There are special times of the year when the global Church is recognizing and celebrating the same event or season. Lent is one of those times. It's amazing to consider the beauty of practicing an age-old discipline of fasting and waiting for Easter with other sisters and brothers around the world.

So what is Lent?
Lent is the 40 days (not including Sundays) from Ash Wednesday to the Saturday before Easter. Lent is often described as a time of preparation and an opportunity to go deeper with God. This means that we can use it for personal reflection to prepare our hearts and minds for Easter.

We created a calendar for every day of Lent to give you some ideas for how to be intentional about your time. Each week there will be a specific focus, with daily inspiration for how to practice it. You'll notice that the weeks on the calendar start on Wednesday, this is because Lent starts on Ash Wednesday (Feb 14). Every week, you can choose to write down a reflection for your week - this could be a question, a verse, a thought, etc. that you'd like to keep on your mind. There is also space to write down three prayers for your week.

Every Wednesday is designated as a church-wide fasting day. You can choose to do a traditional fast and not eat, or you can give up something else during this time. We will observe the Biblical fast of sunrise to sunset.

In the first two posts of this series, the Great Divide, we have seen that there never was a divide between God the Father and God the Son, and neither was there ever a divide between God and His children. The distance between Jesus and His Father on the cross was felt but not actual. This same truth applies to God and us, even when we are in our most sinful state. According to the Bible, the experienced divide between God and humanity is a wall created by our shame but is not an actual spiritual reality. In this final post, we come to a divide that actually does exist and one that I believe is most detrimental to the mission and command of Jesus. That division, willingly embraced and propagated by Christians, is one in which man's doctrine becomes a justification for severing relationships within the Body of Christ.

Whether you are aware or not, my last two posts pitted some tried and true church doctrines against other church doctrines and assumed beliefs by using the narrative of Scripture. While the Bible is the inspired Word of God that, we believe at RCC, is our final authority, doctrine is nothing more than man's attempt to understand and systematize core understandings of Scripture. Because man is fallible, some of these doctrines are correct while others are not. Some of man's devised doctrines are inspired and have greatly illuminated our understanding of God's nature through the breadth and width of Scripture. Other doctrines ignore much of Scripture to bolster a faulty foundation. The origins of such flawed doctrines were typically a reaction against or for some experience or cause that distinguished one group over another or distinguished the church from historical events.

Sadly, many such doctrines have done great spiritual harm to Christians for centuries. Instead of sound doctrine leading us to Scripture and thus finding God more fully, we have turned it around so that Scripture leads us to right doctrine, sacrificing God for intellectual arguments. Please hear me, brothers and sisters, not only is it not a sin to question blindly accepted doctrines; it is the duty of any serious student of the Bible. Using the Bible itself, we must be willing to take hard looks at man's doctrines no matter how their yeast has worked through the dough of our traditions and accepted conclusions.

One of the greatest tragedies of our Christian history that continues today is the divisions that splinter the relational fabric of Christ's Body on the earth, all because we chose the doctrine of man over the command of Christ. There was only one command of Christ, and that is to love (John 15:9-17). Paul said we could argue doctrine with all the knowledge and eloquence in the world, but not having love proves we have nothing of eternal value (1 Co 13:2-3). He writes that we should not allow Biblical arguments to divide relationships and that such people who do so are warped and self-condemned (Titus 3:9-11). He notes that knowledge is temporal and will pass away ( 1 Co 13:9) and that far more significant than knowledge is love, writing, "now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Co 13:12-13) John writes that we prove we know God, or not, by how we love others and that it is within the manner that we love one another that we make God known to the world ( 1 John 4:7-12). Similarly, Jesus said people would know we belong to Him and that we follow Him by the way we demonstrate our love for one another (John 13:34-35). His priestly prayer before being taken for crucifixion was that we, within our community, would practice a oneness that represented the oneness of the Trinity and that we would live this out an unshakable unity (John 17:22-23).

It is ironic how, in an effort to stay faithful to the Bible, Christians sacrifice scripture for doctrine. We have willingly allowed the dogma of man to replace the heart of Jesus. In an effort to protect what we consider correct doctrine we embrace the sin of division and walk away from the oneness Jesus taught, prayed for, and for which He died.

 Yes, there are essential understandings of Scripture around which a community of faith is formed. For our Reading City Church community, these are posted HERE. As stated on that page, "doctrines and teachings beyond what is listed are approached with opened hands and lose grips among our community. At RCC, we believe this approach allows for vibrant discussions and greater spiritual growth." We are discovering that our oneness in Christ, through the practice of His love, does not disappear over disagreements. On the contrary, our love and faith are only deepened through such tensions. No one person or group has the totality of correct Biblical understanding. The Church is designed to be a diverse yet interdependent community that honors Christ within each of us, that listens with humility, that is committed to learning and growing beyond our norms and knowledge, "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine..." (Ephesians 4:13-14)

May our love dissolve the dividing walls of man's doctrine to live out the heart of the One we follow and the actual teaching of Scripture.

In  PART 1 of this three-part blog, The Great Divide, we looked at God divided from Himself. I wrote how the abandonment that Jesus felt by His Father was not real but rather the result of the shame of humanity He experienced due to taking on the sins of the world. The great divide we often assume took place with Jesus on the cross, and God, the Father, was felt but not actual.

In this entry, we will consider God's division from humanity. Most of us can identify with a great divide between ourselves and God due to our sins, yet I propose that this feeling is not a spiritual reality based on the Biblical narrative. This idea can be somewhat jarring for those who grew up on the Four Spiritual Laws way of evangelism. Some of us may remember seeing an illustration of an enormous chasm with us on one side and God on the other with no hope of bridging the canyon. The typical image includes a cross placed as a bridge between the two sides of the cliffs, allowing us to run across to God. Our unmovable heavenly Father now finally allows us to draw close because of the death of His Son. While this reality may be felt powerfully by us because of our genuine shame, we must understand this is not an accurate Biblical image.

In contrast to this understanding of God's distance from sinners, Paul tells the unsaved that God desires for all humanity to reach for Him and find Him, understanding, "he is actually not far from each one of us." (Acts 17:27) This one sentence summarizes much of the heartbeat of the entire Scriptures. From the start of the Bible, we see this beautiful oneness of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit creating humanity as an expression of great love and intimacy. The desire of God from the start was to enter into a covenant with His people where we would be His people, and He would be our God. While sin changed our understanding of that love we once knew so purely, God never changed in His desire for our company, and the entire Bible is a story that documents His patient reaching for us despite our hardness. As I mentioned in my previous post, the understanding that sin cannot be in the presence of God is theologically incorrect. The Bible actually tells us of a God who chooses to enter into our sinfulness to make His love known through forgiveness and redemption.

Imagine then, if you will, a different illustration. God is one side, speaking words of love and identity over us. We are on the other side, not with a chasm between us, but a wall that prevents us from knowing and receiving His love, meant to heal our sin and redefine our existence. Our experiences of shame erect this wall. The wall was made brick by brick by our sins and by our interactions with a humanity broken by sin that has left us feeling wounded, hard, protective, and unworthy.

Jesus comes to us as God to take on our sin and identify with our walls of shame that keep us from His Father. In this way, we can see the depths of Jesus' love in His words, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" He empties Himself, identifies with our weakness, and experiences our every temptation, and though He knew no sin, he became sin. (Philippians 2:6-8,  Hebrews 4L14-16, 2 Corinthians 5:21).

After receiving His gift of forgiveness, there is this kind of dual experience best articulated by God in Jeremiah 23:23, where He asks, "am I a God who is not close at hand and also far away?" We are aware of His closeness, and yet that closeness makes us keenly aware of the distance parts of us still feel. Though, in an instant, His forgiveness obliterated the power of the wall of shame, there is this reality of working this out with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). It typically takes us a lifetime to dismantle shame's wall brick by brick as we learn to replace conformed thinking (Romans 12:2) with the depths of His love and the new reality we are freed into living; a life of great intimacy with Him.

In time, we come to believe that the only division that exists in reference to our sins and God is the fact that He takes the shame from our sin and casts it from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), He remembers them no more for our sake (Isaiah 43:25), treads them under His feet and casts them into the deepest parts of the sea (Micah 7:19).  

Believer, your God is not far from you. He has never been. Instead of being repelled by your sin, He identified Himself with it and entered into its depths to remove the guilt and shame that has kept you from knowing the everlasting lover of your soul, meant to heal you, rearrange you and make you new.

In the next and last post on the theme of Great Divide, we will look at humanity divided from itself.

During the sermon this past Easter, I was struck by this thought in real-time as I preached, "wait, did God actually turn away from His Son while He was on the cross?"

I know the typically understood answer to that question, which I have readily accepted, is that God separated Himself from His Son at this point because sin cannot be in His presence. Jesus taking on the sins of the world caused the Father to have to leave His son for those hours on the cross, which is why Jesus would exclaim, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mathew 27:46)

However, there is an immediate theological dilemma with this assumption: The unity of the Trinity cannot break. One of the bedrocks of understanding the Trinity is found in Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is One God." To break this oneness apart, if even only for a few hours, would constitute a ceasing of the Trinity's existence, or the very existence of God as the Bible teaches concerning His nature.

It may be countered that God separated Himself, not from Himself, the eternal Spirit of God within Jesus, but He separated Himself from the human flesh of Jesus, where humanity's sin dwelled. This thought gets close to the heretical idea of Docetism; it is also equally impossible because, as we are told, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell within the body of Jesus (Colossians 1 v19). The 100% human flesh of Jesus was incarnated with the 100% Son of God. It had to be both God and man as one that died on that cross. God's whole plan of salvation would not work otherwise. So we cannot say that it was the human part only of Jesus from whom God turned away.

