Is the resolution working? Then try this

Is the resolution working? Then try this.

  They say the percentage of people who achieve their resolutions are about 8%.  You may be thinking this is going to be one of those blogs that will fire me up to work harder to achieve my resolutions or one that reminds me that I have failed once again. I can throw out statistics that say if you do A+B=C every time (yeah sure it does, NOT)   you will do better.  We have been smothered with work harder, do more, do it better, that when we fail we say, well I guess I am just can’t change.  Well we do know if we quit we do not have to measure up to everyone else that seems to be succeeding.  One reason I love the gospel is that I was not good enough, and Jesus fixed that problem for me! No more having to do better, I get to do better!  You don’t have to do better at whatever your resolution is, but you get to do better if you want.  Don’t compare your problem, your progress or your success to someone else.  We all move at different speeds and handle things differently.  If you have ever taken a DISC profile you know that we have different personalities, and react differently in life situations. One of the animals they use to describe different personality types is a lion for the strong type A personalities.  For the more stable and lower keyed faithful types they use a golden retriever.  We all know that a lion and a retriever will react differently and handle things differently.  Neither personality type is wrong, they are just different. We need all the different types in our lives! 

So what should you try?  Whatever your resolution is write it down and create steps, baby steps, to achieve it.  Don’t make it to large, such as I am going to get my finances straight. That is very broad because you are dealing with, saving, spending, getting out of debt, paying off the mortgage, retirement, college etc.  That can overwhelm you when the Christmas bill comes in and it will make you want to quit on your resolution.   Start in one area, if all of the areas overwhelm you. Start with just a budget. Write down everything you will spend and try to trim those numbers. The big thing is to try and stick to the number you determine to spend and track it. A budget takes about 3 months to begin to work right, so stick to it. Make sure you spend what you save wisely, savings or applying it to debt.   Sit down at least once a week and see how much you have actually spent vs. what you have written down.  Depending on your personality, you can either live on the bare necessities or trim things slowly but surely.  The more you sacrifice the faster you reach your goal. But if you don’t like the idea of going too fast you may sabotage yourself and quit before it works.  Go at a speed you can handle.  You did not get into the financial shape you are in overnight and you will not get out overnight.  Be patient and take one step at a time.  Let me know if you want my help.

     Let me know if I can help!

Tim West

Go West Coaching 1-11-14

Its Time To Act

Its time to act I recently read a blog from Kevin Miller titled You'll get what you expect.  Everything I read I try to understand what they are saying and see how can I apply it to my life.  I often hope for these things but dont necessarily expect them. When we do this we usually take no action and get what we expect, nothing.  Lets apply this to our finances.  We live in the most prosperous country in history.  God has richly blessed us with His material possessions and we do not manage them the best that we could.  As in the blog from Kevin Miller   we get pretty much what we expect. We expect to have a lot of things because we see others around us have a lot of things.  Therefore we manage our finances in a way that gets us a lot of things but leaves us running on the edge with our money.  My pastor, Brian Fields told us in a sermon that 1/3 of the people that made at least six figures, said they could agree with the statement, I make enough to meet my needs.  If you dont make six figures you may be thinking that's impossible you can have anything you want with that kind of money!  We do it everyday with what ever amount of money we make.  If you dont have a plan for your money the credit card companies do and that is why we run short meeting our needs.  The average income for a family in America is 40,000.00 per year.  Over a 30 year working span that is 1.2 million going through your hands. Tell it where to go before you get it each pay check.  By the way if you make 100,000.00 that would be 3 million you would get.  Notice neither one of these figures got a raise over the 30 years!  So how do we act to get what we expect?  Determine why you want to get your finances in order and then learn what to do. You must expect to reach your goals because that will determine what you do.  If you expect you cannot get out of debt and save money, guess what you will stay in debt buying stuff to make you "happy" and not  be able to save.  You have to make it a point to spend less than you make and pay yourself, or save.  So in short act like you should to get the expectations you want. Create a budget, start saving, pay off your debt, and live on less than what you make.  We must do these things over our life time. You cannot do them for a few months and go back to your old way. You must make a decision to do it and stay with the plan.  Let me know if I can help you. Go to my resources page and down load a free budget to get you started. Something to think on this week: Money is the lowest form of prosperity.  We must learn to turn money into wealth. Wade Trimmer Good Quotes:   "Life is like a ten-speed bicycle....Most of us have gears that we never use."  Charlie Brown in Peanuts   "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." - Henry Ford   "Growth demands a temporary surrender of security."  -- Gail Sheehy - Passages Religion gives you advice on how to make amends with God.  The gospel is news that God has done something to make us right with Him.  Kenny Thacker

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How far would you be now?

