The 100% Rule

“It is required in stewards that one be found faithful.”

(1 Corinthians 4:2)

Many people are confused about what it means to be a good steward. When we hear the word, “stewardship,” we tend to think about fundraising campaigns and those little “thermometer” drawings that show us where the church is in terms of funding the annual budget. Unfortunately, this is not what Paul was referring to in his letter to the Corinthians.

Stewardship actually has to do with responsibility. A steward is someone who manages someone else’s money and/or possessions. Since God is the “owner” of everything on this earth, (The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. Psalms 24:1) we are all managers, or “stewards” of the things He has entrusted to us.

It’s easy to test whether or not you have a proper perspective in this area. How do you acknowledge a request for money? Do you think, “that’s not what I want to do with MY money” or do you ASK, “Lord, what do YOU want me to do with YOUR money?” It’s all a matter of attitude. If we have the attitude that everything we have belongs to God, and we are just his managers, then we begin to have a heart that desires to handle those things in the ways in which He desires. In essence, every spending (or giving) decision becomes a spiritual decision.

Good managers know how their bosses want them to manage, so if we’re going to be found a “faithful” steward, we need to know what God requires of us in His word. It is our “manual” so to speak!

Sadly, most Christians have received very little teaching on stewardship, yet 2350 verses deal with the subject, as well as 2/3 of Jesus” parables. God must have known this was going to be a tough thing for us to “get!”

As someone who teaches about biblical financial principles, the most common questions I get asked, have to do with tithing. Everyone wants to know the “ins and outs” of that 10% we see referred to in the scripture.

Certainly, tithing is a part of how we handle our finances, but it misses the mark when we talk about being a “faithful steward.” God doesn’t want us just to handle 10% of what He’s given us His way, He want s us to handle 100% of it His way.

Imagine the blessing that would come from submitting to the Lord 100% in regard to finances, in the same way we think of submitting and surrendering 100% of our hearts when we become saved!

We need to remember 100% of what we have is HIS, 100% of the time.

It’s the 100% rule. If you get it, it’s a game changer!

"Yield" and Be Frugal

Typically, when we hear the word frugal, we think of money, but to tell you the truth, I find it can be just as hard to be frugal when it comes to "time" as it is with money. Frankly, I find it really easy to get swallowed up by busyness. Yes, I’ve had the “super-mom” complex. I was the ultimate team-managing travel soccer mom at one point. I was the fundraising, competitive dance team mom and the jersey washing Varsity Football mom. For a few years these happened simultaneously! Ugh!!! Now I wonder how my kids can be gone off to college and I’m still so busy! Here’s the thing that God has recently shown me.

Why am I doing the things that I’m doing? Is God at the center of my choices?

Colossians 1:9-10

"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God."

In my prayer time the other day, I was praying for God to give some direction in my life on some matters and what I heard him saying to me was “We need more time together. I want you to do less and listen to me more. Then we will accomplish more." What he was saying was “Stop trying to do things, even things for me in your own power. Sit with me. Listen for my voice. I will lead you I will multiply your efforts because you will be doing what pleases me. Isn’t that what it’s all about? Pleasing God?

Matthew 6:33

"Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you."

When we run here and there being busy. Are we doing it because God asked us to or because we trying to meet our need for self worth by accomplishing more or trying to gain the approval of others?

When we seek God and ask him to show us what he wants us to do, when we seek to please HIM, we allow him to become involved in every aspect of our lives. Our lives become fruitful because he can anoint what we’re doing when it is in line with His will for our lives. All of that other busyness, if done outside of his will, is done in our own power. If God has called us to do something, we just need to be obedient and do it. If I really think about it, I have always had enough time to get done the things God truly called me to do.