If God could not divide from Himself, then the presence of sin and evil existed in His presence while Jesus was on the cross. Doesn't this fly in the face of a core Christian teaching?

Most surprisingly, the Bible does not teach anywhere that sin or evil cannot be in the presence of God. Apparently, this is one of those many commonly accepted teachings of man that does not have solid Biblical support. What the Bible actually teaches is much the opposite; our God put a plan of salvation into gear the minute Adam and Eve rejected Him, which required Him to enter into the depths of our sin to rescue us. We see this at the very start as God Himself seeks Adam and Eve out and draws close to them despite their rebellion.

Beyond this, a core teaching of Christian doctrine is that God is omnipresent, meaning He is present in all spaces and times all at once. To say He could not be in the places where sin is is to strip Him of this attribute. To say God could not be in the presence of sin and evil would also mean He was not present in the horrors of our human history in which sin and evil raged and yet, which exists still, stories of grace and love, evidence of His presence within such suffering. Indeed in the book of Job, we read that the devil enters the presence of God to stand before him on numerous occasions.

Then there is Jesus Himself, fully God, who went directly to the presence of sinful people. Can we conclude that only God the Father cannot have sin in his presence, but Jesus as God can? That would mean one part of the godhead allows something different from another, putting us on shaky theological ground.

 As we hold loosely to the teachings of man and do our own Biblical studies, we find God's holiness does not mean he cannot allow sin into His presence. His holiness means He enters into sin and redeems it with a  love that is greater than our sin. We also find that sin could not separate the oneness of God from Himself. If it could, God would stop being God.

So then, if God the Father did not separate Himself from His Son on the cross, what was it that caused Jesus to utter the words, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

What I suggest is that although Jesus did nothing worthy of his own shame, it is likely He identified with the shame of humanity as He took within himself the sins of all of us. In this sense, what Jesus lost was his sense of the presence of His Father, even though His Father never actually left Him. The barrier that caused Jesus to cry that phrase out was felt, but not actual. This is a theme we will be looking at more in PART 2 of this 3-part post. 

If you have been a part of or followed RCC for any amount of years, you know that my preaching style tends to go after difficult issues, challenges comfortable norms, and digs into meanings behind the surface. I aim to preach with accuracy, passion, and vulnerability. Yet, in my humanity, my passion may eclipse my vulnerability, and my vulnerability may make suspect my accuracy. And in your humanity, sermons that press against accepted rationales, at times can bring new Biblical insights, greater spiritual freedom and, at other times, can unnerve and destabilize your accepted ethos. 

This reality means in any given season, liberation and greater worship are being produced in many, while some are taking offense and feeling insecure. And every now and then, I preach a sermon series in which the extremes of both realities are made manifest. Our most recent series, Good God Almighty, has been such a series. 

The goal of Good God Almighty was to free us in the knowledge and experience of God's love, that we would learn to worship God as a response to a love that endures forever. But to get us to that place, we first went after that which stands in the way for many to receive such knowledge and experience. More often than not, this barrier is unbiblical thinking that perceives God's disapproval for, and subsequent distance from, the core of our beings. 

This inward sense of our Creator's disapproval and distance of who we are contributes to such a deep shame that even the cross and resurrection of Jesus, though bridging the eternal divide of our sin and God's forgiveness, cannot often bridge the divide embedded in our own conformed thinking. Though we go through the rituals of prayer, Bible reading, and church attendance, some of us continue to hide the depths of our being from the presence of God, like Adam and Eve, despite the truth of His continual search for us. Our experiences in this life predominately teach us the need to hide in shame, but what is most unhelpful are manufactured doctrines that confirm that which feed a negative narrative of our existence, especially when such declarations conflict with much of scripture. 

Over the next series of blog posts, I aim to clarify a few key truths in hopes of bringing a more full understanding and greater freedom to lean into this God who draws close to cover our shame and who seeks to submerge our identity in the full knowledge of His love. 

I want to finish this first blog post by reiterating doctrine itself: 

• Doctrine is man's attempt to bring together various scriptures to support a particular understanding that a group of people eventually accepts as dogma. 
• While scripture is divinely inspired and should be accepted as a Truth outside our truths, doctrine comes from man and, as such, should never be blindly accepted and always challenged. 
• The doctrine of Original Sin was not a doctrine of the church for the first 1500 years of Christianity and still is not accepted as a doctrine in many Christian denominations. 
• Original sin does not show up in any early church creeds, is not essential to salvation, and is not listed in our core beliefs at RCC. 
• At RCC, we aim to hold any Biblical tensions not explicitly stated in our core beliefs loosely to allow for different viewpoints and insights to challenge our own while remaining in a loving community as the Body of Christ. 
• What I preached concerning original sin does not represent an official stance of RCC, but rather is a reflection of my theological struggles and study over a number of years. I freely admit I may be wrong about it all. I suggest, in fact, you should be wary of anyone who claims to have absolute knowledge and is beyond questioning. My consistent encouragement is for you to do your own study on such things before you accept them as truth. 
• To remain open-handed is to expect sermons that will sometimes set us free and sermons that sometimes will rightfully challenge comfortable assumptions and at times touch on triggers. All of this serves a more powerful purpose of growth than those sermons with which we only ever and easily agree. 

In the next blog post, I will write more about the necessity of this uncomfortableness in our spiritual growth. 

The United States is a post-Christian nation. This fact is backed by every major study on Christianity in America over the last thirty years and is generally accepted no matter the vantage point. The response to this reality reveals an ever-increasing divide within American Christianity: Those who are trying to protect what little Christian values they see as still existing in our country and those who view their country as a mission field to be reached. Although the goal behind either approach may not be wrong, only one is in keeping with the mission and purpose of Jesus, as seen in our scriptures.

We Can Do Nothing to Protect God's Kingdom.
Long before Jesus came to our world, Daniel foretold, "the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed...it shall stand forever." (Da 2:44)  A very unlikely King would initiate that kingdom, one who did not yield Earthly power but willingly emptied Himself in humility, even to the point of allowing His own murder (Philippians 2:5-9). When asked about His kingdom under trial, Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." (John 18:36)

The kingdom of God does not operate within the world's logic. It is not obvious to detect. When asked about the kingdom's arrival from the religious leaders, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' (Luke 17:20-21)  This unshakable kingdom is not rocked by the politics or darkness of this world. It is not made from the stuff of our lives, and nothing that is done here can add or take away from its existence, power, or purpose.  We are not told anywhere within scripture to establish or protect God's kingdom on earth. It is already established and growing through the work of Christ, and we either proclaim its reality through our lives, or we ignore it, but we can do nothing to ensure its existence. Instead, God's kingdom influences the state of things in this life through its children's lives who are called to live counter-culturally.

We are Called to Proclaim God's Kingdom.
In Matthew 10:5-8, Jesus tells His disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God in both words and in compassionate action. The kingdom of God is the realization of God's good rule in which humanity is reconciled to Him, through Christ, and healed in His love and life.  The members of that kingdom are called to be conduits of the life and love they have received to transform the sufferings of others. The weight of scripture backs these simple statements. What will not be found in the Bible, however, is a call for Jesus' followers to proclaim the spiritual kingdom of God through worldly means such as politics. Americans who desire the best for our families and future generations should exercise their rights to vote per their conscience. But this temporal right, civic duty and blessed privilege are nowhere close to even being on the same playing field as our more considerable gift and obligation. America's grandest political dream is still rubbish compared to the Kingdom of God we are called to spend our lives proclaiming in word and action.  

When our focus shifts from how to best protect the kingdom, to how to best proclaim the kingdom, our priorities change, and we spend our time seeing, hearing and doing things differently. This focus returns us, not to the propagandist machine but to Jesus and to learn from Him anew how to follow His example and fulfill his teachings in this world.

The Kingdom of God is growing in this world, not through worldly means, but through redeemed and willing people who pray and live for its full realization, when Revelation 11:15 will come to pass,
    "The kingdom of the world has become
    the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,
    and he will reign for ever and ever."

Last spring, with the pandemic in full swing and a lot of time on our hands, my daughter Isabella and I planted a few tomato seeds in some peat pots in our living room. Isabella is only 2 years old and at that amazing stage where everything she sees is a source of wonder and amazement. She quickly got used to our new morning routine;  filling up a cup with some water at the sink and going to the living room to water each of the small little seeds (not always very smoothly, but she is a work in progress). It didn't take long for the seeds to germinate and for the little buds to creep out of the soil. This motivated Isabella even more, she wanted to water those plants everytime her gaze landed on their little green arms reaching out. 

As summer approached we went out to the yard and planted our sprouts into the soil. We soon after left on our summer trip to Michigan. Before leaving, I went to Lowe’s to try to purchase some tomato cages to place around the plants and guide their growth, but Lowes was sold out and I ran out of time, so we left without putting them in place. When we returned to Pennsylvania at the end of July, we found that the tomato plants had grown so large that they had fallen over into the yard, covering almost half of our yard with rich green leaves, but the beginnings of the tomatoes had quickly become wet, split and rotten.

In Psalm 126:5 we read the words, “Those who sow in tears shall reap the shouts of joy.” Israel’s history is filled with times of abundance, joy and the providence of God, but we also know that the Old Testament is filled with heartache and pain.  Just like the Israelites, we know the whispers of our true Kingdom, a home where God is at the head, “wiping every tear from our eye” helping us find our true selves, and yet , how quickly we chase after almost anything else.

