A man trying to understand the
nature of God asked him:
"God, how long is a million years
to you?"
God answered:
"A million years is like a minute."
Then the man asked:
"God, how much is a million
dollars to you?"
And God replied:
"A million dollars is like a penny."
Finally, the man asked:
"God, could you give me a penny?"
And God said, "In a minute."
Now that you have had a laugh...on to the
lesson!
† † † † † † † † † † † † † † † † † † † †
The Issue of Money
===================
Shortage of money is the number one
common factor in the hundreds of prayer
requests that we receive each week at
Mountain Wings #3248
If money is not the central issue, a
money shortage is usually present in
both marriage difficulties and health
problems.
A sizable percentage of MountainWings'
readers deal with money shortage issues.
Some think it doesn't belong in an
inspirational email but let your money
get tight and get an unexpected check
and see if that doesn't inspire you.
I want to address the issue of money as
briefly as I can. For a few, my experience
may shed a new light on your situation.
Some may have a radically different
opinion, that is expected; but for many,
this will help change your view and
possibly your approach to your money
situation.
I deal with more money shortage
situations than most people simply
by virtue of being a Pastor of a church
and a businessman. People come to me,
both for advice and money in both the
church and business worlds.
Hopefully the eight principles below
will help someone reading Mountain
Wings.
Principle #1 - Hardly anyone has enough
money.
----------------------------------------------
At a recent meeting in my company,
some thought I was bragging when I said
that I had enough money. I was absolutely
serious.I have always had enough money,
but I have not always made a lot of money.
When I earned less than minimum wage,
I had enough money.When I earned minimum
wage, I had enough money. I have enough
money now.
Someone asked the multi-billionaire John
D. Rockefeller the question of "How much
money is enough?"
His answer was, "One more dollar than I have."
He therefore, would never have enough,
no matter how many billions he had.
I have seen people earn more than double
what they were earning in the previous year
and they still did not have enough money.
Money is one of those things where unless
the spirit gets right, you never have enough.
Having enough money is primarily a matter
of spirit, not amount, understand this.
Principle #2 - You are rich when you
have enough.
-------------------------------------------
Don't be like Rockefeller or else you
will forever be dissatisfied.
Often our change from poor to rich is
more spiritual than financial. It is why
Paul could say if you have food and
clothing then you should be content.
Perhaps we should realize that
instead of struggling so hard to get
more that we should simply want less.
The problem with wanting more is
that it never stops, and most find that
even when they get "the stuff," it's
not what they thought in terms of real
contentment.
Jesus said:
a. The Kingdom of God is within
b. It is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for a rich man
to enter into the kingdom of God.
Everyone wants the kingdom, yet
everyone also wants to be rich.
I preached a sermon called, "The
Roughest Verse in the Bible." It was
concerning this basic principle.
You can listen to it onWMA (best) Listen
Just maybe, for many of you, you have enough already.
Principle #3 - Neither The New
Testament of the Bible or any of the
teachings of Jesus promise nor
promote material wealth.
-------------------------------------
Some will argue against this to an extreme,
but I have looked for it over and over in
the New Testament of the Bible. It
simply is not there unless you take
a scripture and twist it to mean what
it really didn't say or you must make
speculations about things
that aren't written in scripture.
No words in the New Testament promote
wealth when looked at in context.
NONE!
"What about when Jesus told the
disciples where to fish and they had
the great haul of fish?" you ask.
Read what they did with the increase
after they got it. The disciples ate from
the fish then left the fish to follow Jesus.
When you read exactly what they did,
the pattern becomes clear.
We can sometimes be masters at making
scripture say what it never meant because
it is what people want to hear and it often
justifies our own agenda.
Jesus NEVER pointed us towards material
wealth; he did quite the opposite when
you read what he actually said.
Many passages plainly point you away
from riches but none plainly point you
towards it, not in the New Testament.
And no, the verse, "Beloved, I wish above
all things that thou mayest prosper and
be in health," is not talking about riches.
Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:8, that if you
have food and clothing you should be
content. I thought about that verse as I
was alone one day. I had a BIG problem
with it then, and I still struggle to
fully understand and accept it.
"What about shelter?" I thought. How
in the world does God expect you to be
content with no house? That just didn't
make any sense to me.
So I asked God in a quiet moment, "How
can a person be content with no house?"
God answered me and though I didn't like the
answer, the minute I heard it, I recognized
the truth of it.
The answer was, "Did my son have a house?"
"Whoa!"
Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds
of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
has no place to lay his head."(Mat 8:20 NIV)
Not only are we NOT happy with food and
clothing, we often aren't happy even in
medium or large houses. We want mansions
and guess what? Given enough time,
we often aren't happy in those either.
Principle #4 - Rich and poor are relative
terms.
----------------------------------------
I went to the Amazon jungle. I wanted to
see the rain forest before man destroyed
it. The children in the jungle were
excited to see an ink pen.
We trekked through the jungle all
day with a native guide. He said our
hike would culminate by visiting the
rich man's house.
I was expecting a huge mansion
overlooking the river. When we got
to his house, it indeed sat on a hill,
but it was hardly a mansion.
It was more like a shack on a hill.
His house was distinguished by the
fact that it had a generator. The rich
man had electricity. When the rest of
the village was dark, he had light,
therefore everyone in the village
considered him"The Rich Man.
"I learned a great lesson from that.
He had no indoor plumbing, no air
conditioning, no marble counters or
carpeted floors. His house would not
even meet minimum building codes in
the poorest neighborhoods in America.
