It Is Written

Investing for Eternity

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Bradshaw

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Series Code: IIW

Program Code: IIW001390A


00:00 ♪ [Theme Music - ♪ ♪ Bold and Dramatic] ♪
00:06 It has stood the test of time.
00:11 God4s book, the Bible.
00:16 Still relevant in today4s complex world ......
00:21 It Is Written, sharing hope around the globe.
00:36 Thanks for joining me today. If there4s one subject
00:39 the Bible speaks about more than any other,
00:43 what do you think it is? Alright. I'll tell you.
00:46 The Bible speaks about money, about finances more than it does
00:51 about any other single subject,
00:54 which ought to suggest to us that the subject of finance and
00:58 money and money management is important
01:01 and is important in the sight of God.
01:04 Today I am in Eastern Tennessee and my guest is Ed Reid,
01:08 who has written the book about money management.
01:10 Ed, thanks for joining me today. ER: Well, it's a pleasure to be
01:12 with you, John. JB: Let's start by asking you
01:14 why you think there's not a lot of time left for planet earth.
01:18 Why are these the last days? ER: Well the Bible gives two
01:20 ways for us to know. The first one is the great
01:23 prophetic timeline and we see the time is running out
01:27 and then the other one are signs that Jesus gave us
01:29 that we would see near the end and they're in
01:31 abundance today. JB: Such as?
01:32 ER: Well, earthquakes, for example.
01:34 Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, especially Matthew, Mark and
01:37 Luke talk about the synoptic gospels, earthquakes in
01:40 different places near the end as an indication of end-time.
01:44 JB: Okay, now, Devil's advocate. There have always been
01:45 earthquakes. They had them back
01:47 in Bible times. Why should we be concerned
01:50 when another earthquake strikes today?
01:51 ER: Five of the largest earthquakes ever to occur on the
01:54 earth have happened in the last 50 years,
01:56 over a 6 thousand year history. JB: Jesus in Matthew 24 said
02:00 these signs would be like birth pains, didn't he?
02:02 ER: Yes. JB: Which indicates that they
02:03 would become more frequent and more intense.
02:05 ER: Indeed. JB: You think
02:06 we are seeing that? ER: I do, indeed.
02:07 Yes. JB: Okay, alright.
02:08 Now if true that we are getting close
02:10 to the end of time. I believe that.
02:12 I believe that and many, many people watching today are
02:15 totally convinced of that. The Bible talks an awful lot
02:19 about money and finance. Clearly a very important
02:22 subject, and very important God. It's important to all of us.
02:25 If we don't have it, life becomes
02:27 a difficult proposition. How, then, should people of
02:32 faith who are convinced that Jesus is returning some time
02:37 soon, and I know that word soon is a relative word,
02:40 how should people be approaching their finances keeping in mind
02:44 the end might be near. ER: Well I think the first thing
02:47 to do is to put God first in your life.
02:50 I could give you a long time recitation of things to do,
02:55 you know, budgeting, and all that.
02:57 But I think - the Book of Proverbs, the third chapter,
03:00 talks about honor the Lord with your possessions and with the
03:03 first part of all your increase and your barns will be filled
03:05 with plenty and your vats with new wine and so on.
03:08 Those are written to farmer people but they apply to us
03:10 in the same way. And it says "don't be wise in
03:13 your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from
03:15 evil" and so on, so I think putting God first.
03:18 JB: Okay now, let me ask you a question.
03:21 Right there in Proverbs 3, Honor the Lord
03:22 with your substance. ER: Yes.
03:24 JB: What does that mean? ER: Well, I use the New King
03:26 James version, and it says "your possessions",
03:28 "your stuff", we would say. Honor the Lord with your stuff.
03:31 And this means, well,@ you mentioned that
03:34 the Bible talks more about money than about any other subject
03:36 - any other single subject - and more than two thousand
03:39 verses talk about it. Somebody asked me, well,
03:41 what is your favorite one? Well, it's not even a money one,
03:44 but Genesis 1:1 says "In the beginning, God created
03:46 the heavens and the earth." So if God is the Creator,
03:49 I'm a creature. If he's the Creator He's the
03:51 Owner, I'm just a manager. So the way I manage God's money@
03:55 is a very, very important situation.
