Financial Plan – Crown Financial Ministries New Zealand

How does God’s financial advice compare to the world’s?

Peter Crawford — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 03:16:56 +0000

Few people see the Bible as a financial guidebook but the Scripture is full of spiritual and practical advice. Here are the top three lessons where the Bible differs from all other financial advice.

So let me ask you, whom are you serving?

Are you serving your husband, your wife, your children, your boss, your family, your neighbour or others in your church? If so, don’t begrudge this as a burden. You are actually blessed. These are opportunities for you to grow and experience the joy and satisfaction of life. Jesus himself said that he did not come to be served but to serve. He fulfilled His purpose on earth in the same way. In fact, when asked who was the greatest among the disciples, Jesus made it clear that was the one who serves.

So today, thank God for all those you are called upon to serve. They are giving you the privilege of being filled to the full measure of Christ. Show appreciation for them. Thank God for them, and serve your heart out. In the end, you will experience true self-fulfilment and the rewards of a life well lived.

[info_list style=”circle with_bg” icon_bg_color=”#ededed” icon_color=”#ffffff” font_size_icon=”15″ eg_br_style=”dotted” eg_br_width=”1″ connector_color=”#bcbcbc”][info_list_item list_title=”Lesson One: Money is not your master” icon_type=”custom” icon_img=”id^283|url^https://crown.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Crown-Icon.png|caption^null|alt^null|title^Crown-Icon|description^null”]

Cash is not king. Becoming a millionaire is not an appropriate life purpose. The Bible makes a clear distinction in Matthew 6:24:

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (NLT)

Serving money means we allow it to control our decisions, our direction, even our life purpose. As Christians, we must not allow money to usurp God’s leading and control our daily decisions.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title=”Lesson Two: We do not own anything” icon_type=”custom” icon_img=”id^283|url^https://crown.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Crown-Icon.png|caption^null|alt^null|title^Crown-Icon|description^null”]

We are not owners of anything; we are temporary trustees of God’s property.

Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world, and all its people belong to him.” (NLT) This changes our purpose from accumulators to managers![/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title=”Lesson Three: The highest and best use of our money is to give” icon_type=”custom” icon_img=”id^283|url^https://crown.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Crown-Icon.png|caption^null|alt^null|title^Crown-Icon|description^null”]

God gives us two directives.

Take care of our families

Paul in his letter to the Corinthian church states “… after all, children don’t provide for their parents. Rather parents provide for their children.” 2 Cor 12:14 (NLT)

Honour Him by giving.

“Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce.” Proverbs 3:9 (NLT)

These are not contradictory; rather, they are ways in which we reflect our obedience to God who charged us with caring for our family and others who are in need.[/info_list_item][/info_list]

These three principles: Lordship, Stewardship and Generosity should change our financial plans, our financial purposes and our financial goals.

Financially Helping Your Adult Children

Peter Crawford — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 16:40:40 +0000

It is never too late for parents to begin teaching their children about finances, particularly God’s principles of handling money.

If parents find that their grown children are having financial difficulties, this may be a good opportunity to help them get good counsel. Financially helping your adult children should be contingent on them establishing a workable budget and seeking advice on how implement it.

Parents usually have the greatest motives for helping their children, but financial help sometimes may encourage them to be dependent on the parents rather than on God. If God is trying to teach the children discipline and parents step in, the children may have to go through it all over again.

There is nothing wrong with helping adult children if they are truly in need. If their income is adequate and it is being mismanaged they need to learn how to manage their finances more wisely.

Parents can have a major impact on the fortunes of their children by assisting them with the purchase of a home. Often times the children can make payments a mortgage loan requires, but they have difficulty meeting the down payment and the many costs involved with house purchase.

A way for parents to help their children purchase a home is to give them money toward the deposit. Most banks demand that this help be in the form of a gift, not a loan. Helping your children pay their mortgage off more quickly may save them thousands of dollars and is a great investment opportunity if parents have surplus funds available. Interest rates are higher if the purchaser has less than a 20% deposit.

Parents will however need wisdom and discernment. There is nothing unscriptural about helping adult children purchase homes, but parents have to weigh the personalities, abilities, and attitudes of their children to ensure that they do not spoil the children. It is optimal for every family to have a debt-free home; so, helping adult children purchase a home can be a great blessing to them if it enables them to become debt free more quickly.

