I Will Restore

 

I Will Restore

"I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten..." (Joel 2:25)

    Our merciful God displays His lovingkindness towards us in so many ways, and here as well as many other places He shows how He knows about the loss and challenges we experience... and that He will move His right hand on our behalf towards restoration.

    It matters not if you've had a small financial setback, or a very large one that feels at times like there is no way out - our God is bigger, has a greater love for you than you can fully know in this earthly life and simply is the Creator of all things. He is The One who is able to declare "Nothing is impossible for me"!

    He is The One Who:

Sustained the widow and her two sons - read 2 Kings 4:1-7. By multiplying the scant oil they had, preventing the widow's two sons from being taken as slaves due to debt. 

Sustained another widow and her son - in 1 Kings 17:8-16. Down to their last morsel, and God sent Elijah to them, providing for them until Lord again brought rain.

Fed the 5,000 - from Matthew 14, "We have nothing here but five loves and two fish... He gave thanks and blessed and handed the pieces to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. And they all ate and were satisfied."

Paid the taxes due from a fish - in Matthew 17:27, Jesus said "Go down to the sea and throw in a hook. Take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth will find there a shekel. Take it and give it to them to pay the temple tax for Me and for yourself."

Restored the fortunes of Job - "The Lord restored the Fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before." (Job 42:10)

    It is important to recognize that each miracle above was preceded by a step of faith:

    The first widow had to borrow empty vessels from neighbors.

    The second widow made a small cake for Elijah before preparing for herself and her son.

    The disciples carried out the instructions from Jesus, holding just five loaves and two fish.

    Peter went to the sea, throwing in the hook, following what he was told by Jesus.

    Job endured in his faith in God, and forgave and prayed for his friends who had blamed him.

    

    In walking through your season of challenge, in addition to doing the proper practical things with your finances, be listening for the voice of the Lord in what He is saying to you... to step out in faith in an area. It may seem unrelated to your circumstance, it may feel unreasonable, it may seem contrary to what you think should be done. Ask yourself if the steps of faith carried out in the examples above were what those people thought should be done at the time.

    I have heard of testimonies of others who have simply carried out seemingly unrelated acts of obedience to God, and seen miraculous answers by the Lord to their areas of need - unexpected raises, jobs, promotions, finances and gifts coming out the blue.

    As it relates to being free of debt, and our opening verse of God restoring from Joel 2:25, I can share from our own experience and those testimonies given to us by others that the Lord has restored those years that the locust has eaten. That the fruitless years of paying interest and monthly payments to creditors has been replaced with years of recognizing God's care, faithfulness and wisdom.

    To close, know that in this time you are not alone. The Lord God is with you always and closely knows what you are going through, He does not sleep or relax in His care for you and He states in Joshua 1:5 - "I will be with you. I will not abandon you. I will not leave you."

God Bless you and may He show Himself greatly to you,

Paul

    

    

    

    

    

    

Toward The Goal

 

Toward The Goal

"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus". (Philippians 3:14)

    Everyone in the world has goals... some are good and show to be beneficial, while others will ultimately prove to be destructive. As believers in Christ, what should provide us with impetus and perseverance is in knowing a goal is aligned with God's will - then we can run with it.

    Regarding being free of debt, He has given us this direction in His Word. Two examples are from Romans 13:8, "Owe no one anything, except to love one another..." and in Proverbs 22:7, "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."

    In light of the soccer image analogy above, It is key for us to realize that there is a goal to press on towards regarding our debts. It can be easy to just lay back, kicking the ball around midfield (maintaining our debts without any plan or action to reduce them), being oblivious to the possibility of the other team suddenly gaining possession of the ball, streaking downfield and scoring. This happens when the unexpected event occurs in the form of a large repair bill, loss of income, medical issue, etc.

    There has been a phrase for many years of "getting ahead". Merriam-Webster states the meaning of that is to achieve success. Many people think that when they land that big job, buy the big house and car, and have some expensive things that they are successful and getting ahead. But most of those households are actually further behind financially than when they were young - they've plunged into much deeper debts with lengthy commitments, in a more fragile state to lose much of it.

    To really "get ahead" is what God has called us to... to set our sights on the goal in front of us, advancing the ball steadily forward. To apply this in a practical sense, sit down this week and lay out your current monthly bills, total the minimum monthly payments up and divide that by your monthly income. Agree as a household that you will not increase that percentage. And in concert, set aside an amount to the smallest balance bill and make an additional payment towards it next month. This is moving the ball forward. When you have retired that smallest debt, you now have a larger amount the next month to apply to the next smallest debt - this is like on the soccer field when an opposing player is ejected and you now have an advantage to score!

