount necessary to get the maximum matching investment from your employer. Put the money in a safe and sound investment (like a stable value account, guaranteed investment contract, etc.) until you study and understand the history, nature, risk, and investment costs / fees of other types of investments like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, etc.

8) Pay off your home loans. Use the amount left over each month toward principal pay off of your mortgage until it is fully paid off. Commit to not purchasing another house until at least 5 to 7 years after you have paid off your current mortgage(s). If you have a desire to purchase another home, set the purchase as a faith goal to pursue on a debt-free basis using the equity in your current home and savings that you are able to build each month after your current home mortgage is paid off. Remember contentment and deferred gratification pay off more in the end than encumbering yourself further in debt.

9) Increase your giving and investments. At this point, the amount left over should be huge because it includes the amount you used to pay on your mortgage. Consider increasing your free-will offering as thanks to God for helping you reach the goal of total debt freedom and ability to fund kingdom building to a much greater degree, help those in need, and build wealth to maintain these priorities and care for yourself and family.

Some will ask why funding college for kids is not a top priority. The answer is that your financial plan must operate similar to emergency landing safety instructions given on airplanes. Make sure you are safe and secure first before attempting (outside of your means) to help your children or other people be safe and secure. It is very difficult to truly help others until you have made sure that you are on solid footing, otherwise you risk harming yourself and not saving anyone else.

Following the above plan will help you get to the point in debt-freedom and wealth building where you will have disposable income and assets that you could use to help your children and possibly others with educational expenses and other worthwhile goals that can brighten their future.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Revelation 4:11, 1Timothy 6:9-17, Matthew 23:23, Hebrews 7:8, Habakkuk 2:2-4, Proverbs 21:20, Luke 6:38, 14:28-30
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MoneyWalk 56: Don't Cosign

2010-05-09T21:14:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Once you have refused a person's request to cosign, you must encourage him to use biblical money management principles. You have a responsibility to help those truly in need according to your ability. However, you must discern the devil's strategy to have you waste money God entrusted to you on people who mismanage their money and responsibilities, will continue to do so, will not regard God or His Word, and will have you squander money on funding their desires (cars, houses, boats, etc.) that could be spent leading people to Christ.

When a true need exists, it's best to give a person whatever cash or resources you have on hand that you do not need to take care of your priority items like family, mortgage, rent, and bills that you owe. Instead of cosigning a loan thinking you’re going to help him or her by doing so, you inevitably enable the person to continue his or her irresponsibility toward family and good stewardship and help him or her forsake the issues that really should be a priority for his or her family, time, money, and resources. In addition, you enable the person to forsake good stewardship habits that come only from the knowledge of God’s will, trials, errors, sacrifice, contentment, delayed gratification, and complete trust in Him.

Unless you see someone beaten up on the road who needs assistance right now or someone who is hungry and needs food, or who has some other emergency need problem that the person did not bring upon him or herself and will not continue to perpetuate by his or her continued mindset and activities, then you should really, really know the person to know whether or not he or she is truly in need but is normally responsible or is really ready to become responsible. This helps you be prudent in providing the type of help that will truly help him or her take care of the abnormal situation or get out of the irresponsible activities that led to the situation.

Of course, there are times where you extend help to people in the community or in another part of the world, simply because you’ve identified an emergency need. Sometimes, we don’t know entirely the situation at hand and whether or not the person is irresponsible and it led to the sad situation. So, whenever the Holy Spirit directs you to help a person or give to a need, you must obey Him for your best to come to pass, for Him to bring what is important to the attention of the person being helped, and for it to be an example to others of completely trusting the Lord’s guidance.

However, consider that He never asks you to do anything in a way that violates scriptural commands or principles found in the bible. This should be a basis for how you measure the person’s situation and the help that you should give or sometimes will not give. The bible never encourages people to take on monetary debt either through borrowing or cosigning. So, just don’t cosign for anyone unless you already have the money saved in a safe and sound place and are truly prepared to pay off the entire loan when they default on it.

