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Comfortable and Complacent

The Prosperous Life

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I meet many people every day, and many times I ask them what they do for work and/or how they got into the business they are in. Sometimes the stories are very interesting. I asked a young builder the other day how he came to build houses.

He said he was working as a foreman for another builder making about $50,000 per year. He told me that it is very easy to become complacent with that kind of income. He said you can pay your bills and live fairly comfortably.

Together he and his wife had read many financial books and had some understanding of how money worked. He said he did not want to become complacent at that level of income, so after he learned what he felt he needed to know after about a year with this job, he quit.

He found a money man that agreed to build seven houses and split the profits 50/50 with him, and that venture was successful. A year later they parted company, and he now had enough to go the bank. They loaned him the money to start a couple of houses, and he was in the building business.

Many times we become complacent with our income because we are comfortable there.

  • We know what it takes to earn that amount.
  • We know the people,
  • We know the routines, and
  • We know that we can pay our bills at that level.
  • Our friends all make about the same
  • We are part of the group.

If we strive to move up a level or two, that would put us in uncomfortable territory. Weird as it sounds, most people would be uncomfortable if their income doubled or tripled.

  • Their lifestyle might change,
  • Their friends might change,
  • What they talk about might change.
  • And most are afraid of the unknown.

You see many people have bought into the idea that to really be successful you have to get a college education and go to work for some major company. That can be very comfortable – someone or a company taking care of you, and then complacency can easily set in. You could fight complacency, and climb out of your comfort zone.

Starting your own side business may be uncomfortable and may be a little different than your friends, but it may change your life in ways you never imagined.

For example: I have met people that buy and sell golf courses or others that buy companies from the IRS that were taken because of non-payment of taxes. They got the companies profitable and then sold them. I have also talked to people that buy mobile home parks after the park had been through bankruptcy two or three times. Then they made a deal with a company that repossessed mobile homes to put them in their park and split the rent.

Some 150 years ago most of the people in this country were self-employed as we were an agricultural economy. But as the industrial age set in, people moved from the farms into the cities. Then they acquired some debt and had to stay in those jobs in order to pay “the man.” But is was comfortable.  A paycheck each week. Eventually compliancy can set in.

This reminds one of the song Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford. One of the lines reads: “Saint Peter don’t you call ‘cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store.”

This lack of funds and debt keeps us showing up on the job to get the money to pay the debt. We have been trained to be good workers for industry and good consumers for the global economy. Someone sold us on the wrong plan.

A billboard I see every day says: “A job for every Oklahoman, a workforce for every company.” Learn to think outside the box.

Learn to embrace the uncomfortable, and beware of complacency. God wants us to be God-sufficient.  For God to be our sufficiency a college education is not required.  God’s hand is with us in everything we do as we are his children. So break out of your comfort zone, and kiss complacency goodbye. God has laid out the Fundamental Principles of Prosperity in His Word. These fundamental principles are also laid out in our new book Poverty vs Wealth. Try it. It could be your key to The Prosperous Life.

 

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Concentrate on the Promises!

A Good Read With Your Morning Coffee

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I was on a job a few days ago, and the conversation with the homeowner turned to my book Poverty vs Wealth. (Imagine that!!) The first thing out of his mouth was, “Remember: ‘The love of money is the root of all evil.’” As I tried to talk to him, he repeated that phrase about three times in a row. Apparently, he that verse had been pounded into his mind by his church.

Let’s read that verse in its context:

  • 1 Timothy 6:9-11 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

These verses are some of the cautions or warnings against loving money more than God. God wants us to love Him first, and then He wants to prosper us and bless our treasuries, but He also tells us that if we get out of bounds, we will only hurt ourselves. The cautions or warnings are against allowing money to go to your head once you see prosperity in your life.

Most people start at the wrong end when looking for prosperity: their job, their business, or some gold mine that will make them wealthy. I propose that you start on the fundamentals and build from there. The church, because of wrong teaching, has not helped its members because the church has taught that to save is to not trust that God will meet your needs. So those in authority in the church have spent most of their teaching time on the warnings and not on the promises. So when church people think of money or finances, the verses that pop into their heads are the warnings.

But if you are broke, you need to hear about the promises of God regarding His will for you to prosper and learn how He set life up for that to happen. If you need funds for retirement or to leave an inheritance for your children and grandchildren, you need to know what is available from God. Many times it is the poorest of people who think the most about money because they don’t have any.

Let’s look at some of the promises in the Bible about prosperity.

  • Proverbs 13:22 A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
  • Psalm 35:27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

Here is another promise:

  • Deuteronomy 28:2-8   And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Again, we see the instruction to keep God first in the words, “If thou shalt harken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.”

Notice once again the instruction to keep God first and then the phrase “The Lord shall command the blessing upon you.” “Command the blessing upon” is a rare phrase, and here it is used to refer to prosperity! It is interesting that God could have said He would command the blessing upon many other things, their health, their country, or their children. These things are blessed by Him, but God reserved this phrase for commanding the blessing upon their storehouses, their prosperity.

