Financial Discipline

K Abraham Thomas

9-7-2000


A rich person is one who has something left of his income after meeting all his expenses while a poor man is vise versa. Therefore in the light of this we can say that if a person just has a luxurious life style or a high income he need not be a rich person.

For material prosperity, we have to do three things
1) Work hard
2) Spend wisely
3) Save intelligently

  1. Work hard and well
    We believers should work hard in 5 days rest on the 7th day of the week(Sabbath or Saturday) and worship God on 1st day of the week.
  2. Spend wisely
    We are to spend wisely. It will be good to write down an account of our expenses to help us regulate our spending.
  3. Save intelligently
    We are to save intelligently for known needs in order to have in time of needs.
Ps 24:1
The earth and everything in it belongs to Jehovah.
When we work, spend and save, we should do so with this verse in mind and this will help us do these three things sincerely, wisely and properly.

Gen 48:4
Num 36:7
Levi 25:23
Deut 2:5,9,19

This truth should pierce our heart and minds and should control all our dealings with material possessions.

Levi 19:23-25
In this passage the Lord is teaching us the lesson that the first and best of our material possessions the result of our work should go to Him because we are only care takers of what really belongs to the Lord. This is the foremost command of the Lord to His people concerning material possessions to accomplish this command we must have a detached attitude towards our possessions and at the same time work hard as the care takers of it.

Verses concerning "Living By Working"
Lk 10:7
Eph 4:28
I Thes 4:11,12
2 Thes 3:7-13
Gen 5:13
Prov 10:4-5,11,12
Prov 13:4,13,23
Prov 14:4,23
Prov 20,13
Prov 22:29
Prov 27:23
Prov 28:19
Prov 30:25
Ecc 9:10
Ecc 11:46
I Tim 5:8

About Material Prosperity
  1. The Source of our material prosperity is God.
    Ex 20:24
    Ex 23:25-30
    Deut 2:7


  2. The Measure of our material prosperity is our godliness our godliness is directly proportional to our material prosperity ie. the more spiritual we are, the more we will be blessed materially. 3 John 2.


  3. The Guarantee of material prosperity is honest hard work (refer to verses "Living By Working")


  4. The Stability of our material prosperity is provided by generosity in giving. (This point refers to spending.)

Giving Tithes
These are 3 tithes given by the Israelites:
1st Tithe of 10% Num 18: 21-30 (Given to the priests ie. the Levites)
2nd Tithe of 10% Deut 14:22-27, Deut 12:5-18 (Given in relation to the temple sacrifices festivals)
3rd Tithe of 10% Deut 14:28-29 (Given to the widows and the poor)

In total a Jew gives about 34% of his in come as Tithe.

In NT we see that our harvest in both spiritual and material aspects is in accordance with our sowing. II Cor 9:6-10
God does not look on how much of your income you spend on yourself but how much you give in comparison to how much you spend. If you are a generous giver God will bless you and your children in all areas including materially.

 

27-7-2000

Prov 22:1-4
1) Charitable spending is far better than saving. This enables us to earn God's grace.
Earning God's grace is better than gold and silver because getting things done by God's grace is better than getting things done by investments living Godly is better than earning money leaving Godliness.

Suggestion : Read "What the Bible says about Money" and "Debt Free Living" By Larry Burkett.

Vs 22
Reasons for financial problems
  1. Ignorance of money as a whole
    When we don't pay taxes to the government or when fake notes are printed it affects the money operating system and the value of the currency falls. Thus we the citizens are the losers as we don't get our money's worth
    2. .

  2. Impulsive Buying
    ie. Buying according to ones emotions and not with wisdom and according to once need.


  3. Poor planing and investing
    We should invest after consulting experts and do it in a way that will not affect our spiritual values.


  4. Borrowing (Prov 22:7)
    1. Borrowing is not a normal phenomenon in the bible.
    2. We should lend generously but think twice before borrowing.
    3. We should not use borrowed money for speculative purposes.
    4. We should only borrow for business purposes if the money we borrowed is spent to surely get more money than we have to return with interest.