If you have cosigned a note for someone, the bible tells you to quickly go to the lender and attempt to remove your name off the debt. It also tells you that your belongings are subject to be taken if you are not released from the debt, because in most instances the person you cosigned for will fail to pay the debt off. Please don't fall out with a friend because you failed to make the right decision by refusing to cosign for his debt because your failure might be one of the reasons the person has not become responsible in his or her financial dealings. Continue to love the person, pray for financial wisdom, stay away from co-signing in the future, and guide them to complete trust in and obedience to God’s spoken will in the area of finances. This takes the pressure and stress off of you trying to be your friend’s savior and puts the concern squarely upon the person of Jesus Christ.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Proverbs 11:15, 17:18, 20:16, Romans 13:8, Ephesians 5:15-17
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MoneyWalk 55: Don't Borrow Unnecessarily

2010-05-01T10:52:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

This process starts by saying no to any loan for items that depreciate in value when you cannot immediately pay cash for them and when accepting the credit won't immediately benefit you by allowing your savings to accumulate at a higher interest rate than the interest rate you would pay the creditor on the loan balance.

It’s impossible to meet these requirements with most types of borrowing, including revolving credit card and store charge card accounts, because most institutions that offer such credit charge you very high interest rates. For example, the interest rate for most store charge cards is usually greater than 20%. While the interest rate for some credit cards can be lower, by accepting them you’re generally allowing the credit card issuer to raise interest rates sometime down the road if it believes you then represent greater risk of not paying or not paying on time, etc.

For the most part the rates on these cards hover in the teens and are much too high to presume that you can invest and monthly, annually, or over the long haul generate more investment growth than you’ll pay out in interest. This inability to generate greater growth does not even encompass the various penalties you will pay if you are not able to meet the card issuer’s payment requirements down the road.

There is a very small percentage of people who have played the hedging odds and seem to have beaten the system; people who have financed their business ventures using credit cards and yet experienced such a surge in customers that it seems their revenue has overcome the interest they paid on the credit cards. The small group that seems to have been successful probably represents less than one percent of business owners who have used this method. Don’t let what seem right now to be their success fool you into thinking that this is a prudent strategy for financing a business. Most of those who have tried this method have gone belly up.

Biblical instruction strongly guides you to pursue your financial life, personal and business, from a debt-free mindset; asking God and seeking a number of godly counselors who can help you find prudent ways to start and invest in business endeavors and purchase personal merchandise that is desirable to you. The vast majority of people I’ve met who did not follow this method have found themselves in financial turmoil at some point in their lives and the turmoil for many continues today because they still refuse to utilize biblical money management instruction to guide their financial affairs.

If you have a history of undisciplined use of credit cards, then you should immediately discipline yourself to stop using them, build at least three months of income in an emergency reserve account, and even eventually cut up the ones you have and throw them away because they will continue to bring torment into your life.

If you are a disciplined spender who stays well within established budget boundaries, a low interest revolving credit card will generally not hurt you because you will only use it for convenience and record-keeping purposes where you will only make purchases already accounted for in your budget and you never charge more on these cards than the amount of cash you have available in the bank minus your monthly bills, saving, investing, tithing, and giving.

Though scripture does not absolutely say that you cannot take on any debt, it strongly advises you to live debt-free and that God desires debt-freedom for you. The compounding interest nature of most debt will wreck your ability to build wealth for the future. The enemy knows this and tempts you to satisfy the cravings of your flesh using debt instruments. However, when you commit to God’s plan of living debt-free He will provide your every need without you having to borrow to supply it. When you refuse to take on debt, you enable the LORD to supernaturally provide by moving others to provide needs and desires at no cost when you're unable to purchase them.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. 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
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MoneyWalk 54: Giving Blesses You!

2010-04-24T12:33:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

God recognizes that you honor Him first when your heart is conditioned to budget your income so that your plan is always to first make sure He will receive (thru His church – the local representation of Jesus Christ on earth) the portion of your income that scripture instructs.

Actually giving the amount to Him first may be possible if you’re an entrepreneur who makes the decision how all disbursements from your gross business revenue will be given out. However, it is impossible for most people who work for employers that are obligated by Uncle Sam to automatically take income and payroll tax from your gross pay and forward it federal, state, and local governments.

The fact that you cannot actually give to God first is not dishonoring to Him in this situation because you cannot exert control over this government mandated process. The Lord is more interested in you not giving Him blemished, spotted, wrinkled, and crippled sacrifices with regard to the after tax income that is in your control. Spending first on all your desires and even things you feel you need when you have not set aside the tithe and an offering for Him and His kingdom use is dishonoring God because it shows that you do not trust Him to care for all your need while you follow His instructions.

That house, car, kid’s camp, private school tuition, food, clothing, etc. is not more important than following His commands and instructions. We must let our heart be transformed in the area of managing income and giving so that we can say like the psalmist, “Obeying your every word is my necessary food!” When you follow scriptural instructions God will take care of all your need and many times way beyond that even though the picture looks grim right now.