    You know in soccer it is rare for a player to take the ball any lengthy distance on their own and kick it into the net. With 11 opposing players, it normally requires frequent passing, communication, and a willingness to yield the ball to a teammate to see the result all of the team wants... the ball in the back of the net. In the same manner, making this debt-free effort work encompasses communication in your household to achieve the right agreeable balance of what can be yielded by each member so the larger goal can be completed. Listen to what God is speaking to you to yield in setting a good example for the household. 

    I know of a young couple that is pressing on towards the goal with diligence. They are actively moving the ball downfield. They have accepted additional jobs, are focused on monitoring their spending and measuring the reduction of their debt. They are on track to reach their goal of being debt-free in about the next month.

    

    I am sure they can attest that these closing words of encouragement from Jeremiah 29:11 are true:

"For I know what I have planned for you, says the Lord. I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope."

God bless you and may He show Himself greatly to you,

Paul

    

    

  

Your Declaration

 

Your Declaration

"And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2)

    A few excerpts from the opening paragraphs of our Declaration of Independence are as follows:

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another"

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government. laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness"

"It is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security"

    Now, reread those paragraphs and in absorbing those words above, replace the areas above of the concept of another current oppressive government with our creditors and debts, and applying God's Word as our new government in our finances.

    In the same manner the founding people of our country were oppressed and declared to begin a better way, we need to regard the true oppressive effects of debt and declare stepping out on a path towards independence from it.

    Let's view part of the those three original paragraphs and what you can do in parallel efforts towards Your Declaration.

Dissolve the political bands - The first step toward dissolving your debts is to know the state of them. Write down each of your debts - the total amount owed and the minimum monthly payments. A next important step is to know what you spend - log each expense for one month to show you where the money is going.

Here's where you begin dissolving... identify the debt with the lowest balance and apply an extra amount with the next payment to lower it. Even if it is just $10, go ahead and do it. You will be encouraged to see it has made a difference, and that encouragement will urge you on, to find additional ways to save more money for the next month and reduce the balance further.

The Declaration of Independence in 1776 did not instantly change our government, we had to fight hard and sacrifice to win battles over the next seven years until the British monarchy acknowledged our independence. In that same manner, our beginning step of declaring our independence from debt will require continued effort and sacrifice each month, fighting to win each battle... but I can tell you from experience it is exciting to see debt balances get reduced each month, and then retiring individual debts and having their payments come off the next month is even more encouraging!

Institute new Government - our foundation in this effort is to be obedient to Christ, for He declared, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life". and it is written that the borrower is servant to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). When my wife Karen and I attended the debt-free seminar, I came out of it with our declaration - "we are going to do this", because I knew it agreed with God's Word and was His will to be free from debt. There was no doubt He was going to bless our efforts because it aligned with His will.

That was the beginning of instituting new government, replacing the former way of doing things... just following the masses making monthly payments, maintaining debt and keeping our creditors happy, to a new way... in stepping out in faith, moving towards independence from those creditors and eventually eliminating the need for them.

Provide new Guards for the future security - applying God's Word as our guard in our finances, to keep free of debt as much as possible, will protect us from stumbling and being bound in the chains which our creditors hold.

What we are doing is moving away from the "standard" that is permissible in today's financial world. Where the analysts view your income and debts and declare "you can borrow this much", which is a percentage of your income. We're moving towards a higher standard that comes straight from the God who loves us, knows what is the best for us and desires that for us and will bless us in our efforts. David said it so perfectly in 2 Samuel 7:28 in declaring "Your words are truth".

    Besides the Lord, you have someone to help towards your independence. If you want any encouragement, prayer, or to go over the figures with you, I will be happy to be there for you. My wife Karen and I are available to teach the free 3-hour debt-free class, adding to it foundational scriptures, our testimonies and those of others. Please contact me or the church if you would like to attend a future class.

    In closing, know that you are carrying out God's will, and it is not in your own strength, but relying on the Lord's to bring about the victory. As it is written in 2 Chronicles 20:15 - "...Do not fear, nor be dismayed because of this great army, for the battle is not yours, but God's."

God Bless you and may He show Himself greatly to you,

Paul

 

Not My Will

 

Not My Will

    It is written in Luke 22:42, Jesus prayed "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."

    Even Jesus, who had lived a sinless life, poured Himself out for His disciples, and performed numerous and spectacular miracles, continued in His perfection by surrendering His will to the Father's here, knowing it would result in His sacrifice for us. Today, we'll look at where and how we can surrender to the Father's will in our finances.

