Katie and I have decided to lead a small group of folks through FPU (Financial Peace University) and we have a few more spots left. We are inviting any close friends of ours to our home, but we are not sure of the start date yet. We’ll keep you posted!

Who is Dave?

A preview of the “old” Dave Ramsey Course

A preview of Dave speaking at a Business Conference

We’d love to have you join us!

Deuteronomy 8:18 (King James Version)
But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

Father, in the mighty Name of Jesus, we lift up finances in the Body of Christ before You, specifically for tithers and those who are striving to be faithful.

Deliver Your people from negligence, ignorance, greed, lust, pride, slothfulness and presumption, for according to Your Word, these things bring poverty.

Proverbs 23:21
For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

Help us to be good stewards over that which You have entrusted into our hands. Grant us the means to keep our vows:

Ecclesiastes 5:4-6:
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?

We seek Your face for wisdom to order our affairs properly so that we may prosper and be entrusted with more. Help us to be faithful stewards over what You grant to us.

Matthew 25:23
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

We pray for Your mercy, Father, for our guilt, presumption, greed and ignorance. Help us to change our inner wiring concerning finances. We rebuke and cancel all strongholds of greed, fear, selfishness and lust that have controlled us. We choose to be liberal and faithful. Prosper us we pray.

Psalm 118:25
Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.

In Jesus’ holy Name, Amen

The story below (greed) traces the underlying cause (greed) for several of Wall Street’s notable firms’ (more greed) rise and now fall (GREED).

Two takeaways:

1. Follow the money: if your financial advisor works for a Wall Street brokerage firm, the advisor answers to his employer, not to you.
2. Keep your investments at an institution that serves solely in a brokerage firm capacity. Don’t be a casualty of another financial firm implosion.

“…the truth is that Wall Street’s shocking reversal of fortune was inevitable. Its black box is virtually guaranteed to careen from record riches to deep losses and ensure that employees grab a fat share of the booty. “As margins shrank in traditional businesses like underwriting and brokerage, Wall Street looked for new places to make money,” says Louis Pizante, a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs and Nomura who runs Mavent, a leading compliance firm that ensures that mortgages bought by Fannie Mae and other institutions comply with federal and state regulations. “In the process the firms took imprudent risks to make big profits.”

Put simply, Wall Street firms used towering leverage to make lottery-like loot in a long-running bull market that blatantly underpriced risk. Now that run is over, and the price of risk is rising dramatically. That’s driving down the value of everything from junk bonds to mortgage-backed securities, and Wall Street’s addiction to leverage is cutting the wrong way. The Bear Stearns story is a primer on the Wall Street curse: When portfolios are built on a mountain of debt, a firm’s capital can vanish overnight…

Read the whole story (Fortune Magazine, Shawn Tully).

"For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice."

James 3:16

Read the disclosure.

For too long my body has charged for that which I have freely given to them.

My brothers, do not practice your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ by showing partiality. Suppose a man wearing gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in. If you give special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Please take this seat,” but you say to the poor man, “Stand over there” or “Sit on the floor at my feet,” you have made false distinctions among yourselves and have become judges with evil motives, haven’t you?
Listen, my dear brothers! God has chosen the poor in the world to become rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him, has he not? But you have humiliated the man who is poor. James 2:1-6

There are many in the body who the Father has given the vision of being a financial river. Receive the vision and let there be a breakout of His financial anointing. Because God has said that His word and His anointing WILL NOT BE SOLD. He has allowed it in the past in your conferences, your teaching times because of your lack of faith. But now His body will no longer charge for His anointing, His word, His presence. It is His Kingdom and it is His good pleasure to provide all, all, more than all for the expansion of His reign throughout the world. Let the call go forth
Listen! Whoever is thirsty, come to the water! Whoever has no money can come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk. You don’t have to pay; its free!

This week our country decided to bailout the economy with a $700 million in aid to lenders so there wouldn’t be a total collapse.  I have been thinking about this a lot over the last two weeks, and I’ve come to some conclusions about how we got here, and what needs to be done in response.

No doubt your church deals with monetary issues from the pulpit and in your small groups.  The pastor preaches on biblical stewardship and tithing.  You occasionally have lessons on why money management is important, but do you ever really teach people to be good stewards.  The Scriptures say that it is more about stewardship than it is about financial loss or profit.

In America we have cultivated an attitude of consumer spending that has led to consumer debt.  Not only do we have national debt increasing, but household debt continues to rise.  Psalms and Proverbs often remind us that we become wise from reading the Scriptures because we gain insight into daily living.  If you are worried about the economy you can make a direct impact by only buying what you can afford, and not spending money with credit cards that you can’t pay back.  All you need to do is search the Scripture on these issues.

The area church’s can help is to give members a way to learn how to do this through the lens of the Bible.  I know of no better tool than Crown Ministries.  Crown offers seminars and classes that teach people basic budgeting and stewardship principles.  If your church wants to bring members into maturity in their walk with Christ, they must provide and answer to individual financial crises.