The scriptures about Abraham, Jacob, faithful Israelites as well as Jesus instructions in Matthew 23:23 and the example in Hebrews 7:8 show that the tithe given to Jesus’ under-shepherd’s on earth (church leaders) and received by Him in Heaven is the starting point for determining our faithfulness managing our income to glorify God. Beyond that He desires that we willingly give an offering because we love Him and other people and desire to see them reached with the gospel and saved from destruction.

The organism and mechanism He built for carrying out that mission is His organized church lead by elders such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers who equip believers and administer all the physical aspects needed to make it happen (meeting places, tools, classes, volunteers, paid staff, instruction to deacons, etc.).

It is not the ten percent tithe and an offering that keep people from having their needs met or living an abundant life. It is their lack of planning and budgeting to honor God with the first fruits of their income when they receive it that causes them to dwell in the land of broke, disgusted, and can’t be trusted. Ninety percent of your income less an offering and required taxes is more than enough to live on when you have the Living God supporting you.

They simply don’t trust the truth of His word that if they obey He will:

1) Open the windows of Heaven over them and pour them out a blessing they don’t have room enough to receive.

2) Rebuke the devourer for their sakes so that they are abundantly fruitful.

3) Add all the other things to them.

4) Inspire people to give into their lives full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

5) Cause all grace to abound to them so that they have all sufficiency in all things and more than enough for every good work they are supposed to do and help with.

6) Provide all their need according to His riches in glory in Jesus Christ.

Being a faithful giver may require you to sacrifice some pleasures and reduce the amount you're currently paying some of your creditors in order to tithe and give offerings to God. However, in due time, He will supernaturally bless your finances by getting the devil off your case. This allows you to eventually obtain money you need to pay all creditors what you owe them, stay out of debt, and live in abundance well into the future. Let’s wholly put our trust in Him and not in what we think is best based on our limited view of the situation, surroundings, and future.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Genesis 14:20-24, Malachi 3:8-12, Matthew 7:2, Mark 4:24, Luke 6:38, Acts 20:35
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MoneyWalk 53: How Much Is Enough?

2010-04-18T20:41:00.001-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

The bible warns everyone not to trust in money no matter what assets or income they hold in life because it will fail you. Just when you think you’ve obtained enough you’ll experience a problem too big or too relationship-based for money to take care of.

In contrast, scripture tells everyone to trust in Jesus Christ because what you do for Him will last. Through this relationship God is helping you build an eternal habitation in heaven and a portal on earth for other men to find Him and experience the depth of love that you’ve come to know in Him.

God provides lifestyle principles and material things for the faithful (rich and poor) that they don't have to pay for; allowing them to tithe and give more of their income in offerings to their local church and other ministries in order for the gospel to be spread worldwide and be a blessing to many others.

The biblical model of money management recognizes that more money and more things will not make you happier or better, rather fulfilling His purpose for your life will bring fulfillment. Thus, the lifestyle that helps draw into your life the kind of people, resources, money, etc. that God will use to help you fulfill His plan for your life is the kind that meets your true needs and builds wealth that lasts throughout many generations and into eternity.

No matter the size of your income you can, in an abundant way, deliver the gospel of Christ to other people. The parable of the talents and minas in the books of Matthew and Luke show that God expects you to properly manage your talent, mind, income, and assets according to His commands. You can expect great blessings when you follow His instructions.

The opposite form of lifestyle and money management thinks the winner is the one with the most money, stuff, position, power, and earthly influence. It brings eternal if not earthly destruction and fails to provide you and other loved ones with the principles, fortitude, and activities necessary to be truly successful in God’s eyes.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Proverbs 3:9-18, 27:23-27, Matthew 25:14-31, Luke 19:12-27
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MoneyWalk 52: The Diligent Person Is Made Rich

2010-04-12T20:18:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Start working to please the Lord instead of man. This heart attitude positively changes the environment in which you work and moves the LORD to provide more opportunities for your upward mobility. If you become a diligent worker who doesn't complain, your present situation will become a link to the next higher step in God's spiritual and financial development for you. He'll show you how to stretch your current income and He'll increase it at various points in the future through promotions and new opportunities that may be in fields and places other than your current employment.

