Throughout the Scriptures we find admonitions to remember the poor in the land and yet there are many today who choose to ignore these passages. People tend to come up with a multitude of excuses justify their inaction, but let’s take a look at how the Bible would answer some of those common excuses.
The recovery in the real estate markets is now being heralded by financial pundits everywhere. So how can investors capitalize on the recovery in the real estate markets?
God does offering blessings to His people. However, these blessings do not always come in the form of financial prosperity. “…a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” (Luke 12:15). The Lord certainly doesn’t want us to be constantly asking for material blessings. Any material blessings we can ask for in this life fall far short of the wonderful blessings that he has in store for us.
While the markets have seen huge gains off the lows of early-March, the healthcare sector hasn’t seen the huge gains that financial and tech stocks have experienced. For the most part, stocks in the healthcare sector have been held back by President Obama’s healthcare reform initiatives. Many recognize that healthcare stock valuations appear to be low, but no one wants to jump in with so much uncertainty in the market.
Thousands of years ago there was a time of abundant prosperity in Egypt. The economic boom continued for seven consecutive years. Riches were made and the nation lived as though the prosperity would continue forever.
It’s clear that over the last few years very few individuals or families followed the concept of a monthly budget. Recent studies continue to show that the majority of Americans don’t even have a budget. And even among those that do set a budget, few actually follow it. However, one of the positive effects of this current economic crisis is that budgeting is coming back into vogue.
Since tithing is definitely a principle taught in the Bible, it is absolutely shocking to hear the number of people that teach that tithing isn’t relevant for Christians today. Many of these individuals decry tithing as an “illegal and abusive practice of the Church”. They claim that if you practice tithing you are still under “Old Testament bondage”. The purpose of this article is not to identify every scripture in the Bible relating to tithing, but rather to try to refute some of the arguments commonly used to convince people that Christians don’t need to tithe.
In 2005, there were over 2 million bankruptcies filed in the U.S., an increase of 30% over 2004. However, our materialistic society continues to rely more and more on credit to fund their lifestyle. The average credit card balance continues to climb each year. The latest statistics show the average household has over $9,000 in credit card debt. These trends aren’t likely to change any time soon since credit card companies are simply overwhelming most teenagers with credit card offers.
July auto sales were released yesterday and one clear theme that comes across is that Americans are now looking to buy cheaper foreign cars. Auto sales for Hyundai, Kia and Subaru soared in July while the only other manufacturer to post a growth in sales was Ford (which managed only a 3% increase).
Even if you have not yet been impacted by the current economic recession that is gripping our nation, you should certainly be preparing in case your job is impacted tomorrow. Economists are already predicting that unemployment rates could reach 10% by 2010.