Conned by Credit cards

A friend sent me this from a Frugal group she is a part of called "Living on a Dime" - She says it isn't a Christian site but wow this is such Godly truth and I think true evangelism. Its saying how we should live as Christians not a list of condemnation and rules

Thanks Steph for forwarding this -

Hello everyone! I was recently interviewed about debt free living and how living without debt relates to my faith. I thought you'd find some of the answers helpful, so we'll be including some of them in the newsletter. Here are the first two.

-Jill


Interviewer: You advocate a debt-free and a primarily cash lifestyle. How is that possible in today's day and age?

I don't normally advocate anything. To advocate something means to get caught up in a cause and I never saw Christ get caught up in any cause. I was put on this earth to have a relationship with God. We have to be careful because sometimes it is easier for us to be involved in a cause for Him then in a relationship with Him. So I shy away from causes.

I do however advocate faith in God. Every time I pull out my credit card to borrow money, I think it is a sign that my is faith faltering because I am showing once more that I am not trusting God. The Bible says we aren't supposed to commit murder -- of course we wouldn't dream of doing that. We aren't supposed to have other gods -- wouldn't dream of it. We aresupposed to trust Him to provide for all our needs ... ahhhh well??? Did you respond as quickly on this one as the other two and say, "Of course I trust Him to provide all of my needs and not a credit card"?

Often, by using a credit card, I am giving myself things that God may not be giving me at the moment because I am not mature enough to handle it, it won't be the best thing for me or because He wants me to learn something or grow stronger by doing without it. Maybe He allowed gas prices to rise to shake some of us up so we would become wiser stewards of our money, knowing that some day when the real hard times come, we will be prepared.

Now that doesn't mean I don't believe in using a credit card or having a house payment. It's just that, like so many other things, we have let them get out of control or we go to extremes in what we use them for. We have got to start using some common sense.

I'll be honest with you. If you're in debt and decide now to get out of it, it won't be easy and, like any other time we have failed to trust God, we may have to live with some consequences. If you are sincere you will be willing to say, "I will pay back what I owe no matter what discomfort I have go through, even if I have to give up everything."

I learned many years ago that God's best plan for me is not to go into debt with a credit card because I'm overspending.

How is it possible to avoid debt in this day and age? Even to hear those words makes me think of Satan standing and whispering in someone's ear "You need to use that credit card. In this day and age, it is the only thing you can do. Don't worry, God (and the people you aren't going to pay back) will understand."

We are so careful about what our children watch on TV or what they learn in school but we ourselves are so often deceived, letting ourselves fall into negative and faithless thinking. Even asking "how is that possible" implies that God can't take care of us. Have we let our fear and faithlessness make us forget that, with God, all things are possible, even in this day and age?

Nothing is really any different in this day and age than in any other. Citing "this day and age" is just another excuse we use to justify all the silly, irresponsible and wrong things we do with our money. There has always been unemployment and, at times, even worse than what we have now. The stock market has always gone up and down. That's why we have always been told to be careful when we invest in it.

As far as housing goes, I remember the real estate market crashing and burning so bad in the 80's. No one could sell a home. I put my house on the market anyway because I never listened to what the news or "they" said. Within one week, I had 3 contracts and I even did it without an agent. Hmmm. Do you think, maybe, that my God was bigger then the real estate market?

Open your eyes and look for yourself. How packed is every restaurant parking lot each day? The next time you stand in line at the store, look at your own shopping cart and those of others around you. Are they buying just the essentials or are their baskets full of fluff? By looking in the carts you can see just how "not bad" things are right now. Beware of when you're being deceived.

Wild Geese versus Domestic Geese

We heard an amazing story at church today about a domestic goose that had got stuck in a cul-de-sac. Do you know domestic geese have forgotten how to fly?
How often do we get into situations, even with church, where we forget how to fly, or even don't want people to fly as it all gets a bit crazy? I was thinking of our situation and how I/we need to fly but that we have to go where the Holy Spirit is sending us even if that doesn't make sense.
I know when I became a Christian I let the wild goose of the holy spirit have total reign in my life and it has got me into trouble. But I also know that at times I have stepped out of that Wild goose anointing and have become a grumpy goose, who's feet have hurt because I've walked not flown and have got myself stuck and have been grumpy to all.
But the thing is that in reality we all do want domestic geese more than wild geese because domestic geese give us eggs to eat and also get nice and plumb and we can eat them, as well as being able to sell them to make money. They are ours and we own them. It was domestic geese that saved Rome. Wild geese would've flown away. Domestic geese are much more useful and we probably would rather be seen as useful by others than flitting about.
Help me Lord to always be able to fly by the wild goose anointing of Your Holy Spirit, but also let me know who I am to fly in formation with. Wild Geese don't get very far if they try to go it alone, they need other wild geese to fly with.

Earthquake

The land is shifting, the tectonic plates of life seem to be shifting. There feels like an earthquake happening in our lives at the moment - seems like everything that could shift is, apart from the fact we are staying in the same house!!
I was sharing this with someone and said I felt a bit wobbly and she challenged me on my foundations. I love it when people do that because one can then go back and check and this word "Earthquake" was what God gave me. And no matter how well a building is build when the earthquake comes it will wobble but it depends on how those foundations were build how the building handles the earthquake. I remember from some dream interpretation stuff that when you dream of a house it can represent yourself - which we do take further with analogies of rooms, cupboards.
Yes I do think my foundations are doing ok. I am wobbling but hopefully I am staying faithful to the one who is always there to me, Jesus, and I am swaying with the amazing changes that are going on all round us. But I must say that my foundations have been built in times of change and having trust God and even though the earthquake comes I will wait on the still small voice of God, just as Elijah did, to know where to go next.