Breaking the “busyness” habit was really tough, mainly, because as I said before, I am a “do-er” by nature. It made me feel more in control of things if I felt like I was acting upon them in some way. But that is just the problem. I was doing that out of a need to be in control. But 1 Chronicles 29 tells us God is in control of all things. So think about it, if I have a heart to use my time the way God wants me to use it, wouldn’t it make sense to first of all “ask him what he wants me to do?” and then rather than run around doing things I think make sense, and finding out later were totally fruitless endeavors—wait until he tells me what to do and then just do that and have he results be awesome. Hmmm. That means I would probably spend less time doing and more time accomplishing God’s will for more life. I think this is what Jesus had in mind in Matthew 11:28-30, when he says:

Matthew 11:28

“Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take MY yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

If I know what I am doing is pleasing to the Lord that definitely gives me much more peace than running around like crazy and worrying about whether anything I did really mattered. Remember what the bible says in 1 Samuel.15? “To obey is better than sacrifice.” When we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, will we be like Saul? “Look at what great things I did for you, Lord. Look at what I sacrificed to do all these noble and charitable things.” How many of us will have sacrificed our families for our jobs or even our congregations, but never really considered what God really WANTED us to do. We can be really busy doing good things, but they aren’t necessarily God things.

What God really wants from his people is for them to be yielded to Him. Remember, God doesn’t need to use us in his work, He chooses to use us if we will submit to His will. He’s in charge of the results. He just wants us to execute his plan. Even Christ himself was submitted to the will of the Father. What really matters in life is living out the will of God in our lives. Being a good steward of time is making God such a huge priority in our lives that everything we do is in obedience to what He asks us to do. That’s what we refer to as “loving God, with all our heart, our souls, our mind and our strength.” Is it easy? No! Is it a process? Yes! One that the Lord is only too pleased to guide us through, if we just take the time to ask him to come in and take over. Kind of like moving over in the front seat and letting him take the wheel.

The world says it’s all about you… how much you can get, how much you can do. But God says it’s all about relationship, first and foremost with Him. From that place alone, can He use us to truly change the world.

Being a Good Investment

"He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much and he who is unrighteousness in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much."

Luke 16:10

When my son turned 16, we gave him our old car and my husband got a newer car for himself. It was probably the first large ticket item we had given him that required any regular upkeep and care. The car was certainly not a fancy car. It wasn't sporty. It was far from new. In fact, it had over 100,ooo miles on it! It most assuredly didn't make the grade as "cool"- it was the old family wagon! However, my son was content with it. He called it the "Honey Wagon," mainly to get a rise out of his mother and never complained about it not being as nice as the cars some other kids at school drove. I was proud of him for that! He was not pretentious that way.

Over a period of time, however, my husband and I began to notice that the wagon was beginning to look a bit "beat up." The hood had all sorts of dents in it, which I found out later was from allowing other boys to jump on it! Eventually, we noticed there was a huge scrape down the side too. (We found it when we happened to wonder why the car was parked in the opposite direction in the driveway from how it usually was!)

When questioned, my son was very forthcoming with the truth. He had made the bad decision to "goof around" in an empty parking lot (going a bit too fast by our observation of the damage) and had swiped a pole. He admitted his wrong doing when confronted and repented to us for "being stupid."

I wish I could say that was the last bit of damage that occurred, but by the middle of his senior year, the car had taken on a great deal more abuse. The front bumper was actually dragging on the ground at one point! Even then, he never asked us to fix the car. He and his friend went out and "took care of the problem" themselves. I still don't know for sure what they did with the bumper. I didn't want to know! I think it involved wire and Gorilla Glue!

It was certainly an interesting dilemma we had at that time. Naturally, we were extremely frustrated with how he was taking care of the car. In addition to that, it was beyond our comprehension how he was so totally content to live with a car that looked like his did!

One day, as his high school graduation was approaching, I was experiencing frustration again with his same attitude toward school and grades as he had shown with the car. With the costs of his freshman year in college right around the corner, it occurred to me that the "investment" he was asking us to make for him was similar. The car he was driving had cost us around $15,000, pretty much the same as 1 year of college. This gave me an idea.

I took him out to the driveway and shared with him how much we had originally paid for the car. I also shared with him that as his parents, we had given him the car to use because we wanted to bless him. I let him know how disappointed I was in the way he had taken care of the "gift" we had given him and explained that soon he was going to want us to bless him in a similar way by paying for his first year of college. I made the comparison in costs for him. Lastly, I suggested to him that as I considered the "risk" in making just such an investment again for his education, I take one look at his car in the driveway and think...BAD IDEA!

I now had his attention!

I realized during the conversation that followed, that my son had never seen his care for the car in the same way we did. He thought if it didn't bother him to have a "beat up" car, then there wasn't any problem with it. He never considered who really "owned" the car, nor did he consider how his treatment of the car made us feel.