These are promises to those who seek God first. Seek Him first, and He will prosper you tremendously. You should bring in more each week than you need to live on, so that you can save up your surplus in your storehouses, for your retirement, your spouse’s retirement, for your grandchildren’s inheritance….

Concentrate on and teach the promises. Remember, the cautions are there only for when you get out of bounds. God’s desire is for His children to live The Prosperous Life as they wait for His son from heaven.

There is more on this topic in the book Poverty vs Wealth.  Leave us some feedback in the comments section below.

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Have Some Respect

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It would seem that there are many things to learn when you are learning about The Prosperous Life.

First you would want to get born from above. No matter how much money you make or how high you climb in the corporate world or politics, if all you have to look forward to is 70 years and a hole in the ground, that is not much of a prosperous life.

If you have confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and if you believe that God raised him from the dead, then you truly already have a prosperous eternal life to look forward to.

While we are waiting the return of our lord there are many aspects to The Prosperous Life to learn about. This one aspect starts with a story.

I walked into a warehouse the other day that I am in occasionally, and observed the people walking around and through. There were people from the office, dressed very nicely, passing through checking on orders, men who apparently had decided that the warehouse was their life’s work, and another man that was the warehouse manager.

The warehouse manager was dressed nicely as well, clean shaven, nice work pants, shirt tucked in and smiling as he hurried about. The other people who probably were going to be warehousemen for the rest of their lives dressed less thoughtfully. Their pants needed washing. Their shirts were not tucked in. Some needed to shave.

It was easy to tell which ones were heading up. The next stop would be counter sales and then outside sales, which would all pay better than working in the warehouse.

A few years ago I was with a man that was doing bathtub repairs for a living. He got a speck of paint on his jeans and it irritated him. He said “Today was the last day for these jeans as they are threadbare and I got paint on them. Darn!” He took pride in keeping his clothes clean from paint until they were worn out. It was like a self-imposed challenge to keep his clothes spotless.

On the other hand I have seen many painters that are covered in paint, wearing clothes that look like they have not been washed in a month. They wear those paint covered clothes like a badge of honor… “I am a painter!!” Constantly wiping their paint covered hands on their pants.

How much work would it be to keep a towel on your belt to wipe your hands on and keep your clothes clean?

I have a paint store that I have bought supplies from for years. I have seen the owner many times in the back mixing paint with never a spot on his clothes. His wife buys his shirt from garage sales, cheap, and when one gets paint on one, it goes in the trash. He is always neat. He cares about his appearance, and he will probably take care to get your order right.

In the work I do I am constantly knocking on people’s doors during the daytime. Many times the husband is at work and when that young woman, with two young ones in tow, looks out the peep holes what do you think she would be more comfortable seeing? Someone dressed neatly, and clean shaven or someone with grease and paint on their pants, holes in their shirt, and a three day old beard on their face?

A three day beard on Friday night may be cool, but it is not cool when knocking on a young woman’s door, whose husband is gone, on Monday morning. It looks scraggily!

This is not just my thinking.  Some of the companies that I work for call the people after we have fixed the issue in their home. They ask the client,

  • “Were they on time?
  • Were they dressed nicely?
  • Were they clean shaven?
  • Were you comfortable with them in your home?”

The reason is because I may be the only person associated with that company that the client has ever seen and the company wants to be represented well.

How you dress says a lot about you. If you don’t pay much attention to how you dress, maybe you are not going to:

  • Pay much attention to your job,
  • Or to your speech,
  • Or to the important details of your companies clients,
  • Or their orders.

One painting company I was on a forum with on the internet said this: “When our guys come to work, they are expected to wear clean clothes and if they have not shaved, I tell them there are razors and shaving cream in the restroom. They either shave or they go home.”

How you dress, personal hygiene, etc. says a lot about how you think about your job and yourself and your ability. This may not be true for every person, but it is what goes through the minds of the people that have the ability to promote you.

If you were going to promote someone in your business, or hire them to do a job at your home, or if your husband is at work, who would you be more comfortable with? The paint covered painter with a three day old beard, the sloppily dressed warehouseman, or the guy dressed neatly and clean shaven?

You could learn to observe how the people in the company above you dress and copy their style. (Unless they are slobs!) You will move up faster. (It should go without saying, but sometimes needs to be said anyway, take a bath and use some deodorant!)

Some people seem to think that once they are hired for a job, it is theirs for life and how they conduct themselves and how they dress is irrelevant. Your  boss may never tell you what he thinks about how you take care of yourself but if you don’t pay attention to your outward appearance, don’t be surprised if you are passed up for promotions. Have some respect for yourself.

Everywhere we go we represent our Father and the company that sent us. This is simply another piece of The Prosperous Life.

