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You are here: Home / Archives for debt

The Mask

February 13, 2019 By admin

Her delivery of the poem slammed my thoughts into an emotive wall. My daughter was preparing to participate in a Poetry Out Loud ™ event at her high school, and as she read The Mask, by Paul Laurance Dunbar, it resonated with me as powerfully as it had during my senior year.

    We wear the mask that grins and lies, 
    It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— 
    This debt we pay to human guile; 
    With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, 
    And mouth with myriad subtleties.

    Why should the world be over-wise, 
    In counting all our tears and sighs? 
    Nay, let them only see us, while 
            We wear the mask.

    We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries 
    To thee from tortured souls arise. 
    We sing, but oh the clay is vile 
    Beneath our feet, and long the mile; 
    But let the world dream otherwise, 
            We wear the mask!  

–Paul Laurance Dunbar (1872 – !906)

More than 100 years have passed since the ink flowed to write this amazing poem, and yet its meaning for humanity is as fresh and real for us as the day it was written.

Perhaps none wear “the mask” as well (or as poorly) as people who call themselves Christians, and yet have no relationship with the One they claim to love. They smile, they laugh, they say all the “correct” things, and yet inside they feel spiritually hollow. They live day to day, wondering how (and if) they will ever be able to truly be the person on the inside that matches the one that they attempt on the outside. It’s a lonely and desperate struggle.

I wore “the mask” for years, and admittedly (from time to time), I attempt to see if it still fits. I find myself trying it back on when life gets too busy, when I don’t spend quality time with my God, or I attempt to make my relationship with my Creator more complicated than it needs to be. Loving relationships take investment, and when my priorities get tangled, the mask comes back out of the closet, and I begin making excuses to myself as to why I should start wearing it again.

Living “mask free” is sometimes a frightening proposition, but wearing it spiritually suffocates and stifles me. The only real freedom that I have found, happens when I stay connected to the One who wants me to be who I was designed to become…and who I was designed to be, doesn’t require a mask at all.

Michael Temple writes from North Dakota.

The post The Mask appeared first on Answers for Me.

Read more at the source: The Mask

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: News and Feeds, Vegetarian recipes Tagged With: appearance, crossings, debt, facade, matches-the-one, michael-temple, since-the-ink, take-investment, world

Ashamed of Debt

January 2, 2019 By admin

Dear Nancy: I’m seven years into a marriage that is a financial disaster! I’m working full time and we just can’t get ahead. Our bills are driving me crazy. My husband says he wants to pay the bills, but he rarely remembers to pay things on time. We had a car repossessed a couple of years ago; we’re constantly overdrawn at the bank; and we have credit card debt up to our eyeballs.

I’m at the point where I can barely sleep at nights. I wasn’t raised this way and am not used to living like this.  Before I married my husband, I knew he wasn’t careful with money. I thought he’d become more responsible after we got married and had children. Big mistake!

I’m so ashamed. I can’t take many more calls from creditors. Is there anything we can do to change the way we are living?

Dear Ashamed: You are just one of many couples burdened by uncontrollable debt. Much of this happens because no one has taught young couples how to handle money. Today’s philosophy seems to be “Spend and spend; if you don’t have the cash, charge it. If you want it, get it because you deserve it.” People seem to have abandoned the concept of saving in order to buy.

Contrary to the direction society is going. God wants His people to live debt free. The blessings that come with living debt free go far beyond financial freedom. How we handle our money spills over into the spiritual and marital areas of life as well. No one who is financially burdened can be spiritually free. And debt and financial bondage have far-reaching effects on a marriage.

How do you get out of debt? Here are nine steps Crown Financial Ministries* developed to help couples get out of the debt trap:

1. Pray. Transfer ownership of all your possessions to God. Then ask Him for guidance and wisdom in all matters pertaining to how you handle what belongs to Him.