From that day forward, I'm happy to say that my son has taken much better care of his car. It's still a mess on the inside, but that's another issue...We made a deal with him to fix the car somewhat (primarily that "glued" bumper) and from that point on, he made a more conscious effort to be more careful and take better care of what we had given him. He also just finished his first year in college and made good on that investment as well!

This whole experience was a wonderful example of how we can confuse "stewardship." Everything we have is a gift from God. He is making an investment in us. How will we take care of what he has entrusted to us? Being content with what we have doesn't make us a good steward. Remember the parable of the talents?

God wants us to take care of his things and use them in such a way that it glorifies Him. When we do that, He know he can trust us with even more. It's not how much we have but how we use what we have for Him!

How would our world change if every Christian sought to use all of their gifts from God in ways that glorified him. What if we looked to maximize His investment?

"Small things are small things, but faithfulness with a small thing is a big thing."

Hudson Taylor-

One Mind or Two?

In today’s changing political and economic climate, Christians are continually be challenged to examine what they truly believe. Our eroding foundation of biblical morality is beginning to resemble a culture clash not all that different from what was occurring in Jesus’ day between the Romans and the Jews.

The Romans were a pagan culture. They worshipped many gods and did not operate under the laws of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the Jewish people did.

Today we see much of the same. How many gods are worshipped in America today? What do we devote ourselves to? Money? Sex? Power? Ourselves? What values are dominating our culture? It would appear that secular values are increasingly dictating that “fairness,” “equality,” and “tolerance” should reign supreme over any singular set of “religious” values.

Luke 20:19-26

“Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.”

“So the spies questioned him: "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.”

In this day, the Romans were occupying Israel and placing very burdensome taxes on the Jewish people. How similar is this to what happens today as Americans are being forced into paying higher and higher taxes to an administration of government that supports values that fly in the face of the Christian values that founded this nation? Are we as Christians beginning to feel a sense of “duplicity” or double-mindedness over such issues? Could it be that God is drawing a “line in the sand? Where do we stand? What should we do? God’s people faced the same sort of dilemma in Jesus’ day and asked him what to do…

“Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"

He saw through their duplicity and said to them, "Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?"

"Caesar's," they replied. He said to them,

"Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

Jesus is differentiating between levels of authority-earthly authority that has been placed over them vs. the authority of God. Remember Jesus is always concerned about our hearts. We must fulfill our obligation to obey the authority over us to preserve our witness in the world, but we must be diligent to preserve our ultimate “allegiance” to the one whose image we bear. We are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26

The lines ARE being drawn. Where will we stand? How will it look for us to submit to government authority and yet preserve our soul? We need to think it through...

Declare Your Dependence

Has pursuing the American dream turned into and endless pursuit of material prosperity? If material prosperity is a measure of freedom than surely Americans are more free today than they were 30 years ago, or are they?

Actually, according to U.S. labor studies, Americans are working on average 199 hours more than they did 30 years ago despite all the technological advances that have take n place in last few decades that should allow us to get more done in less time. So why are we working more? We’re working more, because American’s chose to take those increases in productivity in the forms of “more money” and “more stuff.” So much so, that we have found ourselves in a cycle of debt to the tune of over 2 trillion dollars…a rate that has more than doubled in less than 10 years. With all that debt to pay off, the average American is far from free. Longer work weeks, the need for households to have 2 incomes have taken a toll on our ability to meet the demands of our families, to take care of our children, to meet our emotional needs. We have little time to spend with friends and the stress of our everyday lives is taking a toll on our health. America is truly in bondage. Never has this been more apparent than in the past year. When the stock market began to tumble, and interest rates increased and people began to lose their jobs the balancing act that many Americans were barely maintaining toppled. Bankruptcies are at an all time high, as well as record numbers of foreclosures and divorces. The prosperity of America has not led to freedom but to tremendous levels of debt and bondage.

God gave man freedom of choice, however he never created us to be independent. He wanted us to be dependent on him. Not because He is on some big ego trip, but because as our creator, he know what we need and loves us and desires what’s best for us to such a degree that he wanted to take on that burden for us. When it comes to the issue of independence we really don’t have a choice as to whether we are going to be dependent or independent. Rather whether we recognize that we are totally dependent on God.