How far would you be now?

Do you remember when you were a kid and someone told you to go do something and you got half way to your destination and they called you back and asked you; I wonder how far you would be now if you didn’t turn around? Do you notice how we often do the same thing to ourselves by not doing what we set out to do originally?  We usually have an idea of where we want to go, or where we would like to be at certain stages of our life.  Things in life happen that “call us back” and ask us where we would be now if we continued on.  I remembered when I turned 41 and woke up that morning and realized my house would have been paid for if I had got a 15 year mortgage!  But we cannot stay in those places mentally because we will never get to a destination worth going to if we live in regret. I heard one time that if we are depressed we are living in the past, and if we are anxious we are living in the future.  When we do either one of these we sacrifice the life we have now and it drains our energy for the future.  How about I issue us a challenge this Memorial day?  A lot of our fellow Americans gave it all so we could go where we planned without regret and help our country and glorify God with the blessings He gave us to subdue the earth.  Determine what you want to do, weather it is lose weight, get out of debt, get in shape, run a marathon or start a new career or business.  If you stay in the thinking about it or the planning mode without executing you will ask years from now where would I be if I followed through with that idea?  If you are afraid of failure embrace it, the bigger you fail it usually means the bigger the payoff will be.  I would rather fail at an endeavor than to never try and wonder where I would be if I had tried. I am glad our veterans didn’t quit because there is no telling where or who we would be now. Let’s not listen to that voice that calls us back because it is just going to ask; how far would you be now?

     Let me know if I can help!

Tim West

Go West Coaching 5-27-13

Tithing, offering and giving part 2-what is the right amount?

Tithing, offering and giving part 2

Last week we learned the difference between tithing, offering and giving.  Tithing is the giving of 10% of your income to your local church that you are a member of.  Offering was that which is presented in divine service; an animal or a portion of bread or corn, or of gold and silver, or other valuable articles, presented to God as an atonement for sin, or as a return of thanks for his favors, or for other religious purpose; a sacrifice.  Giving is the bestowing of money, time or something of value to you to someone else in need.  I will try to answer, in this blog, how much we should give to God.  As Christians we want to be obedient to God and honor Him.  We humans love to have rules, because we feel like we are doing what is good and acceptable to God when we follow them. We also set up an unwritten rule that God likes you more when you follow all of the rules.  This is our default mode, to follow the rules better than others and make God smile at me more than you.  There is probably not an area in our lives that we do not do this, but I will talk about the money part.  First the idea that we give God money is insane. It’s His money, which he gave us the intelligence, ability and resources to acquire and manage it for Him.  God needs nothing, He is self-sustaining. God needs nothing from us, but He lets us give, because He is a giver and made us in His image. When we are giving it gives us a break from thinking about ourselves.    Also as far as the rules are concerned Jesus fixed that issue for us, He followed all of them, perfectly, and we got the credit as if we done it ourselves and He got the punishment that we should have.

 When it comes to managing Gods money for Him, it starts with the tithe.  Our tithe should be giving 10% of our income to our local church where you are a member.  Yes I heard the next question, on the gross or on the net.  I would ask you the question, what’s in your heart to give? Tim Keller states in his book Counterfeit Gods- ‘I’ll tell you why you don’t see the tithing requirement laid out clearly in the New Testament. Think. Have we received more of God’s revelation, truth, and grace than the Old Testament believers, or less?’ Usually there is uncomfortable silence. ‘Are we more ‘debtors to grace’ than they were, or less? Did Jesus ‘tithe’ his life and blood to save us or did he give it all?’ Tithing is a minimum standard for Christian believers. We certainly wouldn’t want to be in a position of giving away less of our income than those who had so much less of an understanding of what God did to save them.