Allowing a root of bitterness to take hold because you believe God or men owe you something more than your current income provides causes depression. In addition, such an ungrateful attitude is normally accompanied by unfaithfulness to assigned tasks. This causes you to suffer emotionally, financially, and spiritually because it does not allow your diligence to be seen by those around you and thus does not provide an avenue for elevation by the mighty hand of God. In fact, the rotten fruit produced by it will ultimately result in your being abased in life and in eternity, when un-repented it causes you to forsake relationship with Christ.

Be diligent and aspire to lead your life in quietness and peacefulness while producing good work. When you see your job as a blessing instead of a burden you oil the godly networking machine so it can positively change your financial future. Many opportunities will come your way as a result of a diligent attitude and actions. This will bring promotions and increases that lead to elimination of debt and business ventures that were not possible when you were discontent and full of negativity.

Another benefit that accrues through diligence in living out biblical principles including those related to your finances is that you will overcome the destruction caused by engaging in worldly financial behaviors. For example, people who decided and acted to eliminate debt and live debt-free and stuck with that plan found that they are not negatively affected by ways in which many institutions and employers use credit histories to determine prices, interest, and penalties you pay now and in the future for merchandise and services.

These folks use debt sparingly and responsibly, if at all, and only on business endeavors or assets that have a long-term history of appreciating in value. Thus, they did not experience negative outcomes with regard to the review and scoring of their credit histories. Living in God’s principles produces responsible and prudent people and served as a guard against the financial collapse that many others suffered.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Psalm 75:6-7, Proverbs 6:6-11, 19:15, 2Thessalonians 3:10-12, James 2:21-26
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MoneyWalk 51: Patience Is Required

2010-04-04T21:02:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

In order to truly prosper on earth and throughout eternity, you must sow seed by doing the things that God told believers to do. You will have a mind to follow His commands only when you diligently seek Him in praise, worship, and prayer. Such intimacy will cause you to by faith honor God in doing good works, tithing, and offering.

Struggles and difficult financial situations will arise because giving to support ministry allows the gospel to spread throughout the Earth thereby positively changing the lives of men. Satan and his demonic forces don't want your money used for this purpose because they hate humans and want us destroyed.

Never fear, walk by faith and not by sight believing God's word that He will work all situations for good for those who love Him. So, faithfully serve, tithe, and give offerings to Christian ministries to meet the needs of other people at home and abroad. Then exhibit patience by waiting for the fruit of God's economic plan to ripen so that you may harvest them for the benefit of others and yourself.

Patiently seeking the Lord, waiting on Him to provide when the time is right, using biblical principles to order your life and your finances throughout your life will ensure that the windows of Heaven remain open to you with blessings poured upon you. You will not have room enough to contain them and thus you will get to pour much of it out upon other people. You are blessed to be a blessing.

Remember Jesus did not come to earth to be crucified until 4,000 years of life on earth had passed. Once here, He could not begin His earthly ministry at 12 years old instead He had to be patient and wait until He was 30 years old. He couldn’t bypass the ridicule, persecution, and suffering but had to endure 3.5 years until He was hung on and nailed to a cross. Then, he could not immediately come down but in agony suffered for awhile. Finally, He died and had to wait 3 days for His resurrection to be made evident.

In this same manner, you will suffer persecution, ridicule, embarrassment and some other distasteful acts and rules against you when you serve Christ to the world. While doing all you can to be His witness and find ways to spread His Word and share His Life with others, you must exhibit patience and let it produce its perfect work. God will continue to give you ultimate victory over satan, demons, and wicked people in eternity and in this life and you will lack nothing that is needed.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Proverbs 20:21, Isaiah 55:10-11, Romans 5:3, Galatians 6:9, James 1:2-8
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MoneyWalk 456: Love compels me

2010-03-27T21:12:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

So many people are focused on becoming rich and great in the eyes of other people. While God is able to prosper you and to do so in a very immense way so that your prosperity exceeds that of all your fellows, a heart and mind focused on a priority to obtain riches and fame will in the end pierce your heart with many sorrows. If you fail to repent and turn your heart to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord the consequences are as eternally damning as committing sin because failure to turn to Christ and live and move and have your being in Him is sin.

Don’t get me wrong, being rich and famous in and of itself is not sin. These things are amoral having no right or wrong assigned to them. However, a sinful lifestyle is shown when you pursue or have riches and fame and you also:

1) Have an attitude that places them higher in priority than having relationship with Christ.

2) Take actions that pursue them from a heart that is not focused on using them to do God’s will.

3) Fail to use them to evangelize and disciple other people and care for your family in a godly manner.

