The Church and the Financially Distressed Christian

In most, if not all the middle east countries, non-payment of a financial obligation like loans and credit card arrears is criminal in nature. It is not just a civil case. In fact, many Filipinos and Christians landed in jail.

A lot of Christian believers might be wondering whether or not Christian Churches and its leadership has done something to help these brethren who are in financial trouble? The sad fact is that many believers' mind are conditioned that the church and the brethren should dole out for the amount needed, especially if the Church is blessed financially.

For the sake of our further discussion about helping brethren who are in financial distress, let us first agree on two simple truths. If you will not agree, then do not read any further.

Firstly, the church is not a charitable institution; and secondly, money is not the person's real problem, as I have mentioned in my prior article "No, Money is Not the Real Problem."

If your eyes are still glued to these letters, then let me proceed.

Though caring for each other is a primordial function or task to be promoted inside the Church, dole out of cash to those in financial trouble, I believe is not one of them. Especially if the main reason why one has to be in the situation is his or her own misuse of money on unimportant things.

The Bible, specially in the new testament, as far as I could find (well anybody could point it out to me) mentioned the following as the items where the Church's fund should be appropriated:

1. To help the needy, not those that has the capacity to provide for themselves and their family. These brethren does not lack because his nothing is left of his salary after deducting the loan or credit card payments;
2. For the administrative costs like honorarium of the Church worker that includes the minister, secretary, clerks, and other volunteers, as well as rental payments for the venue of Church services;
3. To defray expenses incurred in the on-going Church activities and projects; and
4. To support for the missions.

Nothing could I found any verse that a Church giving or lending money to pay off debts of one of its members.

Instead, the best way the Church could care for its membership is to teach personal finance and stewardship. This is a very valuable help than the giving of money, for money is not the real problem. The real problem is the lack of education in terms of personal finance and stewardship.

It is now high time for the Churches to teach its membership to be faithful with their tithes (10% of their income), and the remaining (90%). After all, God owns everything we have.

"Just Say: No, Thank You"

Early morning on June 20, 2010 at my office desk was an envelope from a bank, which is not my depository bank. Surprisingly, when I opened the envelope it contains a statement of account for a visa card. The sole entry is a charge for an annual membership fee.

I immediately dialed the bank's hotline, followed the voice prompt and finally was entertained by a customer service officer. After the standard identity verification, I immediately raised a complaint for charging me the membership. The charge, as I explained is arbitrary and whimsical. I had never activated, moreso used the card since it was given to me by the issuing bank.

The customer service officer explained their point. He said, with an arabic intonation that upon the issuance of the card in my name, it automatically enlist my name as a member. Being a member, they charge a membership fee, which in my case was waived during the first year. Now, this second year of membership, they will be charging the fee.

I agree their argument that anyone issued with a credit card by an issuing bank entitles one to be a member. However, I threw up these rebuttal questions to him: since i had not activated my card, am I not considered an inactive member? In any professional or socio-civic organization, can an organization compel an inactive member or any member for that matter to pay their membership dues?

Instead of directly answering my questions, he then proceeds to saying that this is a matter of their imposed policy. I need to pay the dues on or before July 4, 2010.

Calmly I then told him, no I will not pay. I know that this call has been recorded and now I will challenge you to forward my account to your recovery or legal department because I will not pay this membership due.

He then ask me if I really want to cancel my visa account to which I replied yes. I have not even activated my account despite repeated calls received from your bank insisting me to activate my card.

Finally, he told me that he had initiated a request to cancel my account with their bank. He further said that another person will call me in two or three days time, if none I may call back their hotline number on the fourth day, which is on June 24, 2010.

Today, June 22, 2010 I received a call from the bank. This time a lady. She again insisted me to activate my account with a promise that they will waive the membership fee. My instant reply is no. She then said that the waived membership fee plus the benefits the cardmember enjoys was just put to waste. She insisted that I am privileged to enough to have their card for free membership for the next 12 months.

I just calmly asked her that was it a lost opportunity for me or your bank's chance to earn from me? In the first place, I already promised myself to rid of any credit cards. I am a credit card free person right now.

End of conversation. Cancellation of my visa account becomes final.

I am sharing this experience to everyone thinking that I am not the only victim of this policy. All faithful readers of this blogs, your loved ones, or even friends had or may encounter the same situation.

Also, I would like to prove to everyone that we can all survive without that plastic money. All you need to do is to be content.

One of the advocacies for my blogposts is to teach everyone contentment. For the Bible says that contentment plus godliness is great gain.

God bless you all!!!

Not More, Not Less

"...give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, "who is the Lord?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God." -Prov. 30:8b-9-

From television shows to video messages and other blog on the internet, and even my observations of people around this past few days there is one subject that has impacted my devotional--getting rich and greed.

