but when someone says that they give all they can, yet they do not study how they could make more to give, it tells the world that it is survival they are concerned with, and if there is something to give after that, so be it. I urge you to look past yourself as there are so many in need, in pain. Is the aforementioned fact that most of us only give of the crumbs left after our own survival true? Yes. Does it hurt your heart to realize you are in this position of bondage? Yes. And is it possible you are a pastor or leader in the Church, and you excuse away the pain of guilt you are now feeling by using Scripture out of context, since your “heart was in the right place?” Yes.
“Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”—Proverbs 16:18
We need to swallow our pride and realize there are more than a billion believers around the world being held in this form of bondage, along with tens of thousands of houses of worship. Not to mention the financial and spiritual bondage of innumerable souls needing to hear the Word who will not be able to because we’re allowing our resources to be limited. We all know that since Biblical times, it has taken money to send out missionaries or to distribute the Scriptures. We need to collectively put on our big boy pants and realize it is our lack of proper teaching regarding faith and its relationship to money that has led to a world in need—and has left the hero who could swoop in to save them stuck in a jail cell.
Learn from the Pain
Will the rest of the book cause pain and discomfort? Yes, some of it will. Because we have abdicated our role on faith and finance, the pain of truth will be present for most, but as I’m sure you know, the Truth shall set you free as well as heal the pain. The pain that may accompany learning the Truth is not punishment, but rather the ripping away of the blinders that years of lies have put upon you.
Maybe a half of a percent of the people reading this book can say that they give generously and that they have no bondage of debt. Yet they may falsely assume that they need not partake in the rest of the book. This would be an error that only amplifies the problem.
What about the people around you? What are you doing to help them? Do you realize the gravity of the situation? If you do happen to be in the top half of the wealthiest one percent (the percentage that experts agree don’t personally need to worry about financial issues), and within your sphere of life and influence there are families being bound and torn by debt, your church has a mortgage, and you yourself have poor financial practices, then you are neither living nor teaching your faith. This, unfortunately for you, also means you are not doing what the Father desires; and not doing what the Father desires is . . . sin.
The bottom line is this: The “church,” as individuals and/or a physical building of corporate worship, is in bondage. This bondage comes by our own ignorance and sinful nature. In a sense this is worse than if it were to come at the hands of the Romans, Alexander the Great, or the pharaohs of Egypt. Believers have believed not the Bible but rather the whispers of the evil one when he lied to us about what Elohim wants us to do with our faith and financial lives.
You have free will; the ties that bind are only but shadows of reality. The reality is that your financial solutions are not only Biblical but are within your reach. Not only are the binds that hold you back financially just a shadow, but so are the other ties that bind us in our hearts and spirit. The One who came to set you free did not limit that freedom to after death; He came to set you free in all Truth and we were given the Word to lead us in all our ways, ALL. When we trust the Word we can free ourselves and then set those around us free as well. The truth—knowing it and also acting on it—can set you free.
The good news is that there is hope for all of us. There are ways to break free from the bondage of debt, and yes, you have what it takes to do so. I understand many may be realizing for the first time the reality of their financial situation. Please know that whether you are five thousand or five million dollars in debt, you can do all things through the Messiah who strengthens you. Together we will get there, and the discomfort you may be feeling now will be but a motivating memory.
| EVANGELPRENEUR ACTION STEP |
| Take a moment and do a self-check: What financial bondage do you find yourself in? Do you recognize it or have you grown so accustomed to it that you just see your bondage as part of life? |
| Take a look at your church, if you go to one, and ask yourself: Is financial bondage there? What does it look like? Is an un-needed expansion being built with borrowed money? Is the pastoral staff hoping a bigger building will be like the promise in Field of Dreams—if they build it, the people will come? |
| Once you start looking for financial bondage, you will see it everywhere! |
The Root of All Evil?
What Money Is and How It Is Loved
“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.” —1 Timothy 6:10
What a famous and misused bit of Scripture!
Usually when this Scripture sound bite is used, “the love of” is usually redacted, leaving us with the more often used phrase, “Money is the root of all evil.”
Is money the root of all evil? Of course not. Is money the fruit of all goodness then? No, of course not. Money is neither good nor evil, it is just money. So before we dig too deeply, we need to define “money.” What is it? Where does it come from? Are we supposed to avoid it since the love of it is the root of all evil?
Money is simply a tool, an economic device that allows us to trade and engage in economic activity. Today, money takes many forms, from gold and silver to fiat currency to internet “bits,” such as Bitcoin and Worldcoin. Even time itself is being used as money now in a number of Western economies. For example, in Breckenridge, Colorado, Mountain Hours are used as a local form of currency valued by the worth given to one hour’s worth of labor. Residents can use Mountain Hours as payment in town restaurants and other local businesses. It gives the people of the community more control over the value of items as well as a bit of protection against inflation.
I’ll Trade Ya
The concept of money is simple: I have eggs that you want, you have furniture that Sally wants, and Sally has clothes that Jim wants. You and I could trade, but it would be messy. In order for you to get my eggs, you would have to talk me into taking your furniture, which I might not want at the time. Sally wants your furniture, but because you wanted my eggs more than you wanted Sally’s clothes, Sally is out of luck if you and I reach an agreement and I get your furniture. Also, since I don’t really want your furniture, I might require more of it when you trade with me than Jim would require from you because he could trade it with Sally for the clothes she has and he wants—so the amount used to trade with each of us could vary widely. Not only that, but if you were to travel to another town you would have to take a lot of your furniture with you just to have enough to trade for all you need, such as food and lodging at your destination. Even then, you better hope they need your furniture and like it, or you will be out of luck. You can see the obvious problems here, and that is with only three products and four people. For millions of products and billions of people, this system just becomes impossible.
Then something called money comes along. Money, in its simplest form, makes the process much easier. The money is given a value (usually backed by a commonly accepted item with value, like gold), and then you decide how much your furniture, for example, is worth—let us say 76 money