03:57 I believe that we are saved by faith alone.
03:59 The great Protestant tradition. But the fact is we're not saved
04:03 by our money management but we can manage away from God.
04:07 Do you get what I'm saying by that?
04:08 We could move away in our management.
04:10 JB: Certainly. ER: Thinking in terms of
04:11 selfishness and so on. In fact, one of the signs of the
04:14 end is in 2 Timothy, the third chapter, where it says "in the
04:17 last days perilous times will come and men will be lovers of
04:20 themselves [they're selfish] and lovers of money".
04:24 That's an amazing one. And then also, the 5th chapter
04:26 of James, in the first five verses says "The rich will heap
04:30 up treasures for the last days. It's all going to get burned up.
04:34 That's the amazing thing. But the interesting thing is
04:36 they are doing it. Let me give you an illustration
04:38 of last day stuff. JB: Sure.
04:40 ER: If I am a professional person with advanced degrees and
04:43 I could earn about a hundred thousand a year,
04:45 in my entire lifetime - and this is amazing -
04:49 of 40 years of working, I will make
04:52 four million dollars. Recently, even during the
04:56 economic downturn, some of the Wall Street bankers got bonuses
05:01 of 40 million dollars which is 10 times more than
05:05 a professional person will make in his entire lifetime
05:08 of hard work. Now this is incredible.
05:10 Do you understand? The rich are saving up for the
05:12 last days. JB: Sure
05:14 ER: There could not be a better example of that,
05:16 in my opinion. JB: So now, we're talking are
05:18 honoring the Lord with our substance, with our possessions,
05:21 our stuff. ER: Yes.
05:22 JB: Planning for the last days of earth's history.
05:25 Now, I don't expect that you are going to be an extremist
05:27 on this. I don't think you're going to be
05:28 a radical on this. How do we go about that?
05:31 What should we be thinking? ER: The very first thing I am
05:34 telling people now is ... people say, well, is it time to
05:36 get back into the market? Should we start investing again?
05:38 And I tell people, if you have any debts at all, investing in
05:41 your own debt is the best thing you can do.
05:45 Guaranteed returns, better interest rate that you can get,
05:47 even if your money is in there. Better than the stock market
05:49 where you could lose it -- many people have, as you may know.
05:52 And the amazing thing about it is that people, even on credit
05:55 card debt, the average year now, 915 billion dollars a month
06:02 is not paid off on credit cards that are carried over from month
06:04 to month. Minimum 10% and probably many of
06:07 those up to 27%. People are paying on those kinds
06:10 of balances and not paying off those credit cards.
06:12 So I would say, after putting God first in your life, which is
06:15 managing from God's perspective, and that would include the tithe
06:18 and so on, but then the very best thing you can do -
06:21 practical management - do your very best to get out of debt.
06:24 JB: Okay. You mentioned credit card debt.
06:26 What other debts are people carrying?
06:28 ER: Well, I'll just give you, for example, automobiles.
06:31 Almost everybody who is making time payments on a car actually
06:34 owes more on it than it's worth. So I'm suggesting,
06:37 and I practice this myself, to drive your car at least
06:40 10 years and then you get twice its value out of it.
06:43 Take care of it. Manage it.
06:45 You know, instead of having to have a new one.
06:46 Many new cars are sold on looks, as you know, somebody on TV
06:49 you see them driving down the neighborhood and everybody runs
06:51 up to the porch to see somebody's new car.
06:53 It doesn't tell you what kind of mileage it gets, how long it
06:55 will last, or anything. It's just well,
06:57 we need a new car. The bottom line is take care of
06:59 your car and drive it a long time then you're not upside down
07:01 on the mortgage. JB: Now, now you're suggesting
07:04 now, you're suggesting ...
07:07 I want that new car, man ... You know, you're suggesting that
07:10 I might need to take a look at how I'm ordering my priorities
07:14 and and and and yeah, I might want that.
07:18 I really want that new car, Ed. ER: You told me not to be
07:20 radical but I am going to be radical in one thing.
07:23 In an ideal world, people would pay cash for their cars.