“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” Psalms 24:1

“Everything in the heaven’s and earth is yours O Lord.and this is your kingdom. We adore you as being in control of everything. Riches and honor come from you alone and you are the Ruler of all mankind. Your hand controls p0wer and might and it is at your discretion that men are made great or given strength.” 1 Chr. 29:11-12)

He is our sole provider. This was made very clear to the Israelites by Moses in Deuteronomy, Chapter 8 when he said:

“ You may say to yourself “My power and the strength of my hand s have produced this wealth for me” But remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives the ability to produce ealth and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers as it is today,”

And then he gives this warning…

”If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to the, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.”

The Christian life is impossible to do by ourselves. Although nothing pleases Satan more than having us believe we can. Faith becomes totally unnecessary when we think we can do things on our own.

Faith comes when we finally realize that we can’t do it by ourselves.

I struggled with debt for many years. I would get myself in trouble and get myself out of it only to find myself in deeper than I was before. I knew the arithmetic of staying out of debt... adding up all my income and making sure that the sum was greater than all of my expenditures, but knowing that didn’t keep me out of debt. I was a single mom for 8 years and during that time I used credit cards to as a way to purchase what I felt my family needed

Here’s what was operating in my life at that time…

Presumption

I was consistently robbing God of an opportunity to provide for me and show his glory and build my faith. Took on stress that I wasn’t built to handle because I chose to whip out that credit card.

Slavery

By owing them money, I was forced to serve those credit card companies with my time and my finances.

You don’t even have to be in debt to be a slave to materialism. How much time and money goes to maintaining those possessions we buy?

Idolatry

I wanted to buy things not because I NEEDED them, but because I wanted them. I wanted them, because without realizing it, I was expecting those things to fill a void in my life that only God could fill. I thought those things were my ticket to acceptance and love and personal power. Whenever, we place ourselves, or other people or things in a position of priority, we are serving an idol.

Today, I am debt-free (except for my mortgage!) and that has only come about through my desire to depend on God for what I need and place Him in a position of highest priority in my life.

Declaring my dependence on God was the beginning of freedom.

"Tough Love" in Today's Economy

Several families from my church got together recently to do a 4-week bible study that Crown Financial Ministries offers for parents and children called, “In God We Trust.” In the first week, the study had us looking at Jesus’ conversation with a rich young man, who wanted to be assured that he would have eternal life so he ran up to Jesus and asked him, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus tells him that he must obey the commandments, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie, do not cheat, honor your father and mother. The rich young man answers him saying, “I have kept all of these commandments since I was a boy. And the scripture says that after he said that, “Jesus looked at him and loved him and said ‘One thing you lack, go sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.’And the man’s face fell and he went away sad because he had great wealth.”

As we discussed the story with our children, I couldn’t help but be struck by the challenge that Jesus made to this young man and how he used it to expose the barrier that could keep the young man from seeing the kingdom of God. Jesus challenges him by instructing him to: “Go and sell everything he has and give to the poor” Think of the implication of that challenge in terms of showing us how that young man viewed the ownership of his stuff. He obviously saw the things he owned as belonging to him. Let’s face it, if someone came up to you and said, “Hey, will you go and sell all my belongings for me and then take the money and give it to the poor.” We might wonder why the guy wanted to do such a thing, but we wouldn’t have a hard time with actually doing what he asked because it wasn’t our stuff. We didn’t have any attachment to it. Compare that to: “will you go and sell all your belongings and give the money to the poor.” Now the request gets more personal, which is exactly one of the things that Jesus sought to reveal to this man.

He was revealing the fact that the man viewed his possessions as being something HE had obtained through his own effort. If he thought otherwise, it would have been easy for him to give those things up. Jesus was revealing that the young man did not recognize that God owned everything he had.

In addition to that, in making such a request, Jesus was essentially exposing the young man’s sense of priority. He is asking him, “What’s really important to you? Where does your sense of security lie? What does your money really mean to you?” Jesus certainly doesn’t expect everyone to sell everything they have to follow him, however, we should have the attitude that what we have belongs to God and should be used to honor him and serve others. What Jesus was really getting at, was for the young man to examine the position that money and material possessions had in his life. He wanted him to see that his attitude toward his “stuff” had gotten in the way of his relationship with God. Remember Jesus already knew the condition of the man’s heart because he tells him ”one thing you lack” He knew the man’s possessions were more important to him. He just wanted the man to come to realize that as well.