Yet within each one of us is this divine seed that Thomas Kelly calls “ the amazing and dangerous seed of divine awareness” The seed is very small, almost insignificant, it whispers of our true self, but many of us can barely hear its voice. It awaits our tending, our attention, our cultivation holding infinite potential to bring God-awareness to our reality, but can also lay dormant, quiet, waiting.  

Just like the plants in my garden need attention, some water on occasion, to be placed in the right conditions, with sunlight and occasional weeding. We give them our attention and before we know it the amazing process of nature, a miracle in itself,  develops into this beautiful plant and eventually, fruit.

In psalm 126 it says that this seed is sowed in despair. Often this is how God works, he plants this seed within us and often places us in contexts of hopelessness, pain and suffering. But it is precisely in these contexts that the seed will grow and flourish. The awakened seed of Christ, in the midst of pain, can often find its deepest roots if we only give it a little attention some care and a sense of devotion.

Jesus takes this image further when he talks about a mustard seed. Mustard seeds are known to be incredibly small but the mustard plant can quickly take over an entire mountain side if the conditions are right.

It is from this same awakened seed within us that every major prophet of the bible and world shaker has changed the course of human history. It is also from this divine seed that humans have withstood great oppression, loss and travesty and still pointed to goodness, truth and compassion.    

RCC is soon going to be entering a new phase, one in which we have the opportunity to develop and grow through the many tools of the christian faith. This growth can help us to center our attention and care on this seed within each one of us. As we begin to see this seed grow and flourish in our own lives we will inevitably begin to recognize the beauty and potential of this seed in one another.

As our “self-consciousness” grows into “God-consciousness” we will even begin to see this divine seed all around us in all of our circumstances and the gifts of the physical world as well. Abraham Joshua Heschel pointed to this beautiful kind of God-seeing in this quote;
Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are, but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme… to sense the ultimate in the common and simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.”  - Abraham Joshua Heschel “I Asked for Wonder”

I am excited to enter into this journey with you church, as we get to embark on it together.

We, as Christ’s followers, are so often overcome with feelings of exhaustion. It can be overwhelming to be a Christian in this world. We feel mentally exhausted. Physically exhausted. Spiritually exhausted. The call for us as the Body of Christ is not to exhaustion. It’s not to allow the frailty of our human selves to get in the way of the work we do for God. The call of the Lord is to endure!
 
When I think of endurance in the conversation of racism, I can’t help but think of a Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hammer. Hammer was born in 1917 as the youngest of 20 children to a Black, sharecropping couple. She experienced her first purposeful racist act against her family while at a very young age when a local white supremacist group poisoned her family’s livestock. As an adult she experienced an even more heartbreaking act of blatant racism. Several years after she was married, she needed surgery. The surgeon, who was white, performed a hysterectomy without her consent or knowledge which was a common practice in the south to sterilize poor Black women as a racist means of population control. Without having any say in the matter, Fannie Lou Hammer was unable to bear children.
 
Hammer became passionate about her and her fellow Black American’s constitutional right to vote. She was an activist in the movement to register her community to vote, among many other things. The racist assaults on Fannie Lou Hammer’s person are far too many to go into detail here, so I will just list a few. She was fired from her job. She was shot at in multiple drive-by shootings. She was arrested. She was beaten by police while being held down in a cell, and she was sexually assaulted by police officers while being held in a cell. Talk about exhaustion! Fannie Lou was so tired in fact, that she was famously quoted saying, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired,” yet she continued to stand for the rights of Black communities. She pushed through her exhaustion. She pushed through the fragility of her human self.
 
Fannie Lou Hammer is one of thousands of Black and Brown Americans who’ve pushed through their fragility to be agents of change. And even though we can look to these men and women for our inspiration – there is one person who not only inspires us to continue, but commands us to. Jesus.
 
Jesus was a man. So often as a man, he was tired. Tired of the sins of the religious leaders. Tired of his complaining companions. And tired of carrying the weight of the sin of the world. It was Jesus who was exhausted and went down to the bottom of the boat to sleep, only to be awoken by his disciples who lacked faith. Even in his exhaustion, he calmed the storm. He was exhausted in the desert for 40 nights and 40 days with no food or drink – tempted by Satan. He pushed through his exhaustion in order to remain blameless, only to be lynched for our sins.
 
It was Jesus who was exhausted in the garden when He asked His Father to let this cup pass from Him. Have you ever seen the Son of God in such humanity? Knowing what he must do, but even so feel exhausted at what was ahead. Even in his exhaustion, he picked up the cup that was meant for him to free us from our sin. It was Jesus who, in his dying exhaustion, asked his Father to forgive those who were lynching his earthly body because “they know not what they do.” We can say in all these things that Jesus too must have been “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
 
What can we take from these lessons so we too can forge ahead through exhausted and fragility? Well, when Fannie Lou Hammer forged through her exhaustion she made progress for Black voters and the Black voice in the South. And when Jesus did the same, He made progress for ALL of God’s people to have life and to have it everlasting. So, I say to my white Brothers and Sisters, can you forge through your own exhaustion and fragility to continue learning about the plight of your Black brothers and sisters? Can you forge through to continue the conversations with the white people in your life? Can you forge through to speak up against racism in all forms? Can you forge through to continue the work of Christ Jesus, to care for “the least of these?”
 
We are starting here, together. The body of Reading City Church (and anyone else who wants to join us) are committing to a 30-Day Challenge of learning about race, the history of racism in our country, and how racism is still affecting People of Color today.
 
Will you join us? Find the challenge here:

As we approach Pentecost during COVID-19, it’s hard not to think about the significance of the home for the early church. In Acts 2 it says, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.”   

The spirit of God filled the whole house. Not a church building, but a house.  

In the midst of quarantine life and stay-at-home orders, it feels like the Lord is showing us something about our home, doesn’t it? Many homes have become more than a place to rest and gather, they have become the hub of our daily existence. We get groceries delivered, cook and visit the kitchen often, work at the dining room table, and watch church from our couch. 

When our county went into shutdown and church went “virtual,” we weren’t totally sure how it would go. We started having conversations about how to lead worship, asking how we could encourage worshippers to engage with God in their home.

Back in mid-April, Jen got a text from a coworker about how her mother (in her 90s) was singing all morning about the Holy Spirit being present in their house. Something clicked and fifteen minutes later, Jen sent off lyrics and a possible song outline to Ben and Vince. 

When Ben looked at the lyrics a few days later, he was struck with the importance of keeping the song relevant both for these homebound times AND for a future gathered together in person. “This house” could refer to the listener’s home address as well as our building on Penn Ave: the presence and power of the Holy Spirit is not limited by physical location. Nor is that presence and power limited by our own abilities or inabilities, strengths and weaknesses. 

To emphasize those ideas already present in the lyric draft, Ben moved some words around and added a pre chorus to tie those themes together with the chorus, which was melodically spliced together from different voice memos from Vince, Jen, and Ben.

Unintentionally, that chorus melody mashup collaboration kinda signifies the point of this song: despite all of our individual backgrounds, experiences, and physical distance, the Church is being molded and formed into one body, together even as we remain separate. Covid-19 has not changed the call for unity, even if the details look different. May we all seek to be filled up again as we, like the early church in Acts, patiently wait within our homes for the Spirit of God.

Scripture References
Zeph. 3:17
Acts 2:2-4

The following is the second Vlog post by Cait Beiler concerning mental health. Cait is member of RCC, a counselor and a trauma therapist with Wellsprings Solutions LLC.

The following video is the first in a series of posts concerning your mental health. Cait is member of our RCC church family and wanted to share some thoughts during these times. We pray each post is a blessing. 

Hello again!!  Let’s jump right in where we left off!

So where do we start on this journey of generosity and how do we begin to apply it to our financial lives and obtain balance? What are the benefits and blessings that follow it?

Let’s start by looking at a key scripture in Malachi 3:6-10. God is so bent on showing us His goodness and generosity that he asks us to test him by doing it ourselves! He says this in verse 10 of the passage, 

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

Wow! What a challenge!  If you notice here, the challenge is really about watching what God will do when we trust him enough to give him the tithe. In case you missed the point, God wants something for us, not something from us. He doesn’t need our stuff, He owns it all anyway (Psalm 50:9-12)! But what He wants for us is a relationship of trust that is built on our reliance upon Him. What follows is peace, joy, purpose, freedom, and a lifetime of watching Him pour out blessings in our lives. Are these riches and material blessings?  Sometimes yes, but that is not the promise. He promises to always meet our needs and take away our anxiety.  We still need to be diligent and work hard, but we need to let go of the drive of worry and fear that we won’t have enough and trust that He will provide for all of our needs (Matthew 6:26-27). Are you starting to see what God wants for you?

Can you imagine freedom from anxiety and fear regarding your finances?

So what is a tithe? According to the scriptures, a tithe is 10% of what you earn. The first recorded offering to the Lord is seen in Genesis 4:4 when Abel brings an offering to God of the best of his profits. The first recorded tithe comes from Abraham in Genesis 14:20, where Abraham recognizes God as the one who gave him the victory and he gives 10% of the spoils.

Throughout the rest of the Bible, the tithe represents 10% of a person’s income. This is interesting because He could have picked 1 or 5 or 7%, but He didn’t, He picked 10% -  a percentage, not a number.  I think this is because it has to be enough for us to take notice.  It has to be enough for us to say, “Ok God, I am trusting you every time with all of my income, all of my stuff, all of my hopes and dreams.”