There was this television show that invited a speaker to speak about the way to amass wealth and so many things were being given as tips. People around me are busy engaging in activities that may augment their day job income. But, there were also messages that reminds me of how greed infiltrated the society that we are living in. I was even led to the aforementioned Bible verse.

Do not get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with earning extra or even amassing wealth. However, the motive of doing so or even the amount of time spent on such activities must be checked.

Let us delve first on the motive. Do you want to earn extra so you can live a luxurious lifestyle indulging in activities that are tagged by the society as for the "rich and famous?" Or you may just want your children or family to enjoy what are the latest trends in the society? Or you just want to amass more wealth for the future of your children?

If these are your motives, can you imagine how you may have been spending the 24-hour day that you have. These motives are noble on the surface as it is for the benefit for your family. The reality is that these motives ruin your personal and family life. No wonder that delinquents are increasing in number because parents are spending less time with their children.

This we have to reflect. Which one is more important your physical or spiritual satisfaction? We must at least balance both. As Jesus taught us by saying "man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from God." This means that we have to feed both the lust of our bodies for material things and the joy and peace--through the communion with God--that our spirit needs.

Ones motive then should be to share that wealth, if it exceeds your needs. However one must also be careful if the time you have been spending in wealth building should not come in the way of your activities that will feed your spirituality. The time that you fellowship with both your biological and spiritual families, as well as your personal communion with the Lord.

At the end of the day, what is paramount is to live a life in moderation and contentment. How do we determine what is moderate? Moderation is one where you will not be so rich that you may be enjoying the abundance of material things that you may feel you do not need God nor being too poor that you may profane the name of God by stealing. Having said that, contentment in life is the key.

The Boat is Sinking

"The boat is sinking, group yourselves into..." there goes that famous line of one of those parlor games played at parties or any group or organizational activities. But the succeeding paragraphs you may read from hereunder is not all about the said game. Rather it is all about the present economic boat everyone riding in.

The last couple of days, there were a number of people whom I had conversation about this global economic situation. Two of these I know personally and some two others were strangers whom I met in a restaurant during lunch break and another one at the place where I wait for my car lift.

One common denominator in those conversations is about the sinking economic boat. All these guys whom I had good conversations with are in one accord as their gut feel led them to conclude that economy is worsening. With the news of Greece and other debt-laden countries, the economic boat has yet to reach the sea bed of recession.

As my share of the conversation, I agreed with them. They also concurred with my opinion that the main culprit of this sinking is overspending. Living beyond ones means led one to overspend, then to over-borrow until one day repayment terms is inevitably breached, hence the problem.

How can a country or the whole world fell into this problem of overspending and over-borrowing? The answer is so simple. Because most individuals, yes you and me and most of the political leaders are not living the principle of contentment that the Word of God taught. The same word written by Paul which states that "contentment with godliness is great gain."

You and me make up our family. Our families make up one community. Several communities make up cities, and cities a country. Several countries then make up the world. So what the world is into right now is a reflection of how you and me live our own lives.

Simply put, unless you and me would change our attitudes in handling our resources nothing will happen to our families. If our families are problematic, how can we contribute to the good of the community or our city or our country. If a number of countries, like what is happening today is in a problematic situation, it reflects the health of the world.

Therefore, it is time that churches around the world, and individuals who are gifted to teach the ways of God should do so. It is time for the people of God to rise and shine in this dark state of the world.

This is one of my motivation to keep on writing about things that teach people how to better handle their finances.

To all those who are following my blog posts, accept my sincerest apologies for my failure to keep it running for several weeks. I have been so busy with the graduation of my eldest daughter. The preparations for her going home to Philippines and some photography assignments kept me busy.

No matter how busy I am, I will try to keep this blog alive for those faithful readers. I will not allow that my blog will sink and be drowned to oblivion.

Convenience, How Much it Cost?

Convenience is a word closely attached to modernization. It is something that most modern facilities, gadgets, or even activities are being attached with. The main objective of which is to save resources, e.i. time and money, or eliminate frustrations.

Look around us we can see convenience store, convenience foods (a.k.a. ready to eat or serve foods), or even marriage of convenience as common examples.

Convenience stores are one usually found in petrol stations selling grocery items, toiletries, magazines, foods, and many other small items and services. Instead of going to supermarkets inside malls where looking for parking and walking inside consumes a lot of time, motorists can conveniently picked the items at these stores attached to a petrol station on the way home. Of course, the time saved is paid with a premium via the higher price tags of all items sold at convenience stores.

Ready to eat or serve foods has its cost too. What can you expect in exchange for the time saved, especially for all busy buddies out there who wants to save time in cooking for their foods. The price tags for convenience food could be your health as these type of foods contain preservatives or other chemicals that could ruin our health.