It is important to be sure that they are not trying to control their children’s lives. If the adult child is a married daughter, parents should be careful not to usurp her husband’s authority. If stepping in will cause the son-in-law to feel that he is an inadequate provider, then parents may need to back away.

They key to helping our children financially is finding ways of helping them to become financially free, since budget stress can be a major factor in marriage breakdown. While caution is required, financial help now may be much better than a larger inheritance later. Plenty to think and pray about.

There is nothing wrong with helping adult children if they are truly in need. If their income is adequate and it is being mismanaged they need to learn how to manage their finances more wisely.

Ten Keys To Financial Freedom

Peter Crawford — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 23:54:38 +0000

Our top ten list to find financial freedom

Putting these principles and practices to work in your life will ensure that you and your family are not only on a sure financial footing, but also on the road to complete financial freedom.

10 - Build a Budget

Figure out why there’s always more month left at the end of your money. Develop a monthly budget and make it your guide to financial freedom.

“Commit your works to the Lord, and your plans will be established” (Proverbs 16:3).

Whatever you think your financial goals may be, you will not successfully achieve them without first understanding God’s financial principles found in the Bible. When you do understand those principles, develop lifestyle goals that reflect God’s principles and work out a written plan to implement them. This plan is called a budget, and it will lead you to financial freedom.

9 - Give it Away

Set your priorities straight by first making some contributions.

Give to God’s work; it’s His money anyway.
Loosen up those purse strings; it will help loosen the grip money might have on your heart.

“Be rich in good works. . . be generous and ready to share” (1 Timothy 6:18).

Don’t give in order to get. However, you’ll find that when you do give, God will provide you with more to give.

“Let us not love in word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18).

8 - Reduce Your Use

Don’t use your credit card so much.

Develop discipline in your spending habits.
Take away any security you might be using in case of emergencies, like credit cards or other avenues of borrowing. If needed, cut up a few credit cards.
Commit to go no further in debt and you will begin to reverse the process that produced your debt.

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave” (Proverbs 22:7).

7 - Get a Grip

Spending (especially for indulgences) doesn’t lift depression. In fact, after the initial rush it can make things worse. (Yes… like right after Christmas.)

“He who loves pleasure will become a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not become rich” (Proverbs 21:17).

It’s not the cost of an item that determines whether it’s an indulgence; its utility determines that. Do you really need it?

6 - Look at Your Payslip

Write the bottom-line number down, and then spend less than that.

Personal savings rates are lower now than during the Great Depression.
You can’t spend 104 to 112 percent of your income and continue to get away with it (although some people try for a while).

“I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, ‘I will not listen!’ This has been your practice from your youth, that you have not obeyed My voice” (Jeremiah 22:21).

The key to staying out of debt is no secret. Spend less than you make, don’t borrow, and you’ll be on the road to financial freedom.

5 - Cook a Meal

Discover the kitchen more often and reduce the number of restaurant visits or takeaways.

Your spouse might enjoy meal preparation more at home if some help were provided (is that you?).

“Poverty and shame will come to him who neglects discipline, but he who regards reproof will be honoured” (Proverbs 13:18).

Almost everyone enjoys eating out occasionally, so make it part of your “entertainment” budget. Then stick to the budget. Save to eat at a nice place for special events rather than squandering it on fast food non-events.

4 - Get in the Car

Take a local holiday this year.

There are interesting things to see and fun things to do within a day’s drive of where you live.

“The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

People spend hundreds of dollars they can’t afford to travel thousands of miles to see things they might not remember next year. Has it occurred to you that people are doing just that as they come to visit areas within a three-hour drive of where you live?

Go local this year. Use the road to Financial Freedom.

3 - Don’t keep up with the Jones’s

They’re in debt, too (and you can be sure they won’t make your payments for you)!

“Every labour and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbour. This too is vanity and striving after wind” (Ecclesiastes 4:4).

Envy is the desire to achieve based on the observation of other people’s successes. Don’t set your goals based on what others have. In the long run envy and covetousness will still leave you empty, because you’ll never have enough.

2 - Keep the Old Car

You know…the one that’s paid for.

Think about how many cars you need. Is public transport or even walking or cycling to work a possibility?

“Which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:28).