Whether you call yourself Christian or not, this type of heart and mindset can lead to engaging in money management, investing, giving, and other money related activities that are not pleasing to God and that may not be helpful to other people. Some will see your activities even when you think no one is looking, some will take on your mindset and emulate your negative money activities, and some will put you in high esteem for the success it seems you achieved and unfortunately will get the idea that pursuit of riches and greatness on earth is the highest priority.

Therefore, a Christian must be careful to pursue God in Christ more than anything else. This is done only through the love of God poured into your heart by the Holy Ghost. Of course, God wants every person to come to Him via Christ and thus allow His love to be the only motivation for everything we do including earning, managing, and growing money. Love never fails and creates for you an everlasting habitation in the presence of God. Money and greatness cannot do this, but they can be used in a mighty way to further the work of the kingdom that needs to be done here on earth to focus and lead men to Christ.

So as you pursue money making, managing, investing, and business pursuits make sure you maintain your love relationship with Lord, spend time with Him daily, be guided by His Spirit, obey His biblical commands and principles, and speak and act as Christ’s ambassador on the earth. Take instruction from the examples of missionaries we love so much and support. The love of God in them and trust in His care compels them to move into hostile territory when called, face possible death, and much suffering.

Tens of millions of dollars flow into their hands, yet they do not put their trust in it. Rather, they recognize as children of Abraham they are blessed to be a blessing to many others. Love moves them to sacrifice, suffer afflictions, and great personal loss at times on earth in order to spread this great gospel throughout the world. They shall receive an everlasting crown from almighty God that is much more precious and enduring. This too should be our focus.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Matthew 22:36-40, Mark 10:21, John 14:15, James 1:12
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MoneyWalk 50: Warfare Is Necessary

2010-03-20T13:56:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Satan and his cohorts wage war against you by introducing thoughts and desires that conflict with the will of God. You should eliminate the effect of these attacks by having a relationship with Jesus Christ, knowing Father God’s will as conveyed in the bible, talking with Him daily, listening for His instruction, and obeying biblical instructions in conjunction with what the Holy Spirit directs you to do. When you’re on this path, our triune God will support, empower, and help you be fruitful and thus successful in life and the management of the money God entrusts to you.

When relationship with God is engaged in this way you will pray and learn scripture that will help you voice and declare victory in the name of Jesus over all that the enemy is trying to mess up in your life. In addition, you will regularly fellowship with other believers who will encourage you and example for you ways in which you can exercise victory over your enemies and fruitfulness in your life.

Such a walk with God will cause you to:

1) Declare that by grace the blood of Jesus covers all your past sins and helps you overcome future blunders.

2) Praise God for all that He's done for you in the past by taking care of you, providing for you, and bringing you to the place where you now see the truth.

3) Worship Him by telling Him how much you love and adore Him and thank Him for living in you as your guiding light.

4) Rebuke, bind, and cast out demonic forces to make them flee from you to allow you to more clearly see what God wants you to do.

5) Loose obedience to God in your life to move you to do what He wants you to do.

These actions help you utilize the whole armor of God to protect you against demonic attacks and thrust you into a future of leading many people to Jesus Christ and to good stewardship. Such positive faith declarations dispatch heavenly angels to fight unseen spiritual battles against demonic angels. At the direction of God, the heavenly army clears your pathway so you can appropriate the victory Christ won for you by His life, death, burial, and resurrection.

When you've done all you can by using prayer, warfare, and biblical principles, just stand on the truth of God's word and before long you'll begin to prosper like never before.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Matthew 16:18-19, Romans 8:26-28, 37-39, 2Corinthians 10:3-6; Ephesians 6:10-20
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MoneyWalk 49: Prayer Is Necessary

2010-03-14T17:16:00.000-04:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Satan and his demonic forces are doing everything they can to keep you from financing the saturation of the whole world with the gospel of Jesus Christ through evangelism and discipleship of every person that is willing to draw near to Him. This is the manner in which we establish God’s covenant in the earth.

If the demonic forces can keep you in debt, unwilling to tithe and give offerings to church ministry, then they will succeed in their plan for you and other people that follow your example. So, you must remember that the failure to understand biblical financial principles and follow them will play right into the enemies hands and cause you knowingly or unknowingly to be a pawn of the dark side.

However, the prayers of the righteous availeth much and will allow you to press forward in the face of continual demonic attacks designed to try and take you off God’s course. Satan and his demonic forces have been defeated since their rebellion in heaven and Jesus' earthly life, death, and resurrection gave every believer total and complete victory. However, that victory is appropriated in your life through prayer for godly wisdom which allows you to act in accordance with God’s will.