 

 

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Bee Wars

Diligence is the way of life

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Robber Baron Bees attacked my wife’s hive a while ago, to rob it of all its honey.  A robber baron is a wealthy person who tries to gain more wealth through unethical means: by robbing people crossing his land, corrupting legislators or, in our case, robbing our hives of honey that is not theirs. Apparently, they are too lazy to work to build their own prosperous hives.

I had always thought that politics was something unique to humans but apparently not.  Although robber barons used to be mostly wealthy land owners, today that has been taken over by Democrats, through extremely high taxes, IRS audits and asset seizures, etc.

Capitalists today are mostly hardworking folks, storing up for their offspring and retirement and providing jobs in the community.  Well, all bees need honey and pollen, their protein source, to make it through the winter. Apparently, some bees are too lazy to work and are like the grasshoppers and want to play all summer.

When fall starts to set in, they know they need a good store of honey and pollen for the winter so they begin to look around and see which bee hives look like easy pickin’s. The robber baron bees hold a conference, pick a hive the scouts have told them is rich in honey or assets, and they are off.

This tactic of robbing from the hard working bees reminds one of the forced redistribution of wealth that takes place in our country every day.   These hard working entrepreneurs who have obviously worked hard to have a good winter store are now being forced to “share the fruits of their labors” with those either too lazy to work or so powerful they just come in and try to take whatever they can.

All hives have guard bees that watch constantly for illegal bees trying to enter the hive.  Once they spot an intruder, they will fight to the death to prevent entry and prevent their hive from being robbed. (We could use some of that on our southern border!)

In order to make it through the winter, our bees need everything they have. They have been diligent like the ant all summer to store up for the cold, cruel days of winter ahead.  Fortunately for the hard working bees in our yard, they have a great bee keeper in my wife who went to bat for them to help them out. Thus, the attack by the Robber Baron Bees was thwarted.

Bees, having been so closely associated with humans for so long, it appears they have finally adopted our political ways.

Diligence is the price of freedom for both humans and bees.  We could take a lesson from the bees about nationally guarding what is ours. The guard bees will bee on duty again tomorrow along with their valiant bee keeper to defend their hard work from the Robber Barons in the Bee Wars!
Diligence is a great tool in your tool box when building The Prosperous life.

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Pulling Back The Curtain

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In our understanding of The Prosperous Life, it would do us well to understand exactly what God has said in His Word. Sometimes, what men say God said, He did not say at all. And sometimes, what God does say, men say He didn’t.

Such is the confusion when it comes to the record of the rich young ruler. This record has been used to say that to be a good follower of the Lord Jesus Christ; one must give away all his earthly goods to follow Jesus. Here are some quotes from the early church fathers:

Instead of the tithes which the law commanded, the Lord said to divide everything we have with the poor…… Irenaeus, 130-200 AD

The rich are in possession of the goods of the poor, even if they have acquired them honestly or inherited them legally. John Chrysostom, 347-407 AD

In my book Poverty Vs Wealth: Fundamentals of Prosperity, we cite even more. This wrong doctrine developed in the church because of the failure to read the entire context of the records in the Bible. It has grown and developed until poverty is still aligned with piety. Some parts of the church still take vows of poverty, and we regard them as very religious people living close to God. So let’s go read the record for ourselves and see what we can learn of The Prosperous Life, and pull back the curtain so we can see clearly.

  • Mark 10:17-25  And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one (Luke calls him a ruler) running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.  And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.  And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.  And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!  And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

This is where most readers of this record stop. They rightly conclude that it is very hard for the rich (the rich who trust in their riches) to enter the kingdom of God. Then they wrongly conclude that all people need to renounce all worldly possessions. This is where the expression I heard many times growing up came from. Speaking of the preacher, “God, you keep him humble, and we will keep him poor.”

But if we continue to read, we find Jesus is not yet done with this situation, and his disciples wanted to know more just as we do.

  • Mark 10:26-31 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.

Apparently in this record, God has no problem with the amount of money a person has, it was the young ruler that had a problem. His possessions and prosperity, not God, came first in his life  He served the world, trusted in his riches, and loved his money more than he loved God. Jesus Christ realized this and attempted to help him. The record says “he loved him.”

Also note that if he had been willing to give it all away and put God first, God would have given it all back one hundredfold. So the issue was not that he was wealthy, but that he trusted his wealth.

God never told Job to give up his wealth, in fact in the end of the book of Job, God gave Job twice what he had in the beginning. God never asked Abraham to give up his wealth. In fact, Abraham acknowledged that God was the one that made him wealthy. God also stated that he gave Solomon riches in abundance as well as Hezekiah.

If we keep God first in our lives and trust in Him, it is His desire to prosper those that love Him and trust him.

As long as we keep God first in our hearts, love Him and trust Him, He will add to us all that we need. What we need is what God has promised in His Word that He will do for those that put their trust in Him.

The book Poverty Vs Wealth: Fundamentals of Prosperity,  pulls back the curtain in many more areas of prosperity. It is not a rehash of what you may have learned in the past. The information has helped many people, including myself, to understand what God really did say concerning The Prosperous Life.

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