Ok, here's one that's a straight forward lesson on handling money. It's simple, bullet pointed, and brief but wanted to put it out there because wherever your money is, that's where your heart is. If your money is in your business, that's where your heart is also. If your money is in your food, that's where your heart is. If your money is in an orphanage, that's where your heart is. If your money is in your savings account that's where your heart is.
So here it goes, handle your money with a reverence for God, realizing that God is not concerned only with the "spiritual" aspects of life, the philosophical ideas of your life. There is One God and He is the Lord over all of life, money, food, driving to and from work, all of it, and it all may be offered to Him as worship by living for Him instead of for yourself. Here's how to do that with money.
1) Work hard to earn money: don't rely on charity to pay your bills, take care of your family, and expect others to just hand it over to you. You are not entitled to anything other than what you work for. So if you need more money, get another job, sell some possessions, do work for friends or family, don't just expect money. People may give you charity with nothing owed in return, but don't expect it. Also, working hard now to develop a residual income is good, and if you've done it and no longer must work to provide for your family, great. But keep working anyway because God created man in a garden and gave him the work of keeping up with it. Work is a blessing to mankind, not a hardship - it's the hardness of work that is a hardship, but work itself is a good thing.
2) Save some of it: but by not less than 10% of your income to keep for future needs. One day you won't be able to work. Perhaps sooner than later if a tragedy happens to you. But whether sooner or later, you will one day no longer be able to work. And one day your family will no longer have you to care for them and provide for them by your work. So set aside this amount and it will grow. If you keep 1 part of every 10 that you earn, then you will grow your savings so that you will be able to care for yourself and those you love with the stock of what you've earned.
3) Give some to God: support others in love, honoring God with the charitable use what you have earned. He made you, your body to labor manually, your mind to learn new things to labor mentally, and your creativity after His own likeness, so in earning from your work, you are to give back to God in caring for others to show your gratitude to Him for what you've earned, and also your trust that He will continue to provide for you through your work, by the care He shows you each day. He cares for the birds of the air, not one goes hungry, and always is able to make a nest until its death. So He also cares for you to provide for you through the ability to work, and through the help of others. Be that help to others yourself as long as you work, and make it a practice to give what you can, not less than 10% in order to show you are equally eager to care for God and others as you are to care for yourself by putting 10% in savings and 10% towards God and others.
4) Live off of it: pay your bills, enjoy the rewards of working hard and earning money. Enjoy the fun with friends and good things of life with what the Lord has given you through your work. Not everyone is paid the same, nor works the same, and so not everyone enjoys the same. But instead of wishing upon a star to hopefully one day get to enjoy what you long for, be content with what you have earned and enjoy from your earnings that which God has put within your grasp to enjoy. There will always be things you want that you cannot have, no matter how much or how little you may earn. But after saving some, giving some, and of course paying the tax man, you may enjoy what you have left to live on.
5) Earn more: work towards learning new skills and being diligent and faithful to the work you've chosen to do, or want to do later on with new skills or positions. Learn how to earn more by working harder or better or in a different position. Also work to be wise in handling the money you are saving so that it will not just sit by and add up each time you set some aside. Work so that it will add up, AND multiply by putting it to work for you to grow it. Learning how to invest wisely and safely for a good return, and being wise so that you do not fall for schemes which will actually waste your money and leave you with nothing. Learn and work at it also.
This is simple but also timeless. These ideas are published by many authors throughout many generations because it is constant and has worked since before there was money, even when there was only agriculture and barter. Keep these and all the time be content, and be grateful to live your life for the Lord, Jesus Christ, who gave His whole life to the point of death on a cross, so that you would be saved from your sins, from your evil desires, and could be made right with God. So that you could live in His kingdom instead of the kingdom of the world. He loves you, and forgives you of your sin. There is freedom and eternal life for anyone at all who believes in Him, repents of their sins and follows Him in full trust.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Friday, November 7, 2014
Honey Or Vinegar?
You have probably hold the old proverb "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." But have you really contemplated this in your own settings? First, take it literally. If you were trying to catch flies, what would you use to catch them? Probably sugar, or honey, or something else really sweet. I've seen enough flies around - Texas summers are hot, muggy, and can be swarmed with the things - to know they are always, ALWAYS attracted to whatever is sweet and tasty. But what about vinegar? Would you try that? Maybe you would give it a shot to see what happens, which may be a good experiment for this to really sink in.
But think about it. Honey or vinegar to literally catch more flies? When you've got that firmly in mind, then move on to your own setting. What are you trying to catch? Are you trying to catch friends? Customers? Are you trying to catch a rabbit? Deer?