Prayer activates spiritual weapons that are supernaturally mighty for pulling down strongholds, changing attitudes, and placing ungodly desires into captivity. It allows you to rule demonic powers and foil their plans against you, your family, and the church. The name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, and your Christian testimony give you the winning offense against Satan, defend against all demonic attacks, and remove all bondages placed on you.

Obeying God's commands and principles make your spiritual weapons effective against the enemy and move God to rebuke the devourer on your behalf. So, engage secret closet prayer as well as praise and worship throughout the day because it will help line up your will, attitude, and actions in a way that show you love God and other people. This in turn will help you do all you can to properly manage the money that is entrusted to you.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Psalms 37:4-6, Matthew 16:18-19, 18:18-20, 2Corinthians 10:3-6, Ephesians 6:18-19
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MoneyWalk 48: What's Your Plan?

2010-03-07T17:18:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

A plan is a detailed written map of pursuits, goals, objectives, steps, and tasks that come from the vision God has given you concerning how your life is to be used to bring glory to Him, help spread the gospel in the earth, usher more and more people into His heavenly kingdom, and do good works that bless others.

Craft a plan that considers the:

1. Financial and life lessons learned from your past stewardship.

2. Current and future resources that will likely be available.

3. Future picture of how your situation will look in the natural as you follow the giving, saving, spending, and bill paying efforts you establish.

4. Future picture of how you (if the Lord wills) believe your situation will look as you pursue the needs and desires associated with the vision God has given you for the use of your life. God will put the super to your natural to catapult you far behind what you can think or imagine you could do.

A plan isn't hard to follow when you’re committed to taking on no more debt on items that depreciate in value. The budget part of your plan should start with your current situation and flow at least six months into the future. Also, you should regularly consult the budget because it will quickly let you know how much disposable income you'll have available for future purchases. It helps you exert self-control over the temptation to spend money you don't have and lets you know when it is financially feasible to make desired purchases such as homes, cars, vacations, hobbies, etc.

Keeping your heart and eye focused on the plan helps you achieve giving, saving and investment goals that are worthwhile and meaningful in fulfilling the purpose for your life. Your commitment to the budgeting process will help you see interest charges eliminated, disposable income growth, and savings expand enormously in the future because you wrote the vision plainly on paper and followed it.

A computer spreadsheet and budgeting software are better budget-drafting tools because of their ability to quickly and easily copy information over and over and automatically perform mathematical calculations that show you where you are and help you see where you can be in the future by following the plan and budget. However, pen and paper can work well and indeed that is how I started the process in my life.

A continual financial planning and budgeting process will bring your release from financial bondage much sooner than you ever thought possible. You'll see dreams and goals come true, your life's mission fulfilled, and material blessings increase. However, your wallet will be a bag with holes in it and your life will be filled with embarrassment and troubles when you don't draft a life and financial plan and budget and consult them before making spending decisions.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Proverbs 3:5-6, 6:6-11, 16:9, Luke 14:27-33, 2Corinthians 1:15-19, 1Peter 1:18-20
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MoneyWalk 47: Make a budget and work it

2010-02-28T14:57:00.001-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Making a budget and working it will enable you to obtain debt freedom and shed financial burdens. It helps you overcome the irresponsible nature that exists in all of us. And it crushes the heads of the demonic spirits that would otherwise lead us to be bad stewards of God’s resources who think only of ourselves and our desires. Writing our goals plainly on tablet (paper) concerning how we utilize our income allows us to exercise financial prudence knowing that it will lead us to give, save, and spend in accordance with God’s will for our lives. Budgeting will ultimately change the negative financial patterns that have overtaken our lives.

The process is not as complicated as some people seem to think. Just do the following and spend a little time each week checking in with your budget to ensure that you’re following through on your commitment to better your stewardship.

1) List your net monthly income.

2) If you’re a Christian, you should first subtract a tithe from your income that you will give to church ministry for the spreading of the gospel and good works at home and around the world as evidence that you have faith God will take care of your needs. No one can or will make you do this. It has to be a matter of the heart. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

3) Now subtract from your net monthly income (or the amount that remains after tithing) the minimum payment for every bill due this month.

4) When bill payments for particular services are not required each month or they vary each month (insurance, utilities, lawn maintenance, snow removal, etc.), subtract the estimated average monthly amount of each bill.