2. Give to God first. Tithing must be your first commitment—give ten percent of your income to the Lord before you allocate the rest of your money. Without faithfully fulfilling this commitment, all other efforts will fail.

3. Establish a written budget. A balanced budget is the primary tool in any family’s plan for managing money. List all of your obligations. Start with all the debts you owe. Include credit-card debt, all payments, and any loans you have. Monthly bills such as the electric or gas bill aren’t considered debt until you are late on a payment, but add these other items to your budget as well.  It will take a month or so to write down all of your expenses and realize where your money is going. Keep a log of everything you spend. Write down everything, even a soda from McDonalds, and ice cream from Dairy Queen. Then evaluate this list at the end of the month. What can you eliminate?

4. List your assets. Write down everything you own. Is there anything you currently own that you could sell and apply the money toward debt reduction? Consider items of value that you many not use or need any more.

5. Work out a pay-back plan with your creditors. Most creditors are more than willing to work with people who honestly want to repay them. Make sure that every creditor gets something, but stay within the guidelines of your budget. Decide which debts to pay off first. You should base your decision on two factors: the size of the debts and interest rate charged. In most cases, it is wise to pay off the smallest debt first. You’ll be encouraged as they are eliminated, and you’ll also be freeing up money to apply against other debts. Then that money can be applied to the next smallest debt and so forth until you are debt free. Consider also what rate of interest you’re paying on each debt. Try to pay off those debts that involve high rates of interest before you pay off those that charge less.

6. Consider earning additional income. Whether we earn a lot or a little, we tend to spend more than we make. Could your husband or you earn additional money without harming your relationship with the Lord or with your family?

7. Accumulate no new debt! The only way to accumulate no new debt is to pay for everything with cash, a check or a debit card at the time of purchase. Put away or destroy all credit cards until you’re out of debt. Once out of debt, either never use a credit card again, or charge only what you can pay off within thirty days. Credit cards aren’t evil, just dangerous!

8. Consider a radical change in your lifestyle. More and more people are lowering their expenses to get out of debt by selling their homes, moving to smaller ones or even moving in with family members temporarily until they get on their feet again. You can sell relatively new automobiles for cash and purchase cheaper used cars.

9. Don’t give up! From the very beginning, you’ll think of a hundred reasons why you should delay getting started or quit along the way. Don’t yield to this temptation.  Follow through so you can experience what it’s like to live debt free. God wants us to live debt free so we can serve Him to the utmost of our abilities and resources. When we’re in debt, we are bound to our creditors and are not free to serve God to the utmost. Proverbs 22:7 says, “Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender” (The Living Bible). You can become debt free and stay that way if you have the desire, and discipline; you’ll no longer be enslaved to your lenders.

I also highly recommend that you call Crown Financial Ministries* and get yourself into one of their small group studies where you’ll learn how to do everything I’ve recommended plus much more.  It’s a life changing experience.

The post Ashamed of Debt appeared first on Answers for Me.

Read more at the source: Ashamed of Debt

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: Dear God, News and Feeds Tagged With: anxiety, bill collections, bills, cash, credit-cards, crown-financial, debt, homes, income

In Search of Forgiveness

November 15, 2018 By admin

After explaining forgiveness as best I could at a large Christian gathering a while back, a large line formed to speak with me. Most were tearing up and grateful for the flashlight on their double-standard Christianity—you know—our guzzling up of the forgiveness of God while stiffing those who need forgiveness from our hands. Everyone seemed convicted, until a guy I’ll call Tom stepped up and shook my hand.

He was the exception. He was in his mid-forties and his sister had recently been run down and killed by a raging drunk. He spoke fast and was sure that he hoped the youth rotted in prison, no matter what. He couldn’t see things any other way at the time. Forgiveness looked to him like a band-aid applied to a hole that cut him from neck to abdomen. It was not enough.

