does He need it?...

we need to realize that everything we give on this side of eternity is being accredited to our account on the other side of eternity.  so our giving is to be regular and it is to be consistent.

1 corinthians 16.2 (niv) on every LORD’s day, put aside something from what you have earned during the week, and use it for the offering.  the amount depends on how much the LORD has helped you to earn.

it’s proportional.  the bible says in deuteronomy 14.23 that the purpose of tithing is simply to teach us to put GOD first in our life.  GOD doesn’t need our money.  HE’s wealthy.  but HE wants us.  HE wants what our money represents.  HE wants our lives.

i believe the scripture teaches that GOD wants us to be financially free.  if your finances are in a mess right now, GOD has promised over and over that HE will care for us if we place our financial burden in HIS care and follow HIS principles.  these principles are all throughout scripture.

when you think about it unmanageable finances are really a symptom of a much deeper problem – an unmanageable life.  that is, trying to live without GOD’s guidance.  if we try to live without the principles of this book we’re going to get into trouble.  unmanageable finances simply means misplaced priorities.  we’re putting physical things before our SPIRITual relationship.

the starting point for financial freedom is to make JESUS CHRIST the manager of your life.  you start to live abundantly by letting HIM come into your life and making HIM the manager of not just your money but of your time, home, past and make HIM number one in your life.

just a thought from the front porch…

how to store up treasures in heaven…

in dealing with your wealth, you’ve heard many people say, “you can’t take it with you.”  that’s very true, but you can send it on ahead.  matthew 6.20-21 (niv), store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…where your treasure is your heart will be also.

heard about a guy who died and got to heaven and he saw all these mansions and then one little shack and he said, “is that where i’m suppose to live?  why?”  the answer was, that’s all the building material you sent ahead.

how do you send it on ahead?  how do you store up treasures in heaven?  the only way you can store up treasure in heaven is by investing it in people who are going there.  there are only two things that are going to last forever: the word of GOD and people.  everything else is going to burn up in the judgment.  invest your time and money in the word of GOD and people.  when you invest in these two things then you will store up treasures in heaven.

JESUS told us that when you use money and invest it in people who come to know HIM, you’re making friends for eternity.  when you get to heaven, they’ll say they are there because of you.  many of you give to your church and many people will be in heaven because of your church.  there will be people up there who will say to you, because you gave i am here in heaven.  JESUS says use your affluence for good influence.  then people will welcome you into eternity.

who is going to be the welcoming committee for you?  who’s going to say, “i'm here because of you.”  we should use the right application and give money generously.  everything we give on this side of eternity is being accredited to our account on the other side of eternity.

just a thought from the front porch…

what to do to be financially free…

how do we use the influence that money has?  well we do that by giving money generously. 

proverbs 11.24-25 (msg), the world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. the one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.

this principle is taught over and over again in scripture.  give and it will be given unto you.  just like seeds, the more we sow the more we reap.  there are more promises in the bible related to giving than any other subject.   it’s incredible what GOD promises when we learn to give.  HE wants us to learn to be givers because GOD is a giver. 

if we are going to learn to become like GOD we’ve got to learn to be giving people.  no matter how wealthy i’ve become, i’m not financially free until i’ve learned to give.  in order to live abundantly, i’ve got to give abundantly. 

just a thought from the front porch…

4 qualifications to make as much money as you can…

scripture says you can make as much money as you can in your life as long as you meet these four qualifications.

1.  as long as it doesn’t hurt your own health.   some people literally work themselves to death.  they amass a personal fortune and then have a heart attack.  scripture teaches that health must always take priority over wealth.  proverbs 23.4 (niv), do not wear yourselves out to get rich.  have the wisdom to show restraint.  there are so many people working themselves to death trying to afford things that really we don’t need.  don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich.  health must take a priority over wealth. 