During our small group we all examined ourselves in the same way. What earthly possession do we have that would be really hard to give up? If Jesus came up to you and asked you to give up your home or your car or perhaps your flat screen TV, could you do it? Would you do it? What if he asked you to to reduce your level of income or take a lower position at work? The way WE react to such request, just as in the case of the rich young man, says a lot about our attitude about money. It shows us who our true master is. Is your money your master or is God?

He does this in our lives today by putting us in circumstances that challenge us in the very same way…

How do we respond when we lose a job or are asked to take a pay cut? How do we respond when we don’t get that promotion we think we deserve or when someone else has something that we think we should have? How do we respond when we are asked to give more? All of these circumstances reveal the condition of our hearts in regard to money. Do we think we are in control of these things? Do we think we obtained our things as a result of our own effort and so they BELONG to us? Do we derive our identity or our security from these things or from God?

What I really love about this story is seeing firsthand how the Lord goes about teaching us. He is so loving in his approach... Jesus knew the young man wasn’t perfect, (certainly not as perfect as he thought he was :) ), but rather than condemning him, Mark tells us that he looked at him and “loved him.”

Even though he knew the condition of the man’s heart, he loved him too much to simply enable him to stay the way he was.

He didn’t come right out and condemn the young man. Jesus never operates that way. But, he didn’t just give him his approval to make him feel good either. Jesus gave him truth. By challenging him to look at himself to determine where his own heart was, Jesus was allowing for the young man’s heart to convict himself. And he obviously was convicted because the scripture says that he went away sad because he had great wealth. He wasn’t willing to give up what he had on this earth. He had everything, on earth but was unwilling to sacrifice it for eternal life, something he obviously wanted. He didn’t have enough knowledge about who God is to make that sacrifice. He didn’t have enough faith in God’s promises to make that sacrifice. He couldn’t see beyond his current circumstances to realize God had something better for him and so he couldn’t TRUST God. He knew it and it made him sad.

These are tough times we are living in. It’s easy to forget what the Christian life is really all about. Is Jesus using circumstances to show us, just like that rich young man, where our heart truly is? Could it be that He is using these tough times to get closer to us? Could it be "tough love" so to speak?

“I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven…Matthew 19:23

Bread of Content

Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”
 And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name. Proverbs 30:8b-9

How would our lives be different if we trusted God to provide for our daily needs? Not just the basic physical needs, but ALL of our needs; our emotional needs, our financial needs, and our spiritual needs?

I was pondering this very question this week as I meditated on this particular chapter of Proverbs. (I have taken up the challenge that Solomon posed when he said, “Get wisdom. Get understanding.”)

“Give me just enough…” There is profound wisdom in the contentedness of “just enough.” Instantly my mind flashed to the Israelites in the wilderness and God choosing to feed them from His very own hand by raining manna down to them every morning. They were told to gather just enough to feed everyone in their tent for that day. If they took more than that, or if they tried to save it for another day (aside from the Sabbath) it became full of maggots and began to smell!

What was God trying to teach here about His provision? First of all, he told the Israelites that “at twilight you will eat meat and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” He wanted them to know that HE was their God because HE was the one providing for them. Secondly, God told them to gather enough for that day because this was His way of testing them to see if they would follow his instructions. Our actions prove what or whom we place our faith in. Do I trust God to provide for my needs or do I only trust in myself or other people?

All throughout scripture we see that God wants us to be satisfied with “enough” while He goes on to prove that He is much MORE than enough. Think of the feeding of the 5,000…there was more than enough! What about the widow’s oil? More than enough.

In the book of John, Jesus tells us, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” He will provide what we need. HE is enough.

These days we tend to worry a lot about money and the economy. We are worried we might not have enough, but how are we defining “enough?” Enough to meet our needs or enough to live the lifestyle we think we deserve? This brings us back to our Proverb…

We don’t want to have too much because then we tend to forget who our provider is. We begin to believe that WE are our own providers and we place ourselves in the position that God should have in our lives. So what happens when we lose that job or can’t pay that bill? We come to a crisis of faith! If we have too little, we can become desperate and once again because we trust in ourselves and not God, we can easily fall into sinful acts such as lying, cheating, or stealing to meet our needs. The ability to be content hinges on our faith in God’s promises and on our obedience to his word.