Let’s look at the following and I want you to think about the impact these could have on your mental and emotional health. Not only that, but will it begin to change your relationship with money for the better?  How about your relationship with your Father in Heaven? What about your relationship with your spouse and others?

Benefits & blessings of generosity to God and others:
 

• Trusting God with your money helps you consistently release control, and in turn, anxiety, stress & fear
• Keeps your heart loving Jesus & others more than money
• Keeps earthly wealth in a heavenly perspective 
• You’re no longer a slave to money
• When you die, nothing is yours, but what you did with what you were entrusted leaves a legacy forever

The Lord has something great in store for you, if you are willing to step out of your comfort zone and trust Him enough to begin giving a percentage of your income - even if you have never given on a regular basis or learned the Lord’s financial principle about giving before today. We believe that God wants at least 10% and you will notice, if you clicked on the budget template in “The Game Changer” blog, that we have that percentage already built into the budget.  

If you are reading this for the first time and this idea terrifies you, I would encourage you to pick a percentage and start with that.  My friend, I promise that God will start to show up in your life with a simple act of faith and trust in Him.  I have never heard anyone say that they regretted any step in being generous. Instead, the more often they gave, and the more it became a habit, the happier and more fulfilled they were!  When you start giving, you begin to see miracles, and the more you give, the more you want to give! Keep a journal and write down what happens after you give for the first time...the second...the third and so on. Write to me and tell me all about it!!!  I cannot wait to hear!

I began my own journey in trusting God with my finances in my early twenties after my husband and I found ourselves nearly $100,000 in debt with student loans, credit cards & car purchases. We were working all month just to pay our debts and buy some groceries. I was terrified of the idea of giving money knowing that we might not have enough to pay our bills. We had no savings and were learning how to begin stewarding our money with the help of another couple who coached us at no cost through the financial ministry at our church.  We didn’t have tithing, or any giving for that matter, on our radar. I had never given consistently before, and knew nothing about the concept of tithing. My friend, I also had no idea what was waiting on the other side.

We made a decision to start tithing 10% of our income, and that month money literally showed up in the most unexpected places.  It kept on happening! We never went a month without being able to pay our bills, eat and have a roof over our heads.  Within 5 years, we had paid off all of our consumer debt, purchased a home and had two children.  Did we make some hard decisions?  Yes. We cut back everything, but we didn’t cheat God. We prayed and He showed up over and over again. Now, instead of arguing about our money, we have conversations about ways we can use our money to not just tithe but to go above and beyond that and bless others.  

My experience in practicing generosity is joy in fulfilling a need, compassion and mercy in knowing I helped someone else, contentment in my possessions, a sense of purpose in my work, and the freedom to constantly repeat it.  

Hear me on this - generosity is key, but it must work in unison with all the other principles. Don’t let go of anything you already learned, add this to it.  Make it your first priority.

Great resources to help you in your journey include:

• How to Be Rich by Andy Stanley
• Fields of Gold by Andy Stanley
• Giving Together by John Rinehart
• More or Less by Jeff Shinabarger

Next time we’ll talk about estate planning and the importance of it!
See you on the next post!

Would you like to talk with someone who can walk alongside you confidentially with your personal finances?  Please know that there is FREE coaching available for you to take advantage of from our Financial Ministry!  Just email: sarah@readingcitychurch.com, I look forward to hearing from you.

-Sarah Bateman, Director of Community and Finance

Welcome back!

Hopefully, you found last week's post on “setting your table” to be encouraging, uncomplicated, and an easy tutorial to explain investing and getting you started.
At the end of that post, we said that we would introduce you to someone new this week…..and I know that you’ve been waiting for it so without further adieu…
Dun da da da!  Meet, Generosity. :)

Wait, you’ve met before? Oh in passing, right.  I totally get it - it takes time to begin a new relationship and energy to cultivate a strong connection.  You need to work to build a relationship with an actual person, and this is also true of generosity.  But, just as the relationships we take time to build give back many gifts, the return on generosity is an unlimited supply of benefits & blessings in unmistakable ways.

“But why?” you ask. “Why is giving of my finances so important?  Shouldn’t I be saving all the money I can in case I need it?  What blessing could I get from giving money away? Isn’t that counter-intuitive? Not to mention, I really don’t think that’s in my budget...I mean have you seen my expenses?”

I will respond by asking some questions in return:

• Is there really something even greater than the American Dream?
• Have you ever seen another human being in need and, deep down, really wanted to help them but had nothing in your wallet?
• Have you ever teared up while watching a commercial for providing life-saving water, food, or special surgeries needed for children in other parts of the world?
• Does your heart break for those same children who are dying of starvation and disease, or are rejected and abandoned because they were born with a cleft palate or other deformity?
• Have you ever wondered why you were born where you were, in this day and time, and given all you have been given?
• Has hoarding or spending all of your money made you a happier and more content person, or instead, has it driven you to want more, more, more, and never feel satisfied?

You see, God wrote so much about money in the Bible because He knows that money competes for a place in our heart that will take the place of Him every time we choose to let it. (Matt 6:24 & 1 Tim 6:10)

But He also provided a great strategy to give us freedom and joy in our finances!  He knows that our purpose can only come from Him & that our identity cannot come from money, for the love of money will make us misers, hoarders, ungrateful, proud, arrogant, never satisfied & driven mad with greed.

Just think about the last time you went to the store and bought something you really wanted.  How long did your satisfaction last after purchasing that item?

I am just like every other person. I struggle with the desire for wanting more and many times have said: “Oh if only we had more money then I would…”

But if I’m honest, I usually hear those words after being with others who have a lot more than I do and comparing myself to them or watching commercials that tell me I deserve to have something they want to sell me. Then I start what I call “the spiral of envy”....where I tell myself I should have picked a different career, I should have made different financial choices, I should be making more money because I deserve it, and the list goes on...I, I, I, me, me, me.  I have forgotten all about the fact that I can’t take a dime with me, that I am RICH compared to the rest of the WORLD, that my desires are leading me down a path that is always “keeping up with the Joneses” and can never be satisfied.  

Be honest, have you ever found yourself thinking and feeling these very same things?
I feel gross when I spiral, I’m unhappy with myself, dissatisfied, angry, insecure, mentally tortured & very annoyed. You can probably relate on every level. This is exactly what happens to us if we take all the good and wise principles that we have learned so far but fail to balance them with generosity.

So what is generosity anyway? Dictionary.com defines generosity as “the spirit and action of freely and frequently giving to others.”

Let’s go back to what we have been learning this whole time - who put us here and gave us all that we have anyway?  Us? Did we breathe the very breath into our own lungs, and can we determine our time here on earth?  No. So it’s not ours anyway, is it?  We are entrusted with everything by God, and He wants the very best for us, meaning, purpose & life to the full (John 10:10).

Is it possible to truly experience meaning, purpose & fulfillment in my daily life just because of the way I handle my money??

The answer is YES!!!!
Generosity is the key to this.

So where do we start on this journey of generosity and how do we begin to apply it to our financial lives and obtain balance? What are the benefits and blessings that follow it? Well, stick around for part 2!  We’ll cover all that next. :)

Would you like to talk with someone who can walk alongside you confidentially with your personal finances?  Please know that there is FREE coaching available for you to take advantage of from our Financial Ministry!  Just email: sarah@readingcitychurch.com, I look forward to hearing from you.

-Sarah Bateman, Director of Community and Finance

What do they all have in common?

Death and Life.  

These past weeks of isolation has given much pause to the meaning dying to self. As we watch the news and hear of the destructiveness of this disease to not only our physical bodies but also to the fabric of our society it can seem like death is having its say.

But those of us who are in relationship with Jesus know that this is only part of the story even as Good Friday meant death on a cross, Easter means life and resurrection. So too Passover in this season has had a memorable impact as many have and are praying that this spirit of death will Passover our families, communities, Country and world.

And then this Quarantine…

A good friend recently spoke about how this time of pandemic has brought much healing and more understanding of the concept of death and life into her heart. It spoke to my heart in the moment and has begun to stir up previous encounters with the Lord about dying to self.

Then this scripture 2 Corinthians 4:6-12 came along in my daily reading. We are” always carrying in our flesh the death of Jesus”,” always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake”. The day to day struggles of not walking as closely as we ought, the moments of regret are opportunities to be given over to death.

“Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”  The words are familiar, and truths that we know, but today as we continue to “shelter in place” can we let them strike deeper.

 The thousand deaths we die, are the way of life. The death of Jesus being understood as the ultimate gift, his life exchanged for our freedom to have fellowship with the father, but can we comprehend that this death in ourselves is also a gift. The verse says, “so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies”. That the always being given over to death is for Jesus’ sake. This helps keep perspective on the “good” days and “bad” days.

The work of death is, as many have said before, like seeds buried in the ground, enclosed in darkness, so that the breaking open towards life can happen. Our “Corona-world” is time for embracing the dying. Dying to self-centeredness, dying to consumerism, dying to distracted living, dying to people pleasing, dying to individualism, dying to fear.

This the death, is not something we have to achieve for we are “always” being given over to death for the sake of Jesus. Who is doing the giving? “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” He has given us knowledge to know, to be able to, in death and darkness, birth new life.  

And now as we approach Pentecost and the possibility of “freedom” from our lock down, this new life is beginning to glimmer more. Pentecost being a time when Jesus ascended to heaven and the holy Spirit came down and brought a new way of being in Christ. The question that I am pondering is” what things will I, and should I resurrect?” What parts of my,” before” Covid-19, life does God want to breathe new life into and what parts should remain dead? This then is where intimate communication or prayer is so important.