07:27 So, once you get your car paid off if you save up the
07:29 equivalent of the car payment until you have enough
07:31 to pay cash - by the way, if you pay cash,
07:34 you are really going to think twice about "do I really
07:36 want to spend $30,000 of my money on this car?
07:40 Do you see what I'm saying? JB: Yeah.
07:41 Whereas if you're putting down a down payment and paying it off
07:43 over 10 years, it doesn't seem quite so painful when the actual
07:45 fact is it's way more payments. ER: Yes, it's might be 50% more
07:48 by doing that over time. JB: Okay.
07:50 We looked at a couple of things right now.
07:53 One of them - getting out of debt.
07:54 Looking after yourself by paying down your debt and being
07:58 free from debt. We talked about cars.
08:00 I'm sure we are going to talk about more things in a moment.
08:02 Money management, stewardship as the approach of Jesus is near.
08:07 Thanks for joining me today. Don't go away.
08:09 I'll be back in just a moment.
08:11 ♪ [Gentle Music] ♪ In Matthew 4:4
08:14 the Word of God says "It is written
08:16 'Man shall not live by bread alone but by
08:19 every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'."
08:22 Every Word is a one minute Bible-based daily devotional
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08:40 Watch Every Word. You'll be glad you did.
08:47 Thanks for being with me today. I am joined today by Ed Reid
08:50 who has literally written the book on
08:52 money management and on Bible prophecy.
08:55 And today we are looking at how a person should plan financially
09:00 keeping in mind that Jesus' return is near.
09:04 JB:A moment ago, Ed, we were talking about how important it
09:06 is that a person should want to get out of debt.
09:08 We looked at what some of those debts might be.
09:10 You mentioned clearing car payments.
09:13 ER: Credit cards. JB: What are some other....
09:15 and credit cards, thanks. What are some other areas that
09:17 people typically carry debt on that they might and perhaps even
09:20 relatively easily, clear those debts and get out of debt?
09:23 ER: Well, a lot of people don't think about this but I actually
09:26 encourage people to prepay the principal on their home
09:29 mortgage. Houses cost so much today
09:32 because there is credit available so we almost always
09:34 have to get a loan. Very few people have the cash to
09:37 do it so I encourage people to get an amortization schedule and
09:41 prepay principle, like when you make a regular payment make
09:44 another payment's principal, if you can, each month if you can,
09:47 and pay your house off in half the time.
09:48 JB: Okay. Explain that a little more
09:50 slowly. ER: Alright.
09:51 If you have an amortization schedule, it has like 5 columns
09:54 in it and one of them is the number of the payment like
09:57 1-360, and then it's how much the payment itself is,
10:02 how much goes to the bank for interest,
10:04 how much of that is principle and what your balance is.
10:07 And every time you make one regular payment, which you have
10:10 to do every month, add next month's principal payment, which
10:13 is a much smaller sum (for some people
10:15 it will be like $150). When you do that, you've paid
10:19 two payments in one and the next time the third payment.
10:22 So you can pay it off in half the time.
10:24 That's incredible. I've done that two times
10:26 in my life. JB: So you can pay it off in
10:28 half the time without paying twice as much money.
10:30 ER: Oh yes. That's incredible.
10:32 It's amazing, really. You save thousands,
10:34 literally thousands. JB: Okay, someone is writing a
10:37 note furiously to themselves. They are trying to remember
10:39 what you said. Let's make it easy for people.
10:42 If someone wants to review this, that information you gave,
10:44 how can they find that information real quick?
10:47 ER: Well you can just look at an amortization schedule.
10:49 You can find the amortization schedule for your loan on-line,
10:52 for example, print it off and then you can easily see what
10:54 I've just said. JB: Are banks happy when
10:56 people choose to do this? ER: I don't think so.
10:59 JB: But that's not really the point here, is it?
11:00 ER: No. As long as there is no
11:01 prepayment penalty and most loans today don't have one and
11:03 you can do that very easily. JB: Okay, talking about getting
11:05 out of debt, because I don't think that it would be wise to
11:07 be carrying a whole bunch of debt into troublesome times that
11:11 are coming. ER: Yes.
11:12 JB: How is a person supposed to get out of debt ...