What things am I always “complaining” or worrying about just like the Israelites? Does my impatience with His timing make me behave like them? Think about it. Did they realize how awesome it was that God was miraculously feeding them from His very hand each day? All they had to do was go get it? Do I do that?

Never was the hand of God so strong upon them as when they were in the wilderness yet they failed to recognize their incredible favor and took it for granted. Worse yet, they became so spoiled that they began to focus on what they DIDN’T have.

We tend to apply this scripture to God’s provision of physical needs but what about applying it to our spiritual needs? The question that came to my mind was, Do I spend so much time begging God to “show me” what He want me to do, that I’m missing what He IS doing in my life right now? When I read and receive revelation from His word can I be content and enjoy that time in His presence? Admittedly, I get so caught up at times with what I’m receiving that I constantly find myself saying, “What do you want me to do with this Lord?” I struggle a lot with just being content to receive and not DO!

I saw the silliness of this when I pictured the Israelites standing out in a field full of manna and saying, “God, this is awesome! This is wonderful! This is certainly from the Lord! What do you want me to do with this Lord?” And Him saying,

“Good grief, JUST EAT IT!” Ha ha!

Lord help me just to be in awe of your faithfulness and your miraculous presence in my life. You ARE my daily bread…my source for existence. Help me to just be content to receive that. Thank you for giving me what I need for today. You know what I need to sustain me. Help me not to constantly want to run ahead of you that I might “disown” you and believe that I can do anything by myself or become complacent and fail to see the opportunities and blessings you have put right in front of me for today.

I can enjoy where I am because you are always more than enough. You are my bread for content!

"Dying to Self" --A Testimony.

I really enjoyed Sharon’s post last week about “dying to self.” I didn’t enjoy it because I LIKE dying to myself, :) but because in my own personal journey and in our journey as maturing Christians, we must die to ourselves, bit-by-bit, day-by-day.

Honestly though, who really relishes the idea? The word “death” in itself doesn’t exactly bring about a warm and fuzzy feeling does it? “Death” brings connotations of fear, pain, and misery…certainly not something anyone would gravitate to naturally if given a choice. Here we see again, that living in God’s “economy” is often counter-intuitive to the logic of us humans!

Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” Luke 9:23-25

I think “dying to self” can be hard because our desire to have our own way is actually rooted in “original sin.” It takes us back to the Garden of Eden. You know the story. Essentially, Adam and Eve did something God told them not to do. He told them not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. John Piper teaches that the phrase has special meaning in the Old Testament...

“The "knowledge of good and evil" refers to the capacity and the right to decide for one's self what is good and what is bad; what is helpful and what is harmful. Therefore, what God was forbidding was not an arbitrary fruit, but what the fruit symbolized. To eat of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" would mean to reject God as the all-wise, all-caring Father who knows what is good for us, and in his place to put ourselves. Therefore, what God forbade man to do was to exchange roles with him. He simply said: Don't try to dethrone me. Don't try to take my place. Trust ME to fill your life with maximum joy and meaning.”

I personally, learned a lot about “dying to myself” when God began to deal with me about how I viewed money. I believe my wrong attitudes began with the woundedness I experienced as a child, which led me to have issues with self esteem as an adult. These self-esteem issues caused me to be deceived into thinking that if I wore the “right clothes” and hung out in the “right places,” people would see me as acceptable. Material possessions really made me feel better about myself. If I was having a rough day, I would go shopping and buy myself something new. I placed a lot of value on appearance because that seemed to be what was important to the rest of the world and I wanted to “fit in.” I bought things I couldn’t afford to appear “successful.” I would get into debt and get bailed out only to go into debt again. My spending was like an addiction. I often had trouble controlling it and it controlled me. Granted, spending money or being in debt is not a sin, but it is a bi-product of sin. It certainly wasn’t God’s plan for me according to scripture.

That stuff had an importance in my life that it shouldn’t have had. I was dependent on it for my self-esteem and for my security. It held a higher priority in my life than God. You could see what I worshipped by looking at my credit card statement or by opening up my check register. Jesus was not Lord of my life, “mammon” was, and that, plain and simple, is idolatry.