How can we know what the Lord wants to breath his spirit on unless we ask. As we look towards this transition back into our world, I feel it is such an important time to seek the father’s heart and truly asses where and what should stay buried as well as what is truly essential to living more fully for the Lord. Are there places that have seemed to have suddenly filled you with a sense of purpose, peace and life?  Perhaps these are the areas that God is doing a new thing in.

2 Corinthians 4:6-12  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So death is at work in us, but life in you."

-Dale Cupo, RCC Prayer Ministry Leader

In this post, I would like to share a simple way of praying and meditating on Scripture, known as the S.O.A.P method. This is the method I use most consistently because of its simplicity and effectiveness.

What you need is a Bible, a larger, school-type notebook that you can dedicate for your S.O.A.P devotions., a pen and quiet table somewhere in your home. For many with young children home right now, the last item is the hardest to come by. My suggestion is to wake up earlier than the rest of the house if you are a morning person or do this after the kids are asleep if you come to life in the evenings. If neither of these is possible right now, please do not feel guilty about another thing you can't do. Just return to this method when you are able.

S.O.A.P consists of Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer. You will write out these words on the far left of your paper and then write out what the Lord reveals to you to the right of these words. In most cases, each devotion should take up one page.

Begin with prayer. Do a brief version of Centering Down, and ask God to speak to your heart and mind and be present to His presence.

• SCRIPTURE: Begin with a few Bible verses. One way to do this is to choose a book in the Bible, such as John or Psalms. Currently, I have been going through the book of Proverbs. Starting with chapter 1, read through half of the chapter and see what verses are sticking out to you. Pick 1-3 of these verses and write out this Scripture in your journal near the word Scripture.
• OBSERVATION: Next, write down any thoughts, anything that you notice about the text or questions you may have. This is not yet the time to make it personal. I do typically read some notes that my study Bible has as well as any cross-reference scriptures that relate to the passage that may be listed on the page, but I do not use the Observation time for an in-depth study. Observation is a few sentences in which you are writing down any initial thoughts you may have.
• APPLICATION: Now, it's time for the Holy Spirit to make this Scripture personal. You may want to ask God again to speak to you through His Word. How may these verses apply to your life presently? How should you respond to such revelations? Take a few sentences to write this out.
• PRAYER: Lastly, commit this time to God in prayer. This can be a prayer of thanksgiving, repentance, a plea for help, or a pledge to live differently. Write out a few sentences of your prayer.

Lastly, give your devotion a title and write this in large letters at the top of your page. As time goes on, you will have a treasure of these precious times with God and the insights you have learned along the way.

If you have any questions or care to share your experience, leave a comment here or email me at Vince@ReadingCityChurch.com.

-Vince Donnachie, Pastor of RCC

Welcome back!  In our last Becoming a Financial Steward post, we introduced the concept of saving - that big discovery to stopping the cycle of debt and turning your financial ship in the right direction. Hopefully you are working right now on your emergency savings, or you are on the next step and working toward saving 1-3 and up to 6 months of your income.

Now it’s time to set your table. If you’re going to meet someone new, you want to prepare your financial house and make your table as lovely as possible. So Let’s go one step further and talk about investing. Don’t run away, it’s not as scary as you may think, and we’re going to give you a few steps to start that you can easily do on your own!

So what is investing anyway? Why is it important? Think of it this way, investing is simply putting money to work in the present so that it will make you money in the future.

Consider just a few of the things these scriptures have to say about investing:

• Isaiah 48:17 - The Lord is the one who teaches us to profit
• Matthew 25:18-27 - God honors diligent investing & rewards it
• Proverbs 31:16 - The wise woman makes an investment
• Ecclesiastes 11:2 - Dividing/diversifying is having foresight

These are just a few, but you can see our Father’s heart for wisdom and diligence. The rewards are both earthly and eternal.

Investing does not always mean the stock market. It simply means spending money now on something that will allow you to make money in the future. This can mean buying a sewing machine for your sewing business, lemons for your lemonade stand, or a rental property. In fact, the biggest investment most people make is paying for a higher education. These are different types of simple investments that help you generate more income because there are two primary reasons to invest:

1. Saving for Retirement
2. Growing your income

Today our focus will be on investing in stocks since it is what most people think of when they hear the word invest. Anyone can invest in the stock market no matter your education, wealth, etc. - making it one of the most accessible ways to invest. Investing in stocks means that you are purchasing a small portion of a business, with the hope that the business will become more productive in the future. If the business makes more money then the value of the business goes up. If the value of the business increases, so does the small share of the company your future self will own.

Now, no investment is without risk. If you are paying attention to the news about the ups and downs in the stock market right now, you will know that it fluctuates.  However, over time, even with fluctuations, the gains most often outweigh the losses and having diversification in your investments is a key factor to managing the risk.  

See the links below with important articles about easy ways to make sure your investments are diversified. (If you use a Robo-Advisor, or a Dated Fund in your 401K, this is often handled for you.)

Interestingly, it is best to continue investing even when the market is not doing well because you are buying the economy at a lower price and in the long run you should see good gains as a result. The best thing most people can do is just ignore the market completely, and simply invest the same amount every month, no matter what is happening. Timing market tops or bottoms is almost impossible. Consistently investing over time nearly always wins out in the end.

Here are 5 easy steps to help you begin investing:

1. If your company offers a 401K, Roth, or 403B plan with a match, take it! It’s FREE money! Max out your contribution to the limit of the company’s match.
2. Purchase company stock in a public company you work for if it is offered at a discount
3. Open a personal IRA or Individual Retirement Account, (Roth or Pre-Tax) through a well known company with very low fees - see list on link  below.
4. You can talk to a financial planner who can help you, but be sure to understand how they get paid, and if they are a fiduciary so you know they are working for you - OR-
5. You can look into robo-advisors. Betterment and Wealthfront are 2 of the best in the business. Both charge low fees, help step you through the amount of risk that you're willing to take, and automatically diversify your investment into numerous low fee ETFs. Set up an account with one or both and set up your bank account to invest a small amount with them each month. You can see a comparison of the two in the additional link below.  

The concept of compounding is how something builds upon itself & this happens most when you invest early. We could amaze you with a bunch of math and charts, but all we’ll say is this, the earlier you start investing, the better off you'll be. The person who starts investing very small amounts of money in their 20s will almost always be much better off at retirement than the person who invests large amounts, but starts much later. Time is your friend. Invest for retirement as early as possible.

So, take a leap and choose one step to start! Then another :). If you have any questions, shoot us an email at finance@readingcitychurch.com

Next time we are going to introduce you to someone new...and it might just change your whole life :). Stay tuned and see you on the next post!

Would you like to talk with someone who can walk alongside you confidentially with your personal finances?  Please know that there is FREE coaching available for you to take advantage of from our Financial Ministry!  Just email: sarah@readingcitychurch.com, I look forward to hearing from you.

So far, in this series of posts, I have led in Centering Down, Prayer of Examen, and Lectio Divina. Please feel free to return to these, and if it is helpful, follow my lead until you can do them on your own without my guidance.

This week, I am taking a break from leading practices to introduce the idea of a more in-depth practice and share a personal example. A rule of life is a widely accepted and encouraged spiritual practice across Christian history and denominations. Writtings encouraging a rule of life first appeared about 300 years after Christ through the writings of the desert fathers and became most well known through the monastic community under St. Benedict 1500 years ago. His rule was an agreed-upon daily rhythm of prayer for the community. Future monastic communities would follow suit as would other Christian communities and families.

Today, the idea of a Rule of Life sees revised popularity.  A "rule" is different than goals or resolutions. It meant to be a guide for your living to help you abide more fully in the love and presence of Jesus. The original Latin word for rule, was the idea of a trellis to help grapes grow away from the ground, free of predators and diseases so that it could bear maximum fruitfulness.

I have been familiar with this idea for many years, but it wasn't until I was required to make one as part of my seminary education, that I came to see the immense value of having one.  

I will link a few resources to read more about creating your own Rule of Life at the end of this blog. You can keep this simple, or you can go into depth prayerfully considering your life, God's actions in it, and your desires to live for Him in various aspects of your living.  I was required to do the more in-depth version using the book I link below, and I can tell you that I am glad I did. The benefits of contemplating all the book leads you to consider are beyond just having a Rule of Life.

The main idea of a Rule of Life is to prayerfully consider, write down,  and then commit to a way of being with God in your relationship with Him, in your health, in your relationships, in your church community, and your work.

After you have articulated your rule, you can get creative with how to keep it before you. Because I am a visual person who likes both to shoot and edit video and create music as a hobby, it made sense for me to articulate my Rule of Life through my music and video I took of places I love to pray at and people I love. I then edited this video to be just a few minutes long so that I know I would view it often as part prayer and part reminder of my rule.

Each person should determine what expression of their rule makes the most sense for them creatively and practically that will enable them to keep their rule before their eyes and hearts.

I hope I was able to whet your appetite to look further into this practice and to consider starting the process of making your own Rule of Life. For those of you who begin, I have no doubt the rewards will be rich. If you have any questions or would like to share any experiences along the way, please comment on this blog or write me at vince@readingcitychruch.com.

My rule is life is a series of core values that I feel the Lord is drawing me to and creating within me. I decided to write this out as a prayer.

