Biblical Prosperity

Psalm 1  (NIV)

    ¹ Blessed is the man
       who does not walk in the counsel of  the wicked

       or stand in the way of sinners
       or sit in the seat of mockers.

    ² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
       and on his law he meditates day and night.

    ³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
       which yields its fruit in season
       and whose leaf does not wither.
       Whatever he does prospers.

    ⁴ Not so the wicked!
       They are like chaff
       that the wind blows away.

    ⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
       nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

    ⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
       but the way of the wicked will perish.

There are those in the religous world who have made a sacred tradition out of poverty.  Having observed poverty in nine different countries, I have not seen anything about poverty that I like.  For those who would take a vow of poverty as if poverty is some sublime state of spiritual existence, come with me to see the hungry children, millions of them dying slow deaths, and tell me what part of poverty you are the most in love with.

The glorification of poverty is akin to the pole dwellers during the time of the early church who came to believe that all that was spiritual was holy and all that was physical was evil.   So, to become more holy and close to God, they lived on elevated platforms for years at a time.   One historian tells us that people would venerate the pole dwellers and when maggots fell from their bodies, they began to worhip the maggots.   God, and all other living beings with common sense and a sense of smell knew that this was not divine.

Psalm one lays the foundation of a blessed life of prosperity that finds its source in a relationship with God:

First, divine prosperity is based on who you listen to.   The wicked, the sinners, and the mockers are always plentiful and always eager to give you an earful of what they strongly believe.   Don’t make your spiritual ears a garbage can.    Meditate on God’s word day and night.  God’s word prepares us to hear God’s voice.   As we listen to what God says to us in His written word,  his living rhema word will be easily recognized.

Secondly, to prosper you must get planted.   Get planted in a devotional habit with the Lord.   Get planted in a prayer life.   Get planted in a local church and strive to be the most devoted member in that church.   Some are so arrogant to believe they can please God and ignore the local church.   Jesus is one with His church.   The church is The Bride of Christ.   When you love Jesus, you’ll love what He loves.   Your love for God is illustrated in your relationship with the local church.   You cannot seperate Jesus from His church.   It is error to say, “I’m committed to Jesus, but I’m not committed to a local church.”   You are lying to God, people, and yourself.   It is a rampant form of self deception that is spreading through the church.  Jesus never taught anyone to be a lone ranger.

Psalm 26:8 says,  I love the house where you live, O LORD,   the place where your glory dwells.   Ephesians tells us that the church is God’s holy temple in the New Testament scheme of things.  The church is where God’s glory is.  God has one program, the one he built before he left, the church.

Growing up, I loved to watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.  It is amazing to see how the animals and the ecosystem all work together just as God designed.   The lion would never jump in the middle of a herd of gazelles and start eating gazelles.   He would chase the herd causing them to fear and panic.   Then he would target a weak one and seperate it from the herd.   Once it was alone, he knew dinner was ready.   The enemy wants to get you alone so he can destroy you.

Third, to find biblical prosperity you must choose the right path.  The Lord watches over every area of the lives of those who choose the path of righteousness.   In contrast to the philosophy of this age, there are moral absolutes.  Every day we make choices.   Sometimes it will seem that you are doing everything right and God has overlooked you.  Job wrongly concluded that God had forgotten him.  Yet at the end of his life, he was blessed spiritually and financially twice as much as before.  

Choosing the right path will most often not bring immediate fullfillment.  For instance, stealing money may seem to work better than earning money.  But, in the end, the thief will meet justice and face punishment in this life and the next.  Earning money seems harder at first and much slower.  The tree planted by living water “yields its fruit in season.”   There is a season for God’s blessing of prosperity if we stay on the path of God’s righteousness. 

Jesus, God in human flesh, died and rose again so that we could be ransomed from our spiritual death brought on by sin.   Choose a personal relationship with God through His son, Jesus Christ.   Ask His forgiveness and ask Him to take over as the Lord of your life.   You will never regret your decision.   His redemption is for the entire man – body, soul, and spirit.   God is concerned about your well being in every area of your entire life.