What Makes Christians Different?

....and why should we be different? I put that in as I start as I do wonder if I am on about attracting people to me, to church, to becoming a Christian or to Jesus. And maybe it depends on where we are coming from in this what we think and see. And in fact if someone does come to wanting to put Jesus as Lord, of ruler, of their lives then actually they become part of the Church, part of His Bride, whether they like it or not and whether they go to an organised church or not!!

I heard recently about how we should be united as "church" because then people would know that we were from God and I am not doubting that this is a part. But I know I have been in groups that are not Christian where I have felt a great sense of unity, and I have been in Christian groups where there isn't any unity.
We were discussing this the other day and one suggestion was that as Christians we should be more exemplary at keep the law of the land than others. And again this is very true and very much a part of what we should be. But again I know many people who do not know Jesus who are honest and upright, who keep the laws of the land, who care for others and care for this planet.

I remember an atheist lady that aparently I challenged her views not by anything I said but because when I talked about God I talked like He was real! Which of course He is :)
And I think that is what makes the difference. We need to know deep in our hearts that we have a God who is totally real, who is there for us and has given us a point and a purpose to life, who made this whole universe and this planet and loves us with such passion. He also trust us. Jesus says he no longer calls us servants but friends (I have blogged on this elsewhere of how we still often see ourselves as servants not friends of God).

There is a great line that Spook's mum says to him in Star Trek (a great movie that I want to try to get into every blog for a while, though may have to see if for a 2nd time!!) when he has a hard decision to make and she says "I want you to know that whatever decision you make you make your mother proud". I think this is what God is like with us, that He has planted His DNA in us and He knows that when faced with decisions we will hear that still small voice and make the right decision. But you know what even if we don't He'll still think we are totally awesome and that we made that decision with the right heart, which really was all that He wants from us and was what got King David called a "man after God's own heart!"

Maybe Spook made the wrong decision but the decision he made puts him in the place that where he can save at least some of those of his culture!! Oh and I could expand on this more!!!

Let us take into our hearts that God trust us to make our own decisions but the more we spend time hanging out with Him, the more we get His DNA into our veins, the more He knows that whatever decision we make it will make Him proud.
Hey He's our Dad!!

McDonald Lifestyle

I have chosen not to hang out in McDonald's any more. Not because of ethical reasons though I could list them too. No this reason is because it is such a reflection of where we are in so many places, in so much of a hurry that I can't watch that reflection any more.

The last time I was sat there what I saw was the "Can I help you?" being asked before the customer has gathered their purchases and moved out the way. Everything was rushed, fast food, fast lifestyle, to be able to deal with as many people as possible. All rushed along but not faces actually seen, no real interaction.
And I got to wondering how often we do this in life? How often we are with someone but because we want to make as many people as possible know we care we are always looking over that persons shoulder.
Yes we do deal with what is asked of us, even making eye contact for a while, but there is so rarely that soul/heart connection. There is so little time to do so much and at least we are doing the numbers thing???

We need theology

I have had a desire to learn more theology but at times some of the church traditions God has taken me though have been very reluctant to open up on that, and in others the congregation is just too lazy and only wants to listen to the man at the front.

We need the theory and the theology to be able to sort out what the Christian world view is, and then to be able to go out with confidence and power into the places that many Christians are afraid to enter because they have not taken time out to study and have not established a true Christian worldview.
I am so excited that at Sheffield the other weekend, I was able to come across people, scholars and theologians, who have this same worldview that I picked up when I first got to know Jesus and have had it rattled more by Christians than by others.
Interestingly meeting these people, reading this stuff in "Living at the Crossroads" I am now eager to study, eager to really study my Bible. Its like for a while I had picked up a belief that if you studied too much you could lose your faith, or even that I would have to see things differently, but it seems that studying with the Holy Spirit, which still means the whole concordances, commentaries, histories, dictionaries, etc, none of these will squash the Holy Spirit, but will in fact deepen one's faith.

Funny how we have so separated this out and yet there was that prophecy years ago that said that until the Spirit and The Word are in harmony Jesus cannot come again. We have taken that to mean all sorts, like that fact that word based congregations need to move in the gifts of the Spirit or that charismatic congregations need to have the man at the front reading more scripture. But I now see that for this to happen each individual Christian needs to come into really moving in the Spirit, which will also mean only doing what they see God telling them to do, and also will all need to truly know their Bible, and from that the true Christian worldview of how amazing God is.

If one knows the Word fully then one can truly walk in the Spirit.

Coram Deo

Coram Deo - "before the face of God" or "in the presence of God"
(Jerome used this lots in the Vulgate) It is like an Eastern Court, where the servants were always before the king, always alert, always aware of his presence, ready, prepared to do his bidding - to live in and to be aware of God's presence, responsive to His word, always eagar and ready to serve Him, to do His bidding not our own!
God's presence, His glorious presence, fills the whole world, packed, tingly, ready to burst out in everything.
Thus God is everywhere. We just need to be more aware of that and help others to be made more aware of that, to look, to learn, to live, to listen, to live and be in this God filled world more and more.
If God is everywhere I have no fear of going to the places He sends me because He has gone before me. And if God is everywhere then everything is redeemable.

It is always interesting how reading "Living at the Crossroads" has helped me to get even more of a handle round last weekend. It all starts to open up and make more sense. Though comes with more frustrations too as I try to be bold but gentle in sharing this.