Jesus is our accountant

Jim Douglass:

I remember sitting with a mortgage salesman who was telling us how quickly we could own our home. I then asked him to do the sums again taking into account the money we wanted to give to church, student ministry, overseas mission and child sponsorship. He then told us we couldn’t afford it!

• Now we are paying our mortgage off at an incredibly slow rate, but we’re supporting our local church.
• Now we only have one car, but we’re supporting university ministries around Australia.
• Now our holidays are fairly simple affairs, but we’re supporting overseas mission.
• Now we’re spending less on restaurants and clothes, but we’re helping the poor in other parts of the world.

Part of me wants more; part of me wants to give my family all the best holidays and experiences. Part of me wants the stuff that other people have.

Recently, my car mechanic gave me the “It’s-getting-old, there’s-not-much-we-can-do” talk. But Vanessa and I agreed that it’s not dead yet.

The truth is I feel the allure of fun family holidays and gadgets and a new car and gadgets and paying off our mortgage and gadgets, but our great accountant helps keep our priorities in perspective.

The gift Jesus gives us is greater than all those things, it’s the gift of contentment and the ability to say no to something good for the sake of something better.

Read the rest here.

what I'm reading: what are we holding back?

Have you been holding back?

Are you prepared to accept a lower standard of living so you can serve Jesus? Do you trust God to provide - to give you "all good things" as he promised?* Are you ready for a risky, costly life?

Those are the questions JI Packer asks in this uncomfortable quote from Knowing God:

We know what kind of life Christ calls us to ... But do we live it? Well, look at the churches. Observe the shortage of ministers and missionaries, especially men; the luxury goods in Christian homes; the fund-raising problems of Christian societies; the readiness of Christians in all walks of life to grumble about their salaries; the lack of concern for the old and lonely ...

We are unlike the Christians of New Testament times. Our approach to life is conventional and static; theirs was not. ... By being exuberant, unconventional and uninhibited in living by the gospel they turned their world upside down, but you could not accuse us twentieth-century Christians of doing anything like that.

Why are we so different? Why, compared with them, do we appear as no more than halfway Christians? Whence comes the nervous, dithery, take-no-risks mood that mars so much of our discipleship? Why are we not free enough from fear and anxiety to allow ourselves to go full stretch in following Christ?

One reason, it seems, is that in our heart of hearts we are afraid of the consequences of going the whole way into the Christian life:

• We shrink from accepting burdens of responsibility for others because we fear we should not have strength to bear them.
• We shrink from accepting a way of life in which we forfeit material security because we are afraid of being left stranded.
• We shrink from being meek because we are afraid that if we do not stand up for ourselves we shall be trodden down and victimized, and end up among life's casualties and failures.
• We shrink from breaking with social conventions in order to serve Christ because we fear that if we did, the established structure of our life would collapse all around us, leaving us without a footing anywhere.

It is these half-conscious fears, this dread of insecurity, rather than any deliberate refusal to face the cost of following Christ, which makes us hold back. We feel that the risks of out-and-out discipleship are too great for us to take ... We are not persuaded of the adequacy of God to provide ...

Let us call a spade a spade. The name of the game we are playing is unbelief, and Paul's 'He will give us all things' stands as an everlasting rebuke to us. ...

One day we shall see that nothing – literally nothing – which could have increased our eternal happiness has been denied us, and that nothing – literally nothing – that could have reduced that happiness has been left with us. What higher assurance do we want than that?  ...

Have you been holding back from a risky, costly course to which you know in your heart God has called you? Hold back no longer. Your God is faithful ... You will never need more than he can supply, and what he supplies ... will always be enough.

* in Romans 8:32.


Quote is from Knowing God 303-309.

household management (4) finances

No budget can change your motivations and choices - only the gospel can do that! - but it can help you manage your spending. Here's some things that have helped me, and other things I haven't done very well, and wish I'd been aware of years ago. With thanks to Bec, Deb, Fiona, Valori and RodeoClown.

Keep track of your spending in a budget - but do it for a reason, not just for the sake of it. Sometimes I've found a budget to be a useful tool; at other times it's been a time-waster. Use a budget to become familiar with your spending patterns so you can plan more carefully, if money is disappearing and you can't work out where, or if it helps you tighten up your spending.

When you're paid, before you spend anything:

• give money away - if they gave 10% in the Old Testament, how much more will the fullness of God's grace motivate us now!
• pay what you owe - come up with a plan and pay back a small amount each week
• pay regular, unavoidable expenses - housing, rates, car servicing, insurance, utility bills, and so on (I like Deb's idea of putting money for bills into a separate account the instant you get paid)
• save - put some money in a separate savings account (you'll draw on this for house repairs or unexpected medical bills)

Once you've done this, set aside a certain amount for household expenses (my friend puts this into a household account at the start of each week). You'll find you have two main kinds of household expenses:

• regular expenses (grocery shopping, petrol, entertainment etc.)
• occasional expenses (gifts, clothes, household items etc.)

You might choose to include both types of expenses in your household account, which will mean some careful setting aside of money for occasional expenses; or you might take the occasional expenses (e.g. bi-yearly clothes shop or Christmas gift shopping) out of your savings so you can stay in control and see how much they're costing you. Do whichever helps you spend less.

Only use a credit card if you pay it off in full each month (we do, mostly, but it means careful spending). Even better, follow my mum's advice (from a more careful time): only spend money you have. And that's after she's put some in the savings account.

If you want to work on managing or saving money, try Simple Savings or You Need a Budget.