When Everything Goes Wrong

The entire nation is in a state of upheaval right now. Everywhere you turn there are negative reports of unemployment, company closings, and depressed real estate values. One out of seven houses are vacant with 25 % of those being second homes. Defaults on credit cards, car loans, and mortgages are rocking Wall Street.

What do we do when everything goes wrong and we’re stripped of possessions? During the Great Depression some who lost their holdings jumped out the window of high rise buildings to their death. Some self-medicate, get addicted, and self-destruct. Others become bitter toward people in general and isolate themselves. The number of people turning to crime as a solution is on the rise. Negative behaviors are not a solution.

There are seven things you should do when you hit bottom financially:

First, re-evaluate your friendships. Relationships are re-shuffled as fair weather friends avoid you because they know you are hurting and don’t want to expose themselves to hurt. You need encouragers. Some people are takers, some are givers. It’s easy to figure out who’s who when you’re broke.

Secondly, simplify your finances. Debt is a cruel taskmaster. If you don’t pay, they come and get their stuff. My advice is to adopt a pay as you go policy. If you don’t have the money, don’t buy it. You don’t need a $30,000 car to get where you’re going, a $2,000 car will get you there fine. A lifestyle change will serve you well even when your money comes back.

Third, prioritize who get’s paid first. If you are carrying a heavy debt load and can no longer pay for it, you have to decide what you pay for and when you pay for it. This is survival time. The basics of food, shelter, and utilities come first. Transportation comes next. Unsecured debts will have to be ignored until you get your income back up. Learn how to block calls from debt collectors or even better you can notify them with a registered letter not to contact you by phone anymore and according to federal law, they must conform. They all threaten you with legal action and judgement liens. The truth is, the longer the liens are in the public records, the less they are worth. Years from now, they can be bought for pennies on the dollar. Don’t worry about garnishments if you’ve lost everything. You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip. Before anybody spends money on attorneys to enforce collection they will do an asset search and find out that you are truly broke and not worth the bother to spend money on. If fear and stress are closing in, stop, take a breath and ask, “what is the worst thing that could happen to me in this situation?” Expect the best. Be prepared for the worst. Working through this in your mind will give you a great sense of empowerment.

Fourth, reward yourself with a little walking around money. Try to keep a little cash on hand. This can help to take some of the pressure off. Nothing is more empowering than a wad of cash in your pocket.

Fifth, make a planto get your income back up. The internet is full of job opportunities and websites where you can post your resume. Capitalize on your existing skills and experience. Don’t be afraid to apply for a position that you have the experience for even if they require a degree that you don’t have. Most employers prefer experience over framed degree certificates on your wall.

Sixth, dream big dreams. Birth a new dream. Stop looking back and start looking forward again. You must be pursuing a dream to catch one.  Without a dream we die on the inside. The real battle is not paying off bills, but keeping our hopes and dreams alive so that we can live to fight another battle. Poverty is not a financial state, but a crippling of the mind. A healthy mind knows how to dream.

Finally, take time off to have fun. There is an old Chinese proverb that says, “The bow that is constantly bent will soon cease to shoot straight.” There are many ways to have a good time without spending a lot of money. A picnic in the local park. A drive to the beach (I live in Florida). Plan a visit with some relatives or friends that you haven’t seen in a while. Don’t lose your sense of humor or the ability to laugh at yourself.

Remember that your life is not your money or your possessions. Your life is your faith, your character, your family, your friends, and your dreams. – Jeff Burke

The Timeless Power Of Creativity

Mark Twain, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, people with the ability to create something of value to others.  Perhaps the great need of the hour is not really money, a new politician to save the day, or even more jobs.  I suspect that the real need of the hour is creativity.