As way of example, here is my Rule of Life written out as well as the video I made:

"My Father, with Your grace and for Your glory, I seek to daily join the work of Your Holy Spirit in my life. That I may become...

• Become Open - to the leading of God’s Spirit in all spaces and times, to the ways He may want to me to engage in His revelations, to see my life as a prayer unto Him.
• Become Grateful - to notice beauty and take it in, see the goodness of God’s hand within people, God’s creation, man’s creations and within situations. Allow myself to feel thankfulness and joy for these things.
• Become Relaxed - release tensions, nervous energy, any tight grips, any sway towards dogmatizing.
• Become Welcoming - show hospitality physically, spiritually and emotionally.
• Become Generous - with help, encouragements, with compliments, with my time, with friendship.
• Become Invitational - to invite people to step into this “with-God” life, to experience a new life through Jesus, to call out to Him, to come to church.
• Become Curious, - to discover the depths of people’s hearts, thoughts and hunger. Engage the minds and hearts of others in order that they may discover for themselves, the wisdom of God and the rhythms of His presence with them.
• Become Patient - to create space in conversations for people to find their own an-swers by praying, waiting & releasing. Recognize the giving of answers too quickly circumvents this process.
• Become Celebratory - worship hard and worship often. Call attention to and celebrate the good that people accomplish.

Hey there!!

I am so thrilled that you are tackling your debt and working on your strategy to break up with Sallie Mae, Visa, Chase...or whoever you’ve been in a debt relationship with that you need to say bye-bye to. You need to shamelessly break up with them over text and then actively get rid of them - for good.

Now it’s time to make a big discovery...and this is seriously BIG.  You are going to uncover how saving is the key to turning your financial ship around - ending the cyclical relationship with debt and heading in a new direction.

Do you know how the bible talks about saving?  The Lord calls it wisdom.  Oxford defines wisdom as “the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment”. Read Proverbs 21:20, Proverbs 14:23-24, Luke 14:28 & Proverbs 13:11. I love what it says in Proverbs 13:11:

“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.”

Basically, get rich quick schemes and trying to win the lottery will come to nothing. It may be daunting and seem slow at first, but working hard and saving little by little will cause you to increase. All good things come slowly over time. I believe that’s because the Lord also wants to increase our character through perseverance, diligence & patience.  You will find that you feel a great sense of accomplishment and joy in your hard work and earnest saving.
If you already have some money set aside, terrific! You have a head start! If you don’t, that’s ok, we’ll start with a simple plan, and you will work your way through these achievable goals.

To begin, open a separate savings account or Money Market account in which to keep your savings; this should be separate from your general checking account.
Click on the bottom link for the current, best savings accounts earning the highest interest.  

Now, you need to look at your budget and determine how much you should set aside for savings based on the goals below.  If you already have a category and an amount for saving in your budget, then you may not have to make any big adjustments. If you do not have any extra left over after expenses, then you need to cut your spending and get rid of one or more unnecessary items so that you can start saving money. It might be painful to give up some things at first, but you will shortly realize that the quality of your life is improving and you didn’t need those things after all.

Ok let’s start with our...

Savings Goals:
       1. Create an Emergency Fund = $1,000 right away
       2. Save 1 month’s worth of income
       3. Save 3 months’ worth of income
       4. Save 6 months’ worth of income

*If you’re paying off debt using the snowball method and beginning to save at the same time, do it in this order:
      1. Get your emergency fund to $1000
      2. Snowball your debt
      3. Build your savings out to 3-6 months worth of income

An emergency fund is just that - for emergencies (things like a car repair, fixing a leak, a broken appliance etc.). You need to make sure that you have a fund for when those kinds of things happen. You should have at least $1000 to start, so that’s the first thing you need to save for. (If you are a homeowner you should eventually have between $10K & $20K available for big repairs)

After you have funded your emergency fund, you want to start saving 1 months worth of at least the minimum amount you need to live on. Take into account how much you need to pay to live in your house, keep the heat/lights on, feed yourself and your family & have transportation for one month.  Add that up and it is your next savings goal!  Repeat over time until you have at least 3 months worth of savings and up to 6.

This isn’t going to happen overnight - keep that in mind.  But each month you work at this you are creating a whole new set of habits and a way of life that leads directly to freedom. In all things and always, pray. God cares for you deeply and wants the best for you.  He wants to see you doing wise things and He wants to bless your work.  Actively involve Him, talk to Him about it, tell Him what you need and ask Him to help you.

Next time we will talk about investing and how that goes beyond just saving. Don’t be afraid, we’ll make it easy, not rocket science!  You are doing great! See you next time!

Would you like to talk with someone who can walk alongside you confidentially with your personal finances?  Please know that there is FREE coaching available for you to take advantage of from our Financial Ministry!  Just email: sarah@readingcitychurch.com, I look forward to hearing from you.

-Sarah Bateman, Director of Community and Finance

The following is reproduced with permission from https://cuyahogavalleychurchblog.wordpress.com


Like many of you, the economic impact of the current covid-19 pandemic has become particularly personal to my family as my wife was recently notified by her company that her position was being eliminated. Also, although my job as a bank manager is considered essential and I am still employed, my level of stress has dramatically increased as I negotiate the challenges of managing an anxious staff and clients while being available 7-days a week at all hours by phone. The result: much less income, much more stress.

Similarly, many of you are facing struggles ranging from job or income loss, and the numerous consequences which come with that, to dealing with the anxiety and fearfulness of an uncertain future. To compound things, the unfortunate reality of a crisis is it can expose our weaknesses (emotionally, spiritually, relationally, and financially) causing us to struggle and lose focus which subsequently makes us even more fearful and anxious. This can become a vicious cycle which will quickly make you feel overwhelmed and powerless.

In order to break that cycle, I look to God’s truth in scripture for answers as 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness...” Thus, I ask myself, “Is there scripture which speaks, directly or indirectly, to my situation?” and “How I can best apply it to my current circumstances?”

Here are 20 practical ways, with a basis in scripture, which I have found can help you work through a financial crisis:

1.Seek wise, Godly advice. (Proverbs 11:14, Proverbs 15:22)
Get advice from those who have successfully navigated a financial crisis by managing their money according to scripture. Seek out testimonies for encouragement.

2.Don’t panic or make impulsive decisions. (Proverbs 12:15, Proverbs 19:20-21)
Perhaps the worst thing you can do in a crisis is to make a decision in the midst of emotion and turmoil. Slow down and seek Godly counsel from spiritually mature people whom you trust.

3.Create and live on a budget. (Proverbs 24:27, Luke 14:28)
When you have reduced or no income, it is important to wisely account for every dollar you spend. You can create a crisis budget using the template from Crown Financial found here or use free budgeting apps such as EveryDollar Basic or Mint.

4.Prioritize your spending. (1 Timothy 5:8)
Put your family first and start with the “four walls” essentials: food, utilities, shelter, and transportation. After that, prioritize your expenses from most important (such as medical or insurance) to least important (unsecured debt such as credit cards) and pay them in that order.

5.Reduce expenses and be content with less. (1 Timothy 6:8, Hebrews 13:5)
The Lord instructs us to be content when our basic needs are met. However, we live in a culture of consumption that tells us our “wants” are really “needs.” Make the tough choices and cut or defer unnecessary expenses. Some tips can be found here, here, and here. Many lenders and companies are willing to work with you during this crisis and defer payment or service.

6.Increase income. (2 Thessalonians 3:10, 1 Corinthians 10:31)
Look for temporary employment with essential businesses (grocery stores, drug stores, cleaning, food delivery, package delivery, etc.) or be creative such as selling items of value on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. Explore all benefits available to you such as unemployment or stimulus money. Do not let pride become a barrier.

7.Build an emergency fund. (Proverbs 10:4-5, Proverbs 21:20, 1 Corinthians 16:2)
Look to set aside money to be used in the event of an emergency. If you’re working, reduce your expenses and build up your savings. If you’re not getting an income, look at #6.

8.Be generous and serve others. (Luke 12:16-21, 2 Corinthians 8:2-3, Galatians 6:9)
God’s economy is often opposite of man’s economy. For example, being outwardly focused on blessing and serving others in a time of crisis brings us joy while hoarding does not. In scripture, we see the church of Corinth who, in a test of affliction and severe poverty, was generous out of an “abundance of joy.” Crown Financial has a list of ideas on how to give more of your time, talents, and treasures here.

9.Avoid debt. (Proverbs 22:7, Deuteronomy 28:43-45)
While the Bible never calls debt a sin, it discourages and equates it with being in bondage and a curse. Going into debt during a crisis through the use of credit cards or loans is done because it is often the simplest, easiest path to get money. However, it is short sighted and creates a larger obstacle which may harm you long after the crisis is over.

10.Grow spiritually and practically. (1 Corinthians 3:18)
Studies show that keeping yourself mentally, spiritually, and physically engaged during a stressful time improves your outlook and emotional response. Keep to a routine, get exercise, and stay connected with people. Replace mindless activities such as Netflix and social media with developmental ones such as Right Now Media Bible studies, or Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University (free for the first 14-days), or do a Bible study by looking up all scripture references in this article.

11.Help others. Ask for help. (Matthew 5:42, Acts 20:35, Galatians 6:2, Hebrews 13:16)
It all belongs to God, so you should be rich toward Him by caring for and loving others with what He has blessed us. If you have extra, help others. If you are hurting, it is okay to ask for help. Reach out to the church for guidance or opportunity to serve.