2.  as long as it doesn’t hurt my family.  how many homes have fallen apart because kids are being ignored while parents are too busy making money to buy things for their kids?  i discovered early on that what my kids wanted was not so much things but me.  they just wanted me to spend time with them.  they’d rather have my time that anything i could afford.  we get so busy making a living that we forget to have a life.

3.  as long as it doesn’t hurt other people.  this is the exact opposite of the world’s view which says, it’s a dog eat dog world, get all you can get.  GOD demands that we make money honestly and fairly.  proverbs 22.20 (niv), a fortune can be made from cheating but there’s a curse that goes with it.  we are going to reap what we sow.  proverbs 16.8 (niv), it’s better to have a little, honestly earned than a large income dishonestly gained.

4.  as long as i keep my SPIRITual life on the same level.  the principle of balance.  as long as my spiritual growth is progressing at the level as my financial prosperity, go ahead and make what you can.  3 john 2 (niv), beloved i wish that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.  john says i pray that GOD will bless you financially as you are blessed SPIRITually.  i pray that you will prosper as much financially as you prosper SPIRITually.  GOD wants us to be in balance.  if my income and your income were at the same degree as your walk with the LORD would you be a millionaire or a pauper or somewhere in between.  there must be a balance.

GOD says if you’re going to set financial goals, you need to set SPIRITual ones too.  set some relational goals.  if all you do is set financial goals then you are out of balance and GOD says it’s wrong.

just a thought from the front porch…

a get-rich-scheme…

now the bible teaches the value of making money honestly.  the bible says in proverbs 13.11 (niv), wealth from gambling quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows.

what is gambling?  a get-rich-scheme.  in the book of proverbs, at lease six or seven times, scripture teaches us don’t get involved in get rich quick schemes.  easy come, easy go.  you make it quick, you’ll lose it quick.

proverbs 14.23 (niv), hard work brings a profit; mere talk leads to poverty.

over and over again in scripture, the bible teaches the value of hard work.  it is a legitimate honest way to increase your income by making money honestly through work.  if you talk all the time, dream, plan-get-rich-quick schemes you’re not going to prosper in life.  GOD approves of work as a means to wealth.

proverbs 14.23, in the niv says, work brings profit, talk brings poverty.  proverbs 11.16 in the today's english version, lazy people will never have money, but aggressive people will get rich.

what matters to GOD is not so much how much money you have made but how you make it.  now there is no set limit to the amount of money you make.

just a thought from the front porch…

why do CHRISTians save their money?...

so why do we save?  the CHRISTian saves for stewardship reasons.  three reasons for saving:

1.  it prevents us from impulse buying.  we don’t spend money on foolish impulses.  if we’re not saving it, the tendency is to spend it as soon as we get it.  you’ll see things you want and buy it and you really don’t need it.

proverbs 21.20 (niv), the wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets.  he does it too hastily too.  you’ve got to save it so you don’t use it on foolish impulses.

2.  it allows us to be able to help other people when they have need.  we save in order to help others.  that is so great to have money and give it to someone who really needs it.  we’ve also had the blessing of receiving from people who’ve helped us in a time of need.

3.  it gets your money working for you rather than you working for your money.   that’s the principle of investment.  when you’re saving your money it’s being invested wisely.

just a thought from the front porch…

the absolute secure place to save…

what is the purpose of saving?  why do we save?  well, here’s where the bible differs from the world’s thinking in a major way.  the world thinks you save for security.  if i can just accumulate a big enough bank account i would be financially secure.

the problem is, there's no such thing as absolute security.  no matter how much money you've got, you could lose it instantly.  just talk to some of the people who have had on their money in tech stocks. 

i have a friend who took a $150,000 loss one year on lucent stock.  when he bought it, he was going to be set.  bunker hunt in a 1986 time magazine article said that he and his brothers lost over one billion dollars.  bunker hunt said, “a billion dollars ain’t what it used to be.” 

you can lose it no matter how much you make, no matter what kind of job you’ve got, you could break a leg, get sick, the economy could bottom out as it has, the place can burn down, electrical and gas prices could go through the roof.