Creativity can open doors to a new world of fantasy to escape into or birth  an entire new industry that creates jobs for individuals and spins off other side industries.   In the case of  Walt Disney, a struggling cartoonist saw a mouse run across the floor and created Mickey Mouse.  Out of that came an international entertainment empire which includes film studios, theme parks, world class resorts, and television networks. 

The publishing industry is an industry that depends upon creative persons.  Books are powerful.  Their influence outlives the authors to shape future generations.  Regardless of your opinion of the Bible, no one can deny the worldwide influence of one book that spans most of known human history.  

We live in a world beleaguered with serious problems:  energy shortages, world hunger, homelessness, pollution, and poverty.  Solutions come with new ways of thinking.  People with new ideas are problem solvers.  We desperately need financiers, social workers,  scientists and inventors who can think creatively.

Someone has said that our most important work is when we take time to think.  Creative thought can become reality.  Today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s technology.  But we live in a busy, noisy world and serenity is rare.  Some of our most profound leaders in the future without doubt will come from those who work at creative thought.  Some of the greatest world leaders have been farmers, shepherds, fishermen, and sailors.  Take a day and devote yourself to serious thought – who knows?  You just might solve the energy crisis or even world hunger.

Wealth is created

Michael Jackson – Entertainment Genius

The fact that Michael was more talented than most of us became evident when he eclipsed his multi-talented family on stage.  At an age where most of us were still learning our ABC’s, Michael could walk on stage and take over the show. 

I’ve known only one such talented individual personally.   It seems those gifted in the genius category will struggle with the simple things that come easy to most of us.   Michael struggled with the ability to function in the common every day things  of life.  He made multiplied millions off the stage with lucrative entertainment assets.  But he badly mismanaged those millions once he made them. 

He made the girls swoon on stage, but couldn’t stay married or even maintain a steady significant other.  Unproven allegations aside,  he lived the life  of a recluse, a sad and  lonely man.  He was a household word and was known by nearly all, but struggled with his own identity.  Dancing, singing, choreography – he had no rivals.   I feel sad for Michael because the joy of life and the thrill of romance that he sang about seemed beyond the reach of him and his millions.

Political Ground Hog Day

In the comedy, Ground Hog Day, comedian Bill Murray portrays a local weather reporter who gets caught in an almost endless cycle of repeating the same day until he gets it right.  Many of the things our country is doing  strongly resembles the same futility found in the film.

It seems we went through the same frustrating dance on health care several years back, only now Hillary is the Secretary of State, and Bill is a full time play boy.   Obama’s poll numbers are slipping and the democrats are in a rush to pass a health care plan, any government health care plan.  The urgency is found in the number of  democrats who are jumping ship as they become aware that there is not a clear cut plan.

Sensing weakness,  radical leaders of rogue nations are pushing the envelope as they sense that our president is naively idealistic and militarily soft.  Iran, Afghanistan, Korea, and who is next in the lineup to “test” Obama’s resolve?  His own Vice President predicted a testing.  We’ve been down this road before.  Castro sensed weakness in John Kennedy and it almost resulted in a nuclear shootout. 

Obama is also reminiscent of Jimmy Carter, one of the worst presidents in known history.  Terrorists and dictators can smell weakness.  It is  no accident that minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President, the hostages were released.  Like Carter, Obama’s laid back style of reasoning with the unreasonable will result in a foreign policy fiasco that will set the stage for yet another strong conservative leader like Reagan to take the stage.   And let’s not forget that it was Reagan’s no-nonsense policies that brought down  the Iron Curtain and all but eliminated communism as we knew it.

If we are forced to re-live history, let’s hope and pray that we get it right this time.  Obama may just turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to the Republican party.

The Lonely Taxpayer

Corporate bailouts, bank bailouts, even inusrance company bailouts, and all the while the lonely American taxpayer gets shafted by banks, big business, and yes, even insurance companies.  Banks want understanding and will tell you why its good for the country to keep them solvent.   But try to get some understanding from them.  They’ll put a family in the street and not miss a moment’s sleep.