As he went on, two thoughts swirled in my mind. The first thought was that we can never leave forgiveness to our emotions. To feel the deep desire to forgive comes with a most mature faith, often the result of days and days—years and years—of practice and an exceptionally tested surrendered-ness to Jesus’ directive.

A desire to forgive minutes after personal loss can come easier and easier, it is true, but only as we are healed and grown over time. And to wait for such a personal maturity before choosing to forgive would sabotage it happening at all. Lucky for us, forgiveness is a choice of will, not a flood of emotionally generousness.

As one friend of mine put it, forgiveness can be spoken while the heart convulses in anger and emotions rage, we are not, after all, the authors of forgiveness, only its loyal subjects. In other words, I can forgive you by speaking the name of Jesus Christ over what you have done and giving all of it and its repercussions to Him. That is the real thing, all feelings aside. When I forgive the matter is finished right there, even though I may still cry for days.

The second thought was that a desire to forgive can be summoned by consciously studying and embracing our own personal depravity. I don’t care how mad you are, if you go to Father God and swap stories, you’ll always leave with enough gratitude necessary to forgive anybody. The short of it is that our debt tore Jesus away from His own family and our mortal ugliness sent Him to His death. Because of you and me, Jesus was beaten past recognition, and right outside Father God’s living room window.

Think on this and you’ll not be quite so vindictive. God, He saw it all. Sensed it all. Heard it all. Yes, and now He still dreams of your tomorrows and hears your prayers. You and your bungled life with all its messes remains His concern. The teachings of Jesus leave no doubt that we wreaked havoc in a beautiful universe because we were so loved and so evil.

They longed for us even as the sins we nurtured threatened to sink our solar system. We careened over the meridian of a cosmos and devastated the lives of far more than one husband and his two little girls, and that was just the beginning. Surely there was a place for this youthful drunk and his tragic crime.

It seems to me, focusing on the loss sustained by Almighty God can address the most painful numbing loss, and lead forgiveness-ward. With the smallest of efforts, we can imagine Father God’s pain and open our hearts up to the raging drunk that kills our kid-sister, extending that same forgiveness Jesus choked out on the cross.

And in a way this can bring us nearer to God. In our devastating loss we no longer have to imagine God’s pain. In fact, we can feel His pain. Yes, we can cry and scream and know a very small touch of what Father God went through for us.

Clarissa Worley Sproul writes from the Pacific Northwest.

The post In Search of Forgiveness appeared first on Answers for Me.

Read more at the source: In Search of Forgiveness

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: Dear God, News and Feeds Tagged With: anger, answers for me, clarissa-worley, compassion, debt, father, hoped-the-youth, our past, personal, revenge

Remember the Poor

April 24, 2017 By admin

If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, … thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need. Deuteronomy 15:7, 8. At times following the return of the exiles from Babylon, the wealthy Jews had gone directly contrary to these commands. When the poor were obliged to borrow to pay tribute to the king, the wealthy had lent them money, but had exacted a high rate of interest. By taking mortgages on the lands of the poor, they had gradually reduced the unfortunate debtors to the deepest poverty.

Read more at the source: Remember the Poor

Article posted on en.intercer.net from Rose’s Devotional.

Rose’s Devotionals are prepared by Rose Hartwell, one of the Intercer founders. Since 1999, Rose sends out a daily devotional newsletter that includes a commentary on a Bible passage, a list of prayer requests for the current week and an illustration from daily life that applies to the Bible passage in study.

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Filed Under: News and Feeds, Rose's Devotional Tagged With: archives, debt, gates, god, military, tribute

When the Debt Ratio Is 600,000:1

March 10, 2007 By admin

When the Debt Ratio Is 600,000:1

https://pmcdata.s3.amazonaws.com/pmc-audio/2007-03-10.mp3

Read more at the source: When the Debt Ratio Is 600,000:1

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from New Perceptions Television Audio Podcast.

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Filed Under: Adventist Sermons & Video Clips, New Perceptions Television (PM Church) Tagged With: debt, ratio

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