12.Be “one” with your spouse. (Genesis 2:24, Ephesians 5:28-33, Mark 10:8)
Financial struggle and stress are an unhealthy combination for most marriages. Recognize your marriage is more important than any crisis and “lock arms” by loving and caring for each other, putting the other’s needs ahead of your own, and making thoughtful decisions together.

13.Involve your children. (Proverbs 22:6)
Explain and teach your children, at an age appropriate level, about God’s word and what activities you will do as a family during this time, i.e. – sacrifice, no cost family time, etc.

14.Be honest and humble in dealing with creditors. (Proverbs 3:27-28, 1 Peter 5:6)
It is tempting to “cheat on your taxes” or not give money owed to someone when you have it simply because you are anxious or fearful. As I was once told, it is always the right time to do the right thing. Do not avoid creditors, but call them and be honest about your situation.

15.Trust in God’s promises. (Psalm 28:7, Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 15:13, Hebrews 13:8)
John Piper once said, “You must cultivate and preserve a confidence in God when you are not in a crisis. If you wait until a crisis comes then you won't have the resources or the depth necessary to maintain our faith well.” If your faith has no depth, you will struggle and want to rely on your own understanding and power. Focus on growing in this area each and every day.

16.Praise God in the storm. (Psalm 9:9, Psalm 22:3, Psalm 59:16, Psalm 107:13)
It’s easy to praise God when things are going well. Choosing to praise God through a crisis can be a challenge but the truth is that God is also present in our pain, our suffering, and our times of darkness. When you praise God, you acknowledge He is sovereign, faithful, and merciful among many other things. Praise gets our focus off ourselves and back on to God. It also invites His presence as He dwells close to us when we praise Him.

17.Acknowledge God’s sovereignty. (Job 42:2, Luke 8:25, Matthew 10:29, Acts 4:27–28)
Nature is not sovereign. Satan is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. A virus is not sovereign. God rules them all and only He is sovereign. Knowing this truth, we can say what Job said, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

18.Focus on the eternal, not the temporary. (John 6:27, John 16:25-33, Colossians 3:1-2)
When you are focused on the eternal, you are focused on the unchanging character of God. You are storing up treasures in Heaven. You are focused on the bread of life. All else is fleeting and fails. For some of us, this means limiting our exposure to social media and TV, which increases anxiety and worry, and increasing our time in the Bible.

19.Pray. (Psalm 65:2, Psalm 66:19, Romans 12:12, Hebrews 13:21)
God’s word calls us to pray. Jesus prayed regularly. Prayer is saying that apart from Christ you can do nothing. Prayer keeps us humble before God. Prayer is an expression of faith in God's power. Prayer is something that God uses to equip us and change our hearts. Prayer draws us closer to God and is a reminder that confidence in God trumps fear, thankfulness trumps selfishness, and understanding his love for us unleashes our love for others.

20.Find rest in Jesus. (Psalm 23:1-2, John 10:27)
Everyone needs rest. However, we encounter constant stress, anxiety, and fear due to the uncertainty of our financial situation which is exhausting and robs us of our peace. Still, we think we can find peace and rest if we can simply overcome our circumstances which is ultimately futile as the world’s idea of security is an ever-moving target. The world offers us many places to look for it, but it can never deliver on the rest our souls long for because it is our separation from God that ultimately fuels those feelings of unrest.

Yet, we can still have hope as God invites us to rest through His Son, Jesus Christ. When the Lord is our shepherd, he leads us to the places of peace we need in spite of our circumstances. Consequently, if you find yourself in a need of rest or peace, look to the Lord. Allow Him to lead you into green pastures and guide you alongside still waters. Trust Him to take you where you need to go for the restoration of your soul. Trust in Jesus Christ, the good shepherd, as your Lord and Savior. In Him lies true rest.

The Generous Life ministry at Cuyahoga Valley Church provides opportunities for people to learn about and live a blessed life by embracing biblical financial and stewardship principles in order to become a Christ-centered steward who gives generously, saves regularly, lives debt free, and understands God’s perspective on money and possessions.

During these unprecedented and challenging times, our objective is to disciple and encourage those that are hurting, help all who are in a place of fear move to a place of faith through God’s unchanging truth, and unleash the generosity of time, talents, and treasure of the church as a witness to the world of the hope and grace found in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

God bless you

-Ron Dick serves as an elder and serves on Stewardship team at Cuyahoga Valley Church in Broadview Heights, Ohio. In his day job, he’s a missionary for Christ cleverly disguised as a Bank Manager of 15 years. Ron has been married to his beautiful wife, Kim, for 11 years. 

Here we are, another day in paradise quarantine. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed so many areas of our lives. Some, like my awesome wife Vee, have gotten a lot busier. Some, like my friends working at the local bike shop and other small businesses, have a lot more time on their hands, and not in a good way. And some, like myself, have a little bit of both, with an extra smattering of complexity.

As the Outreach Director of RCC, I have been thinking about how this dramatic nationwide shift in norms is impacting our country spiritually, and the response is likely as diverse as could be. I am sure there are some in which this creates doubt, and for some it causes them to revisit their faith more strongly. Some are probably drifting from their church community because they cannot gather, and a diligent few are probably drawing closer by meeting regularly, in odd hours online. But the biggest thing going on, I believe, is a lot of fear. And Christians have an opportunity to live differently in times like these.

Most Christians have heard something to the effect of how by living differently, we can passively witness to others in our daily lives. This is true, and it is applicable right now. But we can all go a little bit further than passive, without much effort. All it is going to take is being willing to declare that you are a Christian. Declaring that you are a Christian is also something we should all get comfortable with if we are not already. So let’s look more into this.

Our communities are full of fear right now. But the Bible speaks consistently about us, the followers of Christ and those that know the Lord, not needing to fear anything, and not being ruled by fear (Psalm 56:3, Philippians 4:6-7, 2 Timothy 1:7, Psalm 94:19, and one of my personal favorites, Matthew 6:34, just to name a few). Of course, we should take all reasonable precautions in our day to day lives to avoid danger and unnecessary risk, but caution and fear are very different. This goes the same for wearing a seatbelt in the car and driving safely as it does for avoiding unnecessary social contact during this pandemic. But fear, just like COVID19, is not something we as Christians should be spreading, as much as we can help it. This is not to say that by feeling afraid in a situation we are doing anything wrong. Fear is a natural response to a threat. But we should never be ruled by fear. Fear does not have to determine our actions. It does not have authority over us. As we focus on God’s love, His Word and His promises, fear is pushed outside of our focus, and we allow God to rule our hearts and minds, rather than fear. And when we have the opportunity, we should be encouraging others to not be ruled by fear. We should be telling people that we don’t have any reason to allow fear to run our lives. And if they ask us why, we should be prepared to tell them about our faith. 1 Peter 3:15 specifically instructs us to always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”

This is an evangelism strategy that I hope to share more with the church in the future when we are gathering again. But it is one of the simplest and most effective forms of “pre-evangelism” as I like to call it. It does not require you to ask someone what they believe. It does not mean you will tell people why/how/what they should believe concerning Jesus or the church. All it does is make Christianity visible in your relationships, and hopefully frames it in a positive light. This makes you a resource if they have questions about your faith. What if everyone who considers themselves a Christian in this country decided that once a week, they would overtly out themselves as a Christian to somebody. There would be so many incredible conversations that take place about faith! But most people stay quiet. Most Christians never mention their faith overtly outside of their church community (at least that is how it seems to me).

As you go about your lives in the midst of this pandemic, and in the limited social contact you have, capitalize on opportunities to tell people that you are not fearful (or even if you are, that you are able to put that fear aside, and not let it run your life). And if they continue the conversation by asking why, or talking about their own fear or lack thereof, tell them about your faith and why you do not have to fear. If you feel led to tell them, even if they are not sharing their own fears with you, share that you don’t feel the need to fear because your trust is in Jesus. You have trust in something much larger and more powerful than the government, our healthcare system, or a facemask from Home Depot. Take the opportunity to tell others that if they are worried, fearful, uncertain, or even just feeling disconnected, that you find connection and peace in your relationship with God, and the connections you have in your church. Don’t necessarily tell them that they will find that peace and connection. Tell them about your experience. It tends to go over better that way. Ask them if there is anything that you can pray for in their lives. Maybe even tell them that you will pray for them this week (and then do it). Invite them to tune in to RCC’s services online. And to maintain that connection, reach out to them once services resume and invite them to attend with you if you have their contact information or see them regularly. You don’t need to tell them that they are a sinner and need saving. You don’t need to tell them that Jesus is the only way to heaven. I mean, if you start a conversation that goes that deep, by all means please present the gospel message, but the gospel does NOT need to be the end game of all evangelistic pursuits. Maybe it is just time to plant a seed, not harvest. Just share with them that YOU believe and that your faith is important to YOU. Most people will take this in stride, and it will likely get them thinking about their own beliefs. Maybe someone you share this with will take comfort in a sermon that evening rather than watching The Tiger King.

As someone passionate about outreach, I want to encourage you to take the small step to turn your faith into a tool for reaching the lost by simply being willing to talk about it. Take an opportunity this week to out yourself as a Christian. Tell someone about the importance of your faith, of your connection to Jesus. If we all did that, I bet we would see more people in church once congregations begin meeting again.

Thanks for reading!

-Wade Bieber, Co-Outreach Director for RCC

In part 3, Vince leads in Lectio Divina. 

Welcome back!  I’m super proud of you for creating a budget!   As I said last week, it may take you a little while to figure out the right type of budget for your personality - that’s ok!  You can explore more budget types by clicking the link at the bottom of this page.