Now, you might say to yourself, "yeah, but spending money and going into debt isn’t that big of deal. It’s not like you went out and killed somebody or something.” That’s what I thought for many years too. “It’s just a weakness I have. It doesn’t really hurt anybody.” But when I began to have a real relationship with Jesus, he wouldn’t let me stay where I was. He began to show me how my spending hurt other people. It caused issues in my marriage for one. Especially since my husband preferred to live frugally and felt much more secure by saving and investing money. He would get upset when I would overspend and I would vow to do better, but since I couldn’t control myself in this area, I would often fail and then in my shame try to hide the things I bought and then lie that I had “had the stuff for awhile.”

(That’s the other problem with sin. It brings us shame and makes us want to hide it and before we know it, we’re sinning to cover up our sin. Once again, just like Adam and Eve, back in that garden!)

The trouble was that I felt powerless over my spending at times, and the way I looked at money and stuff hurt my relationship with the Lord because I just couldn’t believe that He could provide for me what I was believing all that “stuff” for.

I know this sounds crazy, but you know how Jacob wrestled with God? I wrestled with God one time about my desire to buy a new outfit for my husband’s company Christmas party! (Stay with me here!) I felt him saying in my spirit not to do it, yet the thought of not doing it was probably similar to what a junkie feels when he thinks he’s about to miss a “fix”! I cried and carried on before the Lord because the thought of not appearing at that party the way I pictured that “acceptable” would look-- by not wearing what I thought people needed to see me in to like me and respect me-- was more than I could bear! (For some of you right now you’re thinking "what a nutcase!" But I suspect there are a few of you who may be nodding your head in agreement because maybe you have been there too?)

I remember actually saying out loud, “But God, what will people think?” It was like my self-esteem just crying out, “But what if people won’t accept me like this?”

It was a huge statement to make and it was the first time since being truly “born again” that I ever felt that I heard God’s voice well up boldly inside of me,

“Don’t you know I love you more?” He said.

And I cried and cried for quite awhile after that, alone in my bedroom, because I instantly reverted back to being that little girl from my childhood who longed to feel accepted and loved.

I went to the party that Saturday wearing something I had in my closet and you know what? I lived to tell about it! It was OK. I don’t think anyone even noticed I had worn it before! LOL!

That act of “dying” triggered a new direction in my life when it came to money. I continued to struggle with spending, but God provided opportunities to rescue me. He led me into bible studies that taught a biblical perspective on money, which helped me to realize what a wedge my view of money placed between my Lord and me. I desperately wanted to change, but it was hard. Like any “addictive” kind of behavior, you conquer it one step at a time.

The real breakthrough came the day I realized that I couldn’t control myself and I began to fast forward in my mind about what my selfish attitude about spending could possibly mean for the future of my children.

Would I put our family is the position of having to say to them one day, “Sorry, you can’t go to college because Mom had to have the latest wardrobe from Ann Taylor?”

My love and desire not to hurt my family, in combination with my desire to have a close relationship with the Lord, brought me to my knees and I asked for his forgiveness and begged him to help me “get this” because I didn’t want to have to learn it the hard way!”

Do you know what He did? He made it my job for a season of my life to have to know His financial principles inside and out so I could teach others!

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 1 Cor. 1:27

I am blown away every day by the unbelievable grace God has shown toward me in this area of sin in my life. It really hit home about a year ago. I was asked to be on a panel of speakers at a church who was teaching a series on “How to Manage Finances in a Tough Economy.” They asked if I would do a segment on debt and I prepared my presentation for several days. A few hours before I was to leave to do my teaching, I was rehearsing what I planned to say and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Look what the Lord has done! Me, the girl who was in and out of debt, who was financially irresponsible and in a lot ways just downright ignorant about money, is about to stand side by side with a panel of corporate CFO’s, bank presidents and CPA’s and teach other people how God wants them to handle money!

It was miraculous! My area of pain and weakness-my “uncontrollable” area of sin, had been taken over by God and He was using it glorify him! The area of sin that Satan had intended to use to destroy me was placed in the loving hands of God and he turned it around and used it to save me!

...And so it is with all our sin. He knows we can’t handle it. He knew back in the Garden of Eden. From the very time that man first sinned, God began to work on a plan to keep us in fellowship with Him.

“Dying to self,” is recognizing that your self conscious, self serving, self-reliant ways-- the very things you are trusting in to make you happy, may very well be the things that are making you miserable. God created us to worship and glorify HIM, not ourselves. May we choose to live in that calling…denying our sinful nature and accepting his sacrifice… allowing him to turn our lives around and make that “ugly” sin into something beautiful before Him.