However, he had electricity when
everyone else was in the dark,
therefore he was rich.
In many parts of the world, what we
consider poverty is considered great
wealth. We have so much food in
America that eating too much causes
America's biggest health problems.
Principle #5 - Happiness is not dependent
on money.
------------------------------------------
The Amazon jungle was perhaps the poorest
area that I have ever visited. There was
no industry. The huts did not even have
doors. Yet, in the midst of what many
would consider extreme poverty by
American standards, again I saw something.
The people were quite happy.
The ability to sense spirit is something
God gave me long ago.When I sold
newspapers as a boy through many of the
neighborhoods in Atlanta, the minute
people opened the door, I could sense
whether the house was happy or sad.
I sold newspapers in the richest and
poorest of neighborhoods. Both had
their share of happy and sad homes.
The guide told us as we walked through
the village with the doorless huts, "We
marry around 13 or 14."
"13 or 14?" I repeated, amazed at
such a young marrying age.
"What is the divorce rate?" I asked.
"Less than 5%," he replied.
Again I saw that material possessions
don't guarantee happiness.We have
relatively huge wealth along with a relatively
huge divorce rate.
Principle #6 - One American family has
contributed to morefinancial disaster
than any other.
-----------------------------------------
The Joneses.
Because we often try to keep up with the
Joneses, it strains our finances to the
limit and beyond. My father, often quoted,
"If your outgo exceeds your income then
your upkeep will become your downfall.
"Too often we live way above our means.
I have always had enoughmoney because
I have always kept my expenses well below
my income. Whether you earn millions or
minimum wage, the principle applies.
Years ago my wife began selling a nutritional
system. The system had a cassette tape
explaining it. She went throughout several
Atlanta upper income neighborhoods
putting the tapes in mailboxes.
She only selected the fancy houses as
she only had a limited number of tapes.
Six people responded wanting the system.
The system cost $100.
Of the six people who responded, not ONE
had $100.
Each had a story of why they had to wait
until payday or could only pay a part now
but none had $100. "How could that be?"
my wife asked.
"I specifically only put these tapes in BIG
houses. They all had two fancy cars and
$200,000 plus houses. How could their
finances be so tight that they don't have $100?"
she kept asking me.
Because they lived next to The Joneses,
who lived next to The Joneses,
who lived next to The Joneses,who lived next to ...
Principle #7 - Lack of a budget.
--------------------------------------------------
At the church, I have a financial expert
teach a class each month. It is a six-part
series that we repeat each six months.
It teaches people how to manage their money.
We often tell people in the church to give
10% of their money to the church,
but we give them no knowledge on
how to manage the other 90%.
People came to me with testimonies
about how the class changed their financial
lives. The first thing the expert did was to
have everyone create a budget.
NO ONE had a budget. No one could
say exactly how much they were spending.
Sure, they all knew what the rent or mortgage
was, but it was often the "other" stuff
that sunk them. No onecould tell you
with any degree of accuracy exactly what
they were spending as a total.
The expert told the story of how one
lady had come to him for a loan.
She wanted to buy a car. She was going to
pay for the car by the week at one of those
"pay by the week" places.
She got angry at him when he would
not lend her the money. He had her to
do a budget. When she did, she was
shocked to see that the weekly
payments plus what she was spending
on other stuff added up to more than
what she was earning. If he had
loaned her the money for the down
payment on the car, it would
have been sure financial disaster.
WRITE IT DOWN exactly how much
you spend each month on EVERYTHING.
You may be surprised. Just something as
simple as a two pack a day cigarette habit
is $200.00 per month.
Principle #8 - Learn the principle of
giving.
-------------------------------------------------
I cannot logically explain this, but I
know it is true. It is no accident that
the U.S. is the most prosperous country on
the face of the earth, but we also give
more than any other country on earth.
Yes, I know the U.S. has flaws but that
doesn't change the principle or the result.
We benefit from our benevolence;
we suffer for our malice.
God spoke a Word of Wisdom to me
personally concerning money.
"Anything beyond sufficiency is insignificant."
It has taken me a long time to understand
that but the longer I live, the more
convinced I am of that truth.
Money is similar to food. You need it;
if you run short, it gets very uncomfortable
and even unhealthy. Yet excess consumption
has great dangers.
Having excess food is wonderful if you do
the right thing. The problem is not in
having the excess; the excess is a blessing.
The challenge is in doing the right thing
with the excess.
Even the Old Testament of the Bible
listed lack of both money and food as a
curse and its abundance a blessing.
The problem was that it wasn't long
after the abundance that the people became
corrupt. It is very hard to keep abundance
in balance.
That's why Jesus said it was HARD
for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
Money has always been and always will be
an issue. It traps most in this world;
it even traps most of us preachers.
"No servant can serve two masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the
other, or he will be devoted to the one and
despise the other. You cannot serve both
God and Money. "The Pharisees,
(ministers and priests) who loved
money, heard all this and were sneering
at Jesus. He said to them, "You are the ones
who justify yourselves in the eyes of men,
but God knows your hearts. What is
highly valued among men is detestable
in God's sight. (Luke 16:13-15 NIV)
The messages of this week have presented
you with the principles for abundance
and some guidance for using the abundance.
I wrote an issue on what God specifically
spoke to me concerning how to handle the
blessing of money.
Click here to Read it
Remember that a golden chain binds
just as tight as an iron one.
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