The Great Recovery

Just finished watching the Dave Ramsey live-cast tonight and want to share a few thoughts.  If you missed it, then go to The Great Recovery.com to see the replay.

I want to urge everyone to join this movement.  Yes, I said movement.  While Congress and the President are arguing over who has the best debt relief plan, we can actually do something about our national debt, and it all starts with you and me.  Sounds simplistic but it is a lot of hard work that gives us freedom to become who we were truly created to be.

I started teaching Financial Peace three years ago.  It wasn't my idea but I had heard of this Ramsey character and thought that he was pretty good as a marketer but was his material all that good?  Well, I started researching his stuff and listening to his radio program and our pastor signed our church up to get some families through the program.  By then I was hooked.

I knew a lot about budgeting and about finances (or so I thought) but I never could get ahead of our credit indebtedness.  We owed on our house, our car, our credit cards (all 4 of them), and just kept a piddly amount in our savings.  After taking the class and being a small group leader, all the pieces of the puzzle suddenly fit.  My wife and I decided together to go through the program, and we saw a huge change in our finances.

Did we make a lot of money?  No.  My wife is a school teacher going through "furlough days" and I was making about $150 a week at the time.  We paid off all our credit cards!  We paid off all our automobiles!  We have an emergency fund!  Recently we purchased a new-to-us, used car with 71,000 miles on it and used cash!  Does debt freedom work for all income brackets?  You can bet your life on it!

Why?  It is God's way of handling money (and if you watch the video you will hear Dave say it).  Doing things God's way takes great courage.  Doing things the way God wants it done takes even greater courage.  Ask Joshua:

Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.  Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.  Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." - Joshua 1:6-9 (NIV)

Do it God's way and you will see the results of God's prosperity.  Am I talking about reaping a million dollars?  No, I am talking about being successful in all that you do for God and all that He does in you.  That is a lot different than going to God and saying, "Show me the money, Great Big Dude in the Sky!"

The Great Recovery is about a movement.  It is not about churches competing or theologies clashing.  It is about taking this moment, a moment engineered by God, and following God into the unknown in order to lead people out of it and into His presence.

Dave said that broke people can't help people.  I take this a little further and add:  The government is broke and it cannot offer hope.  God is not broke and is all about hope.  Who are you going to approach?  The one who wrote the book on money or the one who has proven it cannot control money or destiny?  Choose this day who you will serve.  As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord God who is hope.

Will the church answer the call of this moment and rise up and say that there is hope regardless of what happens with our "debt crisis"?  Will we show others that there is hope in the midst of this storm?  Can your God stand up and tell the waves and the wind to be still?

You see, debt is hurting all of us including the poor.  When the people of the church cannot give because they are frightened about what is going to happen next because of the debt hanging over their head and the loss of jobs and the continues calls from debt collectors, more than church budgets suffer.   We cannot serve as we are called to serve.

We as leaders have to stand up and start speaking about the peace that Jesus left with us.  It is an everlasting peace.  It is a peace that surpasses all understanding.  Do you really believe it?  Or are you frightened also?  Don't be.  Be strong and courageous and stand up and say, "No more debt.  Not anymore."  Learn God's principles for caring for your household and let Him guide you with His Spirit.  Parents become an example to your children and show them that hope is real!

Can a nation whose people are out of debt survive?  You bet.  Can a church whose people are debt free change their community?  Now your getting the vision.  Can an individual start a revolution?  Why haven't you?  Don't let the deceiver deliver lies into your life any longer.  Get debt free and feel the difference.  God's way really does work, and my family is a testimony to it.

Join the movement, tell your story, and become a link to hope across this nation.  Let revival begin in your household, and let's together work for a great kingdom harvest.  The fields are ripe, will you be one of the workers?