5) What remains is your disposable income.

6) You should discipline yourself (you disciple you – smile) to get in the habit of spending no more than your disposable income on additional products and services so that you don’t continue to or wind up drowning in a sea of debt.

7) Your disposable income should be spent on needs first. Prioritize in a manner similar to: 1. Shelter (house, apartment, room, etc.), 2. Transportation (bus, commuter van, vehicle, gas, repairs, etc.), 3. Clothing, 4. Food, 5. Etc, etc. etc.

8) Reason being that shelter and transportation to and from work, medical appointments, etc. will be the most difficult to come by when you’re in a tight situation. Clothing and food can be come by from many different sources when you don’t have the means to obtain them at a given time. (Mission stores, food pantries, and the goodness of family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.)

9) The amount that remains could be spent on offerings, personal care items, debt reduction, saving, entertainment, etc.

10) Do not spend amounts you subtracted for bills not due each month, so that when these bills come due you'll have money already in your budget to pay them.

11) You should discipline yourself to budget for at least a six-month cycle. Although taking the first step to budget for this month is great. Now, each week add to that a budget for the next month and so on,

A budget is somewhat flexible because income and expense estimates may not be exact and emergencies do arise. Yet, you should not use this as a reason to bend your budget to the point of breaking when these situations do not occur.

Following your budget will help you build an emergency reserve savings account to cover such emergencies and will help you reach the point of investing to truly build wealth throughout your lifetime.

Heart and mindsets that help your budgeting process are refusing to spend more than 80% of your take home pay, refusing to take out loans to get what you want, and letting God Almighty provide needs that you truly cannot provide for at the moment. He cares and will make a way through your family, friendships, co-workers, and community services.

All of the things you desire that are not necessary for you to live can wait until you have disciplined yourself to follow your budget and have built cash reserves to pay for them without using credit. After a year or two of engaging such discipline, you'll find yourself enjoying the fulfillment that comes from giving, saving, investing, and wealth building that help you carry out the purpose God intended for your life.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Proverbs 30:24-28, Ecclesiastes 10:17-19, Habakkuk 2:1-4, Luke 16:8-13
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MoneyWalk 455: Maybe short term pain but definitely long term gain

2010-02-21T13:47:00.001-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Scripture teaches that good stewards engage in the following practices and that they reap blessings from doing so:

1. Manage money and resources like Almighty God owns it all because He does. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word is God, and nothing was made unless it was made by Him.

2. Tithing and offering to honor God for His provision and to help fund the spread of the gospel to every person around the world. And the Holy Spirit shall come upon you and you will be witnesses to me in Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the Earth.

3. Working diligently. For even when we were with you, we commanded you that any man who would not work should also not eat.

4. Living off less than your income by budgeting your spending. Know the state of your flocks and herds and write the vision down plainly on paper so that you may successfully use it to reach the desired goal.

5. Eliminating debt and moving forward to live debt-free. The borrower is a slave to the lender. God desires that you be the head and not the tail.

6. Eliminating cosigning and surety for other people’s debts. Do not cosign for other people’s debts unless you want your coat taken and be subject to ridicule and irresponsibility.

7. Diversifying assets. There is safety in the multitude of counselors. Therefore, save and invest with seven or eight different reputable sources and with a similar number of different types of investments.

8. Saving a reasonable portion of your income. There is oil and wine in the dwelling of the wise but a foolish man spends all that he gets his hands on.

9. Investing a reasonable portion of your income to produce greater profit. The master commended the faithful servants who traded with what He gave them and produced double to present to Him.

Working diligently to serve, gain experience, and develop skill that produce income to care for yourself and your family and help provide for others in need is certainly the road to take. It will help you have more provision for yourself, family, and other worthwhile priorities as opposed to the meager welfare that might be afforded by other people when you choose the other route of not seeking to consistently work.

Many forces in the world seek to pull you away from the above foundations of good stewardship by telling you that some other principle is more important in our modern, civilized society, such as having access to as much personal credit (loans) as you can get your hands on. Advisors are telling people that they cannot live without credit and that they should keep credit card accounts open at all cost. Other people are saying that you will always have bills or car notes or house notes. New sources are pointing to the need to have all of these in order to keep your credit score as high as possible.

For the unsuspecting and those ignorant of truth this sounds like great savvy advice. However, you should understand that the Word says that not one jot or tittle of His Word will ever fail to produce good in your life. Therefore, any so called principle or new method of doing something should always be measured by biblical principles for good stewardship. If it does not comply or attempts to make God’s instruction null and void, you should not only question it but also refuse to go down that road.