Take a moment to assess your budget and your spending habits.  When you plugged in your numbers from your spending data, did you find that you spend more than you earn?  Are you paying for things you don’t want to be paying for?  Are you paying for things you bought a while ago on a credit card, and you maybe don’t even have anymore (like clothes that no longer fit, or got a stain that wouldn’t come out, or you got rid of them away)?

That’s called debt.  You go into debt the moment you make a purchase that you don’t have the cash for, and instead, you pay for it with a loan or put it on a credit card.  Our entire culture is a culture of debt - starting with our government and going right down to every TV commercial that hooks you into thinking that you NEED a WANT.  The beautiful imagery and music tells us that we deserve something, and that status will provide happiness.

What they never show us is the cost of debt.  They don’t show us the couples fighting over the car payment they now owe on that beautiful Jeep or Mercedes - you know, the one with that big red bow on it at Christmas that told their neighbors they are now the “Joneses.”  Commercials don’t portray the anxiety, the blaming, the fighting, and everything else that truly accompanies stress from debt.  But if you have debt, you know the truth of what it costs you.

Now, in case you’re wondering if Jesus addresses debt in the Bible - YES HE DOES!!! Check out the following scriptures, these are your scriptures for the week: Proverbs 22:7, Deuteronomy 28:43-45.

Let’s have another heart to heart.  
It’s time to break up with Sallie Mae.

If you are going to experience financial freedom in your life, you MUST get rid of your debt.  I’m talking about your consumer debt, not your mortgage. If your situation is extreme, selling your home to get free from debt may be a last resort solution, but it is not the go-to because your house is also generally your greatest asset and you would want to speak with a financial coach or advisor before making a decision like that.
 
So, you have a budget and you are tracking your spending every month.  If you are in the red or you have debt here are your next steps:
1. If you are in the red:  you need to cut out any spending possible to reduce your monthly expenses and balance your budget (i.e. cutting cable, eating out, clothing purchases, your gym membership, etc)

2. You may need to work more, find a part time job

3. List your debts in order, smallest to largest, regardless of the interest rates on it, using the printable debt list sheet below.

4. Time to use the snowball strategy! This is a plan that accelerates your debt payoff as much as possible using all of the “extra” you have in your budget (now that you’ve cut expenses) and adds it to the payment of your smallest debt.  When that debt is paid off, you take that whole payment amount that you were paying on that debt and add it to the minimum payment of your next highest debt. You continue this over and over until you have gotten rid of all your debt! See a debt snowball calculator below.

5. Last and MOST IMPORTANT - CELEBRATE, CELEBRATE, CELEBRATE!!!  You need to celebrate every debt you pay off and every goal that you reach! Here are some options to consider…
           a). Get take out and a dessert for an evening
           b). Splurge on Starbucks one morning
           c). Take one month of your extra and set it aside in a celebration fund for when you’re all done
          d). Whatever is within your budget and will motivate you the most!

I am so proud of you for taking this next big step in your money management!!  Your Father in Heaven, who provides all your needs, is watching and filled with joy at you making the hard choices and using His proven principles.

Next time we will talk about saving, and this is where it really starts to get fun. :) See you on the next post!

Would you like to talk with someone who can walk alongside you confidentially with your personal finances?  Please know that there is FREE coaching available for you to take advantage of from our Financial Ministry!  Just email: sarah@readingcitychurch.com, I look forward to hearing from you.

-Sarah Bateman, Director of Community and Finance

The balance of “marketplace” work and “kingdom” work has been a struggle for me to grasp. I guess you could say I have been wrestling with it since Vince did a sermon series on the topic. Naturally, it’s easier for me to connect my church work to the Kingdom of God. Kind of hard not to when I’m singing songs to Jesus… But running a website, social media and other marketing stuff for my daily job - that is hard for me to connect.

I finally came to the realization last fall, that I must grow where the Lord has planted me. Believing that He knew what He was doing, I started investing more in prayer and relationships at work. I have connected deeper with a few of the Christians in my office, all from different backgrounds and different expressions of the faith. There is something beautiful about growing in love for the people you see Monday-Friday. I find it an honor to work with such beautiful people and the Lord has shown up again and again in my workplace. He is moving, and I am so excited to see what He has planned in the future.

Even with this realization and new found sense of purpose, I have still battled the back and forth toggle of being focused on Christ and the Kingdom and “just working.” A heart-to-heart conversation with a coworker, oh that’s kingdom work, entering data into an excel spreadsheet... Well, that’s just work.

And now we’ve all been thrown into a new season of working remotely. My daily interaction with coworkers has morphed into texts, video calls and emails. No more face to face quick chats “by the water cooler” or in my office. It’s now been two weeks, and because of the distance I haven’t talked to a few of my co-workers.

And so once again, I find myself asking, “Lord, how do I work for you here?” I got to a place where I felt like I was growing in understanding of how my “work work” is tied with “kingdom work” and now another shift.  And a smiley face and a ”stay healthy” in an email just doesn’t feel like enough…

This all feels so much bigger than a virus, does it not? While we work and worship separated and distanced from others, I sense the Lord wanting to take us deeper, both individually and collectively as the body of Christ. The last few weeks I have been asking questions such as:

How do I function in a season of stress, fear and social distancing? 
Am I just trying to go back to “business as usual”? 
Where do I seek my security, my safety, my provision?

And so everyday I sign on for work, hopeful that I will get to spread joy and comfort to those I interact. Reminding myself “I am the light of the world. I carry the presence of Christ inside me.” These reminders sometimes get lost, but they are coming to the forefront of my mind again. I have not by any means “arrived” at this working remotely thing. I am still seeking the lesson in it all, but this I know… my daily interactions with others is working for the Kingdom of God. Even if it’s through a video chat or phone call, my interactions share the light, love and peace of Christ.  

When we are a follower of Christ, we can work wherever the Lord takes us - whether it be in an office, working at a hospital or at home. It does not change who we are - the hands and feet of Christ.

What a gift we have been given, church - a time to remember that we are not the building, but rather we are a moving, growing, group of people all together learning what it means to follow Christ. Let us together learn what it means to work for the Kingdom of God “remotely” and bring to earth what is in heaven. Just maybe we will learn something we couldn’t together.

-Jen Kirlin, RCC Worship Leader

In part 1, Pastor Vince explained the need for Spiritual Practices and Disciplines, especially during this time of COVID-19. He also led in a way to practice Centering Down.

In this video, Vince leads us in the Prayer of Examen. 

Hey it’s so great to see you again!  I’m thrilled you’re sticking it out with me.

No matter how your date went last week, you probably left with some pretty valuable insight...maybe some questions, maybe even the realization that you want to change some things.
That is exactly what we are going to do this week!  T

his is the real game changer, the thing that is going to help you put all the pieces together, bring your spending into alignment, patch the holes where your money has been leaking out, and KEEP you on the path to financial freedom.

It’s called a BUDGET!

It’s not complicated, in fact you’ve already done most of the work to start it, and you didn’t even realize it! It’s going to help you simplify your life, bring your values to the surface, & be the catalyst that causes you to achieve freedom.  The freedom to live generously like you’ve always wanted to but never thought you could.  It does have one minor catch,…you have to be all in.
You can’t just be a little on board or do it halfway; you have to decide that if you want to experience radical financial freedom - regardless of how much money you make in a year - you have to go all in. Are you ready?

I promise you will never regret making the commitment, and I also promise that your Father in Heaven, who promises to meet all your needs (Phil 4:19), is going to pour out blessings in your life in the most unexpected ways.  He can’t wait for you to become the best manager of all His stuff!  He’s over the moon right now that you are ready to make a shift that shows Him you can be trusted so he can entrust you with even more.

Here’s the fun part - there are loads of options that are easy and make it fun!  
Here’s all you need to do:

Grab your data sheets from last week.  You see, that wasn’t so hard.

Use your monthly category totals and simply enter them into one of the following easy budget methods below. I’m going to give you 3 to choose from because they are free and each gives you a slightly different option:

     3. Simple Budget Spreadsheet
This is the most customizable type, but always requires manual entry.

Change your spending budget numbers to make sure you are not negative each month. If you are then you will need to make some life changes and we’ll touch on that in the next post.
So, you explore!!  Figure out what you are the most comfortable with and go for it.  If you use a manual entry budget like the free version of EveryDollar or the simple spreadsheet, then you need to do regular tracking of your spending.  My suggestions for regular tracking would be:

• Save your receipts and enter them immediately or at least by the end of the week.  If you are purchasing multiple categories on one receipt, use a pen and circle the transactions on the receipt and label them so you know what’s what and don’t forget.
• Use only your debit card and keep track daily/weekly of each transaction and categorize it.

Step 4: Give yourself a high five!  You just completed a big moment in history.  This is the beginning of your new path.  Don’t worry if it doesn’t go perfectly at first, it can take 3 months to figure out what really works best for you.  If something isn’t working, identify it and do something else.  For example, if you find it too difficult to track your spending using receipts or your bank feed, then you want to try a system that auto connects to your bank account like EveryDollar Plus or Mint (there are many more if you want to pay for them).  For now, pick one and give it a shot.

This week meditate on these verses:

• Proverbs 24:3

“By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established.”

• Philippians 4:19

“And my God will supply ALL your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Great Job!  Well done!  Next time we will talk about the big break up and do some more practical application together.  See you on the next post!

Would you like to talk with someone who can walk alongside you confidentially with your personal finances?  Please know that there is FREE coaching available for you to take advantage of from our Financial Ministry! I look forward to hearing from you.