Marriage for convenience. These are resorted to by some when they arrange marriage not for love or a purpose of establishing a family, but mostly for immigration. No need to discuss further the cost attached to this type of an arrangement.

What other convenience you could think of that ruins the life of many?

Yeah, you got it correctly. Those little plastic cards, the credit cards. Is it not convenience these plastics are being marketed for?

Convenience and safety of carrying plastics instead of money. Convenience in purchasing the gadgets and other items of luxury while paying it at a later date. Worse, convenient cash available in case of emergency.

Even worse, is how easy one can purchase unnecessary items for lack of mental exercise in making decisions for convenience overrules your mind to thinking if you can afford the things you are buying or not.

Before all these conveniences came to being, our forefathers lived. They lived without credit cards. They even cooked their food while walking for miles from one place to another for they do not have the same luxury and convenience of modern transportation. Yet, they are happy and free--free from debts.

If your life is controlled by these conveniences, think again. The cost it attached could be your life.

Remember, nothing instant in this world is worthwhile. Achieving things through hard-work and sacrifice lasts forever, especially the joy it brings when achieving these.

Understanding the Needs Rather than Feeling for the Wants

By nature, man is a rational being. It means that he is designed to have brains that is supposed to be the central operating unit of his whole system. By analogy to the computer, it serves the function of the central processing unit, or the cpu.

The sad fact is that majority does not make use the full potential of the brain. Worse, many are controlled by their emotions, hence becoming irrational. Is it not a fact that when people are too emotional he tends to do crazy things?

Let us zoom in to the area of personal finance. People who are in financial problems are those that are being controlled by their emotions, especially in making spending decisions.

What do you think urges a person, an ordinary working class buying the latest model of a mobile phoe twice or even three times his salary? Is it not the "feel good" emotion while seen in public using an iphone, a blackberry, or any latest mobile phone?

One fine day when I was commuting in a public bus, a young kabayan in her late twenties was holding an iphone, a stark contrast to an ordinary motorolla phone I had for three years now. In the middle of the trip back to Al Ain from Dubai, this young kabayan tried to contact somebody using the shiny iphone. The funny thing occurred when I overheard from the loud voice coming out from the iphone speaker which goes "sorry, you do not have enough credits to complete the call..." At the back of my mind I was like bursting into laughter thinking that my 400 Dirham (or a little over $100) phone purchased three years ago is way better than this more than 2000 Dirham (around $600) iphone. My cheaper phone is more useful than the more expensive one.

If not ruled by that "feel good" emotion in your spending, you would intellectually decide which one is more useful and beneficial. Using our brains rather than our hearts in making decisions should be the most appropriate act.

A clich� that says "that is why your brain is placed higher than the heart so that it will rule over the latter" is very much applicable here.

Have you not noticed that in the book of Proverbs wisdom is very much emphasized? The book also contains a number of practical guides on handling our financial resources. Hence, God wants to emphasize that we should understand the need and avoid feeling for the wants as a practical guide to handling our money.

God bless!!!

Spend or Save?

"The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless." Proverbs 14:15-16(ESV)

When it comes to personal finance, every waking hours of our lives we have to deal this simple question of whether to spend or save? You may or may not like it, but you are doing it while you are living and awake.

Unfortunately, the world around us dictates the urge to decide on spending rather than saving. Can we blame this on multimedia, the smart and genius of marketing and advertising, man's innate egocentric physical character that tends to lust for the latest gadgets, the latest fashion and style, or anything that can make us feel and look good?

All of the above is a resounding answer. Hence, it is an uphill battle for one to save.

The first two factors mentioned are given. We can do nothing about it. These are outside our control. However, the third factor, which is man's egocentric physical character is under our control.

Man is a composition of the physical body, soul and spirit. Simply put, you and I should deal both our physical and spiritual components.

The control that we can do on the third factor relies more heavily on our regard with both the physical and spiritual. Jesus' rebuttal to the devil that goes "man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes out from the mouth of God" when asked to turn the stone into bread at the time He is fasting simply dictates us that man should also feed his spiritual hunger and thirst by the Word of God.

Being prudent and wise, especially on the way we deal with our finances needs wisdom, which comes from God. To do this, we should take care of our spirituality by constantly communing with God through prayers and devotional reading of the Bible.

If the physical is controlling, reckless and careless decisions shall be made. A decision to just spend, spend, and spend while completely disregarding to save for the rainy day is the way of life.

As part of our reflection this lenten season, we may examine our financial health. Have we overspent and not saved? Have we accumulated so much debt instead of savings? Only you and your God know your standing.

Anyone who is financial in bondage, is not spiritually free.

Be wise. Save.