11:14 if, say they are wanting to buy a house.
11:16 Like you said, not everybody can go and pay cash for a house.
11:20 You pretty well have got to borrow money to buy a house.
11:23 What is the right approach? ER: I would suggest a couple of
11:26 things. One of them is to make sure you
11:27 put 20% down so you don't have private mortgage insurance
11:30 to pay. That is something that just
11:31 guarantees your loan to the bank.
11:34 It does not benefit you in any way.
11:36 So have a 20% down payment minimum.
11:39 In addition to that, every time you prepay a payment,
11:42 it builds your own net worth. If the economy were to tank
11:46 really bad, most people that don't prepay are upside down on
11:49 their mortgage, which means they owe more on it than it's worth.
11:52 But if you have prepaid, that should not be a bother to you.
11:54 So, it's better to do that in my opinion.
11:56 And I will just tell you that right now, today,
12:01 aside from end-times, we are having 10 thousand
12:04 Americans retire every day of the week, starting this year,
12:08 and this will last for 10 years in a row.
12:11 This is the baby boomer generation.
12:13 And people know they are ready to retire when they have their
12:15 debts paid off, including their home mortgage, when they have a
12:18 reasonable income stream, and they have health insurance.
12:22 So, just to prepare for end times would be the same thing,
12:26 in my opinion. Try to be debt-free so that no
12:28 matter what comes in the future, it does not
12:30 adversely affect you. JB: Okay.
12:33 Give me some more. What are the principles
12:35 of money management, wise financial planning
12:37 stewardship? Should people be entertaining
12:40 when they are thinking Jesus is coming back soon?
12:41 Because I've heard people say "The Lord is coming back
12:44 and it doesn't matter. Let's rack up debt.
12:46 Let's do - just go nuts because the Lord is coming back and we
12:49 don't have to worry about it. That's irresponsible.
12:51 ER: I've heard that as well. But I really believe that the
12:53 Bible says in Psalms 37:21 "The wicked borrow
12:57 and do not repay."
12:58 It is not a Christian perspective to rack up debts
13:01 and walk off from them. In addition to that, before
13:03 God's people are taken to heaven, we are going to have a
13:06 time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation and
13:08 the people that are in debt are going to have
13:10 the worst time of it. Essentially, losing everything.
13:12 So I think we need to have a focus away from this earth
13:15 and toward our Kingdom. I would suggest very sincerely
13:19 that the more we can we should support ministries like It Is
13:22 Written and others with any available cash, it's not going
13:26 to be good in sometime in the future and all the stuff we have
13:29 is going to get burned up some day.
13:31 JB: It's true, isn't it? Now we have an opportunity to do
13:34 something with our funds that one day we are simply not going
13:36 to be able to use. ER: Yes.
13:37 Think of all the money that was lost in the downturn in the
13:39 economic markets from 2008 and 2009.
13:42 If that money alone that people lost
13:44 had been put into ministries, we would have more money
13:46 than we knew what to do with.
13:48 We are talking millions, even billions of dollars lost in the
13:50 portfolios of many Americans.
13:53 JB: Okay. Financial stewardship.
13:55 Looking toward to the return of Jesus.
13:57 Take us a step further with this.
13:58 ER: Well, another thing that I would say is right now we have
14:01 very high unemployment. We need to be employed so that
14:04 we can help support our families and do the work of God.
14:07 So I would suggest do all you can to stay employed.
14:12 In other words, be a diligent worker.
14:14 And it's interesting. Proverbs 22 talks about
14:18 "Show me a man who is diligent in his work
14:20 and he will stand before kings, not mere men."
14:22 Be the best employee that you can be - that's important.
14:25 And if you don't have a job, I would suggest that
14:28 you take any job that you can that does not violate
14:31 your conscience. You would not want to be a
14:33 "go-go dancer" or a bartender or something, but most any job
14:36 would be of value to you if you didn't have a job.
14:40 JB: It is important, isn't it, that people put themselves in a
14:41 position - and I say this kindly because I know some people
14:44 are out of work and would do anything they could
14:46 to change that. It's important to make yourself
14:49 as employable as possible. ER: Oh yes.