in order to have security you’ve got to put your security in something that cannot be taken away from you.  everything i have in life can be taken away from me: my family, my money, my reputation, everything.  there is only one thing that cannot be taken away from me and that’s my relationship with CHRIST.  i’ve got to put my trust and security in CHRIST and not in a passbook account, cd’s stocks. 

we don’t save like the world saves simply for security.  paul said in philippians 4.19 (niv), my god shall supply all my needs.  that’s security.  that’s the way to be prepared for financial reverses to find security in the LORD.

just a thought from the front porch…

what is a right use?..

there is also a right use for wealth.  one is right accumulation and it is the principle that the bible says that we are to save money faithfully.  proverbs 21.20 (niv), the wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets.

proverbs 30.24 (niv), consider the ant how it stores up in the winter. 

JESUS told a number of parables and over half of them dealt with money.  HE talked more about money than HE did about heaven and hell.  HE talks about investment, how the wise man invested his money and the foolish man didn’t invest his money.  the master came back and said “you’re wicked.”  it’s wicked not to make our money work for us.  when we save our money we get our money to work for us rather than working for our money.  in order to develop the habit of saving you’ve got to do two things:

first you need to learn to live on a margin.  that means live on less than you make.

john d rockerfeller said many times, “save 10%, tithe 10%, live on 80%.”  obviously that worked for him.  he was a very wealthy and influential person.

i think the principle of margin also applies to our time.  one of the reasons we are late to things is because we plan to arrive on time. 

if you want to arrive on time you actually have to plan to arrive early.  leave on a margin so when all the unexpected things that are going to happen come up, you will arrive on time.

then you learn contentment.  you’ve got to learn contentment with what we have.  if you don’t learn contentment, you’ll spend all the money you have as soon as you get it.  one guy used to say, “use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.”  today that guy is a millionaire.  one of the biggest enemies of contentment is advertising.  we see things and think, “how am i going to get along without that?”

just a thought from the front porch…

affluence and influence…

an issue that james deals with in his nt book is the application of wealth or how we use it’s influence.  he says, don’t abuse it. 

wealth gives us much more than simply buying ability.  richard foster in his book, money, sex and power, says that money has a lot more power than simply buying power.  when you have money, it gives you influences, authority.  we listen to people who make money more than people who are poor.

why do they get away with things that we don’t get away with?  scripture says, the children of this world are wiser than the children of light.  they recognize that money is influence.  they use it to influence people, often for very poor reasons.

they use it to manipulate, finance campaigns.  we are seeing that right now in our presidential campaign.  CHRISTians need to recognize that it has influence and use it for good and the point that james is making in this passage is that we ought to use our affluence for good influence.  james says that we should recognize that it’s powerful and not abuse it.  use it on good ways.

james 5.6 (niv), you have condemned and ruined innocent men and they were powerless to stop you.

evidently in james time, the rich were buying off judges and circumventing justice.  if they wanted to take advantage of a guy, they'd take him to court, talk to the judge and slip him a couple of bills and they would get their own way.  james says, you have condemned and ruined innocent men and they were powerless to stop you.

even today, a lot of people use money to manipulate others.  there are families where one person would keep the relatives under control by threatening to cut them out of the will.  we keep our kids under control, a lot of times, by bribing them with their allowance.  this is the wrong application of wealth.

just a thought from the front porch…

the easier it is to waste it…

james here in the beginning of chapter 5 talks about the allocation of money or how i spend it.

the way i spend my money is very important and he says, don't waste it.  verse 5 (niv), you have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence.

we are not to waste our wealth.  one of the greatest temptations, i think, that we have to avoid as we make more and more is we’re tempted to spend it selfishly on ourselves.  the more money you make the easier it is to waste it.  we tend to say things like, “i’m worth it.  i can afford it, so why not?”

listen, just because i can afford it doesn’t mean i need to buy it.  james says, don’t waste it.  it’s easier to waste your money, the more you have it. 