What good is getting, keeping, and continuing to get more credit when the very principles / methods you’ve been engaging in have or will get you in trouble in the future and cause you to have trouble over the long haul. In the short haul it may seem a benefit but looks are often deceiving. There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is death.

When you choose the short haul path that is opposite God’s instruction, you eventually come to a point in time when that path leads to destruction in the long haul but also in your future short haul periods. Consider the debacle that has gripped our economy and individuals over the past few years. Much of it started by unreasonable decisions made concerning housing, real estate, unreasonable mortgage options and selections, the packaging of such mortgages as investments, maxing out loans for cars and personal pleasure merchandise and services, and people throwing diversification of investments and assets out the door.

Individuals and our nation would be in a far better place if we had chosen to apply biblical principles and not be swayed by what looks good in the short term. We would continue to gain long term favor and blessing which in turn would positively cover our future short term periods. A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that makes haste to be rich shall not go unpunished.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Proverbs 28:20, Ecclesiastes 11:2, Habakkuk 2:2-5, Philippians 4:13, 2Thessalonians 3:10
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MoneyWalk 46: Know Your Flocks & Herds

2010-02-14T16:07:00.000-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You must keep the amount of expenses below your income in order to have peace in your life because this helps you take care of all your needs and responsibilities in life including you, your spouse, and children. You don’t have to log all your expenses over the past few months nor log every single expense on a ledger for the next few months in order to decide what route to take to correct your situation. The pain of your present suffering should make you willing to follow biblical money management principles that help you establish a godly mission for your life, set proper goals, know your income, identify unnecessary expenses, and establish a budget for your family.

Many people don't like to hear the word "budget." However, when you don't develop a spending plan based on the reality of your present income then your reality throughout life will be that your expenses inevitably outgrow your income and leave you in financial turmoil with many headaches, torment, and bill collectors hounding you and credit card companies raising your interest rate to take even more from you while your suffering financially.

By counting the cost first - identifying your income and spending priorities on paper or computer via a budget – you turn your dream of financial freedom into a reality because it helps you spend less than you receive in a pay period so you can get out of debt in the most expedient manner. It helps identify your needs versus your wants, so you can focus on purchasing materials and services that have the highest priority.

Knowing the state of your finances at all times is essential to obtain financial health, wealth, peace, and joy. Indeed, it is a part of pressing upward for the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, being like-minded with Him and His saints, and holding true to that which you have attained through salvation. In this way, you will maintain the maximum ability to have the maximum fruitfulness He desires you to have in this earthly portion of your life.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Proverbs 27:23-24, Habakkuk 2:2-5, Luke 14:25-30, Philippians 3:14-15
Please forward these bondage breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!!!

MoneyWalk 45: Financial wisdom

2010-02-07T21:37:00.001-05:00

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Godly wisdom should be regarded more than gold, silver, and precious jewels because it produces godly character and wealth to fulfill your purpose in life. This wisdom produces a correct knowledge of God, realizes the need for intimate fellowship with Him, and helps you understand the specific reason you were brought into this world. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments: His praise endures forever.

You were created to glorify God by loving and respecting Him through fellowship with Him in praise, worship, and prayer and by fulfilling the mission He gave you on this earth. The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom and those who are humble are the ones truly honorable. A righteous man makes plans for the life and work he will pursue, yet he allows the LORD to direct and change his steps as He sees fit.

Solomon, the richest king upon the face of the earth, abandoned his relationship with God by allowing his pursuit of the greatest possible wealth, fame, and lustful worldly activities to take priority over God’s will for his life. Alcoholic beverages, wild feasts, many women, and vast riches did not fill the void in his heart. He was unfulfilled even though he achieved earthly greatness in all these areas! See then that you walk cautiously and not as a fool but with godly wisdom; redeeming the time because the days are evil. Move forward in the way God would have you to and at all times stand on the foundation of truth and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Otherwise, you will have wealth without spiritual health, which is no good!!! At the end of his days Solomon was disappointed in all that he had and achieved and concluded that the entire duty of man is to love God and keep His commandments. Honoring the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and He instructs those who follow Him to true greatness. Learn biblical financial principles and commit to using them. You'll see positive and eternally successful changes overtake your life.

Please email any questions and pray for this ministry. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!
Psalms 111:10, Proverbs 15:33, 16:9, Ephesians 5:15, 6:14
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