14:52 JB: What are some simple things, just very simple things somebody
14:53 can do to enhance their employability?
14:56 ER: Well, you can find out, for example, what kind of jobs are
14:58 available now. For example, health care
15:01 in the economy right now, go to a hospital
15:03 parking lot and you can hardly find a place to park.
15:05 Very few healthcare workers have lost their jobs.
15:08 There is not very much unemployment in that area.
15:10 Train yourself for some level of health care.
15:12 You know, nursing, inhalation therapy,
15:14 whatever it might be, lab tech, whatever.
15:16 Those are things that are important.
15:18 Computers are still important. Everybody gets their stuff on
15:20 their cell phones and their computers and so on.
15:23 Computer guys are staying busy and they are making
15:24 good incomes, much more than preachers,
15:26 as you may know. JB: Yeah, yeah.
15:29 Moving right along, what other advice
15:31 can we give people that are thinking about the end of time
15:34 and wondering what to do, how to manage their finances
15:36 wisely. ER: I would say,
15:38 live within your means. Make a budget.
15:40 This is kind of like going on a diet and most people,
15:42 they don't' want to do that. Make a simple budget.
15:44 Here's what my income is. Here's what my expenses
15:46 are each month. Live within your means.
15:48 Let me give you a simple illustration.
15:51 Because of the bombardment of advertising today,
15:54 most people think they need more stuff
15:56 but most of us can get along just fine with the stuff
15:58 we already have. In fact, I ask people, how many
16:01 of you think you have stuff you will never use as long as you
16:02 live? And most people raises
16:04 their hand. Have a yard sale.
16:05 Sell off stuff. Put that money on your debts and
16:07 so on. But if you don't think that you
16:09 can live within your means or too poor to save,
16:12 visit a third world country like Haiti or Central India,
16:16 or some of those places, and you will realize
16:18 that you are very rich. If you have a car,
16:21 in any condition, you are in the top 5% of people
16:24 in the whole world. So, let's just learn to live
16:27 within our means and that is going to be a very helpful thing
16:29 near the end-time. You can't afford to get
16:31 further in debt. This is kind of a tail onto the
16:34 one of getting out of debt, but certainly don't go
16:35 further in debt. JB: A simple idea.
16:38 Live within your means. Yet, so many people find it
16:40 very, very difficult to do that. We are talking today about
16:44 financial management, stewardship, money management,
16:47 keeping in mind that Jesus is coming back soon.
16:51 I'll have more with Ed Reid in just a moment.
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17:27 Visit our website itiswritten.com today.
17:34 JB: Thanks for joining me today on It Is Written.
17:36 My guest today is Ed Reid, an accomplished speaker
17:39 and author and - you may not want me using
17:42 this word, Ed, but an "expert" in the fields of
17:45 financial management and Bible prophecy.
17:47 We are talking today about how believers in Jesus should
17:50 approach finances keeping in mind that Jesus is returning -
17:54 we believe - soon! Now, the last thing we spoke
17:57 about you know, really, this is the sort of thing we can talk
17:59 about all day, how important it is for a person to live within
18:02 their means. ER: Yes.
18:04 JB: If you have $10 don't spend $11.
18:07 Which means that if I have an income of X and I want to buy an
18:10 automobile that really belongs to someone who has an income of
18:16 Y or X times 3, I might want to scale back
18:19 my expectations a little bit, right?
18:21 ER: I think so. Yes.
18:22 And let me just suggest also that it is a good idea to have a
18:25 little savings, even if you have a smaller income
18:27 than you would like, I would suggest saving
18:30 something out of every paycheck and this not for retirement.
18:33 What I am talking about here is doing something
18:36 for emergency's sake.' JB: Okay.
18:38 Now someone, she is sitting here watching our program.
18:40 She is at home raising her two and a half kids,
18:44 and dad has a job, it's not a high paying job
18:47 and she's saying "this guy is saying save?
18:49 I can't even get the groceries paid for each week".
18:52 ER: I would budget savings just like groceries or utilities.
18:55 It could be a small amount, like $50 every paycheck or something.
18:59 But when you can build that up, many financial counselors
19:02 suggest having at least a $1,000 for emergency and try to have ..