And the big corporations feel its their right to be propped up by the taxpayer.   But let someone who really needs a job put in an application for employment with a bad credit score and they’ll kick them to the curb in a New York minute. 

Presently, I’m in a legal battle with an insurance company on my homeowner’s insurance and they refuse to even investigate my claim …. and my taxes are being used to keep a big insurance company in business…. and why was that?

My question for all our so called representatives in Washington is this:  When do the taxpayers get their bailout?   And for those who have lost their jobs, income, and credit, why can’t the government at least make employment and housing accessible without a credit check?   If a person has a bad credit rating and because of that cannot access housing or employment,  what are his alternatives?    Must they live like a bum on the street and beg?   Or should they turn to a life of crime?  The reality is that both of these things are happening.   Homelessness is skyrocketing.   Local law enforcement will tell you that they are arresting people who would never have considered theft or burglary during normal economic times.  

Big business gets tax money.   Foreign countries that don’t even like us get tax money.  The same banks that are confiscating our homes are getting tax money.  The big corporations who won’t hire us because of our damaged credit are getting our tax money.  One day the lonely tax payer will have enough of it and a revolt will ensue.  That day may be soon upon us unless government policy changes toward the lonely and forgotten United States taxpayer.

The Destructive Power of Cigarettes

They came asking for help, they had children in need who might not get fed, but they had cigarettes.   They needed assistance for school supplies for their poor kids, but they had cigarettes.   They sleep under the stars with no home to call their own as they chain smoke cigarettes. 

How costly is it to an individual and his family to smoke?   Using a $2.50 per pack average figure, it would cost $75.00 per month,  and apporximately $900 per year.   Calculating the cost with 10% interest:   $56,952 in 20 years;  $169,536 in 30 years;  $1,299,329 in 50 years.   Hey smokers, your wealth and your future are going up in smoke!  Now triple all of the figures above for a 3 pack a day smoker and it really gets rediculous.

Perhaps you say, I’m doing good financially and I’ll do as I please and it is no one’s  business.  There are 100 million orphans in the world who desperately need our help.  What if you quit smoking and spent those millions you’ll spend on cigarettes over your lifetime on helping someone else rather than on destroying yourself? 

Then there are those who say you want to quit, but you just can’t quit.   If there was a 10 million dollar reward for quitting for good, you’d figure out how to quit even if you had to chain yourself to a tree until you kicked the habit.   So it’s not a lack of ability or opportunity, but a lack of desire that keeps people from quitting.  Or perhaps we should say it’s a love of self that keeps smokers smoking.

The financial burden on the U.S. economy is staggering :  over $92 billion is lost productivity from smoking related deaths and $100 billion in health care costs.  That amount of money would go a long way in helping our country recover from this recession (and possible depression).

I’ve worked a lot over the years helping the poor and it amazes me how people who are desperate and their family is doing without can come up with the cash for cartons of cigarettes, large cases of beer (that are hastily consumed), and costly tatoos and piercings.   Personally, if they can come up with the cash for all that stuff, they don’t need my money or time.   Once while visiting a man who was aggressively asking for my help,  I walked to his refrigerator and opened the door.  He became enraged.   I didn’t care.   I’m tired of seeing the donations of hard working people go to those who do not want a permanent solution or accountability.

On the other hand, we sometimes help those we really don’t want to help because of the children.   Who really gets hurt by the poverty that is worsened by cigarette addiction?   It is the weakest and most vulnerable of our society, the children.

Find Prosperity In Hard Times

They call it bad news, a nearly 10% national unemployment rate – but is it really?  People hear the news and feel like giving up, not even trying.  The 90% who are working and making money get scared and sit on their money.  There is even talk of an economic depression by experts who wouldn’t even say the “R – word” even a year ago.  I propose that a large part of the downturn has psychological roots.   I propose that it is possible not only to survive this economy, but to prosper.