then he says in verse 5 (niv), you have fattened yourself for the slaughter.

the average american gains two pounds during the CHRISTmas season.

just a thought from the front porch…

how did you get it?…

there is another financial issue here in chapter 5 that james talks about.  this is the issue of appropriation of wealth.  GOD is not only concerned with what we’ve got but also how we got it.

he says, don’t steal it.  don’t use dishonest means to rip people off and there are a lot of different ways to make dishonest money.

in the nt, you worked on a daily basis.  you were hired at the beginning of the day, you worked all day and at the end of the day you were given your pay.  a man would go into town and hire the workers, there were no contracts, no labor unions to protect the workers.  if the boss wanted to rip you off, he could.

you could work all day and the boss come out and say, “i don't like your work,” then you went home with no money.  he kept the money and also got your work.  this is what james is criticizing.  verse 4 (niv), the wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you.

if i charge too much, if i sell a used car to you and don’t tell you about major repairs, if i cheat on taxes, if i waste time and i’m being paid for it, that is wrong and i’m no different than the unscrupulous employer.  if i don’t pay back a debt that is being dishonest.

just a thought from the front porch

are you afraid of losing it?...

once in a while you’ll read in the newspaper of an elderly person who died and by all appearances they were in obvious poverty but when they moved their mattress, they found hundreds of thousands of dollars.  this isn’t somebody who saved their money but they hoarded it.

why did they do it? because they were afraid of losing it.  money had become an end in itself.  accumulating had become the goal of life.  they were so afraid of losing it so they didn’t spend it.

in new testament times you could hoard wealth three ways.

1.  stockpiling food

2.  collect clothes

3.  gather precious metals and jewels.

this is the way wealthy people showed off their wealth in nt times.  if you had money you would show it off by having a lot of food, clothes, and precious metals and jewels.

james speaks about these three types of wealth in verse 2-3 of chapter 5 (niv), your wealth has rotted, moths have eaten your clothes and your gold and silver is corroded.

the point he is making here is that whatever you simply accumulate, deteriorates.  whatever you accumulate will deteriorate.  GOD doesn’t want us to get wealthy just for the sake of getting wealth.  HE want us to put it into circulation.

he says your clothes get moth eaten.  which clothes get moth eaten?  the ones you wear all the time or the ones you keep stockpiled in the back of your closet?  the ones you hoard.

your food has gone rotten.  which food goes rotten?  the food that you eat everyday?  no, it’s the stuff in the back of the refrigerator that’s been there for three months.  we’ve created new life forms in our refrigerator.

wealth is to be used and not hoarded.  james says the wrong use of wealth, number one when it comes to accumulation don't hoard it.

just a thought from the front porch…

is it wrong to be wealthy?...

as i came to this section of the book of james i contemplated just skipping it and going on.  it is really a difficult thing to look at, this matter of money.  but there are truths here that we all need to see here at the beginning of 2012 so stay with me and let’s go.

we are looking here at the first six verses of chapter 5 here in the new testament book of james.  many people wrongly believe that the bible teaches that it’s wrong to be wealthy.  they think the bible says that money is the root of all evil.  it actually says that the love of money is the root of all evil.

in new testament times, there was no such thing as a middle class.  the people in the entire new testament times were either very rich or very poor.  you were either a have or a have not.  the system caused the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer and the rich tended to manipulate and oppress the poor people, who were continually abused.

now james lashed out at the non-CHRISTian use of money by the wealthy and he gives a rebuke – probably one of the most negative passages in the entire new testament.  he condemns them with four specific abuses they were guilty of.  although we may not commit these sins to the same degree, this passage is a healthy warning to us to make sure that no matter how much money we have, we use it wisely.

here in the united states according to world standards we are all wealthy.  if you own a car, you’re wealthy.  if you have more than one change of clothes, you are wealthy.  if you own your own home, you’re in the top 5% of the world.  we need to be grateful for what we have.

just a thought from the front porch…