And the number one thing you can do to find Financial Freedom in 2019:

1 - Pray Each Day Before You Pay

Emotional and spiritual balance will lead to Financial Freedom.

So ask God to guide you and give you strength to follow the first nine steps.

“In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Don’t be resentful for what you don’t have. Instead, be grateful for what God has provided. Financial freedom will bring contentment, and contentment grows out of an attitude of gratitude. Thank God for each day and ask him how you can serve him that day.

A Biblical Perspective of Work

Peter Crawford — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 03:28:45 +0000

The 40-hour week (paid hours including overtime) remains the average for males in full-time work in Australia and New Zealand.

For females in full time work the average is around 37 – 38 hours while the average for part-time workers in 20 hours a week. These survey numbers only covered paid hours and we know many people on salaries work more than the hours they are nominally paid for. We also have an increasing proportion of the working population now working for themselves (self-employed) and often working much longer hours than these.

Over our working life time these can add up to a substantial number of hours we spend at work. But for how many people does the job come some degree of dissatisfaction. Perhaps no statistic demonstrates dissatisfaction more than job-hopping tendencies and the growing extent to which people are changing careers as they change jobs, hoping to find something that they find more fulfilling.

To find satisfaction in our work and to be placed in a position where God can prosper our work, we first need to understand what Scripture teaches about work in general, as well as the responsibilities of both employer and employee.

General Biblical Principles

From the beginning, God instituted work.

“Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15).

The very first thing the Lord did with Adam was to put him to work for his own benefit. It was not a curse. However, after the fall of Adam, work was included in the curse and was made more difficult. Work is so important to our daily lives that God commanded us to, “work six days” (Exodus 34:21).

In the New Testament, Paul was even more direct concerning work: “If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). God’s Word implies that there is dignity in all types of work. It does not elevate one honest profession above another. Jobs are not merely tasks whereby workers can earn money; they are also a means by which workers can use their talents and abilities to develop character—godly character.

God’s part

The Word of God reveals three specific responsibilities that God has in connection with work.

1. God gives talents and skills. “Every skillful person in whom the Lord has put a skill and understanding to know how to perform all the work” (Exodus 36:1). God has given each worker unique skills and abilities. It is not a matter of one person being better than another; it is simply a matter of having received different abilities.

2. God gives success. “The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man” (Genesis 39:2). Although we all have different talents and responsibilities, God is the one who is ultimately responsible for our success.

3. God controls promotion. “God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another” (Psalm 75:7). Your boss is not the one who controls whether you will be promoted. God controls promotions based not only on workers’ abilities but also on workers’ faithfulness to the tasks and responsibilities given to them and whether they were good stewards of the responsibilities God had given them.

“You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things” (Matthew 25:23). One of the major reasons people experience stress and frustration in their jobs is because they do not understand God’s part in work.

Employers responsibilities

Godly employers usually need to perform a balancing act. Employers are to love, serve, and encourage their employees, but they also are responsible to lead their employees and hold them accountable for the completion of their assigned tasks. According to God’s Word, employers have five primary responsibilities.

1. Serve employees. The basis for biblical leadership is servanthood. “Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 20:26). Employers need to balance efforts to make a profit with an unselfish concern for their employees and treat their employees fairly and with dignity.

2. Communicate. “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them” (Genesis 11:6). When employer and employees are committed to accomplishing a particular task and there is good communication between them, nothing—within the will of God—will be impossible.

Communication is a two-way street. Employers not only need to speak to their employees, but they also need to listen to their employees with sensitive and understanding ears.

3. Hold employees accountable. Employers are responsible for the employees knowing what’s expected on the job. Employers need to regularly evaluate employees’ performance and communicate this to employees.

4. Pay a fair wage. “[The Lord will judge] those who oppress the wage earner in his wages” (Malachi 3:5). “You shall not oppress a hired servant….You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets” (Deuteronomy 24:14-15). Employers must pay fair wages promptly when they are due.

5. Pray to have godly employees. This is not a command; it is a principle. However, employers would be wise to pray that God would send them employees of like faith and belief. Although employers are forbidden to discriminate, based on religious belief, employees with like faith eliminate a lot of potential problems that might arise.

Employees responsibilities

The life of Daniel as recorded in the biblical book of Daniel illustrates eight characteristics that made him a good and godly employee. The following are those eight characteristics.