Don't we all know that if you want to catch a rabbit, you put it's favorite foods in a cage to attract it?
I have tried chasing down a rabbit before, really... A friend and I were at a college campus in high school, late at night (or was it early morning?) and we were bored. So we went outside and rabbits were all over the place, so what should we have done? Catch a rabbit! But we didn't even talk about how to do it best, we just said to each other, "let's go catch one!" So off we went chasing, until after 3 rabbits took off faster than we would ever be able to run, we found one that ran towards a building and was in an entry-way in front of a door, so it was surrounded by 2 walls, me and my friend. We thought we had it if we just closed in carefully and were ready to pounce when it flinched. We were wrong. It darted between us and we didn't even stand a chance.
We tried chasing a rabbit and catching it by force. If we had just put some veggies in a box we would have caught one. I don't know how long it would have taken but we would have caught one.
The point is, consider how you may be trying to force your way onto other people. You may be trying to demand others be a certain way, have a certain attitude, do a certain thing just the way you want it done. This itself is not helpful for you, nor for the other person. I love others. I serve others, even beyond inconvenience and into hurt when needed. I try hard to have a good attitude and not be demanding of others. I speak the truth to others but only when it's out of love for them and hoping that they will respond to have more life. Sometimes I also try to control and demand attitudes, responses from others, but my wife quickly corrects me... thank God for her. All of those things are good, and I hope them for others, and I pray for others often to have this life also. But I can't demand it.
Love, compassion, mercy, justice and service is the honey that catches more people; speaking truth to people with love, compassion, mercy, justice, and service may not always seem appealing to others, but it is the honey of life, offering the best you have for their good. Vinegar is demanding your own way, being rude, cruel, unjust and unmerciful. No one demonstrates this more than Jesus. He is our prime model for this because He even gave up His very life for others. He came to serve, not to be served. I hope to live likewise and I hope for others to do the same, following in His footsteps. I trust Him enough to do this even when it doesn't seem helpful or doesn't seem like it will get anywhere...and it may not get me where I want to go, but it will be the best thing and will build relationships with people. Always be offering the "honey" to others and not the "vinegar".
But think about it. Honey or vinegar to literally catch more flies? When you've got that firmly in mind, then move on to your own setting. What are you trying to catch? Are you trying to catch friends? Customers? Are you trying to catch a rabbit? Deer?
Don't we all know that if you want to catch a rabbit, you put it's favorite foods in a cage to attract it?
I have tried chasing down a rabbit before, really... A friend and I were at a college campus in high school, late at night (or was it early morning?) and we were bored. So we went outside and rabbits were all over the place, so what should we have done? Catch a rabbit! But we didn't even talk about how to do it best, we just said to each other, "let's go catch one!" So off we went chasing, until after 3 rabbits took off faster than we would ever be able to run, we found one that ran towards a building and was in an entry-way in front of a door, so it was surrounded by 2 walls, me and my friend. We thought we had it if we just closed in carefully and were ready to pounce when it flinched. We were wrong. It darted between us and we didn't even stand a chance.
We tried chasing a rabbit and catching it by force. If we had just put some veggies in a box we would have caught one. I don't know how long it would have taken but we would have caught one.
The point is, consider how you may be trying to force your way onto other people. You may be trying to demand others be a certain way, have a certain attitude, do a certain thing just the way you want it done. This itself is not helpful for you, nor for the other person. I love others. I serve others, even beyond inconvenience and into hurt when needed. I try hard to have a good attitude and not be demanding of others. I speak the truth to others but only when it's out of love for them and hoping that they will respond to have more life. Sometimes I also try to control and demand attitudes, responses from others, but my wife quickly corrects me... thank God for her. All of those things are good, and I hope them for others, and I pray for others often to have this life also. But I can't demand it.
Love, compassion, mercy, justice and service is the honey that catches more people; speaking truth to people with love, compassion, mercy, justice, and service may not always seem appealing to others, but it is the honey of life, offering the best you have for their good. Vinegar is demanding your own way, being rude, cruel, unjust and unmerciful. No one demonstrates this more than Jesus. He is our prime model for this because He even gave up His very life for others. He came to serve, not to be served. I hope to live likewise and I hope for others to do the same, following in His footsteps. I trust Him enough to do this even when it doesn't seem helpful or doesn't seem like it will get anywhere...and it may not get me where I want to go, but it will be the best thing and will build relationships with people. Always be offering the "honey" to others and not the "vinegar".
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