I felt the call upon my life last year to sign up for the
Crown Financial Bible Study. So, even
though this is a seemingly chaotic season of new beginnings where I will begin
teaching Sunday School and start back up with Bible Study Fellowship and
continue my mid-week Bible study while still trying to fit in time to get to
the gym, I signed up for Crown at its first offering after I felt the call. I know that my obedience is key. Because of the season, I am expecting God to
show up mightily and teach me just how I can do all things through Him who
gives me strength! (Including memorizing
all of the Scripture required to complete the course.) Hallelujah!
The first meeting is for record-keeping, passing out the
books and getting introduced to the study.
You receive your first homework assignment at this preliminary
meeting. After two weeks pass to
complete the assignment, the first meeting of the study takes place. And I am anticipating a life-changing
experience.
What I learned from
the homework – Reading the Book “Your Money Counts” by Howard Dayton was a
thoroughly convicting experience! I
discovered that, in areas of my life where I thought I was doing okay, I was
tolerating evil behavior and engaging in it by not confronting it. This book gives a solid overview of the
course and is an incredible read. I have
studied personal finance from several secular sources and I learned a few
things from this book besides what God thinks about how we should manage His
money.
Filling out the beginning of the Financial Road Map was
enlightening. I enjoyed setting short-
and long-term goals and evaluating where I currently am. It was challenging to come up with a verse to
describe my life purpose.
What I learned from
our class discussion – I am not alone.
And I’m better off than many others I know. I would have liked to have the wisdom displayed
by one of my classmates who just graduated college and wants to learn good
money management skills while she’s young!
Praise Jesus.
This study is about relationship with God.
What I learned from
watching the video – What ministries could I be funding if I weren’t paying
off debt? Better still: what ministries will I fund once my debt is
paid off?
Changes I have made/need
to make – pray about God’s will for my mortgage, pray about canceling cable,
stop engaging in bad behavior because it casts a bad light on my Savior, my
attitude about possessions has to change from “it’s mine” to “it’s God’s”, pay
off my debt and not create new debt.
Based on what I read in “Your Money Counts”, I was convicted
about some of my behaviors at work. I’ve
understood for a long time that I work for the Lord, but that hasn’t kept me
from doing the wrong thing while I’m on the clock! If I don’t have enough work to do, it is not
permissible to prepare my Sunday School lesson or write a blog post about a
Bible study. I need to be looking for
work-related activities to occupy me time while I’m at work. I’ve begun this process. I haven’t completely cut myself off from this
behavior, yet, but I have reduced it.
Praise the Lord!
Memorizing Scripture
– Luke 16:11 is a convicting verse. I
want to be faithful. Not just to be
rewarded. I want to honor Jesus more
than I ever have before.
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