1. Work as if working for the Lord. We actually are serving the Lord in our work; we are not serving people. In essence, we work for the Lord. If employees know and believe this, slothfulness can be greatly diminished.

2. Work hard. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). In Scripture, hard work and diligence are encouraged; laziness is condemned. “He also who is slack in his work is brother to him who destroys” (Proverbs 18:9).

However, hard work must be balanced by other primary priorities of life: relationship with Christ, spouse, and family. If work interferes with any of these three relationships, you are working too much.

3. Be honest. Employees should not give cause for their employers to ever question or doubt their honesty.

4. Be faithful. Godly employees need to establish goals of being faithful and excellent in their work and work habits. Then they work hard to attain those goals.

5. Be a person of prayer. Godly employees are people of prayer. If employees do not pray daily regarding their work, the work will suffer.

6. Honour employer. Godly employees always honour their employers and those who have been placed in authority over them (1 Peter 2:18).

7. Honour fellow employees. Wherever there are employees there will inevitably be office politics. However, a godly employee will avoid backbiting and slanderous talk about other employees.

8. Verbalize his or her faith. Daniel verbalized his faith in God to those around him. Even so, godly employees will openly declare their faith on their own time and live their lives according to what is pleasing to the Lord and according to the principles of His Word.

Conclusion

The most important question people can ask every day is, ―For whom do I work? If the answer is anything or anyone other than the Lord, the biblical principles of work are not being applied. God’s Word has given some very direct principles concerning work that all Christians should know and observe.

Financial Plan – Crown Financial Ministries New Zealand

How does God’s financial advice compare to the world’s?

Few people see the Bible as a financial guidebook but the Scripture is full of spiritual and practical advice. Here are the top three lessons where the Bible differs from all other financial advice.

So let me ask you, whom are you serving?

Take care of our families

Honour Him by giving.

These three principles: Lordship, Stewardship and Generosity should change our financial plans, our financial purposes and our financial goals.

Filter

Financially Helping Your Adult Children

It is never too late for parents to begin teaching their children about finances, particularly God’s principles of handling money.

If parents find that their grown children are having financial difficulties, this may be a good opportunity to help them get good counsel. Financially helping your adult children should be contingent on them establishing a workable budget and seeking advice on how implement it.

There is nothing wrong with helping adult children if they are truly in need. If their income is adequate and it is being mismanaged they need to learn how to manage their finances more wisely.

Filter

Ten Keys To Financial Freedom

Our top ten list to find financial freedom

Putting these principles and practices to work in your life will ensure that you and your family are not only on a sure financial footing, but also on the road to complete financial freedom.

Figure out why there’s always more month left at the end of your money. Develop a monthly budget and make it your guide to financial freedom.

“Commit your works to the Lord, and your plans will be established” (Proverbs 16:3).

Set your priorities straight by first making some contributions.

“Be rich in good works. . . be generous and ready to share” (1 Timothy 6:18).

“Let us not love in word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18).

Don’t use your credit card so much.

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave” (Proverbs 22:7).

Spending (especially for indulgences) doesn’t lift depression. In fact, after the initial rush it can make things worse. (Yes… like right after Christmas.)

“He who loves pleasure will become a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not become rich” (Proverbs 21:17).

Write the bottom-line number down, and then spend less than that.

“I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, ‘I will not listen!’ This has been your practice from your youth, that you have not obeyed My voice” (Jeremiah 22:21).

Discover the kitchen more often and reduce the number of restaurant visits or takeaways.

“Poverty and shame will come to him who neglects discipline, but he who regards reproof will be honoured” (Proverbs 13:18).

Take a local holiday this year.

“The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

Go local this year. Use the road to Financial Freedom.

They’re in debt, too (and you can be sure they won’t make your payments for you)!

“Every labour and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbour. This too is vanity and striving after wind” (Ecclesiastes 4:4).

You know…the one that’s paid for.

“Which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:28).

Emotional and spiritual balance will lead to Financial Freedom.

“In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Filter

A Biblical Perspective of Work

The 40-hour week (paid hours including overtime) remains the average for males in full-time work in Australia and New Zealand.

General Biblical Principles

From the beginning, God instituted work.

God’s part

Employers responsibilities

Employees responsibilities

“The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man” (Genesis 39:2)

Filter