19:06 the general savings is three to six months equivalent of
19:10 living expenses in an emergency savings fund
19:13 that you can draw upon should you have transmission
19:16 problems with your car, your refrigerator goes out,
19:18 you have a health emergency that your insurance
19:20 doesn't cover. JB: This isn't for a trip to
19:22 Disneyland? ER: No, no, no.
19:24 And the real interesting thing I would tell you is,
19:26 even eating out is kind of incredible.
19:30 I would suggest that if you eat out once a day, it doubles
19:33 your family's food budget for the month.
19:35 So eating out should be a special occasion, you know,
19:38 for a special thing, birthdays, anniversaries,
19:40 that kind of thing. And the most amazing thing to
19:43 show you that Americans need that, go to any
19:46 well-known restaurant and you have to wait to get in,
19:50 even though there is a downturn in the economy,
19:51 people are still eating out. JB: I have wondered.
19:53 I have marveled, as a matter of fact, many times that
19:55 the economy is apparently in such bad shape
19:56 that the restaurants are full. ER: Yes, isn't that incredible?
19:59 JB: Yes. That's not something you have to
20:00 do-eat out. But it is something you could,
20:03 perhaps, but you could work that another way, couldn't you?
20:05 ER: Lack of savings is the biggest reason people go in
20:08 debt. They don't intend to go in debt
20:10 but something happens to their car, or you know something like
20:13 that. They have to go then and put it
20:15 on a credit card and then they pay for it two or three times
20:17 over. JB: Now what about investing?
20:19 I know we gotta be careful here. We can't tell people
20:21 what to invest in and what not to invest in.
20:23 ER: Yes. JB: How should a person
20:24 approach investing? ER: Well this is a very good
20:27 question because obviously, wise and prudent people don't
20:30 spend everything they make. As I said before,
20:33 live within your income. But you would have to think in
20:36 terms of the future. When you can't work as gainfully
20:39 as you used to, or should you lose your job or whatever.
20:41 So I would suggest, first of all,
20:43 invest in your own debts. That's the very best investment
20:45 anyone can make. Guaranteed return.
20:49 For example, if you have money in a CD, you might be getting
20:52 1% or 2% but if you are paying off
20:55 your credit cards, you're making 10% or 27%
20:58 so that's an investment that I would recommend.
21:00 But another thing is, in these unusual times
21:03 - and by the way, your question is so good that I
21:05 want to insert this - BEWARE of
21:07 get rich quick schemes. There are hucksters out there
21:10 that want to get your money. And so I would suggest that
21:13 people always counsel with someone else before investing
21:16 somewhere. This great thing comes along -
21:19 by the way, most get rich quick schemes are introduced to people
21:21 by their friends who sincerely believe they are doing their
21:24 friends a favor. But you have to really
21:26 look at it. Something you don't understand,
21:29 you have to invest quickly, you know it's gonna promise
21:31 high returns, all of that. And I'm just going to tell you -
21:34 AVOID those at all cost. Even if it makes you so you are
21:39 not friends with that person because you are going to end up
21:42 not being friends anyway. JB: Typically with investing,
21:44 isn't it true, if something seems too good to be true...
21:46 ER: Oh Yes. It almost always is.
21:48 That's true. And the real interesting thing
21:50 about investments, I would say, even though the government is
21:53 trillions of dollars in debt, probably the safest investments
21:57 are government-backed securities.
21:59 Because the government has the unique ability to print money
22:01 if they need to. But you know,
22:03 it's kind of the standard. So I would suggest, if you have
22:06 to put money away that you're not investing in your debts,
22:09 put it in a secure position. Because if you could make more
22:12 in the stock market, the higher the level of income offered,
22:16 the greater risk it is. That's always true whether the
22:18 people telling you believe it or not,
22:20 whether you believe it or not, whether it seems possible even.
22:23 The higher the interest promised, the greater the risk.
22:25 It's always true. JB: Now if Jesus is coming back
22:28 soon, if the end is near, and I don't' say that -
22:31 in fact, I don't say that as a doom merchant,
22:32 I say that full of hope. ER: Aren't we all excited?