Does "Entitlement" Begin At Home?

We hear a lot about “entitlement” these days. Government “entitlement” programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the current administration’s proposed Healthcare system, have all had a great deal of media coverage for the past several months. We hear this word, “entitlement” a great deal in the debates that go on between the political parties.

So what exactly is entitlement? Essentially it is simply a “right” granted by law. When it comes to government programs, it means that the government provides benefits directly a specified group by way of law. It hinges on the belief that one is “deserving of,” or “entitled to” certain privileges. I remember this was a defining moment to me in the debates before our last Presidential election. When both candidates were asked whether health insurance was a “privilege” or a “right,” their answers were completely and very remarkably in my mind, DIFFERENT.

Entitlement programs in our government, account for more than half of our federal spending and have been on the increase. Is that biblical?

This past week I was interested in the resurrection of a quote from former President Ronald Reagan, who said “It is very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project.” This brought to my mind what we are told in scripture about Satan “disguising himself as an angel of light.” It is the very reason that the Proverbs implore us to “Seek wisdom” and “Get understanding.” We must embrace the wisdom found in the Word of God and apply to our lives or we will be vulnerable to being deceived.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12

We must not do what seems like the right thing to do, but what is actually prescribed as right in the sight of God. Volumes can be written about how far we as a society have strayed from this very point. Reagan was in actuality, backing up what we see in scripture. It is easy for someone to cloak their wrong motives by disguising them in the garb of compassion and vice versa! How many times have we as Christians been demonized as “intolerant” and “mean-spirited” because we adhere to godly principles?

The fact is that money and government programs are not true compassion. The entitlement mentality preached to us as being “right” and “compassionate” is in direct contrast to God’s word. Our founding fathers actually had it correct! We have a right to “life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness.” We have a right to life and freedom and to our own pursuits. But that does not relieve us from having to live with the consequences of our actions.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall reap life everlasting.” Galations 6:7-8

God has provided us the freedom to choose for ourselves. But there are consequences to our actions. In regard to “entitlements” our heavenly father wants us to look out for the needs of the poor and the oppressed, but he clearly states and demonstrates all throughout scripture that we, as individuals, have a personal responsibility to do what we can for ourselves.

In Matthew 17:27, Jesus sends Peter to the sea to cast in a hook and take the first fish, open his mouth and take out a piece of money to pay taxes for both of them. That flies in the face of the entitlement mentality. He did not send Peter to the other disciples to get the tribute money.

In 2 Thess. 3:10, we read, “if any would not work, neither should he eat.”

An “entitlement mentality” robs individuals of self esteem. God created us with the responsibility to do work.

“ The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15

Where does this “entitlement mentality” come from? Ultimately it comes from not knowing and/or obeying God’s word. Right thinking and behaviors are no longer demonstrated in our homes first and foremost. One of biggest culprits in my mind is that children, for the past several generations, have been seeing less and less of a connection between work and income or possessions. This “disconnect” on top of the increase in availability of credit has created a society where people simply don’t understand the value of money as it relates to work, nor do they have a healthy appreciation for what they have, because they have not invested anything personally to receive it.

When children do not connect work with receiving income in order to obtain the things they want or need, they begin to expect that things should simply be given to them.

We as parents have often neglected to teach this biblical connection between work and material blessing either because we ourselves don’t make the connection, or because we just haven’t thought about how the connection gets obscured. Furthermore, we have an innate desire to be “compassionate” to our kids and take a short-sided albeit well-meaning” approach to giving them the things they want.

My husband recognized this attitude in our children early on. When our kids wanted to have high priced items, they had to come up with all or part of the investment after answering a few good questions…

How much is the item?

How long will you have to work to pay for that item?

Did you allow for taxes in that calculation?

What other costs will be associated with having that item?

Do you still want the item?

Sometimes the answer was “no,” but if it was “yes,” the kids had an entirely different appreciation for the thing they purchased because they had to wait and save for it and because they were fully aware of the investment they had made and therefore it held a different value to them. They appreciated it more and took better care of it.

This is just another example. If we want to change the way the world thinks, it starts in our homes. We have to be intentional about teaching our children what God says is true in all areas of life or the world will do it for us. The economy is no exception!