There are in fact many who are prospering during these times.  To be successful in any economic period,  you must change your world view, how you think, and experience a paradigm shift.  This is not new age or magical.  It is simply getting rid of bad habits that hold us back and limit our achievements.   Are you ready to shift gears from survival to prosperity?

First, you must shift your thought patterns from negative to positive.   You are what you think.   Thoughts become actions which become habits  which become character which becomes your destiny.   If 10% are unemployed and 90% are employed, you have much greater odds of becoming part of the 90%.  And if you take into account that in the best of economies we average 4% unemployment, we’ve really only increased the rate by less than 6%.  So the question is whether  the cup is 10% empty or 90% full.  Find out what the 90% are doing, not doing, where they are located, what their education is, and focus your efforts on that.

Avoid people who love to make negative small talk.   The conpiracy theorists, the doomsdayers, the fear mongers, will destroy your thought life and hold you down.  Even in an all out depression there is a group of people getting rich.  I choose to be a part of that group.  Poverty is rooted in defective thinking, a crippling of the mind.  Some of the greatest achievers in the last century are those who though they took great risks, dreamed big dreams, and went bust multiple times, were consistent in their thinking and refused to think like a loser even when flat broke. 

Secondly, you must take a proactive approach to your problems.   Everyone has problems, but not everyone has solutions.  Positive thoughts produce positive decisions and plans.  When a problem comes up before you, make a decision to overcome it, be successful, and begin working on the next logical step.  When faced with a problem, ask yourself two questions -  What is the worst that could possibly happen?…. and what is the best thing that can be done?

When you choose a positive thought pattern and make a decision to succeed, both your concious and unconcious mind will begin creating possibilities and solutions.

Thirdly,  once you develop positive thoughts and a proactive approach,  you must take persistent action.  Your first attempt to implement your positive thinking and proactive plans may not be successful.  Success come through persistence in our actions, not just through positve thoughts and plans.  Thomas Edison made thousands of attempts to locate a substance that would work well in the light bulb.  Eventually, through persistence, he succeeded.  His positive attitude and decision  to succeed fueled his persistence.

Anyone can succeed in this economy.  Once you make a decision to  be positive, proactive, and persistent, your success is only a matter of time.  Success is just around the corner.

My Visit To Mayberry

My friend, Vick, bought a farm in rural Eastern Tennessee, and then another one and before long he was buying and selling property in the mountains for a living.   He is presently living near a little town called Sneedville, a modern day Mayberry.   It is the county seat of  Hancock County with 6000 residents according to the local motel owner.   The town itself has about 1200 people.  Research of 2000 and 2005 census information gernerally supports these figures.

For several years Vick had his wife, Dianne, had invited me to come and visit.  I found some discount airline tickets and made plans.  A few weeks later I was in some of the most beautiful mountains I  have ever seen.  The local farmers, they are almost all farmers, cannot figure out why anyone would want to build a house on a mountain top.  They value the bottom land, rich and fertile, to grow things on.   The 20 mile views from the tops of the mountains are a common thing to them.  It’s just where they live.

Everyone I spoke with in Sneedville prided themselves in being from a place that doesn’t change.   They distrust the outside world.   Many of the locals are convinced my friend, Vick, is from the Mafia.   Vick has a strong New England accent that could almost be mistaken for a New York accent.  One day, while re-fueling the truck in town, I asked the clerk if she could break a one hundred dollar bill.   She replied it would be no problem and then she sighted Vick.   She took the bill, looked at it and handed it back to me and said, “This is stolen money, I can’t take it.”   She tried to make up a story about an ink mark on the bill and then with her mind obviously made up, she said, “All I can tell you is this is stolen, and just get it out of this county.” 