22:36 JB: How important is it that a person really keeps an eye on
22:38 the future? ER: Well I will just tell you
22:39 this. Christian Bible believers have
22:42 inside information. Now in the investing world,
22:45 that's not a good idea of having, as you know.
22:47 But we have inside information and it's in 2 Peter 3:10,
22:52 that when the Lord returns, the earth will get burned up
22:54 and all the works of men and as I tell people,
22:57 that will reduce its value considerably.
22:59 All the stuff gets burned up. So I would say as a Christian,
23:02 you know, get rid of the stuff that you don't need.
23:05 A lot of the us have things we've carried around for years
23:07 that we really don't need. Divest yourself of the stuff you
23:09 don't need. Sell it at yard sales.
23:11 Now here's the real story. Christians are going to work
23:14 together for the greatest event ever and that's to work together
23:18 to finish the work of God on this earth.
23:20 It is not going to be free. God is going to ask us to
23:22 utilize stuff he has given us. Remember, "honor the Lord with
23:25 your possessions", your stuff and that's the way we help him
23:28 do it, helping Him to finish the work of God.
23:30 So I think another thing. This earth is not our final
23:33 home. We have dual citizenship
23:36 as Christians, citizens here of
23:37 whatever country we are in and citizenship in heaven
23:39 when we accept Christ. So we are moving from one to the
23:42 other and we want to move our@ assets from here to the new
23:46 earth so that we can be blessed and to bless others
23:51 at the same time. JB: Okay.
23:52 Let's go to the Bible. A couple of verses, a couple of
23:54 Bible verses that you believe are especially helpful,
23:57 especially pertinent to people as they are wanting to honor the
24:00 Lord with what they have, keeping in mind
24:02 the time is short. ER: Well, I would think of
24:03 1 John. That's a very interesting one.
24:06 Chapter two. I believe I have it marked here
24:09 in my Bible so I can find it quickly and verses 15 to 17
24:14 says something similar to 2 Peter that I just mentioned.
24:16 Don't love the world or the things in the world.
24:18 If you do, the love of the Father is not in you because all
24:22 that is in the world, the lust of the eyes and so on, is not of
24:24 the Father but is of the world. And that's just giving
24:27 this point. The world is passing away
24:31 and the lust of it. But he that does the will of God
24:33 abides forever. 1 John 2:17.
24:36 So what that says to me is it's not going to pass away,
24:40 it is in the process of passing away.
24:43 With all of the natural disasters and things, the world
24:45 is waxing old like a garment, is what it says in the Bible.
24:49 And we have to understand. I believe in ecology.
24:52 I believe in separating my trash and all that kind of stuff.
24:54 But we are not going to save the planet.
24:56 The Bible is clear that it is passing away and the lust of it
24:59 but he that does the will of God abides forever.
25:02 So I would say that as you read through the Scripture, look for
25:04 the will of God, put that part in your life.
25:07 JB: How about if we pray together because a lot of people
25:08 are taking on board what you have said today and they are
25:10 saying, Lord, some things have got to change around here.
25:12 ER: That's true. JB: I've got to get it right now
25:14 and it's not going to happen unless people are praying their
25:16 way through this. Let's pray together, shall we?
25:17 ER: Okay. JB: Our Father, we thank you in
25:20 the name of Jesus that you are willing to guide us in some of
25:25 the most practical and important areas of our lives.
25:28 There are a few things more practical
25:30 than our daily finances. We are all confronted with the
25:34 importance of them and sometimes confounded by them.
25:37 As we have talked today, Ed and I,
25:38 I pray that you would guide us all as we seek to honor you
25:43 with our stuff, and our possessions
25:45 and our finances, as we seek to plan
25:48 prudently with the return of Jesus so imminent.
25:52 I pray your Holy Spirit will guide us and keep us.
25:55 Let your will be done. Please be first in our lives and
25:59 let us face the future with confidence, confidence that
26:01 comes from knowing we are honoring you.
26:03 In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. ER: Amen.
26:16 ♪ [Musical Interlude- Gentle] ♪
26:27 ♪ [Thoughful Melody] ♪ Today we have been
26:28 talking about crucial financial issues that affect all of us.
26:31 Our goal at It Is Written is to help you live a more satisfying
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