I know this response is simple, but Scripture says God makes wise the simple.  While it won’t fix the current problem, we can ensure we don’t have to go through this again any time soon.

Friday’s announcement by Countrywide of up to 12,000 layoffs offers a fresh reminder that “job security” in corporate America is a tenuous concept (the news hits particularly close to home given Countrywide’s large corporate presence along the Plano-Frisco “Legacy Corridor”).

Here’s what you can do to prepare for a layoff (remember, the best time to be looking for a job is when you don’t need one so these ideas apply to virtually everyone):

• Leverage your outplacement resources.  Frequently, large companies will offer job-hunting assistance such as resume writing help, interview skills coaching, etc.  Use them.
• Update your resume.  Make sure your resume is current and reflects your most recent work experience and any skills that you’ve accumulated.  If resume writing isn’t your strong suit, consider the help of a professional.
• Adopt a “wartime” mentality.  Life without a paycheck calls for serious measures– sit down with your spouse and determine every possible spending cut your household can make.  Call a family meeting to make sure everyone is on board with the new budget.  Consider part-time work to supplement your income.
• Beef up your emergency fund.  Assume you will be out of work for at least six months and stockpile a cash emergency fund ASAP.
  
• Resurrect your network.  Choice jobs are almost always landed through personal or professional contacts.  Hiring someone strictly from a resume and an hour-long interview is too risky and too time-consuming and rarely ever happens.  Reach out to everyone in your sphere of influence; let them know your situation and don’t be afraid to ask for their help (chances are good you’ll ultimately end up doing someone else a favor since you represent a “known quantity”).  Consider using LinkedIn or other similar online networking sites.
• Negotiate one more day.  Frequently health insurance and other benefits last until the end of the calendar month.  Try to make the first of the month your last day.
• Schedule medical or dental work while you still have company subsidized health insurance.  You certainly want to retain health insurance after you separate from the company, but frequently such insurance has higher out of pocket price tags.
• Set up a non-work email account and print personal business cards.  These are necessities in today’s job-hunting market.
• Get written recommendation letters and line up personal references.
• Take the high road on the way out.  Don’t look for work while still at your present job and don’t leave with any of your employer’s property (either physical or intellectual).
• Maintain your health.  A layoff is one of the most stressful life events you will ever encounter.  Maintain a healthy diet and exercise program to help counteract the emotional turmoil.
• Do everything you can and leave the rest to God.  If you know Jesus, you have a promise from God that you can take to the bank:
  “And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  Romans 8:28.

Sources: Jobhunt.org, “You Never Know if a Layoff is Coming– How to Prepare” by Andrea Coombs

Very often the question comes up “Should I tithe on my gross income or my net income?”

Scripture is very clear as to the answer:

“Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops…”
Proverbs 3:9

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house…”
Malachi 3:10

“And he gave him a tenth of all.”
Genesis 14:20

“Out of all your gifts you shall present every offering due to the Lord, from all the best of them, the sacred part of them.”
Numbers 18:29

“We will also bring… the first of our ground meal, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees…”
Nehemiah 10:37

If there’s still any doubt, consider also that the income tax in modern society is a very new development. Until very recently, the concept of “gross versus net” didn’t even exist.

Finally, consider this comment from Ron Blue:
“Tithe on the gross or the net? Do you want God to bless your gross or your net?”

Fellow blogger Laura Milligan offers a great list of 50 Christian personal finance blogs.

Read the disclosure.

Minneapolis financial planner, Nathan Dungan, has created a website and learning curriculum (complete with DVD and workbooks– both secular and Christian versions) to combat the “entitlement epidemic” (sometimes known as “affluenza”) in America.

Targeted at children and adults, the “Share, Save, Spend” theme aims at changing how families think about money whether they’re wealthy or not.

According to Dungan, “Share” isn’t just about charity and community service; it’s sharing within your family and placing the highest value on communication and honesty. “Save” teaches long-range thinking and drawing a road map to reach your goals. With those two supports firmly in place, “Spend” becomes more about people, places and experiences, and less about trophies.

Once again, all good advice (financial and otherwise) is rooted in scripture.  Thanks Nathan for making a difference.

Read Jonathan Burton’s story here.
Visit the ShareSaveSpend Website.

In a recent poll of Christian parents of teens, George Barna reported the following findings:

When given a list of possible challenges their teens might face, 45 percent of parents said not having enough money was a “very” or “somewhat” significant issue to their teen; 43 percent listed feeling misunderstood by their family; 40 said struggling with their self-image; 37 percent said not owning the latest technology; 33 percent listed not wearing the “right” clothing; and 32 percent said not feeling accepted by their peers.

It is of particular note that money concerns topped the list, beating self-image struggles and peer acceptance. This study highlights the importance of Christian parents instilling strong money values in their children as early as possible and reinforcing the message of stewardship frequently throughout a child’s formative years.

The survey was conducted for media production company Good News Holdings in November 2006 on 601 parents of children 18 or younger, and who consider themselves to be Christian.

Source: Christian Post Article