The local churches take tradition to a whole new level.   One kind pastor I met requires that long dresses be worn by the ladies and the men must wear long sleeve shirts with white tee shirts underneath.   Why?   So the men’s nipples won’t show through the shirt.   As they cling tightly to strict holiness tradition, their teens and young adults are becoming meth addicts and dying.   One local told me, “We don’t go for that new-fangled religion around here.”  In the same breath he went on to share the problem of teen drug addiction in their county.  He just couldn’t connect the dots.  If you attend church in Hancock County, you’d better bring some conservative clothing and a King James Bible.

We had breakfast at Hardee’s with Junior, the local constable and Sneedville equivilant to Andy Taylor.   Twelve to twenty farmers gather there each morning for biscuits and gravy and to talk.  Things whispered in the ear can travel with lightening speed through the rural community.    

Many of the farms go back multiple generations in the same family.   One man described the impact of the recession on the locals like this, “No one told the milk cow that the economy was slow, no one told the chickens that the economy was slow, no one told the garden that the economy was slow.”   They barely notice the recession because they live independently as they always have and as their fathers and grandfathers did.   We can learn something from the farmers about focusing on the tasks at hand and not letting the media and circumstances dictate our world view.

It takes time to win the trust of mountain people.   They don’t warm up right away.   In years past, peddlers would come through the mountains and many of them were swindlers and con artists.   Over time, they learned to keep outsiders at arms length.  It’s not that they are unfriendly.  They are very friendly and welcoming, but there is a huge difference between friendliness and being a trusted friend.  But, if you have the time, they will open the door a little at a time to  let you in.

My week in “Mayberry”  was relaxing and a step back in time to a place where people still wave at the other vehicles going by and are never too busy to stop and talk.  There are things I learned from the mountain people (positive and negative) that will enrich my future.  But, there are also things that they can learn from me.   In a strange kind of way I realized that as citizens of this world, we all need one another and we are never independent of one another.   Here are 7 things I learned during my time with the mountain people:

1.  Do what you know and do it well.

2.  Don’t allow fear and distrust of the unknown rob you of your future.

3.  Tradition makes a great conversation piece but a cruel taskmaster.

4.  Don’t allow the media and economic conditions to dictate your world view.

5.  Never get too busy to stop and talk to people.  People are more important than our schedules.

6.  Stay connected with your community.

7.  Never lose the ability to dream and to change.  Never allow the beauty of the mountain top to become a common thing.

Look And Dream

There is a huge movement in this country to go back to the land.  People are moving to farms and acreage properties where they can grow their own food, be more independent of the economy, and basically get off the grid.  When life gets complex and stressful,  people get the desire for a simpler lifestyle, an escape from the noise of modern society.

As part of my real estate practice, I promote properties in unique places such as the mountains of East Tennessee.   I recently visited the area and got some nice photos of some great buys on tracts of mountain land from 1 to 500 acres.  Even if you are not interested in land right now, you should go to my site and look at the photos.  It’s free to dream… and it may make you feel better.   Go to this website:                                                   LOOKandDREAM.com

Reconnecting With Social Networking

It wasn’t that long ago that I was intimidated by the idea of learning to send emails.  I made myself learn because it was costing me sales in my real estate practice not to.  Then I got hooked on chat rooms and political debate.  Just when I thought I was getting good at computer stuff, blogging became popular followed by My Space, Face Book, and Twitter.  I skipped My Space and went straight to Facebook.

I re-connected with an old buddy I had lost track of.  He lives in Hawaii and plays music.  I bought and downloaded one of his songs from a website.   I found new friends through some mutual friends.  I got hooked.  Friends who have moved all over the country are popping up on the screen and maybe even a few I wasn’t exited about seeing.

Then on to Twitter…. I’m still working on that one.   It can connect up with Facebook and some other things.    I found a few politicians that I like and followed them along with some real estate tycoons.  Some people I’ve never known are following me….. why, I don’t have a clue.  

About the time I get Facebook and Twitter figured out,  something new will come along to challenge me. You see, an old dog can learn new tricks ….. it just takes us longer.