    First, realize that our flesh will always "speak" to us in opposition to God. Galatians 5:17 states "For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the [Holy] Spirit, and the [desires of the] Spirit are opposed to the flesh (godless human nature)." Areas of money and indebtedness are just another part of our lives where the flesh tries to steer us towards disobedience from God.

    Look at the boxes below, where it is showing the difference between the thoughts and impulses coming from our flesh (our will), then the Word of God showing us the path to obedience (His will):

    

    Our flesh will usually be coming at us with those thoughts from above on the left, so how do we address it? God shows us in 2 Corinthians 10:5, "Casting down the imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

    Just as quickly as the spark from an advertisement or seeing something that tries to ignite us, we need to douse that and replace it with what God's Word speaks to the situation, before it grows into us attempting to rationalize a way around His will.

    Each one of those major areas in the boxes above carries an oncoming loss from following the thoughts on the left, and latter regret - while God Himself promises to send blessings to those who are obedient to His will on the right.

    Lastly, as our initial focus was on Jesus surrendering to follow His Father's will, in going to the cross, it was later written in Hebrews 12:2 - "For the joy that was set before him endured the cross". Jesus was not focused on his suffering, neither should we be focused on what our flesh says "we miss out on" by being obedient. Jesus was seeing the joy of obedience to the Father and the resulting lives of ours that would be saved. We too should set our sights on the blessings from the Father, to make that the joy set before you, for your obedience to His will.

God Bless you and may He show Himself greatly to you,

Paul

    

    

    

The Debt

 

The Debt

There is a debt we all were born with, that every single person... past, present and future owes. There is no amount of wealth that can pay it off, nor any number of good deeds or works performed that will retire or even reduce it. 

    The Bible states in Romans 3:23 that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God".  It matters not that one person may have tried to be good from their youth, while another has rebelled and lived a life full of destruction - both of their eternal outcomes will be the same... unless they receive the atonement, the payment for their sins that is the centerpiece in all of God's Word provided by His Son Jesus Christ.

    Those who believe that doing good works will get them to Heaven lack the understanding of what God says in His own Word that our righteousness and best deeds and justice are as "filthy rags" in Isaiah 64.

 

    Thinking that being good or performing works will suffice is like a person owing a financial debt to the banker and then arriving at the bank to pay with Monopoly money.  It doesn't matter how much they brought, the banker will certainly not accept it as payment for the debt. God states in His Word what is the only payment for sin... in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death.

 

    However, the remainder of that verse contains our hope..."but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  He was the one who paid our debt, by the shedding of His blood for our sins - paying our penalty, and God credits that to the account of those who believe and He declares them righteous because of what Jesus did in His awesome love for humanity.

    Consider that if there really was any way possible for man to pay for his own sins... that would then mean Jesus left Heaven, came to earth and suffered an excruciating death for no reason. 

    The late Charles Stanley simply stated it as "Jesus is called Savior because He came to rescue us from the penalty of our sins."

 

    We have been given the ultimate gift in Christ, and have done nothing to earn it. Our proper mindset is to be humble and receive it as a gift and be grateful. What if you had given a gift to someone, and they instead regarded it as something they earned from you? How would you feel? Salvation is a free gift extended to us.

 

    If you have accepted Jesus, as we have remembered and celebrated this month His crucifixion and triumphant resurrection over death, let us regard that we owed a debt which we could not pay... and He paid that debt for which He did not owe.

 

    If you have not yet accepted the free gift of salvation, given by the blood Jesus shed on the cross for your sins, there is no better time than right now to answer the call God has placed on your heart, and be reconciled to Him forever.

 

    You can ask God right now to save you, to accept Jesus as your Savior. In Romans 10:9 it is written "if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."  And you can know that your debt has been paid in full.

God Bless you and may He show Himself greatly to you,

 

Paul

For God

 

For God

"The King will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'

    These words spoken by Jesus in Matthew 25:40 were to let us know how much and how personally The Lord Himself views acts of giving we as believers do. Today we're going to look into this and other verses of encouragement that we can relate to giving in our finances.

    This first verse is so awesome, in that it is relaying now, exactly one of the "scenes" that will take place in the time to come... that in His complete knowledge of us He is regarding every single instance we reached out in love towards others. The verses in Matthew preceding this were of the acts of kindness done, in giving food, drink, lodging, clothing and by visiting and caring. Some of those acts involved giving of time and effort, and others had an actual cost.