  So where do we go from there?  The tithe should be a starting point or the minimum standard as Tim Keller states. He gave it to you to manage and gives you a clue of what to do with the first 10 percent.  If a Christian is sold out for the purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they will give up every endeavor and pour all of their effort into it, worshiping Him. They would also manage their resources that He gives us to manage into where He directs us.  Don’t get to upset none of us starts totally sold out for Jesus.    Heck Peter, the rock which the church was built upon denied Him three times.   When we are afraid of giving because we might need the money, we obey what our bank account says. When we make money an idol we make it an ultimate thing. When we put money in this position it becomes everything to us such as security, joy, peace and comfort.  We can fear because we base our security on what we see in our bank account (idol.)  As Dudley Hall stated, the best way to fight poverty is with generosity.  Once you give a lot and see your security, well-being, joy peace and comfort is not in your money you can give and not worry.  If you have a clinched fist with your money, none can get out, but none can get in either.  Remember, if you have not met the mark in your giving, Jesus met it and you get the credit for it.  This doesn’t mean that we do what we want with His money and resources. If God has done a work of grace in your life and your relationship is growing with Him you will want to give not because you have to because you get to give.   We get to give something acceptable to God because Christ death burial and resurrection made it acceptable to the Father. So never let your lack of giving make you think God is not going to bless you because you are not following the rules.  I don’t care how much money you get none of us will ever receive anything close to what Jesus gave us. With that said I think God has fulfilled Malachi 3:10. As far as the most famous question in tithing, do you give off of the gross or the net, the answer is give it all for the gospel! Although this takes time for us to let loose and live our lives this way, we are always a work in progress.  The deeper our relationship with Christ the more he opens our eyes to see more of what He has for us.  My eyes need opening more, and He loves us too much to let us stay the same.    So start where you are, give and enjoy your life because all of your debt to God is paid in full.  He saved us from Him to Him.  We can now live without fear and enjoy participating in subduing the earth.  Let’s give all we can and keep seeking Him and learn to enjoy what He has done, and what He is going to do.

     Let me know if I can help!

Tim West

Go West Coaching

Tithing, offering, and giving

Tithing, offering and giving

  This is a topic that brings a lot of confusion discussion and argument amongst Christians.  There is lot of unnecessary guilt that can be associated with tithing, offering and giving.  First let’s distinguish between them, tithing and offering and giving.  Tithing is a giving of the first fruits of your income. (First fruit- the first fruits of the crop: - first fruit (-ripe [figuratively), hasty fruit.)

The word tithe literally means a tenth “You shall surely tithe all of the produce from what you sow, which come out of the field every year.” Deuteronomy 14:22; Bring up the tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse.” Nehemiah 10:38.  To summarize it give a tenth of what you have earned and to bring it to the store house. 

Since it was agrarian society, they were farmers and their tithe would be food of some sort they have grown or raised, or it could have been sheep they raised etc.  Fast forward to now our tithing would be money, because that is the fruit our work generates for us and we use money to get other things we need.  To sum tithing up you give a tenth of your earnings or what your work produces to the store house or in modern times the church you are a member of. 

Offering - an offering, according to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, Offering, n. That which is presented in divine service; an animal or a portion of bread or corn, or of gold and silver, or other valuable articles, presented to God as an atonement for sin, or as a return of thanks for his favors, or for other religious purpose; a sacrifice ( Sacrifice To offer to God in homage or worship, by killing and consuming, as victims on an altar; to immolate, either as an atonement for sin, or to procure favor, or to express thankfulness;); an oblation. In the Mosaic economy, there were burnt-offerings, sin-offerings, peace-offerings, trespass-offerings, thank-offerings, wave-offerings, and wood-offerings. Pagan nations also present offerings to their deities. Christ by the offering of Himself has superseded the use of all other offerings, having made atonement for all men. (Remember the last sentence from this definition; it plays a big part later on.)  Our offering nowadays is usually anything we give above our tithe.  It can also be a giving of time and talent. But we can offer nothing greater than Christ offered.  God was completely satisfied with Christ’s offering and we can never give anything to compare so ours could be called giving. Offering in the Old Testament was to please God. 

Giving- this should be the easy one- Bestowing; conferring; imparting; granting; delivering. Or you could say that giving is the passing on something you have possession of to someone you desire to.   Next week will discuss how these things are applied now days and how we should handle our possessions in relation to tithing offering and giving. 
 

     Let me know if I can help!

Tim West 4-28-13

Go West Coaching