How do you manage your money? Share your ideas here.

I'm aware I've only scratched the surface when it comes to money and budgeting, and I'm no expert. Check out the comments here for more ideas. To read about my struggles with over-spending, see these posts.

Follow this series here.

image is by Aunty Cookie (very appropriate!) from flickr

why we don't have a clothes dryer

Last week my daughter, who was searching for a dry top to wear, asked me why we don't have a clothes dryer (it broke last year, and we chose not to replace it - which, by the way, causes little inconvenience). I'd usually say, "We can't afford it", but I answered, "Because we choose to give money away." I was inspired by what I'd just read at in tandem:

Chester issues a challenge to think about having less. This may mean choosing to work less hours or not take the promotion, in order to have more time outside of work. It may be choosing the smaller house over the larger one, so that we don’t have to work so hard to pay for that larger mortgage. It may mean no longer reading “Better Homes and Gardens” or similar, and learning to be satisfied with the home that you have.

I think this is something that those of us in ministry should be striving to model. Consumerism is so rife we hardly notice it anymore. But we need to find ways to model it that are honest. If people think we have less because we cannot afford it, we are sending the wrong message. Ministers (at least those in the Western world) are generally not poor, we are paid enough to live on (and often much more than that). We need to be able to explain why we choose to spend less on some things, it’s a choice. Most ministry families who cry “poor me” have little understanding of true poverty.

Yep, I needed to hear that, and so did my daughter. Thanks, Wendy.

From Wendy's post The Busy Christian...chapter 11.

image is by DanielleCM at flickr

Sunday School - Proverbs (5) using money wisely

I've been struggling a bit teaching Proverbs. The group are a bit young, I discovered, to do a traditional Bible study, where you look up Bible verses and write them down: and believe me, there are a lot of verses in Proverbs!

So I was glad to hand our lesson on money over to my friend Liz - and even gladder to see that she came up with a great way to teach Proverbs, which we'll be using in weeks to come!

I gave poor Liz a long list of verses on how to use money wisely. As I looked up verse after verse, I was struck again by how incredibly practical Proverbs is. It includes all the everyday advice about money you would give to a child or adult: don't be lazy, save your money, don't spend it all at once, don't be greedy, avoid debt, be honest and generous.

But Proverbs also puts money in the big picture of God's creation and salvation: money is a great blessing, but far less valuable than wisdom or love. Better to have enough, but not too much, and serve God faithfully with what you have.

Liz had the great idea of making a chart, which the kids helped to complete, and which they proudly stuck up on the noticeboard for everyone at church to see. She printed out the verses I gave her in a large font. She used an A4 sheet as the radius of a circle, and cut out a quarter circle from 4 colourful A3 sheets:


Each quarter was given a title, and the children decided where to stick each of the verses:
1. Money is a blessing. The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it. (Proverbs 10:22)
2. Better than money. Wisdom (16:16), justice (16:8), a good reputation (22:1), peace (17:1), love (15:17).
3. What to do and what not to do. Don't get into debt (22:26-27), don't be a workaholic (23:4), don't be lazy (10:4), be honest in your work (11:1), save slowly(13:11), don't be greedy (28:20), don't trust in your money (11:28), be generous to the poor (11:24-25), give to God's work (3:9-10).
4. In conclusion. "...give me neither poverty nor riches..." (30:7-9)

The children drew pictures, cut them out, and stuck them on the chart to decorate it. Voila! One chart on God's teaching about money in Proverbs.

When my children and I had our own little Sunday School class on this topic, which was much less successful than Liz's (we were away that weekend), we started it with a game of Giant's Treasure (the adult stands with their back a good distance from the children, with a "treasure" behind them, and the children have to sneak up and grab the treasure, while the adult turns around unexpectedly and sends those who are moving back to the start). In the chest, if I'd been organised enough, I would have put some money cut out of shiny gold and silver card with "wisdom", "love", "peace", and the other "better than money" blessings on the back, and a few lollies to make it fun! A good icebreaker.

To sum it all up, here's one of my favourite Bible passages of all time, and a great one to learn and to pray:

Two things I ask of you, O LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonour the name of my God.
Proverbs 30:7-9

Amen.

quote of the week: how much should I give?

How much should we give?

Ten percent? Living on this side of the cross, doesn't Jesus' sacrifice call us to a more costly generosity? But doesn't the cross also free us from rules and regulations? Is 10% too much for a struggling family?

Maybe 10% is a good starting point. Certainly it keeps us honest. Sometimes it's an excuse not to be generous enough.

Overflowing love doesn't ask "how much". It sees a need and delights to meet it, even at great cost. It gives with abandon, having experienced God's abandoned giving of his only Son. It is so excited about heaven's treasure, that earth's treasure is joyfully given away.

A wise man once told me to give until it hurts. On paycheck day, his first act was to give money away, before spending money on himself.

Here's what C.S.Lewis has to say:

I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditure excludes them. I am speaking now of 'charities' in the common way. Particular cases of distress among your own relatives, friends, neighbours or employees, which God, as it were, forces upon your notice, may demand much more: even to the crippling and endangering of your own position. For many of us the great obstacle to charity lies not in our luxurious living or desire for more money, but in our fear--fear of insecurity. This must often be recognised as a temptation. Sometimes our pride also hinders our charity; we are tempted to spend more than we ought on the showy forms of generosity (tipping, hospitality) and less than we ought on those who really need our help.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

The quote is from chapter 13 of Mere Christianity. The picture is from stock.xcnng.