    That cost of giving generously to others in the name of the Lord, is simply immeasurable in three ways: (1) The impression it can make on the other person towards the Lord, it can reshape their view of God, that they really are loved by Him. (2) The advancing of His kingdom here on earth. (3) Those treasures are now being stored in heaven, as we'll cover in our next verses below.

    "Do not gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust and worm consume and destroy, and where thieves break through and steal. But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy, and where thieves do not break through and steal." (Matthew 6:20)

    Jesus was simply illustrating the difference between two ways of handling treasure - that all we gather on earth is eventually destroyed, and all we gather (give or use) towards heaven will last eternally. This flows with the first verse of Him remembering our acts of kindness being regarded as unto the Lord, and here stating He remembers the treasures we chose to yield to Him.

    The ways He wants to personally relate to us and us to Him, come through shining below.

    "Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men" (Colossians 3:23). We can receive strength, encouragement and a lifting of our burden in doing our occupation working unto the Lord.

    "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My House. And test Me now with this," says the Lord of Hosts, "if I will not open the windows of Heaven for you and pour you out a blessing without measure." (Malachi 3:10). See how personally God is speaking to us in giving, and how He will respond Himself? 

    "Come to me, all of you who weary and burdened, and I will give you rest". (Matthew 11:28). Cast your burdens, financial and otherwise on Him, and receive the peace and rest He promises.

    And lastly, be encouraged that our God knows all and will remember your efforts:

God is not unjust, he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. (Hebrews 6:10)

God Bless you and may He show Himself greatly to you,

Paul

    

    

    

Love Is

 

Love Is

    If you have been a believer in Christ for any length of time, you probably know the verses Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13 about what love is quite well. Today, we will look at how living out certain parts of those verses can translate in our finances.

Love endures long

When you're facing the temptation to plunge into debt right now for something, instead of waiting until you have the funds or waiting for the proper timing God is showing you - this requires longer-term endurance and faith in Him, what His word says and remembering what He spoke to you. We can be encouraged to wait by remembering that He who spoke this loves us dearly, knows what is the best for us and wants that for us.

Love is patient

Similar to the character above, but this can be more directed to the near-term, having patience to put off that purchase until the next paycheck, to not move forward until you've explored all options - like a different model, seller, or to consider a pre-owned item. By waiting when you sense God is showing you to do so may open a different door you had not expected, but He knew all along.

Love is kind

The root word of kind relates to showing oneself useful and to act benevolently. We can carry this out in being sensitive to needs we see and giving towards those needs, especially to those in poverty. To get deeper into this, I encourage you to click on the Archives section to the right of this page and go to the November 2021 post titled "Giving Is Living"

Love never is envious or boils over with jealousy

Simply stated, one of the worst things we can do is to view someone else's belongings and foster envy for them and be jealous. The first "victim" in this mindset is that is wipes out our gratitude to the Lord for what He has provided us - I feel our thankfulness to the Lord is one of the most precious things to protect. The envy then drives our hearts towards these things and erodes our heart for the things of the Lord.

Love is not boastful and does not display itself haughtily

In Psalm 62:10 it is written "if riches increase, set not your heart on them". Remembering that the Lord is our source will anchor our hearts and help keep us from yielding to the fleshly desire to act boastful, with pride and arrogance trying to impress others with material things. Going back to the earlier action of giving to others (not to be seen), it is the opposite of being prideful, for it is yielding to God's will.

Love does not insist on its own rights or its own way

In the marriage relationship regarding finances, sometimes one spouse will have a greater appetite for spending, while the other wants to pay down debts and save. While we need to be open to the needs of our spouse for certain things and not insist on our own way, the household's overall direction should be to follow God's word and seek to keep out of debt and owe no one anything as it is written in Romans 13:8. If both spouses will yield to this principle in unity, God's blessings will follow after them.

Love bears up under anything and everything that comes

Whether the "thing" that comes is a job loss, a sudden expensive event out of the blue, or a lack of foresight that resulted in sizeable debt. Whether together in marriage or single, our focus is to cling to the Lord (and if married, cling closer to each other in unity during this season). We're given the instruction for how to proceed in Philippians 4:8 - "Be anxious for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." Staying connected with God during this time with strengthen you to bear up through it.

    Go to the top of the post and look at the picture of the heart garland which has some of the characteristics of love written on them. Consider how they are connected together, and that as we yield to live out those ways of love we are then more closely connected together with God, who wrote them.

    Lastly, be encouraged by the two verses below, that although they are from different books and authors, I feel they tie together nicely in their order, giving us the direction to go:

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:12)

Do everything in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14)

God Bless you and may He show Himself greatly too you,

Paul